If you were to read the first few chapters of Genesis and then stop, you could very easily get depressed couldn’t you? The picture is a very bleak one. Adam and Eve have totally blown it. They had everything. Their home was literally a paradise. They were in direct communication with God. Yet, despite God’s warning they chose to disobey him, to risk the finality of death that he’d warned them of. And dying, they truly did die. We saw last time that that death involved the breakdown of their relationship with God, of their relationship with one another and of their relationship with the world of nature. They were banished from the garden, perhaps for their own protection as much as for the sake of punishment, so they wouldn’t eat of the tree of life and live with their guilt and loss forever and were left to fend for themselves.
But then as you read on it gets worse. Adam and Eve have two sons, Cain and Abel, but like so many siblings there’s strong rivalry between them. And it isn’t long before it gets out of hand. The trigger event is, in fact, an act of religious devotion. They go to present their offerings to the Lord and Abel’s offering is accepted, but Cain’s is not. Cain then directs his anger, not at God, but at his brother Abel. In a case of premeditated revenge, Cain takes his brother out to a field and murders him in cold-blood. Well, the story continues with Cain’s descendant Lamech taking up where Cain left off, avenging himself out of all proportion to the injury he’s received. And so the saga of human history begins!
So we’re left with this fairly depressing picture of the future of humanity aren’t we? Adam and Eve have rejected God’s rightful rule over them, their son is a murderer and their descendant, Lamech is a vengeful tyrant, the first of many to come.
Then if we skip over to the letter to the Romans, as we did today, we discover why things went bad so fast. Here the picture looks just as bad as it does in Gen 4. The reality of human existence is that none of us is capable of obeying God’s law for more than a few moments at a time. Even the Jews who’ve been given God’s law in fine detail to help them obey it, are incapable of doing so.
So if anyone thinks they’re OK they need to think again. Look at vs 10&11: "As it is written: ’10There is no one who is righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God.’" Well there are many who claim to be seeking God, but the god they’re seeking is too often a god of their own imagining, a god who suits them. Too often he’s a god who fits the picture they’ve built up of what God should be like. Too often he’s a god who’ll look the other way when they decide to do their own thing rather than follow him. Certainly there seems to be little understanding in our world of what God is really like, apart from among those whose hearts God has changed through the work of his Holy Spirit.
And as we read through the description of human behaviour in vs 11-18, we might think, "well, not everyone is like that. Only the worst people in our world exhibit all those faults." But if we think of this as a broad brush picture of the world as we know it, it fits, doesn’t it? This is the kind of world we find portrayed on the news every night. A world where peace is hard to find, on a broad scale at least; where people kill and hate; where they curse one another, where they speak deadly words, deceitful words; where ruin and misery are just around the corner for so many. And the reason that our world is like this is there in v11: "there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God." In fact most people are seeking anything but God, the true and living God that is. Even those who are seeking him are probably looking anywhere but where he says he can be found.
It’s interesting isn’t it, that there’s actually a great desire on the part of a number of people today to know God. Reg Piper last week mentioned that he has the largest Buddhist Temple in the southern hemisphere, just down the road from his pro-cathedral. And of course that’s not the only one around. There are several in Melbourne of various sizes. But the interesting thing is that the reason these centres are thriving isn’t just because of the influx of Asian migrants to Australia. European background Australians are taking up Buddhism at a great rate. Why? Because it has the appearance of godliness. The apparent peace-loving nature of the religion is very attractive to people. They like the idea that you can shut out the distractions of the world around you through meditation and thus get in touch with the transcendent God. The idea that we might affect whether evil triumphs in the world is an empowering thought for many. If you’re familiar with the Star Wars series you’ll probably know that the main idea there comes out of a Buddhist concept of the battle between good and evil, first within ourselves and then within the world. And people respond to that possibility.
At the same time, Islam is also making headway into our hedonistic world. What is it about Islam that attracts people? Well, I think it’s probably the way it appears to provide a disciplined structure for people to live lives of righteousness, with its clear rules on morality, its highly structured and disciplined prayer life, with it’s clear guidelines on what God requires.
Mormonism is similar. It offers good clean living, strong family values, a strict moral code, a sureness of purpose, discipline.
So what’s wrong with these quite different approaches to godly living? Well, let me suggest that they overlook the revelation of God in Jesus Christ and, as we’ll see in a moment, the difference he’s made to the way we can now relate to God.
In fact these sorts of approaches to spirituality are nothing new. They were around in the first century just as much as they are now. Listen to what Paul says as he writes to the Colossians: (Col 2:20-3:1) "If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, 21"Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch"? 22All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings. 23These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence. 3:1So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."
When there’s no real knowledge of God in the world, people have to turn to human commands and teaching. When the only knowledge they have of God comes from their own experience of God’s creation, they may have discovered some truths, some of their conclusions may in fact be correct, but their conclusions will be compromised by their lack of understanding of the true nature of God. Why? Because no-one is able to fully comprehend God on their own. God is so far beyond us that we can’t even begin to grasp what he’s like. No, the only way we can understand God is if he reveals himself to us, if he stoops down to our level to show us what he’s like.
