Reading C.S. Lewis this morning, one sentence caught my eye: “Christ takes it for granted that people are bad.”
This is true. It’s true that people are bad, and it’s true that Jesus knew it. Nevertheless He loved us, and He came into this evil world knowing full well what He was up against. Even Jesus’ disciples were not good men. They were evil, and knew it. “Go away from me, Lord,” cried Peter, “I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). The same was true of the last apostle to be chosen, Paul, who called himself “the worst of sinners” (1 Tim 1:5). Jesus didn’t choose these men because they were good. Maybe He chose them just because, knowing themselves to be bad, they were willing to follow Him. Utterly unable to be good on their own, they needed help. They needed to be rescued from their wickedness. They needed a Savior.
I remember hearing Larry Crabb (author and counselor) lecturing on the doctrine of the fall. Afterwards a student remarked, “I no longer believe in the fall—I believe in the SPLAT!” In a private conversation with Larrry, I asked him if he had any insight into a problem I was facing. After a moment’s consideration, he replied, “Mike, you are a powerfully wicked man.” That was all he said. It was the answer I needed, and it’s stuck with me to this day.
If we do not accept the premise of how desperately wicked we are, then it’s no wonder we have trouble with the concept of hell. For the one follows directly from the other. We all know that this present life is hellish enough: wars, famine, torture, murder, madness, on and on. Why shouldn’t all this horror continue after death? Just because the body dies, what reason is there to assume that the suffering of the soul will not continue, indeed—apart from the Savior—be even worse? The scale of suffering in this world is unbelievable, yet it is real, and the same is true for hell. This world is just the start.
When asked about some people who had suffered a terrible death, Jesus replied, “Do you think these people were worse than everyone else because they suffered in this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Luke 13:2-3).
Belief in the SPLAT is the prerequisite for Christian faith. This is the entry point: to know that we are desperate sinners in need of help. And not just human help—what good is it to rely on other hopelessly lost, twisted souls for help? It’s the blind leading the blind. In a sense, even God cannot help us, since we are so wicked that we will not listen to Him. That is the whole story of the Old Testament.
No, we need something more that just God. For God is not complete without Christ. This is where all non-Christian religions fall short. They try to rely on God alone, or on some theory of divinity. But it will never work, just as it never worked for the Jews in the Old Testament.
What we need is a Mediator, someone to stand between us and an unreachable, holy God, someone to bridge this gap and make peace (see Job 9:33-4). We need Someone who is both us—human—and God—divine, and this is exactly what is promised in the Old Testament: a Messiah, a Redeemer from heaven, a Savior who is both God and man.
Our one hope in a totally dark and desperate situation is that THERE IS A SAVIOR! He is Christ the Lord, and all we need do is believe in Him and take His hand. That’s not so hard, is it? No, it’s really very simple, and eminently doable. Anyone can do it right now. All the energy we expend complaining about the world being in a mess, about God’s indifference, about hell, and about the so-called ‘problem of evil’—all this time there remains a clear and simple answer to our seemingly hopeless predicament:
BELIEVE IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND YOU WILL BE SAVED.
I had an uncle who used to say, “There are no answers, there are only questions.” I’m sorry, Uncle, but you got it wrong. The truth is that all our puny questions are due to the SPLAT, and are swallowed up by One Great Answer—
JESUS.
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