Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 3 as we continue our study of the letter that Paul wrote to the church in Rome. Now over the last several weeks we have been dealing with a tough issue, man’s sin and the condemnation of sinful man by God.
And Paul is acting as a prosecuting attorney with man on trial and he is showing how all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. He showed how the unrighteous heathen have been condemned by creation. He then moves on to show how the self-righteous moralist and how he is condemned by his conscience. Then he speaks of the super religious person who is condemned by the commandments.
And if that was not enough, Paul puts God on the stand as a witness against man. And God gives a 14-count indictment against man showing that none are good, none are right before a holy and righteous God. As you can see, this section, from Romans 1:18-3:20 is not one of those uplifting sections and thus, I have called this section, CONDEMNATION because Paul is showing how the whole world is guilty before God, he is condemned before God!
This morning we are going to move from CONDEMNATION to JUSTIFICATION, as Paul will show us that the righteousness of God has been revealed from Heaven apart from the works of the Law. This section of JUSTIFICATION covers Romans 3:21-5:21 and it is an important section for us to understand.
Before we get to our text this morning, let me share with you this heavenly story and I think you will get the point. We are told:
This angel named Caruthers was called into the heavenly front office and informed by St. Peter that he had been picked for a special assignment—to go down to earth and make a list of all the people who had misbehaved.
Two months went by. Then one afternoon the angel came flapping wearily through the Pearly Gates and collapsed on a golden stool by St. Peter’s desk. “Sir,” he said, “you don’t know the magnitude of this job. I’m going to need some help.”
“Impossible,” St. Peter replied tersely. “We’re shorthanded up here as it is. You’ll have to go it alone.”
The angel struggled to the door. Then, suddenly, he was struck with an idea. “Saint Peter, suppose I made a list of all the people who didn’t misbehave. It would be much shorter and I could finish it in a week.”
“Good thinking,” said St. Peter.
The angel returned to earth and, as promised, he was back in a week with his list. St. Peter studied it and passed it on up the chain of command. Shortly, an order came down to write a letter to everyone on the list, commending them for their good behavior.
At this point, the fellow telling the story turned to his friend. “You know what else the letter said?” he asked.
“What?” replied the friend.
“AHA! So you didn’t get one either.”
- James Dent in Charleston, W.Va., Gazette
With that as our background, let’s begin reading in
Romans chapter 3, starting in verse 21 as we look at the topic:
WHATEVER BECAME OF SIN?
This morning I am going to give you an overview of these first two verses because I really want to focus on one particular verse, Romans 3:23. We will cover these verses more next time, but I think there is some important groundwork that needs to be dealt with first before we get to Paul’s focus of Justification! You see, people need to understand that they are sinners before God and it is their sin that separates them from God. So let’s look over these first two verses and then focus in on verse 23 this morning.
VERSES 21-22
Paul is telling us that justification is apart from the Law and it is based upon faith. The Law can’t justify you, it can only show you your sin, that you missed the mark of perfection before God. And Paul is telling us that it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, every person in this world will be justified by faith and not by works!
VERSE 23
Now this seems pretty straight forward, it is not too difficult for us to understand! How many people have sinned? Paul tells us, “all have sinned.” Not just a few, or even many, he is telling us that all have sinned. In fact, in the Greek “fall short” is in the present tense stating an action or that we “keep falling short.” And the Greek word for “sinned” speaks of missing the mark. It was an archery term and thus, as you shot your arrow the mark would be the bull’s eye or right in the middle of the target, dead center!
Now some may argue that they can hit the mark, they are a good person. But, remember what Paul said, or really what God said against sinful man back in Romans 3:10-18 “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.’ ‘Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit’; ‘The poison of asps is under their lips’; ‘Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.’ ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known.’ ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’”
Folks, to try to attain the perfection God wants would be like trying to jump across the Grand Canyon, which has an average distance of 10 miles from rim to rim and it is 1 mile down to the bottom. And let’s say we have three volunteers who would like to try and do this, make the attempt to jump across the Grand Canyon. Not a group of smart people, but they will work for our illustration.
