The Human Predicament and the Kindness of God – Part 1
Titus 3:3 – 5
Fairview Presbyterian Church
March 4th, 2007
What every religion does: identify the problem and offer a solution
Let me ask you, “What does a religion do?” There is one sense in which
every religion does the same thing. Everyone agrees that humans are not
perfect. There is plenty of failure and folly at work in our world. A religion
identifies what it sees as the root of the human problem. Then it offers its solution
to that problem. The founders of Buddhism believed that the human problem was
desire. The Buddhist religion addresses the problem of desire. The religion of
Islam says that the human problem is that we do not submit to God’s law and
will. Islam – the very word means submission – imposes a wide range of religious
expectations and obligations upon its followers, intending by these rules to bring
a people and nation into conformity with God’s will.
What is the dominant religion at work in modern secular America? The
dominant religion of today is the therapeutic. This religion teaches that the source
of the human problem is the baggage, the legacy, of our past, which in turn leads
us to do bad things.
I do not normally have the necessary patience to watch the television
show CSI: New York, but I did this past week because it featured the illusionist
Chris Angel. I like Chris Angel. He has taken the art of magic and illusion to a
new level. Regrettably, his skills as a magician could not redeem the episode’s
story line. Angel played a magician seeking revenge upon those who had
betrayed him. Why does he embark upon this murderous course? It is because
he is a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome.
The religion of the therapeutic, the dominant secular religion of modern
America, teaches that the problems you face are not because of any inherent
defect within you, the individual. Such problems are the by-product of the
dysfunctional world in which we live. It is not who we are, or what we do, it is
what has been done to us. When the mayor of San Francisco admits to an
adulterous affair, he blames his actions upon alcohol addiction and abuse. When
an astronaut attempts to kill her lover’s rival, NASA announces that it will
increase the psychological screening of its candidates. I suspect that NASA’s
screenings are already among the most rigorous you will find. The priests of the
therapeutic age in which we live are psychologists, profilers, counselors, CSI
investigators, therapists, and psychoanalysts. Its worship events are called
counseling sessions and its churches are rehab centers. Mel Gibson, Former
Representative Mark Foley, Lindsay Lohan, Robin Williams, Mayor Newsom,
Miss USA Tara Conner – each has made his or her pilgrimage to the sacred
shrine of the rehab center. The goal of the religion of the therapeutic is not to
teach its people to lead a good life. Its purpose is not to determine what is good,
true, or right. No. The goal of the religion the therapeutic is “living well:” that is to
minimize emotional and psychological distress. When mayor Newsom spoke to
reporters he told them that he had concluded that he would be “a better person
without alcohol in his life.” The betrayal of a friendship, the abuse of authority, the
breaking of God’s commandment: these take second place to the desire to be a
“better person.”
Part of the appeal of the television show The Sopranos arises from its
attempt to explain the phenomenon of mobsters and organized crime
therapeutically. The very first episode of the Sopranos begins with Tony Soprano
in a psychiatrist's office. Interspersed with the usual mobster fare of violence,
graft and corruption are the therapeutic themes of psychiatric counseling,
psychotropic drugs and Tony’s relationships with his mother, deceased father,
uncle and siblings. The show is morally bankrupt. Why? Because the therapeutic
world view that frames the show is not interested in passing a proper judgment
upon Tony Soprano’s moral failures and illegal activities. Instead, it is simply
interested in helping Tony cope, to “live well,” within the psychological and
emotional distress of being a gangster. The theological vision of the Sopranos is
a fulfillment of the withering words of H. Richard Niebuhr, “A God without wrath
brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the
ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”
In contrast, the New Testament is willing to make a moral judgment upon
our world. It is important to remember though that, in making such moral
judgments, Paul’s words flow from sympathetic understanding, not superiority or
meanness of spirit.
Paul’s words flow from sympathetic understanding, not superiority or
meanness of spirit
For we ourselves were also once foolish,
I began by saying that all religions identify the human predicament and
then proceed to offer the particular religious response to address that human
need. Part of the wisdom of exercising freedom of religion is to look at what the
faiths of the world teach and ask the question: “Which one seems closest to the
truth of the world as we know it? Which religion most accurately diagnoses the
human condition?” In just a moment we will look at Paul’s brief summary, six
points, of human need. Paul’s words appear harsh. They are quite negative. The
diagnosis is not encouraging.
