The Glory of Gravity
From 1 Timothy 1 – 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some have strayed and turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for the righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the unholy and the profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manlayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel…
Switchfoot sings in "Always," "Hallelujah, I’m caving in. Hallelujah, I’m in love again. Hallelujah, I’m a wretched man."
If we puzzle over their joy at the realization of their depravity, we puzzle over Paul's first. Paul has just unflinchingly listed for Timothy his young apprentice just how badly the human condition can unspool. God's Law confronts, he has told us, people who would murder their parents if they could, and others besides, people who would use those they left living, and demonstrate rebellion against their Creator in ways too many to list. Hallelujah, indeed. And yet, that high note is exactly what Paul has been leading to.
The Gospel that tells us, insists Paul, that natural man is rotten to his core and only waiting for an opportunity to express it is, in fact, glorious. A lesser gospel would construct a palatable reality out of available indicators. Put, "I'm okay. You're okay," to a vote, and it would pass overwhelmingly. Yet, the glorious Gospel on which Paul stands, and, at his Lord's dictate, falls, is not cobbled together for human consensus. It is glorious because the Author of the human heart knows that heart is desperately wicked, and starts again. Christ has determined to make a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. Glorious, after all. Hallelujah, I'm caving in to the idea that I'm a wretched man because on the other side of that total conviction is love for the One Who has rescued me just as completely as I have fallen.
If Christ thus addresses and remakes us as we are, should we not approach ourselves and one another with such honesty? We serve our Lord by serving our work in the phrasing of Tim Keller's Every Good Endeavor, knowing that futility on our part and ingratitude on the part of those with whom we interact is normal. In fact, it is but a shadow of how bad things could be if the Lord allowed the fullness of what He describes through Paul in the opening of 1 Timothy 1. Learning, then, to expect the overflow of the lawless human heart, we rejoice in everything that reminds us of the One Who can make it new.
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some have strayed and turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for the righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the unholy and the profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manlayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel…
Switchfoot sings in "Always," "Hallelujah, I’m caving in. Hallelujah, I’m in love again. Hallelujah, I’m a wretched man."
If we puzzle over their joy at the realization of their depravity, we puzzle over Paul's first. Paul has just unflinchingly listed for Timothy his young apprentice just how badly the human condition can unspool. God's Law confronts, he has told us, people who would murder their parents if they could, and others besides, people who would use those they left living, and demonstrate rebellion against their Creator in ways too many to list. Hallelujah, indeed. And yet, that high note is exactly what Paul has been leading to.
The Gospel that tells us, insists Paul, that natural man is rotten to his core and only waiting for an opportunity to express it is, in fact, glorious. A lesser gospel would construct a palatable reality out of available indicators. Put, "I'm okay. You're okay," to a vote, and it would pass overwhelmingly. Yet, the glorious Gospel on which Paul stands, and, at his Lord's dictate, falls, is not cobbled together for human consensus. It is glorious because the Author of the human heart knows that heart is desperately wicked, and starts again. Christ has determined to make a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. Glorious, after all. Hallelujah, I'm caving in to the idea that I'm a wretched man because on the other side of that total conviction is love for the One Who has rescued me just as completely as I have fallen.
If Christ thus addresses and remakes us as we are, should we not approach ourselves and one another with such honesty? We serve our Lord by serving our work in the phrasing of Tim Keller's Every Good Endeavor, knowing that futility on our part and ingratitude on the part of those with whom we interact is normal. In fact, it is but a shadow of how bad things could be if the Lord allowed the fullness of what He describes through Paul in the opening of 1 Timothy 1. Learning, then, to expect the overflow of the lawless human heart, we rejoice in everything that reminds us of the One Who can make it new.
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