The first guy is not really in shape and he gets a running start or maybe a fast walk and he jumps out there and makes it about 10 feet and then he falls to his death 1 mile down to the bottom of the canyon. Not a good jump.
The next guy is in a little better shape and he gets a good running start and jumps and he is off. And believe it or not, he makes is halfway out, but he too falls 1 mile down to his death. It was a good jump, but not good enough!
The last guy was an athlete. He looked like Charles Atlas. He had muscles everywhere. He stood about 62, weighing in at some 190 pounds, rippling biceps, just like me! What are you laughing at? Anyway, he gets a fantastic running start and he jumps and he is going, and going and going and he misses the rim by about 1 foot. He was so close and yet, there he goes, one mile to the bottom and he too died!
All three jumped and all three missed the mark. Yes, one made it closer than all the rest but he did not get any credit for it, his fate was just the same as everyone else who jumped. Folks, it doesn’t matter how close to the bull’s eye you come, perfection is the only thing that God will accept, and thus, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God! You can’t do it on your own, by good works, the keeping of the Law, only by faith in Jesus Christ!
I realize that I have used a three-letter word, a dirty word here this morning and I should have warned all of you who have those fragile self-esteems. Some of you are trying to figure out what word I used and if that is the case see me after the study! The word that is so offensive to many today is SIN! And folk’s, believe it or not, the word “sin” is being removed from our society! If you doubt that sin has been removed from our society, then listen carefully and see what has happened to sin.
What is the murder of unborn children called today? It is called “abortion” or even worse, the “termination of a pregnancy.” God calls it murder and thus, it is a sin!
What about fornication, adultery, sexual sin? Now we call it “making love” or “having sex” or a “love affair.” God calls it sin but we don’t!
It doesn’t end there. Homosexuality is a sin before God and yet, we call it, “gay” or an “alternative lifestyle” or even worse, a “life choice” or “life partners.” It is a sin before God, period!
Even alcoholism has been changed to a “disease” or a “problem” or an “addiction” and yet God condemns drunkenness. You see, we have removed the responsibility for the sin and blame it on our genetic make-up, which we will deal with in a minute!
Why do we see this happening today? Because by changing the name from sin we lesson the impact of our actions, we feel better about sinning because we no longer see it as a sin! God says, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight! Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, Who justify the wicked for a bribe, And take away justice from the righteous man!” Isaiah 5:20-23.
I guess God sees things a little differently than man does! You see folk’s, it doesn’t matter what you may call it, sin is still sin, it is still evil and it still separates man from God. Again, in Isaiah 59:1-2 we are told, “Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.” That is what God says and yet, we still tend to think it is not our fault.
Dave Hunt wrote in his recent newsletter regarding the fact that it is not our fault for our sins, that we are programmed in our genes to do this. Listen carefully to what he said:
Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the language in the DNA molecule, was so enamored with science that he declared in triumph, “You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.”
One is reminded of the man who, every time he went to a friend's home and was offered a drink of water, would throw the contents in the host's or hostess's face. After this happened several times, his bewildered friend said, “Do me a favor and go to a psychiatrist. I'm not going to allow you back into my house until you've been cured of this outrageous habit!”
Hearing that the man had been in intensive psychotherapy for six months, the friend invited him to dinner again. The hostess was a bit wary when she put some water at his place setting, and, sure enough, in the middle of the meal, he suddenly threw the whole glass of water into the hostess's face.
“I've never been so humiliated in my life!” she exclaimed. “This is a new dress. It can only be dry-cleaned and now you've ruined it!”
The apologetic guest explained, “I've been under intensive psychotherapy for six months and the psychiatrist said I was cured!”
“Cured? He must be crazy!”
“I am cured. I used to feel horrible about doing this, but now that he's explained why I do it, I don't feel guilty anymore!”