The initial temptation, on hearing his assessment, is to reject them out of
hand. People ask, “Why must preachers talk about sin all the time? Why is the
Bible so pessimistic in its assessment of the human state?” Remember the
preacher, played by Karl Maldon, in the movie Pollyanna, standing in the pulpit
forcefully declaring, “Death comes unexpectedly!” The attitude of the world is
reflected in the character of Pollyanna when she challenges the pastor to preach
on happier subjects, offering a few Bible verses to start him off in the right
direction.
Is the gospel message good news or bad news? Certainly the word gospel
means good news. The message of the grace available through Christ is the
greatest news we can ever hear. At the same time, it is true, as Martin Luther
pointed out, that we cannot know the good news of the gospel until we know the
bad news of the law. To understand the good news of the grace of Christ we
must first understand the bad news of our separation from God.
Paul is about to list the reality of the corruption and sin of the world.
Specifically he will do so by pointing out how sin distorts and corrupts how we
exist and live in the world. But, he is not doing so from a position of superiority or
mean-spiritedness. He understands that what he is about to write is true of all in
the human community. He writes, “For we ourselves were once foolish,…” Paul’s
purpose is pastoral. He understands human frailty. Paul’s point is to state clearly
what life is like without Christ. No one grows angry at a doctor who accurately
and correctly identifies the disease. Stating a spiritual need or identifying a
spiritual deficiency is not a form of meanness of spirit If you are going to follow
the right treatment plan, you must first have an accurate and right diagnosis. I, for
one, believe that the Christian faith has the most accurate diagnosis of the
human condition. Paul is saying, “This is how we once were, too.” He will very
quickly move from the diagnosis of the problem to a declaration of the hope that
is available in Jesus Christ. John Newton, the redeemed slave trader who
penned the hymn Amazing Grace, captured the right balance when he said, late
in his life, “I am a great sinner; but Christ is a great savior.”
What are the symptoms of the human condition Paul identifies. Let’s look
at each briefly.
Symptoms of the human condition
Foolishness
The first symptom of the human condition Paul names is foolishness. The
words fool and foolishness have a very specific meaning in the Bible. It refers to
one who denies God. Psalm 14:1 says, The fool has said in his heart, “There is no
God.” Thus the first symptom is to be spiritually deficient; ignorant of spiritual
matters. It means living life as though here and now were all that matters. It is to
be ignorant of eternal things, of the things that last, the things that endure. The
popular secular religion of the therapeutic so common in our day is foolish
because it believes that it can give people emotional fulfillment without God.
This is the first mark. The second is to be disobedient.
Disobedience
The idea Paul is touching upon here is the insistence upon self will. It has
the overtone of stubbornness, of being unpersuadable, of being locked in to
one’s own ways of doing things. Though a mundane example, think of when a
parent puts a new food on the kitchen table. “I don’t like it” little Johnny declares.
“How can you say you don’t like it, when you have not even tried it?” mom asks.
In life, insight and understanding are often gained by obedience and
submission. We submit and obey to those in authority and we find that we learn
from them. There are good reasons why we ought to submit and obey but, Paul
says, our natural state is rebellious. Apart from Christ, we break the law for its
own sake. The disobedient prefer to go their own way. They prefer their
ignorance. The secular therapeutic religion of our day is disobedient in that it
refuses to consider that the root source of human disease may be within the
human himself.
The first symptom of life apart from God is foolishness. The second is
disobedience. The third is being deceived.
Being deceived
The deception in mind here is more of being lost, of wandering away;
away from God, away from the righteousness he expects. The idea is that of a
lost sheep that does not even know that it is lost. It does not realize its state of
need. It is in our nature to stray. The power of deception is revealed in the
remarkable ability of people to believe silly things: horoscopes, tea leaves; cargo
cults, pyramids, hallucinogenic drugs, the Hale Bop comet, and so on. I could go
on for quite some time listing odd things in which humans have placed their faith.
When men stop believing in God they do not believe in nothing, they believe in
anything. The therapeutic religion of today is deceived in thinking that all that
matters is psychic and emotional tranquility.
The symptoms of the human predicament include foolishness,
disobedience, deception and, fourthly being enslaved to lusts and desires.
