The Heart of the Gospel - Pt 3

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:21-25 ESV). Today we begin with the five principles of the Gospel. I must remind you that they have been often debated. Many deep divisions have been the result of these debates. As we go through them in the coming days, please remember that my prayer and hope is that these will not divide, but encourage and strengthen each of us in these days of trial and difficulty.

I have decided to begin with the concept of “total depravity.” While not the easiest to accept, it is the beginning of truly understanding grace. When we speak of man’s depravity, we mean man’s natural condition apart from any grace exerted by God to restrain or transform man. The totality of that depravity is clearly not that man does as much evil as he could do. There is no doubt that man could perform more evil acts toward his fellow man than he does. But if he is restrained from performing more evil acts by motives that are not owing to his submission to God, then even his “virtue” is evil in the sight of God. Man simply has no virtue that emanates from himself (cf. Romans 14:23). This tenet is a radical indictment of all natural “virtue” that does not flow from a heart humbly relying on God’s grace. Let me draw an example that might make this first principle clearer. Suppose you’re the father of a teenage son. You remind him to wash the car before he uses it to take his friends to the basketball game. He had earlier agreed to do that. He gets angry and says he doesn’t want to. You gently but firmly remind him of his promise and say that’s what you expect. He resists. You say, “Well, if you are going to use the car tonight, that’s what you agreed to do.” He storms out of the room angry. Later you see him washing the car. But he is not doing it out of love for you or out of a Christ-honoring desire to honor you as his father. He wants to go to the game with his friends. That is what constrains his “obedience.” I put “obedience” in quotes because it is only external. His heart is wrong. This is what I mean when I say that all human “virtue” is depraved if it is not from a heart of love to the heavenly Father. The terrible condition of man’s heart will never be recognized by people who assess it only in relation to other men. Your son will drive his friends to the ballgame. That is “kindness,” and they will experience it as a benefit. So the evil of our actions can never be measured merely by the harm they do to other humans. Depravity is our condition in relation to God primarily and only secondarily in relation to man. Unless we start here, we will never grasp the totality of our natural depravity. However, this only makes the grace of God greater (cf. Romans 5:6-8). God’s love for us is greater than our natural condition. That is the good news!