NG Kerk Wynberg

3.2   Die bedorwenheid van die rnens

[Kommissie se weergawe: volgende 3 paragrawe]

Die totale bedorwenheid van die mens word nie in die kursus verreken nie. Die pynlike verhaal van die sondeval is allesbehalwe 'n gelukkige een. Ons is van nature kinders van die toorn, in die mees radikale sin van die woord! Ons is van nature ongehoorsaam aan God en oortree sy wet. Ons is sondaars voor God en verdien straf. Die gevaar wat die kursus hier loop, is dat die soenverdienste van Christus nie in sy volle omvang verstaan en waardeer word nie.

Om dit enigsins te verswak, tas die Woord van God in sy hart aan. Alpha wek die gevaarlike indruk as sou sonde hoogstens te make het met die gemors wat 'n mens van sy eie lewe maak. Dit is 'n blote gevoel van angs. Dit is 'n gevoel van droefheid en ongelukkigheid. Ons stel Hom maar net teleur.

Laasgenoemde is tot op 'n sekere hoogte natuurlik alles waar. So lyk die lewe van sondaars. Dit is weliswaar van die nare konsekwensies daarvan, maar nie die sonde self nie!  Die saak is veel belangriker as die gevolge daarvan. Sonde is ten diepste opstand teen God en om God van sy eer te beroof. Ons sondig teen God en staan gevolglik regverdiglik onder sy oordeel, sonder hoop en sonder God in die wêreld (Ef 2.12). Alpha laat ons nooit toe om sleg te voel oor onsself nie. Dit help ons nie om onsself te sien soos God ons sien en in berou ons toevlug te neem na die enigste Een wat ons van hierdie ongerymde pynlike werklikheid kan verlos nie. Die indruk wat die kursus by ons oor sonde wek, dek nie die volle lading nie.

[Aanhaling uit kursusmateriaal: Gumbel 1995] In Jesus we find life where previously there has been guilt, addiction, fear and the prospect of death. It is true that all of us were created in the image of God and there is, therefore, something noble about all human beings. However, we are all also fallen--we are born with a propensity to do evil. In every human being the image of God has been to a greater or lesser extent tarnished, and in some cases almost eradicated, by sin. Good and bad, strength and weakness coexist in all human beings. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian writer, said,'The line separating good and evil passes, not through states, nor through classes,  nor  between  political  parties...but  right through every human heart and through all human hearts.'

I used to think I was a 'nice' person -- because I didn't rob banks or commit other serious crimes. Only when I began to see my life alongside the life of Jesus Christ did I realise how much there was wrong. Many others have had this same experience. C.S. Lewis wrote:'For the first time I examined myself with a seriously practical purpose. And there I found what appalled me; a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds. My name was Legion.'"

We all need forgiveness and only in Christ can it be found. Marghanita Laski, the humanist, debating on television with a Christian, made an amazing confession. She said,'What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness.' Then she added, rather pathetically, 'I have no one to forgive me.'

What Jesus did when he was crucified for us was to pay the penalty for all the things that we have done wrong. We will look at this subject in Chapter 3 in more detail. We will see that he died to remove our guilt, to set us free from addiction, fear and ultimately death. He died instead of us.

Jesus'  death  was,  indeed,  even  more  amazing because Jesus died, not just for one man, but for every single individual in the world. If you or I had been the only person in the world, Jesus Christ would have died instead of us to remove our guilt. When our guilt is removed we have a new life… p19-21

[Aanhaling uit kursusmateriaal: Gumbel 1995] Sometimes people say, 'l have no need for Christianity.' They say something along the lines of, 'I am quite happy, my life is full and I try to be nice to other people and lead a good life.' In order to understand why Jesus died we have to go back and look at the greatest problem which confronts every person.

If we are honest, we would all have to admit that we do things which we know are wrong. Paul wrote: 'All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23). In other words, relative to God's standards we all fall a long way short. If we compare ourselves to armed robbers or child molesters or even our neighbours, we may think we come off quite well. But when we compare ourselves to Jesus Christ, we see how far short we fall.  Somerset Maugham once said, 'If I wrote down every thought I have ever thought and every deed I have ever done, men would call me a monster of depravity.'

The root cause of sin is a broken relationship with God (Genesis 3) and its result is that we are cut off from him. Like the Prodigal Son (Luke 15), we find ourself far from our Father's home and with our lives in a mess. Sometimes people say, 'If we are all in the same boat, does it really matter?' The answer is that it does matter because of the consequences of sin in our lives, which can be summarised under four headings.

The pollution of sin

Jesus said, 'What comes out of a man is what makes him "unclean" For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man "unclean"' (Mark 7:20-23). These things pollute our lives.

You may say, 'I do not do most of these things.' But one of them alone is enough to mess up our lives. We might wish the Ten Commandments were like an examination paper in which we only have to 'attempt any three' of them. The New Testament says that if we break any part of the Law we are guilty of breaking all of it (James 2.10). It is not possible, for example, to have a 'reasonably clean' driving licence. Either it is clean or it is not. One driving offence stops it from being a clean licence. So it is with us. One offence makes our lives unclean .

The power of sin

The things we do wrong have an addictive power. Jesus said, 'Everyone who sins is a slave to sin' (John 8.34). It is easier to see this in some areas of our wrong-doing than with others. For example, it is well-known that if someone has taken a hard drug like heroin, it soon becomes an addiction.

It is also possible to be addicted to bad temper, envy, arrogance, pride, selfishness, slander or sexual immorality. We can become addicted to patterns of thought or behaviour which, on our own, we cannot break. This is the slavery which Jesus spoke about and which has a destructive power in our lives.

Bishop J. C. Ryle, former bishop of Liverpool, once wrote: 'Each and all [sins] have crowds of unhappy prisoners bound hand and foot in their chains... The wretched prisoners...boast  sometimes  that  they  are  eminently free... There is no slavery like this. Sin is indeed the hardest of all task-masters. Misery and disappointment by the way, despair and hell in the end- these are the only wages that sin pays to its servants."

The penalty for sin

There is something within human nature which cries out for justice. When we see children molested, old people attacked in their homes, babies battered and the like, we long for the people who have done these things to be caught and punished. Often our motives may be mixed: there may be an element of revenge. But there is such a thing as justifiable anger. We are right to feel that sins should be punished; that people who do such things should not get away with it.

It is not just other people's sins that deserve punishment. It is our own as well. One day we will all be subject to the judgement of God. St Paul tells us that 'the wages of sin is death' (Romans 6.23).

The partition of sin

The death Paul speaks of is not only physical. It is a spiritual death which results in eternal isolation from God. This cutting off from God begins now. The prophet Isaiah proclaimed, 'Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear' (Isaiah 59.1-2). The things we do wrong cause this barrier.

"Die totale bedorwenheid van die mens word nie in die kursus verreken nie".

"Alpha wek die gevaarlike indruk as sou sonde hoogstens te make het met die gemors wat 'n mens van sy eie lewe maak."

"Alpha laat ons nooit toe om sleg te voel oor onsself nie."

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Kopiereg © 2002 Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk Wynberg
Laaste verandering: 09/03/10