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Really, Should We Even Be Using The Word "Depravity" Anymore?

29  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, Romans 1:29 (NIV) 

 I began teaching through the book of Romans on Sept. 1st.  I began with a message, "The Good News is the Good News" and it culminated with - Romans 1:17 (ESV)  "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”   Beautiful in it's scope, the verse defines so amazingly the beauty of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.

Yesterday we dove into the latter part of chapter one and the message was entitled, "The Bad News is Bad News".  It is a diagnosis of depravity - there's that word again.  Depravity?  Depraved?  In a 21st century world is it even applicable anymore.  I think most people would say "Yes" when it's applied to an Adolph Hitler, a Ariel Castro, or any number of humans who did atrocious inhumane things to others.  But, what about in general...to others...to Us?  It's not an easy thing to swallow.

29  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
30  slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31  they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32  Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:29-32 (NIV)

  When we look at current societal debates around homosexuality, same-sex Marriage, abortion, drugs, church and state, we are witnessing a prevailing wing of change on morals, values and ethics from a bygone era.  For me, it begs a question:  Do we believe our society thinks it can abandon God with its relativistic worldview, and do as it pleases without consequence?
Have we completely forgotten the wisdom that can be found in history? It is said that if we don’t learn from history, we’re doomed to make the same mistakes again. Ironically what we have learned from history, is that we don’t learn from history.
Malcolm Muggeridge said:
“The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.”

The Roman culture that the Apostle Paul wrote in, the one in which he wrote this letter to the Romans in, was filled with perverseness of morals.  Homosexuality was common-place.  Children were used in a sexual marketplace, slaves were sold to be sexual servants.  Certainly there were regular marriages, families, and homes; but the fabric of society was being torn through a steady decline of moral underpinnings.

"The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident and removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of the ruin is simple and obvious: and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed we should rather be surprised that it has subsisted for so long." – Edward Gibbons in “The Decline and Fall of Rome”

Depravity...it is not that we are as Bad as we can be...but that we are simply Bad in our nature.  The steady movement is not towards a righteousness of God, but towards a steady allowance and tolerance of more and more that leads us away from Truth.

John Wesley said:
“What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.”

It took Rome 500 years totally be destroyed...but clearly after 250 years, it was headed towards ruin...everyone who was objective could see the end coming.  Interestingly, as a nation we are 230+ years old.  We are more divided as a nation than we have ever been before.  We are finding the moral credit being used up in ever increasing ways, and the values and moral character we so desperately need is simply not to be found in public leadership.  

Depravity...it's not simply an idea, it's a word we need to use and wrestle to understand...and it should begin in each of us.
More on this later,

Peace

Comments

Ed Pollasch said…
Thanks Ell for speaking openly and honestly about a subject nobody wants to talk about. Your blog reminds me do swansen's book "Hurtling Towards Oblivion", a must read if one is serious about this subject. Ed
September 11, 2013 at 7:43 AM
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