Psychologists want to create a guilt-free world where no one is ever at fault. Defense attorneys can always plead for their clients, “He couldn't help himself - it's in his genes!” Of course, this is simply a modern version of “The devil made me do it.”
- Dave Hunt, The Berean Call, True Love Part 1, March 2009, page 1
First of all let me dispel this notion that it is in our genes. Many of you remember when John Wayne Gacy, who was a mass murdering homosexual who raped and brutally killed 33 young men, was executed. Scientists extracted his brain and tested it! “Why,” you may ask. Because they were hoping to find some evidence of something gone wrong. They wanted to find some genetic reason for the atrocities that he did. That it really wasn’t his fault, but it was just his chemical makeup that caused him to commit these crimes. And what they found in the brain of John Wayne Gacy was that it was perfectly normal.
You see, the problem that these scientists had was that they were looking in the wrong place. I realize that some may not agree, but listen to what God declares in Jeremiah 17:9-10, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.”
You see, the problem is not in our genes, but it is in our heart, for God says that the heart of man is desperately wicked. And then, it is what is born in our heart that affects our mind and our outward actions. Thus, if the source of man’s wickedness is his heart, then no amount of reformation, education, rehabilitation, or institutionalization is going to help him!
What man does need is a heart transplant, one that is done by the Lord. For as we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior the Holy Spirit gives to us a new heart. The heart of wickedness, the heart that is full of sin is replaced with a new heart! In Ezekiel 36:26-27 the Lord is speaking to Israel, but I believe He is also speaking to every person who comes to Him. He tells us, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”
Folks, the problem is not genetic flaws, or monster genes or whatever bizarre ideas man comes up with for their behavior. The problem is the sin-nature, and it is that sin nature that every person is born with. And since everyone is born with the SAME sin-nature, we are all capable of committing the worst sins. Obviously, children who grow up in abusive homes are much more likely to repeat the same sins; it is a learned behavior, but, it's not because they were “born that way.” And yes, we are born with a sin nature and the only solution to this problem of sin is Jesus, as I have said. But, we are also seeing that idea of sin being removed from our vocabulary as I have also said!
In many churches today, like the seeker friendly churches, the word “sin” is not used, it is removed from their vocabulary because it is an offensive term to people and they are seeker friendly, they don’t want to offend anyone! In regards to this seeker friendly church movement, John MacArthur had this to say:
I once read through a stack of newspaper and magazine articles that highlight a common thread in the user-friendly phenomenon. These observations from newspaper clippings describe the preaching in user-friendly churches.
“There is no fire and brimstone here . . . Just practical, witty messages.”
”Services at [the church featured in the article] have an informal feeling. You won't hear people threatened with hell or referred to as sinners. The goal is to make them feel welcome, not drive them away.”
“As with all clergymen [this pastor's] answer is God– but he slips Him in at the end, and even then doesn't get heavy. No ranting, no raving. No fire, no brimstone. He doesn't even use the H-word. Call it Light Gospel. It has the same salvation as the Old Time Religion, but with a third less guilt.”
“The sermons are relevant, upbeat, and best of all, short. You won't hear a lot of preaching about sin and damnation, and hell fire. Preaching here doesn't sound like preaching. It is sophisticated, urbane, and friendly talk. It breaks all the stereotypes.”
“[The pastor] is preaching a very upbeat message . . . It's a salvationist message, but the idea is not so much being saved from the fires of hell. Rather, it's being saved from meaninglessness and aimlessness in this life. It's more of a soft-sell.”
So the new rules may be summed like this: Be clever, informal, positive, brief, friendly, and never, never use the H-word.
- John MacArthur, What's Wrong with “User Friendly”?
