The CRCA
B.C.14 – The Teaching That Needs No Proof
Word of Salvation - August 2018
B.C.14 – The Teaching that Needs no Proof
Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp
Bible readings: Jeremiah 17:1-10; Ephesians 2:1-10.
Text: Ephesians 2:1
Introd: Total Depravity... that’s a teaching from the Bible that is most uncool today.
An elderly lady from the deep south of the US was once asked once about this teaching.
She replied: The teaching of Totally Depravity is a great doctrine if only people would live by it.
The reality is that today your average evangelical Christian does not live by it.
And I don’t mean “live by it” in the sense of acting totally depraved.
I mean “live by it” in the sense that this is our understanding of our natural human condition.
When I watch early morning Christian television this teaching doesn’t feature.
What I hear is television preachers talking about self-improvement.
And yes... many will certainly teach that we need Jesus for that...
but basically their starting point is that we are not all that bad really.
Today we live in a society where people will readily admit that nobody is perfect....!
We all have some hang-ups and problems... but it’s nothing that a good psychiatrist can’t fix.
Man is basically okay: I’m okay, you’re okay... we’re all okay!
With a bit help from the government and a good counsellor we’ll do fine.
We’re basically good... we’re capable of self-improvement.
And tragically, much of the Christian church has succumbed to that thinking.
You just need Jesus to help you fix some of your faults.
Over against that the churches of the Reformation hold a radically different view.
The B.Conf. gave us a dramatically different description of humanity.
“Perverse, corrupt, wicked... incapable of any good thing”. Strong words!
And if you think that is depressing, think of what Paul says in our text.
He speaks about being dead... D.E.A.D. – dead in our transgressions and sins.
A] SOME BASIC CONSIDERATIONS.
1. To help us understand that our Confession highlights three things we need to keep in mind.
First it show us that we were not originally like this... nor is it God’s fault that we are like this.
IOW: Human beings have not always been
...perverse, corrupt, wicked... incapable of any good.
And we can’t blame God for the way we are now.
That’s one reason why God included Genesis chapters 1 and 2 in the Bible.
It’s to show us that brokenness and failure, corruption and evil were once unknown.
They are something foreign and alien... no matter how normal they seem to be now.
So you and I should never get used to accepting the B.C.’s statement about humanity as normal.
It is right and proper that we find this a terrible thing to say about human beings.
It is tragic... painful... horrible... and we should never get used to these words.
It’s a pity that sometimes, us Reformies, have felt very comfortable with it.
Let me say it again: Genesis 1 and 2 show us we were made for something better.
We were made good... and in God’s image and likeness.
God made the man and the woman without fault or blame.
“God saw ALL that He had made... and it was good...!” No! It was “very good.”
IOW: there was a time when we human beings were good, and righteous, and holy.
We were able to will what God willed.... able to imitate a holy and perfect God.
The way we are is abnormal and we cannot blame God for it.
2. That brings us to a second consideration we have to keep in mind.
That is that we have no one to blame for our problem and our situation than ourselves.
Genesis 3 is also in our Bible... and it’s the story of what went wrong.
But in that story the man and the woman are the key players.
They are clearly responsible for the disaster that took place there back in Eden.
Genesis 3 portrays an act of wilful disobedience.
The command of God had been clear enough... Eve admitted that to the serpent.
Yet they both deliberately did what God had said they were not to do.
They ignored that clear command... and doubted the reliability of what God had said.
Now, okay, it’s true of course that the devil led them astray and tempted them to disobey.
And yet that’s no excuse... they consciously chose for Satan and against God.
So we have no one to blame for our natural condition than ourselves alone.
3. A third consideration to put this doctrine into perspective is that this teaching is absolutely true.
First of all it is true because God himself makes this horrible evaluation of mankind.
Please turn with me a moment to Genesis 6 – the first time God evaluates mankind this way.
Here in Genesis 6 we have God’s diagnosis of humanity right after Eden.
<<< Read verse 5 of Genesis 6 >>>
That is a description of Total Depravity.
But it is not our conclusions about humanity... it is God’s evaluation of humanity.
Having said that we should also add that this diagnosis is true because it is painfully obvious to all.
Someone has said that this is the one Christian doctrine that you don’t need to prove.
Did you as a parent need to teach your child to lie? Of course not, that came naturally.
Did you have to demonstrate to your kids how to get angry? No, that just happens.
So we accept this both because it’s God’s evaluation & because the evidence is all around us.
If I could show a video of your most secret thoughts you couldn’t get out of here fast enough.
4. Let me also tell you why you need to accept this as truth.
If you do not accept this evaluation of our problem...
then you have no grounds for accepting the gospel as your solution.
Let me put it this way:
The only way you will accept drastic surgery... or drink some foul tasting medicine
is if you are convinced that your situation is desperate enough to need it.
