Our Wretched Condition – Week 26 / June 21st

Our Wretched Condition – Week 26 / June 21st


 

                        “For when we were still without strength, in due time

                         Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous

                         man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone

                         would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own

                         love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,

                         Christ died for us.”

 

The ultimate wickedness of sin is that it convinces many that they are quite good and can even make it to heaven if they live good lives. This is just not true and the Bible everywhere, as it does in the passage above, rejects this notion. We are in fact wretched and wicked and deserve nothing more or less than God’s wrath and rejection. Our preoccupation with ourselves, with all the horrific consequences, has totally corrupted us and left us depraved. We cannot please God by our good works as they are all tainted by evil. Paul “hits the nail on the head” when he declares that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” God’s glory is His character and if we are to enter heaven by our works then these must equal the perfection of God’s image and nature. No one can do this! We are wretched and evil! Paul underlines this when he writes:

 

  1. That we are without strength

Meaning that we have no power to attain to God’s likeness and therefore no hope beyond the grave. We are just weak and corrupted by sin and in fact to the degree that we are enemies of God and in constant rebellion against Him.

 

  1. That we are ungodly

We are unlike God in all aspects of our lives. In Adam we were created in His likeness but our rejection of God has severed us from Him, and left us deeply impacted by everything that is not of God. Truly we were the ungodly!

 

  1. That we are sinners

This description of our lives rightly describes us as those who did everything that was contrary to the wishes and desires of God. We were sinners! That is, those who took pleasure in deeds of darkness, encouraged others to join us in them and these in turn brought meaningless, ruin and hopelessness to our lives. We were wretched and blind!

 

The wonder of this passage is that it tells us that God in Christ loved us. We can only fully appreciate this statement when we grasp, once and for all, the depth of our depravity and the consequences that this brought upon us. We were children of wrath destined to be separated from God for all eternity. But God stepped in, we are told because He loved us, and sent Jesus to die for us. This is amazing love because, humanly speaking, no one would lay his or her life down for a wicked person. Would you lay your life down for a murderer like Paul? I think not. Actually, we would hardly give our lives for a good person but God demonstrated His great love for us by laying His life down for each one of us. “Us” being wicked ungodly sinners! This great demonstration of God’s redeeming love is not only amazing but it is powerful because being in Christ we are forgiven, delivered from the wrath of God and empowered to change until we are no longer “the ungodly” but the saints of the living God! We are holy ones! No wonder the writer of the book of Hebrews declared that this great salvation is able to save us to the uttermost. That is, in Jesus we become God’s children and all that He ever wanted us to be. This friends is good news indeed and we should never forget it.

 

 

Malcolm Hedding.

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