Being enslaved
The place of enjoyments, pleasures and desires in life is a challenging
one. Paul’s word here points to “diverse lusts and pleasures;” all the things of life
that can attract our attention. His point is that, in our natural state, it is our
tendency to become slaves to the things that we desire and pursue. This
symptom is a by-product of the reality of deception. If we knew the true cost to be
paid, we would be less inclined to give ourselves over to such things. Carnal
people think they enjoy? God’s Word calls it servitude. They face many masters;
their desires pull in all directions. Except for the desire for tobacco, the modern
religion of the therapeutic world does not wish to say that any desires are morally
wrong. It seeks to manage desires in its quest to enable its followers to be “better
persons,” and not out of any intent to please God or obey his law.
We have looked at four symptoms so far: foolishness, disobedience,
deception and slavery to unfettered desire. The next symptom Paul names is
jealousy.
Jealousy
In our natural state we are jealous of others. This has two natural
expressions. On the one hand is envy, when we begrudge the blessings that are
given to others. We say that life is not fair because others have what we do not.
And, on the other hand, is malice, the desire we have to hurt others, hold them
down, and prevent them from experiencing the same opportunities we have in
life. At the most extreme, we even rejoice in the hurt we cause. Jealousy robs us
of our ability to enjoy the blessings God gives. A fable is told of man who was
promised by God that he would grant whatever asked and, said God, “Whatever
you ask for yourself, I will give a double portion to your neighbor.” It came to pass
as promised. The man wished for wealth, and God granted it to him and double
to his neighbor. The man wished for land. God gave more land to him and double
to his neighbor. The man was blessed to the full extent of his imagination. But he
found that he could not enjoy what was given him, for it irked him that his
neighbor was always doubly blessed. The man prayed to God. “You have said
that whatever I wish, you will grant, and give double to my neighbor. What I wish
is that you make me blind in one eye.” Jealousy so easily turns to malice, apart
from Christ.
The symptoms of the human predicament include foolishness,
disobedience, deception, slavery to desire, and jealousy. The last symptom Paul
names is hatefulness.
Hatefulness
This may be the hardest symptom for people to hear and accept as true.
Probably this is the result of the impact of the previous five attributes. People
rebel when they hear this claim. “I do not hate God,” the average secularist
declares, “I simply do not know that he exists.” The myth that the unregenerate
heart tells itself is that it is seeking after God and, if God were not so elusive, not
so hidden, then it would recognize him and give him what is due. The happy
secularist lays the problem at God’s door. If God would do more, then more
people would recognize him and acknowledge his presence. But the Bible
teaches the opposite. We begin by denying God. Having denied God, we move
effortlessly to insisting upon our own self will and way. That in turn leads us to
wander from God. In our wandering we give ourselves over to desires and lusts,
which enslave us. We are jealous of the blessings given to others, lacking
gratitude for what we have and wishing ill towards those who have more. And all
of this, Paul suggests, is summed up as hatred toward God. We do not wish to
recognize him, obey him, follow him or live in the world as he has intended. If we
are men and women made in God’s image, then what better proof of our hatred
of him then our desire to live our lives independent from him?
Out of God’s grace a prescription is given
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared
Thankfully, this is not the last word. Diagnosing the human predicament is
not the end of the message. More will be said. We will look at the prescription
God provides to deal with the human predicament in part 2 of this message, next
week.
In these verses today we see what we are, apart from Christ. Next week,
we will see what we may become, through the work of Christ. In between these
two states is v. 4. Paul, after describing the six symptoms of the human person
apart from Christ, then adds, “But, when the kindness and love of God our Savior
toward man appeared.”
The turning point in the story is what God has done. His “kindness and
love” have “appeared.” The image is like that of an illusionist who makes a white
tiger appear in what had been an empty cage. What has happened, happened at
God’s initiative. He made it happen. It was not by anything we did. In an
illusionist’s show, has the audience done anything to make the tiger appear at
that moment? No. It is entirely the work of the showman.
Paul has described the human predicament. Now he tells us that, out of
the kindness and love of God, a solution to the human problem has appeared in
our world. Next week, we will explore the message of what has appeared.
Say “Amen” Somebody.
And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated
His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them,
saying:
3
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4
Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
5
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
7
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
8
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
9
Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
10
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all
kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be
exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they
persecuted the prophets who were before you.
3
For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various
lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. 4
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,