14. Our Need for Christ
- Benjamin Shaeffer
- Oct 2, 2023
- 6 min read
Our Problem
If you take a look around at the world we live in, it will take you about two seconds to realize that something major is wrong with it. It will take you another two seconds to realize that the problem with the world is humanity itself. The root cause for most of the problems is our pride, arrogance, and selfishness. We take and do what we want, smashing anybody who is in our way. We are a godless, violent people. We read that we are so in the book of Romans.
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one”…
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 3:10-12, 15-18 (ESV)
We are all under sin and have been corrupted by sin through and through. We are, to borrow a term from the late R. C. Sproul, radically depraved.
Radical depravity is not a term we normally hear in our Christian circles. Depravity is a term that we are familiar with and we understand it. So what is radical depravity? Radical depravity is the state of being so permeated by sin that there is not a spot or an atom in our body that is good or striving in that direction. In this state, we are not as bad as we could be but that is not due to lack of evil or evil intentions in us but rather due to the restraining hand of God’s grace. We are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). That is the state of all humanity since Adam’s fall and it will be the state of humanity until the end of time.
Evidence of Depravity
The evidence that this is the state of humanity can be found earlier in the book of Romans. Read the last half of first chapter and you will see what I am talking about. Paul tells us that by our unrighteousness we suppress the truth, we knew God but didn't honor Him as such, and we exchanged Him for things He created. Because of this, we have verses 26-27.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (ESV)
One of the evidence of our depravity is shown in how we treat the sacred institution of marriage. Marriage and sex were designed by God not to be enjoyed with whoever and whatever you please but by a man and a woman in the context of marriage. To do otherwise is to suppress the truth and, as we read further on in chapter 1, it makes you the same as people who are:
filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 1:29-31 (ESV)
Since this is what depravity looks like and the fruit that it brings we all deserve to die (Romans 1:32 ESV). Is there anything you can do to escape your doom?
No Law Can Save You
Some would say that there actually is something you can do. There is a law that you can follow and if you follow it to the letter for your whole life, you can earn your place in heaven. It couldn’t be simpler. All you have to do is keep all the Old Testament. One issue with that is that it cannot be done by us.
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20 (ESV)
The law does not save us but just points out our sin and our inability to overcome it. There is no law that we can keep that will change our nature. It is impossible on our own. Jesus says so in Matthew 19.
25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:25-26 (ESV)
Since we cannot be saved on our own, we need God because it is only possible with Him. Specifically, we need the person of Christ Jesus. Why Christ? Why can only He save us?
Only Christ Can Save You
When Christ came to this earth, He was born of a woman without an earthly father. This had to be because sin is passed down to children through their father. God, not a man, caused Mary to become pregnant. Jesus doesn’t have a sin nature that would have been passed down through the father because He didn’t have an earthly one.
Now, because Christ is God (John 1) and was born in human flesh (Matthew 1) it makes Him both God and man, meaning that Christ is fully God and fully man. Here is why that is significant: being fully God means that He can bear the weight of our sin, pay it fully, and He can remain sinless in a sin-filled world. Christ being fully man means that He can actually live in this world, among us, be tempted like we are, live that spotless life that we need to be reconciled to God for us, and die the death that sin merits. That is why we need Christ! He is the only One Who can do what needs to be done.
Need for Christ Continues
Our need for Christ doesn’t stop as soon as we are in the kingdom. Remember what Paul says in Romans 7:15-24:
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (ESV)
If there is anyone who can be considered a super Christian, it is one of the apostles, yet here is Paul saying, “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Even after being washed clean and filled with the Holy Spirit, we are still going to deeply struggle with sin. The atoning work of Christ continues after salvation, and it is His righteousness, not our own works righteousness, that has already been accredited to us while we are pathetically trying to work out our salvation. Any and all life we have in God is through Christ.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Romans 5:15-17 (ESV)
Christ is the only one Who can save radically depraved people and that is why we need Him. We must run to Him because He is the only refuge we have from ourselves.
Works Cited
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) ESV Text Edition: 2016
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.
