We hold these truths to be self-evident<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
by Steve Cornell 
 
Reasonable people agree with the Declaration of Independence that some truths are self-evident. Among them is the fact that "all men are created equal." This self-evident truth traces its history to an ancient text in which the Creator says, "Let us make man in our image" (Genesis 1:26). After these words, the text reads, "so God created man in his own image...male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27).
         
        Imagine re-writing the Declaration to say, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are equally the products of blind, purposeless natural causes and endowed by such forces with certain unalienable rights…" The self-evident dimension quickly dissipates.
         
        The Continental Congress correctly recognized the connection between the dignity and meaning of human existence and a personal creator. But obviously, this dignity does not offer the whole account of human nature. Another self-evident truth is that all people without distinction have fallen from the dignity of the image of the Creator. Although we retain a degree of dignity as those made in God's image, we must also acknowledge human depravity. The necessity of the Declaration itself presupposes this depravity. It was crafted in response to the evil actions of others and designed to restrain future tyranny.
 
The continuous availability of examples of human depravity is emotionally overwhelming. The daily televised, endless stream of human carnage is profoundly discouraging. But depravity is not out there in the world somewhere distant to us. It runs like a fault-line with deceptive twists and turns through every human heart and it cries for rescue. Some people take lightly (even ridicule) the language of rescue and salvation found in the bible. But the language clearly fits the condition.
 
Given the pervasive reality of depravity, it is not hard for me to accept the biblical categories of sin and salvation. We are all self-evident sinners. We are those who fall short and transgress. We habitually think and do what is evil. We need the restraints of declarations, constitutions, laws and those who enforce them. We need them from childhood throughout our entire adult lives.
 
But we need far more than these containments. We need something that transcends the temporal and reaches to the eternal. We need something from the one who made us in his image. We need God's mercy and forgiveness. The scripture categorically states that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
    
        But how can we receive mercy from God? Some people suggest that we need religion. I disagree. Religion is, by and large, a man-made system of seeking God's approval. Like pagan mythology, religion  positions humans before an angry deity and calls on them to offer something to pacify the wrath of the god. In religion, I hope to do sufficient good things to offset the bad I have done and avert the just wrath of God. This is the complete opposite of what the bible teaches about God's forgiveness and salvation.
         
        Don't misunderstand. The scripture speaks clearly about God's wrath and sinners deserving his punishment. But it equally positions us as those who are unable to change things. We are too weak in our sinfulness to change our standing with the creator. This is where God's love accomplishes what we are unable to do. "God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love-not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins (NLT, I John 4:9-11).  
         
        Unlike pagan mythology and man-made religion, the bible offers, as one has written, "The appeasement of the wrath of God by the love of God through the gift of God." Undeserving though I am, my only response is to receive as a gift this salvation through Jesus Christ. The apostles repeatedly taught what was prophesied in the Old Testament and announced at the birth of Jesus, "…we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world (NLT, I John 4:14).
It should not be surprising that the apostle John wrote concerning Jesus, "…all who believed him and accepted him, he (God) gave the right to become children of God (John <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />1:12). But, it should be sobering to read that, "…whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him" (John 3:36).
Sound too simple? If so, for whom is it simple? It was not easy for God the Father and Jesus the savior. God did for us what we could not do. This is not religion. This is love. And, the self-evident truth is that all self-evident sinners need God's love offered through Jesus Christ. No wonder he said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).

________________________________________Steven W. CornellSenior PastorMillersville Bible Church58 West Frederick St.Millersville, PA  17551717.872.4260
www.MillersvilleBibleChurch.org
 
 
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