A few weeks ago I went to a concert where the headliner was a super group of accomplished musicians with accolades a mile long. I was thrilled to hear some of the crème de la crème of musicianship. Prior to the professionals coming on stage, the crowd had to slog through two hours of amateur local music that felt more like a revival meeting, with its exhortation and numerous calls to action for a variety of organizations and issues. Donations were accepted and there was a silent auction. The sophomoric heralds made good points concerning the flaws of our society and existence. An all too common human reaction to flaws and sin is to try and fix it and recruit others and fundraise for the cause. This is as old as Moses.
The whole time I heard this moralism from the modern pulpit of the nightclub, I both hated and resented it. I didn’t come for a lecture; I was looking for something more akin to a Dionysian festival. I came to boogie! The spirit of religion is not only in houses of worship, but can be found in most places. As I was taking this in, my mind began to wander back to one of the times Moses came down from Mt. Sinai after meeting with God for many days. Moses finds the people “set on mischief”, dancing, naked, and worshiping a golden calf. They probably needed a break after hanging around Moses all that time. Three things dawned on me; first, the night club, like church, should contain no legalism. Secondly, we are naturally pagan and not monotheist. We have many other gods before him. Thirdly, in our hearts we resent Moses and when he’s gone we want to rebel against him. I came for the music and mischief, and I believe I would fit in better with Aaron’s wild pagan party than the preacher crowd.
The apostle Paul had a way of expressing weighty topics in direct and simple ways. Particularly his perspective on humans and the world. Paul saw the problem just as well as Moses and modern nightclub pulpiteers. He used one word to describe the world in Galatians 1:4; evil. And he told the Corinthians that Satan is the God of this world (2 Cor 4:4). To expect the world to be anything else is to be disappointed. If the world was evil in Paul’s era, imagine what he would think about our day or just the last 100+ years. All around us is misfortune, injustice, and evil. Sin, corruption, and brokenness is built into the framework by default. It is our base function and it is beyond repair. We’ve all been the victims of it. Just like we can’t help ourselves, the world can’t be helped out of its predicament. It will continue to be evil. A little leaven, leavens the whole.
Wherever there is sin and evil, suffering lies close at hand. We suffer, in part, because our experience of this life feels strangely foreign. We are pilgrims and sojourners born into a foreign country that doesn’t work right. This, however, is the norm. We don’t like it. It doesn’t feel good. In our hearts we know there is an ideal while all around us the opposite is far more real. If you live long enough and can face the reality of your life, you see these effects plainly. Because of my own base functions, I face lifelong consequences that I can’t get out of. This is it and it is real and normal!
But in contrast to Moses, Paul understood the law in Romans 3 to be a mirror for who we all actually are: flawed sinners. Again, in contrast to Moses and the modern calls to religious fervor and activism, Paul condemned religious obedience as a way to merit righteousness or to fix the problem (Gal 2:18). This moral means of earning righteousness is a new testament sin and it only makes things worse. Religion is like a drug, and a popular one at that. And like any drug, you have to go cold turkey. Only when you come-to can you can begin to see how bad the drug was. What is left? Who can deliver me from this body of death?
There is good news, of course. The Gospel serves as a critique on both reality and religion, and is in itself the antidote. Paul shines the light on both the problem of the evil world and works righteousness in order to show there is no other option but Jesus. Prior to calling the world evil in Galatians 1:4, Paul said we are delivered from it. We are delivered from it by the One who has overcome it. In Him we live and move and have our being. “He hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son (Col 1:13).”
For Paul, salvation through the work of Jesus is by grace, apart from any law keeping or doing (Rom 4:5), so the promise is certain to all the seed by faith (Rom 4:16). We will all be received in Graceland. Grace is the big surprise in a world filled with evil and suffering. Even more radically, grace can only exist and work in a world filled with evil. Grace abounds precisely where sin abounds. Grace only works on offenders. Only the lawbreaker cries for mercy. Only the ungodly are justified. Only the enemy is reconciled. Jesus emptied himself and died for what the world is by nature. Jesus would be irrelevant if the world wasn’t evil and if the gospel of religion worked. “For if there had been a law given which could have given life, righteousness would indeed have been by the law (Gal 3:21).” Reality is evil and religion doesn’t mediate it nor fix it.
If God approved of reality, the world, and of my life, then Jesus wouldn’t need to die for it. Beyond human comprehension, he reconciles the evil world to himself and doesn’t impute the trespass. This is what divine love is. Through the death of Jesus, God’s love shines through the brokenness of an evil world filled with suffering. The cross is the existential turning point of history and the only antidote to living in our post-apocalyptic world.
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2 responses to “Naughty By Nature”
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Love this, Luke!
Thank you Joey!