My wife Lynda and I had a tree in our yard that was beautiful and offered much shade from the scorching summer sun. At certain times of the day, our deck was almost completely shaded. However, last summer I had to remove it completely because a storm of heavy rain and severe winds broke it near the base of its trunk. The reason for it not being able to withstand the storm was because there was rot in the trunk that was not noticeable.
I questioned “How can anything so beautiful on the outside be so rotten on the inside?” Well, to be sure it is not only trees that experience such rot on the inside, but mankind is as well. The outer man may appear naturally good, but on the inside man is plagued by sin and corruption. Paul, in his letter to the Romans declared: “As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10-12)
As men and women, we do not think of ourselves as not having goodness and righteousness, yet we do simply because we are naturally bent on sin. Paul further wrote: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) To fall short of God’s glory is best understood as an archer shooting arrows at a target. We are all familiar with such targets; several circle with a red circle in the center, known as “the bull’s eye.” When the archer let’s go of the arrow, he has aimed for the bull’s eye, but misses it. Though he was close, he was not close enough to be perfect (righteous).
Because of the corruption in the world we must ask: “Are some people better than others? After all, not everyone is given to theft, assault, murder and vicious attacks on others.” That is true, but still all of mankind (though they look so good on the outside) if full of corruption. Now, I don’t mean to sound hopeless, because we are not. Our hope is in the Person of Jesus Christ.
In Romans 6:23 Paul wrote: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The death of which Paul speaks is not just the physical death of the body, but death of the soul through eternal separation from God. But all is not ended on such a dark and seemingly hopeless fact, for God went further to declare that He has given us the gift of His Son that we might be saved from sin and have eternal life with Him in the heavens.
Like a tree whose rot was hidden from us, sin is often hidden by outward deeds that are good. But we are not saved by natural goodness; we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. Thus, the rot we once had on the inside is not just hidden, it is removed by the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ.
- Pastor Jerry L. Dunn, