July 30, 2024
by Pastor Chuck SwindollScriptures: Romans 5:8
WHOEVER IS SOFT ON depravity should watch Schindler's List.
It's not for the fainthearted, I should warn you.
WHOEVER IS SOFT ON depravity should watch Schindler's List.
It's not for the fainthearted, I should warn you. It is a raw, harsh,
shocking exposé of unbridled prejudice, the kind of anti-Semitic brutality
spawned in hellish hate among the Nazis prior to and during World War II.
How could such hatred fill the minds of those wearing swastikas? How could
they walk back into their barracks or offices or homes wearing
blood-splattered uniforms and forget what just happened?
The answer is simple. Depravity. It's ugly, unashamed, uncovered,
unrefined, unrepentant depravity. It's the blackness, the filthy cesspool
of the unregenerate heart. Here's what God says about the evil of the human
heart:
God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who
suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God
because he has made it obvious to them. . . . And instead of worshiping the
glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere
people and birds and animals and reptiles.
So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired.
As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies.
They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the
things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal
praise! Amen.
ROMANS 1:18–19, 23–25
Gripping words, those. As one theologian put it, "If depravity were blue,
we'd be blue all over." Given our own way, with no help from above and no
restraints from within, we are capable of the most heinous acts imaginable.
That's why we ought to offer heartfelt praise for this corresponding truth:
"God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we
were still sinners" (Romans 5:8).
How could God possibly give His Son for such hopelessly lost and depraved
sinners? How could He look past the hate and horror of our wickedness? How
could you and I have found our name on the Savior's list? Again, the answer
is simple. Grace. Receive it. Embrace it. Share it. Never forget it.