A Heart Filled With Pain

Genesis 6:5-22

The atheists are once again working overtime. They are busy putting up billboards in large cities and especially enjoy plastering them on the sides of city buses. One of my all-time favorites comes courtesy of the American Humanist Association which includes the tagline: “being good without god since 1941.” This makes me wonder what happened before 1941. Were they bad without god? Were they good with god? Here is a recent entry. “A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are You?” This one also raises a bunch of questions. How do they define “good,” because I don’t think there are a million New Yorkers who are “good” with God, let alone without God. Second, how do they know that there are a million atheists in New York? I know there are millions of confused people, but are there really a million atheists? Finally, and most importantly, how can they claim to be good without God?

Listen to this quote from President Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope. “I was not raised in a Christian household…Without the help of religious texts or outside authorities, [my mother] worked mightily to instill in me the values that many Americans learn in Sunday School: honesty, empathy, discipline, delayed gratification, and hard work.”[i] Even though Obama was not raised as a Christian, his mother taught him Christian values. The same is true for every man, woman and child on the planet. Any good action that anyone has ever been done is either the direct result of some teaching from the Bible or else it comes from their conscience that is stamped with the image of God.

Can you be good without God? Tell me this—how did that work out for the people in Noah’s day? How good were they without God? Verse five of chapter six says it plainly. “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (6:5) What the Lord described in a single verse is what the theologians call “total depravity.” Probably the most famous passage on the subject of total depravity is Romans chapter three. Most of us can quote Romans 3:23, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This is the bad news of the human condition before you get to the good news, but why does Paul so confidently say that all men have sinned? Because right before this in verses 11-18 he laid out the doctrine of total depravity.

This passage could not be more clear, but what we often forget is that Paul was directly quoting from seven different Old Testament passages. You find these kinds of quotes all over the Old Testament but Paul brought seven of them together to pack one powerful punch. In other words, before we were saved, every inclination of the thoughts of our heart were only evil all the time.” This is important to understand because we might be tempted to think that the people in Noah’s day were evil in a way that is much worse than the average sinner. We read about the Sons of God marrying the daughters of men and we say, “Yuck, that was really sick! I don’t know what it means, but it must have been really sick because God destroyed them all in a worldwide flood.” Without Christ, “every inclination of the thoughts of our heart were only evil all the time.”

Some Christians believe that we are lost without Christ but they object to the use of the term total depravity. Total depravity does not mean that we are as bad as we could possibly be, only that sin touches every part of our being. Our depravity is total—nothing is untouched. Without Christ, we are salves to sin, every thought and action is tainted with sin, we are unrighteous and totally incapable of doing anything truly righteous. We cannot do a single act of righteousness, let alone be perfectly righteous. God’s common grace allows us to perform good actions—loving one another, curing disease, increasing technology, etc. In one sense we could call these things acts which are “good,” and that’s no doubt that the atheists in New York were talking about, but what God requires is moral perfection.

Let’s insert God’s moral standards into the atheist billboard and see what we get. “A million New Yorkers are morally perfect without God.” Now I don’t think anyone would believe that! Some might complain that if we are saved by grace then we shouldn’t waste our time talking about total depravity. By the end of this message, I will show you that understanding total depravity is essential for our spiritual growth!

But first, let’s move on to the first of God’s responses to our total depravity. In verse seven we read, The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. Verse thirteen finished the theme of grief. So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” We know that we can grieve the Holy Spirit and that our lives can be displeasing to God, but this seems to be an especially intense form of grief.

Let me read you two OT stories that illustrate this pain and grief.

Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. ^2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her. ^3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her. ^4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”

^5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he kept quiet about it until they came home.

^6 Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. ^7 Now Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done. (Gen 34:1-7)

^32 “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. ^33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.

