|
|
 by David
Phelps
“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” – Mother Teresa
Late last year, I had to put my car in
the shop. Most of us have done this at one time or
another but we usually have some idea what’s wrong
with the car. In this case, I only knew that something
was wrong. I couldn’t even figure out what the
problem was. There were almost no symptoms other
than a pesky light on the dash.
I should probably back up and explain a bit about my situation. In some Chevrolet automobiles—or at least in mine—there are two trouble lights on the dash. One is the standard “Check Engine” light, which is amber and shaped vaguely like an engine and indicates problems involving the overall running of the vehicle and the emissions system; the other is also amber, shaped like a wrench, and labeled “Service.” I checked the Owner’s Manual and found that the “Service” light When the garage finally called, we were told the problem had been a headlight that was burned out. They replaced the headlight—a job I could’ve probably done myself for far less money if I’d known what was wrong—and I was back on the road. Have you ever been in a situation like that? You knew something was wrong but you couldn’t figure out what it was? Perhaps your knee was hurting, your stomach was upset, or something just wasn’t right? I think it’s probably happened to all of us at one time or another. In my case, I’m surprised I didn’t notice the burned out headlight because I do a fair amount of driving at night. Like my car, humanity has a problem. Something inside of us is broken and we can’t fix it. Something simply feels wrong. The problem is that our relationship with God is imperfect. The Biblical name for this problem is “sin.” In the Old Testament, this is attributed to Adam and the Fall (Gen. 3). In the New Testament, Paul expresses it more personally: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Rom. 3:23 ESV). For hundreds of years, humanity tried to mend its relationship with God. We knew something was wrong but most people didn’t even know what the problem was. God sent prophets, who tried to tell the people about their broken relationship with God and how to fix it (2 Kings 17:13; Jer. 7:25). But in most cases, the people simply refused to listen (2 Chr. 24:19; Jer. 25:4-5; Jer. 29:19; Jer. 35:15). But sin is a far worse problem than most of them realized. The prophet Ezekiel proclaimed, “The soul who sins shall die.” (Eze. 18:20a ESV). And Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, “For the wages of sin is death,” (Rom. 6:23a ESV). If that were all, there would be no hope; all would be despair. But Paul makes it clear that there is more: “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23b ESV). People all around us are dying from sin. Some may know there’s a problem but don’t know what it is; others simply aren’t aware of the problem at all or are ignoring it. But sin cannot be ignored. Paul told the Ephesians, “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Rom. 3:22b-26 ESV.) |