But even if we come to some sort of understanding of God, even then, the effect of our understanding is limited by our fallen human minds. And even if our understanding grows through great wisdom and learning, our ability to do what God wants is limited, again, by our fallen human nature, our fallen human will; and most of all by our innate desire to be equal with God, in fact, to rule the world by ourselves.
Paul writes these words in Romans 3 as a Jew who was raised by the Pharisees. He was the top of his class when it came to meeting the demands of the law. And the one great lesson he’s learnt is this: "20’no human being will be justified in his sight’ by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin." He’s come to realise that the more he understands the law, the more he discovers his own failure to obey it. The more he practices righteousness, the more he realises his own shortcomings.
It’s like the concert violinist who gets better and better at performing but the better they get the harder the pieces they have to play, so the harder they have to practice and so forth in a never ending cycle. I remember Yehudi Menuhim once saying that the difference between him and a beginner was simply that he was able to correct his mistakes faster.
Now I trust that most of us are seeking to live godly lives. I assume that most of us try our hardest to remain faithful, to be obedient disciples of Christ. I assume that we all seek to at least keep the 10 commandments, or if that’s too hard then the two great commandments: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength and your neighbour as yourself." But how many of us actually succeed, 24/7. My guess is, none of us. We might go a day or so without murdering anyone by our words or our looks. We might avoid adultery, or blasphemy. We might be very honouring to our parents [- for a day or two depending on how old we are]. But every one of us will slip up eventually. None of us can avoid those little white lies. All of us are guilty of covetousness from time to time, some more than others perhaps. None of us gives God our whole heart and mind and strength all the time, do we? Are you getting depressed again? Well, you know the old expression: don’t get depressed, get even! So how are we to get even with this fallen state we’re in?
What can be done about our situation? We want to be better at living godly lives. We want to be acceptable to God. We’d like the results of the fall to be overcome, wiped clean. So how can we do it? We’ve heard the bad news. We’ve looked in the mirror and we don’t like what we see. What can be done? What’s the good news?
Here’s the good news: "21But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." Yes, we find it impossible to please God. Yes, all the rules in the rule book won’t help, because they just show our inability to remain faithful. But God has worked a miracle. He’s sent Jesus Christ into the world, not just to show how it’s done, but to do it on our behalf. He’s brought us a righteousness that’s now made available as a gift to all those who believe in him as God’s only Son.
It doesn’t matter what your background is. In Paul’s context he’s thinking about Jews and Gentiles. So he says, if you’re one of God’s chosen people or a member of some other religion it makes no difference. As long as you turn to call on Jesus Christ for salvation, as long as you believe that he’s the one sent by God to take us back to God, then you will be saved! Notice by the way, that he isn’t saying you can remain as a Buddhist and be saved. No, you do need to change your allegiance to the Living God and his Son, Jesus Christ. But if you do that then Jesus’ righteousness will be considered to be yours as well. It’ll be conferred on you as a gift, like one of those honorary degrees that are given to people of distinction from time to time. Colossians speaks of us putting off our old soiled garments and being clothed in Jesus Christ.
Do you find that idea liberating? You see, it isn’t just that we’ve failed to keep God’s commandments. The worst part of this picture of humanity is that we’re incapable of ever getting there. God’s standards of behaviour are so far beyond our ability that it’s a futile exercise to even try.
As human beings seeking to live up to God’s standards we’re like Ian Thorpe at the moment. Our human illness means that we might as well give up, withdraw from the race.
But how about this? Jesus Christ has offered to take our place. He’s already run the race and come out victorious and he offers us the gold medal. All we have to do is sign on to his team. Now that’s probably a poor analogy. You can probably see all sorts of holes in it. But the point is this: Jesus’ righteousness is available to all who believe in him.
Now I hope that everyone here today is already on Jesus’ team. I hope that you’ve already asked him to confer his righteousness on you. If you haven’t then let me invite you to do it right now. Ask Jesus to restore you to a living relationship with God. Ask him to give you the forgiveness of your sins that you so desire. Ask him to help you to remain faithful, to obey God in all you do.
If you’re already a follower of Jesus Christ then let me remind you that your standing before God depends entirely on the work of Jesus Christ, not on your ability to obey. That doesn’t mean you don’t need to practise obedience to God’s command, to practise godliness of life. But it does mean you don’t need to be depressed about your sinfulness or the state of human behaviour. You don’t need to give up in disgust at your repeated failure to obey the commandments. God knows our weaknesses and he’s sent Jesus Christ to overcome them on our behalf. As we’ll see next week, he’s sent Jesus Christ to restore humanity to what it was meant to be, to bring light into a world darkened by sin, to bring us to new life in him.
FOr more sermons from this source go to http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sttheos/