Folks, that is where the church is at today, and it is
not a good thing! C. H. Spurgeon, facing
a similar mindset in his day, once said:
I fear there are some who preach with the view of amusing men, and as long as people can be gathered in crowds, and their ears can be tickled, and they can retire pleased with what they have heard, the orator is content, and folds his hands, and goes back self-satisfied. But Paul did not lay himself out to please the public and collect the crowd. If he did not save them he felt that it was of no avail to interest them. Unless the truth had pierced their hearts, affected their lives, and made new men of them, Paul would have gone home crying, “Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” . . .
Now observe, brethren, if I, or you, or any of us, or all of us, shall have spent our lives merely in amusing men, or educating men, or moralizing men, when we shall come to give our account at the last great day we shall be in a very sorry condition, and we shall have but a very sorry record to render; for of what avail will it be to a man to be educated when he comes to be damned? Of what service will it be to him to have been amused when the trumpet sounds, and heaven and earth are shaking, and the pit opens wide her jaws of fire and swallows up the soul unsaved? Of what avail even to have moralized a man if still he is on the left hand of the judge, and if still, “Depart, ye cursed,” shall be his portion?
- C. H. Spurgeon, Soul Saving Our One Business, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 25, pp. 674-76
Now, in saying that, in seeing that the church is moving away from this idea of sin and yet that we are sinners, listen to what one man wrote back in 1973, and keep in mind, he was not a Christian. Some of you may have heard of this man who was one of the 100 most significant individuals of the 20th century, according to an article published in Life Magazine back in 1990. His name is Karl Menninger, who was a very famous psychiatrist. Back in 1973 he wrote a book called, “Whatever Became of Sin?” A very interesting title from a psychiatrist, and listen to what he had to say regarding this issue. Something that the church is not even recognizing any longer, that sin is real! He wrote:
In all of the laments and reproaches made by our seers and prophets, one misses any mention of “sin,” a word which used to be a veritable watchword of prophets. It was a word once in everybody’s mind, but now rarely if ever heard. Does that mean that no sin is involved in all our troubles – sin with an “I” in the middle? Is no one any longer guilty of anything? Guilty perhaps of a sin that could be repented and repaired or atoned for? Is it only that someone may be stupid or sick or criminal – or asleep? Wrong things are being done . . . But is no one responsible, no one answerable for these acts? Anxiety and depression we all acknowledge; and even vague guilt feelings; but has no one committed any sin?
- Karl Menninger, Whatever Became of Sin?, p. 13
He goes on to say:
“The very word ‘sin,’ which seems to have disappeared, was a proud word. It was once a strong word, an ominous and serious word. It described a central point in every civilized human being’s life plan and lifestyle. But the word went away. It has almost disappeared – the word, along with the notion. Why? Doesn’t anyone sin anymore? Doesn’t anyone believe in sin?”
- Karl Menninger, Whatever Became of Sin?, p. 14
That is a great question; does anyone really believe in sin anymore? One of America’s Pastor’s, Max Lucado, was on Fox News back on April 10th, Good Friday. And he was asked about the decline in Christianity as Christians were preparing for the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and this is some of what he said:
We're people who are hungry for god. I do believe that and I believe that the reason we cherish Good Friday and the reason we cherish Easter is because of the unique hope that the Christian faith and that is that Christ died on the cross for our mistakes. Consequently we can go and spend forever with him in heaven. And the promise was validated by the resurrection of Christ on Sunday morning. This is wonderful; this is great news for people.
- Max Lucado, Fox News, April 10, 2009
Now I may be way off here, but why did Christ die for us? According to Max Lucado, he died for our “mistakes.” Wow, that is interesting. My dictionary gives me this definition of this word, “mistake.” “To blunder in the choice of, to make a wrong judgment of character or ability, to confuse with another.” Now I do make a lot of blunders. I hit my thumb with the hammer. I made a left hand turn into the right lane instead of the left and the officer told me that it was a blunder on my part. But that is not why Christ died; He did not die for my blunders, for my mistakes. The Bible tells me that He died for my sins! The word “sin” is defined in my dictionary as, “An offense esp. against God, FAULT, a weakened state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God.” Our sin has made us estranged from God; it has separated us from God! I am sorry folk’s, even my pagan dictionary gets it right and America’s Pastor got it wrong! We will deal more with this in a few minutes, but first let me just share with you where all this has lead us. You see, if you look at our history, as sin has been removed, there have been consequences because of it.