If you are not drastically ill you don’t need a drastic remedy of surgery or medicine.
That’s where I have my problem with so many of today’s television preachers.
They treat the Gospel as some sort of moral improvement program.
Or they present it as some sort of divine recipe to make you healthy, wealthy and happy.
So many so-called Christian books today take that approach.
Sure, they tell us we need Jesus.
But they do not tell us we need Jesus to deal with our perversity, corruption and evil.
Instead Jesus comes to help us fix our life so that God is pleased and we are happy.
But that is not Christianity. Far from it!
Christianity is that God does what we have absolutely no hope of doing.
We couldn’t do a single thing to save ourselves. God had to do it all – for the full 100 percent.
It wasn’t a matter of: fix this area of your life up a little.... and patch that up a bit.
No... God had to totally remake us... and renew us... and give us new life....
And to make that happen it needed the death of God’s own Son... that was our only hope.
The point is that unless you appreciate your problem you will not appreciate God’s answer.
Yes... it’s tempting to tone down the strong language about our natural human condition.
Can you imagine a doctor doing that when you come with a serious health issue?
He does all sorts of tests and comes to the conclusion that this is really grim.
Your disease is far advanced and it really does not look good.
But how would it be if the doctor said:
This is really too terrible.... I’ll just change the diagnosis, I’ll make it look better.
Not only is that not honest... it also minimises the patient’s need.
Doctors have been sued because they didn’t diagnose the seriousness of a cancer.
Only if a doctor honestly faces the situation of the patient will he be able to help that person.
So too Scripture faces us with this bleak diagnosis so that we night cry out to God for His remedy.
This is God’s diagnosis of our human condition.
But it is pictured in all its stark reality to drive us to the Lord Jesus Christ for life and wholeness.
B] THE CONDITION OF MAN.
1. Keeping these things in mind let’s then pick up three Biblical principles from our Belgic Confession.
First of all we are told that by our sin we cut ourselves off from God.
In fact, it says that we cut ourselves off from God who is our life.
IOW we became creatures subject to death.
Now again, I don’t need to prove that to you... that is evident to all of us.
Death is a sad reality for every living thing.... and often it touches our lives deeply.
The sober fact is that none of us are exempt.
George Bernard Shaw said: “The statistics of death are impressive - one out of one people dies.”
I don’t need to prove to you that the condition of man is that he is subject to death.
Nor do I need to prove to you that death is a foreign and alien thing in God’s creation.
It is not normal – it is the last enemy.... we resent it and we seek to avoid it.
And that harmonises with Scripture which sees death as a result of sin (Rom.5:1).
It’s not part of God’s perfect world.
It is part of our condition in a fallen world.
It came about as a consequence of our rebellion against God.
By our sin we cut ourselves off from God who is our life.
Death is separation from God... and apart from God there is only death.
But now notice that our B.Conf. speaks of two kinds of death: spiritual death and physical death.
Physical death is something we all understand.
But what about the spiritual death Paul talks about in our text in Ephesians 2:1?
At this point we need to distinguish between a state of death and actually dying.
Those two things are quite different. Major Ian Thomas made that clear with a good example:
I have a pen in my pocket... it is a dead thing!
We all agree it is lifeLESS – it doesn’t breath, or bleed, or breed.
It will never happen that I look in my pocket one day to find a nest there with lots of baby pens.
It is lifeless and in a state of death and we have no trouble with that.
But if I were to say: “I had this beaut pen, but last week it died.... pity, I was so fond of it too...!”
Then you would say to me, “Don’t be ridiculous. That pen hasn’t died even though it is dead.”
It was never alive in the first place.
That’s precisely the way it is with human beings – we are in a state of death – spiritually.
We enter this world spiritually lifeless.... physically alive but spiritually dead.
That is why Paul says in Eph. 2:1 “You were dead in your transgressions and sins...!”
Paul does not mean that we were once alive spiritually but that we then died spiritually.
That only ever happened with Adam and Eve.
Ever since that fall in sin man has entered the world in a state of death.
Separated from God who is our life.
Now on top of that man also dies bodily... physically.
So death has become an undeniable reality in our world.... physical death.
But also spiritual death... that towards God there is just nothing positive from our side.
Our only hope is for God to make us alive.
In fact only God CAN make alive what is dead... He’s in the resurrecting business.
And that is precisely the gospel that we so desperately need.
Because Paul also says in vs.5: “But God made us alive in Christ even when we were dead.”
God has provided a most wonderful remedy for our drastic situation.
So the first thing we can say about the condition of man is that he is subject to death.
Physically he dies. But spiritually he is born in a state of death.
So our only hope is in Jesus Christ who said: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
2. But there is a second problem... one that flows from this condition of being dead.
The second thing is that we have lost all the good gifts God gave us.
