To be an authentic follower of the way of Jesus,
a person must understand four basic spiritual realities. He or she must be
willing to acknowledge his or her individual, personal need for God’s grace and
affirm to God this need. Let’s review the second of those realities.
2. This is a fundamental spiritual problem. We cannot save ourselves. We have no means to pay the price. Human
beings cannot, on their own, solve the foundational problem of evil. It is a
spiritual problem for which only God has the solution. “I know that nothing
good lives in men, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do
what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” (Romans 7:18, NIV) “We know that the
law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.” (Verse 12)
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way;
and the Lord God hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6, KJV)
Can a leopard change its spots? Can we save
ourselves? No, of course not. If we could, someone would have done so by this
point in human history; we’ve been at it for thousands of years. We must be
honest with ourselves and realize that we are lost, condemned to death for
breaking the fundamental spiritual law of the universe, and that we are
powerless to save ourselves.
“It is by God’s
grace that you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God,
not by human activity. So no one can boast, for we are God’s workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to live good lives.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)
No comments:
Post a Comment