The Argument for Redemption
“We are so damned different, that we are all still the same.” [1]
Joe Walsh
Imagine a Greek citizen in 300 BC struggling to get through his short life in Athens. He was susceptible to various plagues and diseases. He worked as a farmer, soldier, teacher, or craftsman. His sons may have been required to fight in wars, whether local or against other nations. He could be envious of or angry at his politicians, and he was tempted to cheat, steal, and commit adultery. Basically, the very same problems that citizens of the United States face today. The Greek citizen walked or used a horse or donkey for transportation. Today the typical citizen owns a Honda Accord, a Mercedes, or even a Ford. Both men have the same nature, the same immaterial nature housed in a human body. Human life has changed dramatically regarding transportation, medicine, and ease of communication, but people are beset with the very same human conflicts. Whatever is broken in humans, human progress has not fixed.
There are those who have staked their careers and reputations on the myth of human progress - by progress they refer to amounts of knowledge and kinds of knowledge. Knowing that the earth is not flat and that it actually is somewhat round and rotates around the sun has changed our lives a great deal for the good. Ulcers have been proven to be bacteria, not a result of worry. Bulls do not become angry at the color red. House flies do live longer than twenty-four hours. Knowledge has increased and has improved our lives particularly in medical terms and other technology. Along with the increase of knowledge has come plagues of information that have threatened, and in some cases has ruined, the lives of millions. Television, the most powerful force in modern life before the internet, has infused the minds of billions of people around the world. Once a culture has ingested bad ideas, it then is lived out in the culture. Not so much in the government or in any official way.
For example, when I was a child, Robert Young played Jim Anderson, husband of Margaret, Father of Kathy, Bud, and Betty. They all had the same last name which is not as common today. Jim was a man of routine, he was reliable, stable, and he had no vices. He was the nation’s role model of a father for a decade. Try to find such a father on television or in films today. Homer Simpson comes to mind as a modern alternative. Homer is clumsy, fat , lazy, immature, and stupid. He can’t stay committed to newly found passions. Such massive changes in what the culture admires makes a huge difference in what is acted out. I would assert that American culture has not improved, but has been degraded. What we once admired is now considered evil, and what we once thought evil has been declared good. Some day in the future, people will combine marvel and disgust when they describe the barbaric practice of abortion.
Elite culture leaders seem to be the spiritually blind leading the spiritually blind. They ignore what is plain to see. For example, the fatherless children rate is 70% in the African American community. The crime rate among African Americans has grown in direct proportion to the rate of increase in fatherless homes. Everyone who wants to see it can see it, but those who could lose power and credibility by admitting the problem won’t take off their blindfolds. It belies anything they may say about caring for this vulnerable population.
The continuing problem of bad schools, a struggling economy, and danger in the streets, are all ignored or blamed on white supremacy. Something they refuse to define, or that they have a solution for. They are living in a milieu that is four hundred years old, or at best a pre-Civil Rights Movement understanding of the problem. They won’t own the problem they have created through the war on poverty that has failed. They continue to treat African Americans as inferiors who need the white man’s help and resources. To hear them tell it, blacks are not intelligent enough to find an ID so they can vote, get a vaccination, open a bank account, or buy concert tickets. How long are African Americans going to put up with this patronizing nonsense that continues to oppress them?
Racism is not curable by laws. If it could be, then it would not exist at all. Racial discrimination is already against the law, it is illegal in the United States, but many crimes against the law are committed daily. That is the reason for police, courts, jails, and prisons. We are selfish, rebellious, and if not watched and policed, will steal from others. Racism, however, is a matter of the heart and is found in every tribe, tongue, nation, and ethnic group. People who disassociate themselves from such things need to recognize that we are all guilty, not just some of us. All Americans are free, we need to encourage one another to act free. Some might object, “We are not free.” Just because one doesn’t feel free doesn’t mean they are not free. They may be disadvantaged, have been dealt a bad hand, and have a lot to overcome, but they are still free to attempt to break out of the victim mentality and to improve their lives. You may not get to your goal, but you may get halfway there, and then your children will continue to close the gap. Those who believe that someone owes them something are doomed to failure and to pass on that failure to the younger generation. A nation of victims, of consumers who are not producers, will eventually destroy the nation. More legislative or governmental decrees will only make matters worse. All that help is not actually helping and it continually reminds those who get special help that you really didn’t earn it, and you are not capable of achieving it on your own.