It is in this context that the B. Confession again talks the language of the Bible.
It speaks about man becoming wicked... perverse... corrupt in all his ways.
If you want the Biblical picture just read Romans 1, 2 and 3 when you get home.
It is a tempting to say that this is putting it too strong.
Certainly many today hold onto the belief that man is basically good.
They would say, ”Sure we sin, or at least, we fail at times... we can’t expect perfection.”
But why go overboard with such a one-sided emphasis on our sin and misery?
Why grovel in those things?
Yet interestingly many non-Christians have painted an even bleaker picture of humanity.
Decartes was a famous French philosopher.
His starting point was that man is a being that thinks. (Cogito erg sum!)
Another philosopher (Jean Paul Satre) who lived thru 2 world wars changed that motto.
He said, “Man is a being that stinks”.
Or listen for example to the views of Mark Twain about our human condition. (Blue Jay story)
(P.91 Osterhaven) Everyone is a moon, & has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.
Again I don’t really have to prove to you this human depravity and hopelessness.
Your newspapers this week will tell you that far more clearly than I can.
Do a little exercise: count all the references this week to murder, theft, rape, greed and injustice.
And then remember that the papers are showing you only the tip of the iceberg.
Of course our confession also admits that man has retained a small remnant of the gifts of God.
There is enough to leave us without excuse.
IOW – by the grace of God man is not as bad as he could be.
It’s true that every part of life is touched by sin. That’s what we mean by total depravity.
Yet man is not absolutely depraved – that is true only of the devil.
What we mean is that men and women, boys and girls now have a bias towards evil.
Or as Paul puts it in Ephesians 2:3:
“All of us also lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature...”
The prophet Jeremiah put it even more bluntly when he said:
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”
Sometimes we really become aware of this perversity after some horrendous crime.
Listen to what one reporter wrote at the trial of Eichmann, one of Hitler’s thugs,
who played a large part in the extermination of Jews in WWII.
“No man is perfectible. Human beings have an infinite capacity for evil.
There is a little Eichmann in all of us... and that little Eichmann becomes a big Eichmann in times of crisis.”
Again: that is why we so desperately need the gospel.
Because the gospel is that Jesus died to make us alive and new.
He didn’t just come to make us healthy, wealthy and happy... He came to make us alive.
And when by faith we share in His life then God renews us and makes us Christlike.
He solves that bias towards evil in us.
God begins in us who believe... a process of renewal.
Not just to make us what Adam and Eve once were but more... to make us like Jesus Christ.
3. It is hardly surprising then that in the third place the Confession also speaks here of man’s free will.
And again it does so in radical terms that many today will not accept. Even Christians reject it.
Many Christians today loudly proclaim our total freedom of the will without any reservations.
They say that we are always, at every time able to make all the choices in life that need to be made.
And many Christians teach that ultimately even your salvation all depends on your free will.
It all hinges on whether or not you choose for Christ.
Over against that the churches of the Reformation have upheld Ephesians 2.
How can you possibly talk about free will in a being who is spiritually dead... in a state of death.
A corpse cannot do anything... just try telling it to get up and walk.
It is unable to make any choices. It is dead.
And it stays spiritually dead until God in His sovereign grace gives life.
That is the whole thrust of the second chapter of Ephesians. By grace ALONE!
That is why Jesus once said: “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him.”
I know that have to be cautious here.
Human beings are still responsible beings.... accountable to God.
After all we still have some remains of God’s good gifts that leave us without excuse.
And we are certainly free to make many choices... also in the area of morals.
However we are talking about spiritual realities... about man in relation to his God.
And if man is spiritually dead and has a bias towards evil...
then it is insane to talk about free will in that spiritual area of life.
Paul speaks rather about our enslavement to sin in vs.3 of chap.2 “the carvings of the sinful nature”.
In a real sense we could say that Adam and Eve were the first and the last people in the world
who had free will with regard to spiritual realities and the ability to choose for God.
Martin Luther made these things quite clear in a book which he entitled: The Bondage of The Will!
The teaching of Totally Depravity is a great doctrine if only people would live by it.
Because if we live by it, it will drive us to despair of ourselves.
And only as we despair of ourselves are we ready to flee to Jesus.
And brothers and sister... He... He alone is the only solution to our problem.
He, by His Spirit, breathes new life into out dead souls.
And then by His Spirit enables us to live to the glory of God the Father. Amen
BC stands for Basic Christianity. What are the fundamentals of the faith?
BC also stands for Belgic Confession – a document in which the Christian church (in a time of great persecution) spelled out the basics of what she believes.
When Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep it needs to grasp again the basics of the faith and confess them in a world where the faith is increasingly under attack.
Those who drew up the BC declared that they were ready to obey the government in all lawful things, but that they would “offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags and their whole bodies to the fire” rather than deny the truth expressed in this confession.