^34 Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the month he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father’s shameful treatment of David. (1 Sam. 20:32-34)

When we read that God was grieved and that his heart was filled with pain, we might think that God was very sad. Our sin does sadden God, but what he felt was much stronger than sadness. Here is how one commentator describes this type of pain. This pain and grief is “the most intense form of human emotion, a mixture of rage and bitter anguish.”[ii] What Jacob’s sons felt when their sister was violated and what Jonathan felt when he learned that his father planned to kill David was a pain and grief that was a cry for justice. In the case of Jacob’s sons, their sense of justice and outrage led them into greater sin than what was done to their sister. When God was grieved and his heart filled with pain, like Jacob’s sons, he rightly cried out for justice, but unlike Jacob’s sons, God’s perfect holiness means that his sense of justice cannot lead him into sin.

I think most Christians struggle occasionally with God’s just punishment of sin. Like I said last week, if the entire population of the earth, save eight people, is wiped out, we should struggle with it. It should make us stop and take notice. But the reason we struggle is because we do not understand justice. What do you call the entity that manages the courts and prisons? It is called the justice system and though it is far from perfect, the goal is to fairly administer justice. We all remember Timothy McVeigh who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people including several babies and children in the day care center. What if I was the governor of Oklahoma and decided to give McVeigh a full pardon? How would that make you feel? I guarantee that you would be filled with grief and your heart would be filled with pain. A cry for justice would arise from within you that would be so powerful it would threaten to overcome you. Let’s take this a step further. I pardon Timothy McVeigh and a year later he bombs another building killing 500 people, including one of your children who was in the building at the time. Now what do you feel? We are sinners and yet we still know what it is like to be outraged by tremendous injustice. But God is perfectly holy and without sin and he is our very Creator. Therefore, his sense of justice is infinitely greater than ours and most importantly, it is infinitely righteous.

But when we read the story of Noah’s flood we are tempted to say that is was unfair. Why did all of those people have to die? It can seem so unfair. But if fairness is what we want from the story, then God should have taken the ark in his hands and submerged it under the rising waters. If we correctly understand fairness and justice, then the only option was to destroy all of mankind. And guess what? You and I would have gone down with the ship. As unbelievers, every inclination of the thoughts of our hearts were only evil all the time. You and I were the moral equivalent of Timothy McVeigh.

But thankfully, justice was not God’s only response to the total depravity of mankind. He also offered amazing grace. Do you see—the ark is grace! I think the most shocking verse in chapters 6-9 is verse eight—But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. When we think about the flood our tendency is to be shocked at the judgment and wish for more mercy. However, if you follow the storyline up to this point, you should be shocked at the grace and wonder why there wasn’t more judgment. We read the story and exclaim, “How could they deserve such judgment!” when we should scream out with greater shock, “How could they deserve such grace!” We think that the punishment is enormous and the grace minimal when in reality the judgment is minimal and the grace is enormous.

Some of you are a part of the Beth Moore study and Karen told me about a good question that she asks in the workbook: why did Adam and Eve sin despite their perfect surroundings, yet Noah obeyed despite his utterly sinful surroundings? That’s an insightful question, isn’t it? How did the couple immersed in perfection disobey God and the man immersed in sin obey God? The answer is verse eight—But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The perfect surroundings of the Garden of Eden were not sufficient. We need to have something done to us that we cannot do ourselves. But you say, “Adam and Eve were sinless. They did not have a sinful nature. They were not totally depraved.” That’s true, but they did become totally depraved and if you would place any other sinless man or woman in the perfect garden they would also have eaten of the forbidden fruit. The creation of man was set up to be totally dependent on God and to teach us that even a sinless creation was not sufficient because we would all eventually rebel against God. Only the unmerited, amazing grace of God can save mankind.

But why was Noah given this grace? To answer that question, we have to return to Romans chapter three. Remember that the first half of Romans three described the total depravity of man in the gravest of terms but the second half brings the good news. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25-26)

In Christ there is both justice and grace. Do you see it? He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. Even the judgment in Noah’s day was not a payment for sin—it was only temporary. The heart of God that was filled with pain and cried out for justice and his only Son was the payment for all of that sin and rebellion. He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. God is both the source of justice and the source of grace. He is just—that is he paid the penalty of sin through his Son, and God is the one who justifies—the one who gives grace—to those who have faith in Jesus.

Earlier I said that a proper understanding of total depravity is necessary for spiritual growth. This is true because a full understanding of grace is not possible in the absence of a full understanding of justice. The utter darkness of justice is the backdrop for seeing and savoring grace. If I perceive the sin of my former life was small, then I will also perceive God’s grace to be small. But if the sin of my former life was huge, then grace is correspondingly huge. The justice of God is a dark background that allows me to see his grace. But if we do not have this dark background, then like this image below, the grace is difficult to see.

Let me give you another example. Let’s say that my car broke down and I needed to get home but Karen was not available. I could call Brian Larrington at work and because he is such a nice guy, he would pick me up on his way home from work and drop me off at my house. That would be a really nice act of kindness, wouldn’t it? But did Brian have to put forth much effort. It was nice, but in the scheme of things, the effort was fairly small. Now take the same scenario but this time I call Brian to pick me up and it turns out he is with family at Chuck E Cheeses in La Crosse. Again, because he is such a nice guy, he leaves his family, drives to Viroqua, picks me up and drops me off at my house. Now that took a lot more effort, did it not? Do you think I would be even more grateful to him than if he merely picked me up on his way home from work? Most definitely. Now, same scenario, except this time Brian is on a mission’s trip in Ecuador and I reach him on his satellite phone and tell him my predicament. So he hops in a  canoe and paddles p the Amazon River, charters a small plane to fly him out of the jungle, takes a rickety old bus to the airport in Quito, flies home to O’Hare airport, drives from Chicago to Viroqua, picks me up and drops me off at my house. Did he put forth a lot of effort? Do you think I am grateful for his effort? The level of my gratitude rises in proportion to the level of sacrifice on the part of the giver.

The very same thing is true with God. If I perceive that God’s effort to save me wasn’t all that much or that I somehow deserve his grace, then my thankfulness for his gift will be rather miniscule. And my thankfulness is wrapped up in my worship and my obedience, right? But if I perceive that God’s effort to save me was enormous, then my thankfulness, my worship and my obedience will be increased. Now let me be clear—God’s judgment on my sin was perfectly just and his grace toward me was not just huge—it was infinite. But in my everyday life, I rarely perceive this grace as being infinite. But when I understand the backdrop of total depravity, then my perception of grace increases.

And this affects every area of my life. What if Brian’s car broke down at work and he called me to come pick him up, but I told him I was too busy. And then Brian said, “Yeah, but don’t you remember the time I flew home from Ecuador to help you? Can’t you just drive a few miles to help me?” So I say to Brian, “Oh give me a break! How long are you going to hold that one over my head?” I would have to be the most dumb or the most evil person on the planet to have such a reaction, don’t you agree? So then, why do I choose not to forgive that person who has hurt me? God’s gift of grace to me was infinite and by comparison, forgiving others is like Brian picking me up on his way home from work. The only reason we cannot forgive others is because we do not fully realize how much we have been forgiven. The only reason I don’t love my wife more is because I cannot see the infinite love of God poured into my life.

1 John 4:19 says, We love because he first loved us. Do you see the order of events? God loves us first, so then we love others in response. And what did his love look like? It means that you and I should have been destroyed in the flood. It means that you and I corrupted the earth and deserved to be wiped from the face of the earth. It means that the moral distance between God and me is infinite and there is nothing I can ever do in a million years to make up that distance. It means that God sent his Son to be just and the one who justifies me when I have faith in Jesus. It means that his forgiveness toward me is infinite, but I can’t forgive someone else? I don’t forgive others because they deserve it. I forgive them because in an infinitely greater sense, I didn’t deserve God’s forgiveness. I don’t love my wife because she is inherently loveable, I love her because Christ loved me first. Children don’t obey their parents because they are perfect parents and give them everything they want, children obey their parents in gratitude for the cross.

Do you see why I love the doctrine of total depravity? I love it because it helps me see grace and grace my perception of grace in turn affects every relationship in my life.

Rich Maurer

October 25, 2009