The Hardest Thing to See

In twenty years of ministry I have become convinced that the hardest thing for people to see is their own sinful depravity. They can talk about the sins of other people all day long, but when it comes to looking at themselves as sinners - well, they're not really all that bad. But this is really the problem, isn't it? Our sinfulness has a built-in blindness where we cannot see the true nature of our corruption and rebellion as sinners against God. The Bible puts this problem in the plainest of terms: "The heart of man is desperately wicked, and deceitful above all things..." (Jer.17:9). There is nothing in the world more "deceitful" than our own natural sinful disposition. And this comes to light with particular force whenever people are confronted with the reality of their sin.

We make excuses. We try to justify ourselves. Or better, we shift the blame. This is the easiest thing to do. We blame our parents. We blame our spouses. We blame our children. We blame our environment. We point the finger at everyone else for our sin (even at God) only so we can escape personal responsibility and not be made to "look bad". But the truth is, we are bad. We are born in sin (Psa.51:5), with a nature that is bent on rebellion against God and a self-serving spirit that is always vying to be in first place.

The Bible again makes this plain and clear: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one" (Rom.3:10-12). This is a grim and alarming picture of humanity, but it is the truth. We are not good but bad at the very core of our being. Our lives do not conform in any measure to that which is perfectly righteous. We have no natural understanding to embrace the things of God nor do we have any inclination to seek God in a saving way. In fact, by nature, we have turned aside from God and His way of salvation, and continue to do so if left to ourselves. Moreover, our natural disposition is as a rotten as sour milk, and thus there is nothing we are able to do in our own strength which measures up to the only true standard of goodness - which is God's standard. This is why the world we live in is so troubled and corrupt. This is why there is murder, hatred, envy, pride, gossip, lying, adultery, and cheating. It's not the environment that causes these things, it is the state of our own hearts (Mk.7:20-23)!

But to explain this truth of our sinfulness to people at large, is like trying to penetrate a Sherman tank with a pea shooter. Their hearts are naturally hardened to hear the truth of what they really are. They don't want to hear it. They want to hear how good and wonderful they are. They want to hear that if they just believe in themselves and follow their hearts, then everything will be just fine. And in the context of religion, they want to hear that as long as they go to church, read their Bible, pay their tithes, and have been baptized or have walked the church aisle - then they are "o.k." with God. The bottom-line is this: in our sinfulness we do not want to believe that we are hopeless and helpless to save ourselves, and deserving of hell before a holy God. Instead, what our sinful hearts crave is to be told that we can be good enough for God.

This is why the gospel of Jesus Christ makes no sense to a sinner lost in their sins. "The natural person [the person who is lost in their sins] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned" (I Cor.2:14). Man in his sin cannot see his own sinfulness and thus he cannot see his desperate need to be saved by God's grace in Christ. He is blind to his true need and his plight as a sinner. But it is only as we see ourselves as sinners - guilty before God and hopeless to save ourselves - that we will see the joy and glory of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. However, such a redeeming vision will not come to any of us unless God grants this by His sovereign grace.

As Jesus said: "Unless is one born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (Jn.3:3). We "cannot see" God's rule, His glory, His redemption for us in Christ unless something happens to us. We must be born again. We must be given by God a new heart that sees our own sinful depravity for what it is, and out of that new heart comes forth a cry of faith in Jesus Christ as our only hope, confidence, security, and assurance for being right with God. We no longer look at ourselves as being good enough for God but we look only to Christ as our sole righteousness whom God accepts (II Cor.5:21; cf. Rom.3:21-28). Hence, we cling to nothing we have or can do to be right with God - since we have come to see that all our righteousness is stinking putrid rags in God's sight (Isa.64:6). Our only acceptable righteousness before God is Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished by His life and death in perfect obedience to God's law in our place. Therefore, we cling to Christ and Christ alone for salvation with the confidence that God has accepted everything Jesus has done to save us (Rom.8:1). This is our only hope. This is our only surety to be cleansed of our sinfulness and given a new heart, whereby we will escape God's wrath and embrace His everlasting mercy. But left to ourselves apart from God's grace, we will not see our own sinful depravity and thus our need for Christ alone to save. This therefore is why our own sinfulness is the hardest thing to see.