Paul the Apostle wrote the greatest treatise on Christian theology ever written when he, under inspiration, penned the Epistle to the Romans. The summary outline of the Epistle carries readers through the issues of their searches for spiritual recovery from abject loss to fulfillment in God through Jesus Christ. No punches are pulled. No document could put us in so abject position, nor raise us to higher elevations. The Apostle begins with the problems of sin, and that related to mankind. We are guided up the steps related to salvation. From there we are introduced to the experience of sanctification, then justification, then conduct principles in mortal life that, when applied, cause practical and spiritual growth in the person. Finally, we are registered as the Christians in Romans, Chapter 16 – the list of those who embraced in reality the theology of God in Christ. The list includes peasant and royalty, men and women – there is as the Apostle wrote earlier in the document no respect of persons, which is to say that no one is made higher, or lower, than any other. The field for all persons is level and clear. For God, there is a divine equality that is stunning.
Most persons are willing to say they are imperfect, but to say they are taken with total depravity as the Apostle has it, with no hope without adequate faith, is a bit much. Generally the public doesn’t want to hear it. To manage the problem, some simply deny it. They find a way to tolerate whatever it is. The muddy alligator is not troubled about the muddy alligator next to him. Others propose they can make up for any lack by being good boys and girls. God can’t, they say, reject decent persons. Still others come up with stews of home-made religions that simply will not hold up to scrutiny, unless one is willing to change the presuppositions of a holy God that press themselves upon thoughtful persons.
The Apostle notes that there is warfare inside each person. It reveals itself in various ways, and that combination makes up a bitter stew for our lives and damning at the end. In the magazine, Archaeology, January, 2012, there appears an article on the study of the findings of a dig in Peru, revealing some of the culture of the Andean Chimus. The archaeologist was introduced to an area, obvious to his studied eye for offering a site of an ancient culture. What did he find? He carefully documented the deaths, from one limited site of 43 child and 76 llama skeletons. Nearly a thousand years ago, these children were killed by an authorized person or persons, by a slash above the sternum of the body, and the rib cage crushed, likely to cut out the heart of each child. Both the children and the llamas represented the most treasured things of the community. They offered their best to their god for some deliverance, or some blessing. The story reminded me of the missionary who, many decades past, walked by a Hindu lady with two children, one obviously limited and the other in good health. Walking on, the missionary had a sudden feeling of despair, turned and ran back to where he might find the woman. He did find her, standing with the handicapped child. He asked for the other child only to learn he had been sacrificed to the Ganges. Why did you not offer this child, if that is what you must do? Her answer has never left me: You Christians may not give your best to your God, but we do. What she did in great devotion was murder, a sin. God’s life, conduct, blessing, hope is for all those whose understanding will embrace the idea that mankind can’t sacrifice enough, can’t be good enough, or wise enough, to gain fellowship with God. God must gift us.
No conjuring of human logic can achieve what God means to achieve in mankind. It is done through repair by Jesus Christ. Mankind needs redemption from God, not self-attempts for peace. There is a warfare that is personal for all to win. The conflict can end. Part of our problem here may be in the language as it has emerged. Perhaps depravity as a word can be more attractive as simply something unacceptable to God. I pick up a sheet of paper in preparation for writing a letter and find a small, but distinct, ink blot on the sheet. That is unacceptable. I will not use it. It is depraved, which is to say it is tainted to the point that I will not accept it. Man is blotted even if decent, unacceptable to a perfect God. But God has a way for cleansing the soul, removing the blot, so making the person justified for him. It was at great cost to him that the process was done, but it is finished. Many millions have found it so. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020