DEPRAVITY

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Psalm 143:2 NKJV

Do not enter into judgment with Your servant,
For in Your sight no one living is righteous.

Romans 3:10-12 

¹⁰ As it is written:

“There is none righteous, no, not one;
¹¹ There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
¹² They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”

The fact of human depravity is the great fact of man’s existence.  He lives coming short of the glory of God.  There is a twofold consequence of man’s sinfulness.

First is that which the Psalmist identifies, “In your sight no living man is righteous”.  This is the fact that man is alienated from God and lies under His judgment.  These two matters are equally important; man is separated from God, and at God’s bar of judgment he is condemned as both criminal and corrupt.

When Isaiah in Isaiah 6 saw the Lord, he heard the witness of those creatures who know God best, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.  This testimony to the perfect holiness of God is also an absolute recognition of God’s separation of all that defiles.  The heavens are declared unclean in His sight.

But equally important is Isaiah’s response, Woe is me, for I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips.  Isaiah is admitting that he cannot say a word that is pure.  His speech is unclean because it derives from an unclean fountain.  When the Lord, in the gospels, speaks of every manner of sin in speech He gives as the cause that the mouth is the expression of the heart.

As sure as man is separated from God by his sin so is the certainty is that God is going to judge man.  This is never causal or uncertain.  This is central to man’s consideration of his plans for time and eternity.  Jesus puts this as the most important of man’s concerns.  Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Why is this fear emphasized?  It is because there is a liability which is universally worked for and the payment received.  The wages of sin is death.

An unfailing debt of unrighteousness at the bar of God’s justice is a fact the Scripture reveals without apology.  Facing this as certain truth and recognizing this universal fact, that, In your sight no living man is righteous.  Job asked the greatest question that can be asked in time, In truth I know that this is so, but how can a man be just before God? Job 9:2

And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹ So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 
Acts 16:30-31

To be continued…