Let’s go back to Dr. Mennieger’s book because
the whole burden of Dr. Menninger’s book
is to document the disappearance of the concept of sin from American
society. He contends that in place of the historic concept of
sin, we now speak of crime and symptoms. Don’t we see that
as we read the papers, read the books, turn on the television,
hear people talking? You bet we do! You see, he points out that,
when you discard the concept of “sin” and replace it
with the concept of “symptoms,” you’ve defined
it as something that’s completely exterior, or outside ourselves.
As his first proof that the concept of sin is lost in American
society, Dr. Menninger cites the change by American presidents
in proclamations associated with a National Day of Prayer. And
listen carefully to what has happened.
The first president to call Americans to a National Day
of Prayer was Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, he called the nation to
repent of its “sin” and turn back to God. And I was
not going to share this prayer with you but I think it is important
that you hear what the leader of our nation spoke and what he
called us as American’s to do and he was not ashamed to speak
of it. He was not afraid to offend anyone. This is the prayer of Abraham
Lincoln:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.
And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.
By the President:
Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
Now almost
100 years passed. Then in the early 1950s, Congress passed a law
that the president should designate a day in May as a National
Day of Prayer. President Eisenhower then went back to Abraham
Lincoln’s declaration, borrowed much of the language and
used the word “sin.”
And then things began to change. You see, Dr. Menninger
points out that during the rest of his term, Eisenhower omitted
the word “sin,” and that since the early 1950s, no president
had used the word “sin” again in a call to prayer. Now
36 years have passed since Menninger wrote his book and I don’t
believe any president since has used the word “sin”
in connection with the National Day of Prayer. Simply put, no
modern-day president has had the courage to call Americans to
repent of their sins. I guess if the church isn’t doing it,
why should the President!
Thus, from the Oval Office to the home office, and on into the church we have abandoned the concept of sin. But unfortunately, the practice of sin continues unabated.
Now here’s the thing. Just because we are ignoring sin, we don’t talk about sin, that doesn’t mean it is not around and it hasn’t affect our nation. What happens in a nation when sin is practiced but is not acknowledged? In his book “The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators”, William Bennett, former secretary of education, identifies critical factors that reflect America’s moral, social and behavioral conditions. Bennett cites a 560% increase in violent crime, more than a 400% increase in illegitimate births, a quadrupling in divorce rates, a tripling of the percentage of children living in single-parent homes, more than a 200% increase in teenage suicide and a drop of almost 80 points in SAT scores.
How does Bennett explain those dramatic changes in our society? According to Bennett, those cultural indicators continue to go down because we’ve turned away from the concept of the law of God, which is the only thing that reveals our true spiritual and moral condition. Take away God’s law, and you have no reason to maintain the concept of sin. The two always go together. Give up one and you’re going to lose the other. That is why American society is spiraling downward today.
To reverse this trend, our first step is to face the truth about our own sinful condition as individuals. God’s absolute moral law reveals our sinful state, which drives us to the cross of Jesus Christ, the only place where we can repent and find forgiveness and deep inner cleansing. That is the only thing that will help our nation as a whole and us individually. You see, our nation is just a reflection of the people who live within its gates!
In I Timothy 1:15 Paul tells us, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” Notice that Jesus did not come into this world, the eternal God, the Almighty God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth did not come to save me from my mistakes, but from my sins!
I do realize that this is hard for some to accept, but it is just the facts folk’s, that is the reason He came, to save us from our sins! And if you think you are okay, remember what we read this morning, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. It does not matter how close you come, you still come up short in your own efforts to reach up to God. And the Greek word for “all”, do you know what it means? It means ALL! Everyone of is have sinned, we were born with a sin nature; inherited sin and we have sinned in our lives, acquired sin! Thus, we cannot come before a holy and righteous God in the state we are in, sinners!
