The Good News of Our Depravity

It has become a painful and disturbing routine for our country to almost monthly enter into a week of mourning for some sort of violent attack, at home or abroad. This past weekend we felt the shock of a peaceful demonstration in Dallas turn violent. We felt the fear and confusion of witnesses from the many videos of the attack posted online. We felt the immense grief of families in Louisiana, Minnesota, and Texas who have now personally lost someone to gun violence. And we all continue to feel the disillusionment and uncertainty as to how we should move forward to stop such hatred and violence from becoming normal headlines.

Can't We Be Better?

As I have waded through these emotions over the weekend and attempted to sort out in my mind how we can overcome these problems as a society, the Spirit kept bringing me back to how deep and irreparable our depravity is. The dialogues that continue at the popular level all point to an underlying expectation that there is an answer to stop these heinous acts, assuming that we are basically all good human beings that just need some tweaks here and there to bring justice and love back to a perfect balance. But we as followers of Jesus have learned that humanity is in a much more severe state than this. So says Paul,

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath...

...like the rest of mankind (Eph. 2:1-3).

We all were this way. None of us were exempt from the spiritual and moral corruption we embodied from birth. There isn't one among us, no matter how great, past, present, or future, who can lead us out of our own crooked relationship with our Father and Creator, no one who can lead the charge in bringing true justice and love back into perfect harmony in our world. We are the classic case of the blind leading the blind. This is truly the worst news we could ever hear.

Bad News Transformed

However, the encouragement that the Lord has placed on me this week is to actually see our depraved nature as good news, firmly rooted in the gospel. On its own, our sin nature is shocking, fearful, confusing, grief-inducing, causing disillusionment and anxiety. But it becomes good news when we see that there is a real solution to it -- the sacrifice of Jesus the Messiah on our behalf, removing the guilt of our sin, all through the work of Christ and not our own. "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved" (Eph. 2:4, 5).

If we can't see the real problem, we will never be able to apply the real solution. As we live with and serve the disillusioned in your communities, may we see how good it is that God loved all people enough to bring to light our depravity as one rebellious human race, and how merciful and gracious he is to bring his suffering Son as the only real solution for our problem.

May the Spirit restore joy in our salvation through this amazing truth, and may we overflow in love, word, and good deeds in each mission field we have been placed. "'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'" (Rom. 10:15).

Photo: Reuters/Jonathan Bachman http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-police-ieshiaevans-idUSKCN0ZR2BE