The Good News is...you've failed?

Perhaps one of the most popular subjects in the self-help section at the bookstore is self esteem. Our culture is consumed with the idea that in order to fix our society we simply need to convince everyone of the fact of their innate goodness. Much of the Evangelical Church has been swept along with this wave of ego propping, happily encouraging stuggling seekers to lift themselves up by discovering their own inner beauty and grace. It's a message that sounds appealing, and truly expressing faith and confidence in people has it's proper time and place but that is not where God's liberating truth begins and while it may have you riding high on it's crest for a moment it will leave you in it's wake with nothing but a terrible mess.

So where does God choose to begin His revelation to us? Well, Genesis begins with God's act of creation and specifically states that everything including the first man Adam was good but that Adam chose to disobey God and thereby seperated himself from God. Ever since that day mankind has been inexorably bent towards sin (disobeying God). The New Testament book of Romans is God's self help book and you know what the first few chapters are about? Our complete and utter failure to live up to God's standard and our inability to fix the problem ourselves. He talks about our tendency to lie, envy, covet, disobey, fornicate and a host of other things that He cannot and will not overlook. He describes mankind not as basically good but as fundamentally and irreversibly sinful so that even those who look pretty good on the outside have, buried in their past and lodged deep in their heart, things that cause Him to say "for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

Wow, when does the helping start? Help can only come when you realize who you are. Not a basically good person who may have made a few mistakes, but a sinner deserving of judgment from a holy God. When that recognition dawns, you'll be ready for the next step...help.