Nobody likes to think of themselves as “depraved” but one of the things Calvinism has brought us is the phrase “total depravity;” it’s actually the “T” in the “TULIP” acronym.
Catholics say that we are born with “original sin;” though to see to widespread nature of different types of sinful acts is to know there’s nothing original about it.
The “Four Spiritual Laws” begin with premise that “Man is sinful and separated from God…”
But what happens after conversion?
Much of the Apostle Paul’s writings discuss the dual nature; the fight put up by the desires of the flesh. James talks about “double mindedness.” In the epistles at least, we get a picture of the spiritual warfare raging all around us; the accompanying tension between where we are positionally in Christ, and where we find ourselves pragmatically in the world.
But on Sunday mornings, nobody wants to admit this. That’s probably why in surveys of “crazy hymn and chorus lyrics” people always vote for:
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love.
I mean seriously, what terrible advertising for the Christian life. Nobody wants to admit to that propensity to sin. And as for depravity, Dictionary.com defines it as “moral corruption” and there are people I know who don’t know Christ that I would regard as “upstanding morally;” so I don’t think too many Christ-followers would even want to say they were depraved before they made Him lord of their lives.
This past week I was driving my car and my mind wandered into less than stellar territory. (More about thoughts in tomorrow’s post.) Please don’t try to guess or read too much into this, but after the thought had flashed through my brain — okay, it actually parked there for about five minutes — I thought about how people are, and how I am, always just a few mis-steps away from conceding to my human nature and its way of thinking.
But we are also possessed of a divine nature. I want to end this the way the song quoted above ends; with a prayer for redemption; this was my prayer for the beginning of this week, and it’s not such a crazy hymn lyric, either:
Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Christianity 201 