Now, back to Dr. Menninger’s question – whatever became of sin? We just stopped talking about it, but we haven’t stopped doing it. And let me say this, and before you get up and walk out, listen to me carefully. Our sin is gone, removed, done away with, as the Father looks at us He sees us as perfect? How can I say that? Simply, my sin, your sin, was paid in full on the cross of Calvary by Jesus and to receive that free gift, you just come to Him by faith and ask Him to forgive you of your sins and be Lord of your life!
Whatever became of sin? It was nailed to the cross of Calvary folks, but if you don’t believe in sin, if you doubt there is sin, then why do you need a Savior? The reality is, you don’t and thus, Satan has ripped you off, you believe in a lie and you will die in your sins. Oh, don’t believe me, listen to what Jesus said, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” The Living Bible puts John 8:24 like this and I think it makes the point much clearer, “That is why I said that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am the Messiah, the Son of God, you will die in your sins.”
You see, the
translators of the New King James Bible have the word “He”
in italics because it was not there in the Greek. It should read,
in the New King James Version, “Therefore I said to
you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe
that I am, you will die in your sins.”
Jesus is saying that if you don’t believe that He
is Almighty God, the one who has come to save you from your sins,
then you will die in your sins!
As I close
this morning, let me share this with you from John MacArthur’s
book, the Vanishing Conscience. He wrote:
Katherine Power
was a fugitive for more than twenty-three years. In 1970, during
the heyday of student radicalism, she participated in a Boston
bank robbery in which a city policeman, the father of nine children,
was shot in the back and killed. Pursued by federal authorities
for murder, Ms. Power went into hiding. For fourteen years she
was one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Finally,
in late 1993, she surrendered to authorities.
In a statement
she read to the press, Katherine Power characterized her actions
in the bank robbery as “naïve and unthinking.”
What motivated her to surrender? “I know that I must answer
this accusation from the past, in order to live with full authenticity
in the present.”
Power’s
husband explained further: “She did not return out of guilt.
She wanted her life back. She wanted to be whole.”
In a perceptive
piece about Katherine Power’s surrender, commentator Charles
Krauthammer wrote:
Her surrender-
for the sake of “full authenticity” – was a form
of therapy, indeed the final therapeutic step toward regaining
her sense of self.
Allan Bloom
once described a man who had just gotten out of prison, where
he had undergone “therapy.” “He said that he had
found his identity and learned to like himself,” writes Bloom.
“A generation ago he would have found God and learned to
despise himself as a sinner.”
In an age where
the word sin has become quaint – reserved for such offenses
against hygiene as smoking and drinking (which alone merit “sin
taxes”) – surrendering to the authorities for armed
robbery and manslaughter is not an act of repentance but of personal
growth. Explains Jane Alpert, another ‘60s radical who served
time (for her part in a series of bombings that inured 21 people):
“Ultimately, I spent many years in therapy, learning to understand,
to tolerate and forgive both others and myself.”
Learning to
forgive oneself. Very important nowadays for revolutionaries with
a criminal bent.
Indeed, it is not at all uncommon these days to hear all
kinds of people talking about learning to forgive themselves.
But the terminology is misleading. “Forgiveness” presupposes
and acknowledgement of guilt. Most people nowadays who speak of
forgiving themselves explicitly repudiate the notion of personal
guilt. Katherine Power is a typical example. Her husband denied
that guilt had been a factor in her surrender. She only wanted
to feel better about herself, to “answer [an] accusation
from the past” – to be whole.
- John MacArthur,
The Vanishing Conscience, pp. 18-19
Whatever became of SIN? Jesus nailed it to
the cross of Calvary for us!
That is the only place you will find true forgiveness,
by coming to the cross, by receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
You see, we all have sinned and thus, we are all in need
of a Savior, we need Jesus because He came to save man from his
SIN!