My terminal disease - sin!

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Ps. 51:5)

They’re the two essential parts of redemption, rescue and restoration, and you and I can’t do either one for ourselves. But it’s hard to admit that we have a problem that we cannot solve. We like to convince ourselves that our anger tells us more about the flawed people we live near than about ourselves. 

We like to think that our impatience is more about poor planning or the character of the people we deal with every day. We like to think that our sin can be blamed on the temptations of the fallen world around us. 

When we do or say what is wrong, we tend to point to a boss, a spouse, one of our children, a friend, a difficult situation, a busy day, the fact that we aren’t feeling well, bad parents, some injustice, or a long catalogue of other excuses. 

But the Bible is quite clear. We all suffer from the same terminal disease. None of us has escaped it. It’s not caused by the people or situations around us. We brought this destroyer into the world with us. David says it this way: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:5). 

You and I can try as we might to fool ourselves. We can work as we might to shrink from responsibility. We can develop skill at pointing the finger of blame to things around us. 

But there is simply no denying the harsh reality of the Bible’s hard-to-accept message—we are our own biggest problem. We are the thing with which we need help. There is no greater danger than the danger we are to ourselves. We need help, help that we cannot give ourselves. We need help that is deeper than education, socialisation, politics, or changes of relationship or location. If left on our own, we are doomed, “having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). 

But the hope-infused story of Scripture is that we have not been left on our own. God has controlled the events of the world as part of his unstoppable agenda of rescue and restoration. He sent his holy Son to enter the world and suffer because of sin’s mess. 

He sent him to live the perfect life that we would never live, to sacrifice himself on account of our sin, and to defeat the death that is sin’s doom. It is an agenda of awesome grace extended to lost, rebellious, and self-excusing people, who even need that grace to understand how much they need that grace. 

This grace had to include rescue because we could not escape ourselves, and it had to include restoration because we had no power to transform ourselves into what he created and redeemed us to be. So today confess your need. Denying it never leads anywhere good. Thank God for the rescue and restoration that is your hope. And determine to look honestly into the mirror of God’s Word so you will continue to remember how much you need what he has freely given.