By Pastor Greg
At the height of a political
corruption trial, the prosecuting attorney attacked a witness. "Isn't it true," he bellowed,
"that you accepted five thousand dollars to compromise this case?" The witness stared out the window, as though
he hadn't heard the question. "Isn't
it true that you accepted five thousand dollars to compromise this case?"
the lawyer repeated. The witness still
did not respond. Finally, the judge leaned over and said, "Sir, please
answer the question." "Oh," the startled witness said, "I
thought he was talking to you."
“I thought he was talking to
you”. Yep, that just about sums up life
in general. We think that everyone else
has the problem. Everyone else is the
bad driver. All my coworkers are
jerks. School would be awesome if it
weren’t for all the idiots. The other
political party is led by idiots. We
hear it all the time. The other person
is the one with the problem. We, on the other hand, do not have problems. We are not jerks. We do no wrong. Yeah, right.
You know, this isn’t something
new. This is actually an old, old
problem. In the Bible, a man named Paul
takes a moment to remind his readers that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
(Romans 3:23). He helps them see what
humanity would look like if God were not part of their life and not part of
society in general. How would someone
act if God did not influence their life?
Paul shows us in Romans 1.
“But God shows his anger from heaven against all
sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know the truth
about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever
since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through
everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal
power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. 21 Yes, they knew God,
but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to
think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became
dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter
fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they
worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and
reptiles. 24 So God abandoned
them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did
vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So
they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator
himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their
shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and
instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead
of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other.
Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they
suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. 28 Since they thought
it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and
let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became
full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling,
deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are
backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new
ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to
understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s
justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do
them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too”
(Romans 1:18-32).
“I thought he was talking to you”
is the way most people respond when reading over this list, rather than
confess, “He was talking to me”. Too
often we categorize these sins and justify ourselves, satisfied that we are not
committing any of the major sins. But
see, these sins are just the symptom of a far greater disease. We need not exhibit all of these to have the
disease. Any one of them is a clear sign
that we (not someone else) has turned our back to God - exchanged (see 1:25) the glorious life of righteousness for a
life defined by wickedness. These
symptoms indicate that we are a sinner in need of a savior. That’s why it’s important we don’t take one
of these sinful behaviors and separate it from the rest. We dare not single out homosexuality from
this list, nor should we remove it. It
needs to be included, as does Pride,
Gossip, Greed, Murder, or Idol
Worship (now there’s a wake-up call for some Christians. Paul has included the Gossip in the same
category as the Murderer or the Homosexual).
We need to examine our own life and confess our own sin, not point out
the sins of others.
The purpose behind this section of
Romans is to help people see their sinfulness.
Paul is trying to get us to realize that WE are the sinner, not simply
everyone else. Rather than criticize all
the sinners around us, Paul is trying to make us look inwardly at ourselves. He’s not holding up a window through which we
can judge the world. He is holding up a
mirror so that we might examine our own heart.
I know it’s an ugly picture. This is what humanity looks like when it refuses to be influenced by God and His Holy Standard of behavior. However, Paul mentions these things so a person might fully realize that they are indeed separated from God especially when they observe any of these behaviors in their life.
I know we’d rather God talk to
someone else, because when He talks to us we feel so ashamed of who we are or
what we have done (at least we should feel ashamed). But rather than leave us wallowing in
helplessness, God provided a way for us to be forgiven. He sent His Son Christ Jesus to die on the
cross and take the punishment we deserve for being this kind of person. “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus
Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are”
(Romans 3:22). And if we will let Him,
Jesus will help transform us into a person who reflects His glory and His
holiness.
What happens when we allow God to
talk to us? Yes, we might be convicted,
but we might also find something more.
You see, salvation will not happen without a person first feeling
convicted about their sin and then recognize that they are indeed living
separated from God. Only then, can a
person confess, repent, believe, and be saved.
Although we see way too much of
ourselves in Paul’s list, we can experience God’s grace by accepting Jesus as
our Savior. And then, oh my friend, and
then “since we
have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of
what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us” (Romans 5:1).
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