Some well-meaning brothers gratuitously tell us to "get our act together." It really hurt me when someone who knew me well told me that--touche--it hit home! We don't have to get our act together to get saved, contrary to popular opinion. We come as we are to God ("Come as you are! But don't stay that way!), because He accepts us with all our foibles, discrepancies, failures, idiosyncrasies, and weaknesses--the whole package!
It is common axioms that no one is perfect and to err is human, but few of us are willing to make this known publicly--we are just like Mark Twain quipped: "Everybody is a moon; and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody," or like the double personas in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is assumed by the present-day Secular-Humanist philosophy, which elevates or deifies man, and dethrones God, that we are basically good or inherently good--born innocent with a blank slate. If we start off perfect how did the world get so depraved and why isn't there anyone perfect?
The fourth-century British monk Pelagius was one of the first heretics of Christendom and he believed that Adam's sin affected only him and that since God commands us to be perfect, we must have that inherent ability or the command doesn't make sense--why tell someone to do something he can't do? This doctrine of perfectionism or that we can attain unto it, was condemned at the Council of Carthage in AD 418, and even Rome sees it as a perversion of the gospel. It is been revived recently as "entire sanctification" or that we can reach a point in our walk that we no longer purposely sin or are "perfect," like it says in Matthew 5:48 to be "perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect."
It is assumed that some people are too bad to be saved or that they have gone too far. No one is beyond the reach of the grace of God. If you do the unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit you simply are unconcerned about repentance and salvation. "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13, ESV). You can drown in 7 feet of water just as easily as 700 feet. It just takes one sin to make a person deserving of hell and eternal damnation at the Great White Throne Judgment. We must learn not to depend or rely on ourselves and stop trying to save ourselves. The Secular Humanists proclaim that no deity will save them, so they must save themselves!
Well, this begs the question: How bad off are we as unbelievers from being saved? How far is a blind person from realizing the beauty of a Rembrandt, or simply the beauties of nature of-of mankind? How far removed is a deaf person from appreciating a Mozart or Beethoven symphony? We are not as bad as we can be; you can always say that God grades on a curve and that you are better than Adolf Hitler or Saddam Hussein and think you have an edge, but this is false assurance because the plumb line or measure of standards is Jesus Christ Himself and we all fall short of His example of fulfilling all righteousness and living for us to prove it. We are not as bad as we can be or what you would say "utterly depraved." However, we are as bad off as we can be or totally depraved. Every part of our inner being is affected with evil and sin, and if sin were blue we'd be all blue--that includes our minds, wills, and affections or feelings-our complete soul.
We are dead spiritually to God and cannot communicate or have a relationship with Him, but must be reborn in the Spirit to become God's children and have fellowship with Him. The point is that we are as bad off as we can be, but salvation is as great as can be and no one is too bad to be saved--it isn't that we are good enough to get saved, but that we are bad enough to need salvation. According to C. S. Lewis: We don't know how bad we are till we try to be good, and we can't be good till we know how bad we are (what a catch-22!). Soli Deo Gloria!
It is common axioms that no one is perfect and to err is human, but few of us are willing to make this known publicly--we are just like Mark Twain quipped: "Everybody is a moon; and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody," or like the double personas in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is assumed by the present-day Secular-Humanist philosophy, which elevates or deifies man, and dethrones God, that we are basically good or inherently good--born innocent with a blank slate. If we start off perfect how did the world get so depraved and why isn't there anyone perfect?
The fourth-century British monk Pelagius was one of the first heretics of Christendom and he believed that Adam's sin affected only him and that since God commands us to be perfect, we must have that inherent ability or the command doesn't make sense--why tell someone to do something he can't do? This doctrine of perfectionism or that we can attain unto it, was condemned at the Council of Carthage in AD 418, and even Rome sees it as a perversion of the gospel. It is been revived recently as "entire sanctification" or that we can reach a point in our walk that we no longer purposely sin or are "perfect," like it says in Matthew 5:48 to be "perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect."
It is assumed that some people are too bad to be saved or that they have gone too far. No one is beyond the reach of the grace of God. If you do the unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit you simply are unconcerned about repentance and salvation. "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13, ESV). You can drown in 7 feet of water just as easily as 700 feet. It just takes one sin to make a person deserving of hell and eternal damnation at the Great White Throne Judgment. We must learn not to depend or rely on ourselves and stop trying to save ourselves. The Secular Humanists proclaim that no deity will save them, so they must save themselves!
Well, this begs the question: How bad off are we as unbelievers from being saved? How far is a blind person from realizing the beauty of a Rembrandt, or simply the beauties of nature of-of mankind? How far removed is a deaf person from appreciating a Mozart or Beethoven symphony? We are not as bad as we can be; you can always say that God grades on a curve and that you are better than Adolf Hitler or Saddam Hussein and think you have an edge, but this is false assurance because the plumb line or measure of standards is Jesus Christ Himself and we all fall short of His example of fulfilling all righteousness and living for us to prove it. We are not as bad as we can be or what you would say "utterly depraved." However, we are as bad off as we can be or totally depraved. Every part of our inner being is affected with evil and sin, and if sin were blue we'd be all blue--that includes our minds, wills, and affections or feelings-our complete soul.
We are dead spiritually to God and cannot communicate or have a relationship with Him, but must be reborn in the Spirit to become God's children and have fellowship with Him. The point is that we are as bad off as we can be, but salvation is as great as can be and no one is too bad to be saved--it isn't that we are good enough to get saved, but that we are bad enough to need salvation. According to C. S. Lewis: We don't know how bad we are till we try to be good, and we can't be good till we know how bad we are (what a catch-22!). Soli Deo Gloria!
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