When I speak of the myth of human progress I refer to moral progress. Philosopher Fredrick Nietzsche warned his generation in the 19th century that if they destroyed the biblical moral code they risked not being able to replace it. This is precisely what has happened in America. People are seeking redemption and they are looking for it to come from one another. Western culture is morally confused. People are struggling with identity; it is in vogue to question your gender, your religion, authorities, and the foundational institutions that give a nation stability. The left’s long march through our institutions have turned universities into a breeding ground for socialistic ideals that have never worked to help people. They have only led to utopian dreams and dystopian disappointments.
The only way you can force this on people is to punish them, surveil them, and finally prosecute them through the courts and lock them out of normal daily life. If private industry will do the bidding of the political elite, then the non-compliant will be denied freedom of travel and entrance into restaurants and department stores (i.e., a despot’s dream). The futility of such efforts are obvious to those again who have a reason to seek the truth. Reality has a voice of its own and leaders can lie, but human experience is more powerful than the most convincing ideology. That leads us to my final point: what finally convinces a person they need redemption?
Lesslie Newbigin said it well,
“It is the word made flesh that is the gospel. The deed without the word is dumb, and the word without the deed is empty.”
Man has not progressed morally because morality is a spiritual issue. And man has a fixed nature that has existed ever since the first man, Adam. As the book of Romans tells us:
“When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.”
Romans 5:12 NLT
Paul goes on to say…
“Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.”
Romans 5:18 NLT
Redemption itself is a concept that declares that someone owes a debt to another. Who, therefore, owes who what? As Newbigin said, incarnation without explanation is “dumb”, meaning it remains unspoken and, therefore, not understood. For God to say, “I care for you. You have a problem I want to solve,” yet not to do anything, of course, is not important or convincing. So, the only way that God can speak to us and help us at the same time is to voluntarily become human, which is the ultimate “word” or most powerful way to convey truth, the embodied truth.
Ever since the fall of the human race when sin entered into human experience, there has existed an alienation between God and his creation. God has slowly but consistently closed that gap through revealing himself more fully through history. His focus was first noticed with the choice of Abraham and his lineage traced in the gospels through to Christ himself. His relationship to Abraham and then Moses, the Ten Commandments, and subsequent law and the nation of Israel. His capstone, so to speak, was the incarnation of Christ, the promised Messiah and Savior of the world. In God’s economy our sin is a debt that must be paid for. The Apostle John, a seasoned follower and original disciple of Jesus, wrote near the end of his life the following words,
“My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins-and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.”
I John 2:1,2 NLT
The bad news is that we have sinned, we have missed the mark of a righteousness that qualifies to be reconciled to God. The solution requires a qualified representative. The good news is there is one that satisfies the requirements that God has set. Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many (Mt. 20:28). Jesus alone is righteous and qualified to be sacrificed as payment for our debt that atones. To atone means to pay for and/or to make one, as some would say. Most spiritual leaders don’t sacrifice, instead they ask their followers to do all the sacrificing. Jesus is different, he leads the way, he gives himself up and releases us from our debt and frees us to live a new life.
In order to accept this idea, the skeptic must eventually accept Jesus’ action as the proof that this is true and required. He or she may not access this level of spiritual knowledge through argument or pure intellect. It requires humility and honesty to admit, “Yes I have sinned. I know it down deep inside that I want everything to go my way, I want to be king of my kingdom. I realize that Jesus displayed a quality of life that compels me to confess my sin and to follow him.” If that is where you are, you are in, you are on your way. If not, if you are holding out for more evidence that you are broken and need help, then you won’t find help. Yet your redemption awaits you - you are not far from the Kingdom of God (Mark 12:34).
[1] From “Life’s Been Good” by Joe Walsh. This is the somewhat altered lyric from Eagles concert referring to the Eagles themselves over the many years. Eagles in Australia DVD. Original lyric was “Everybody’s so different, I haven’t changed.”
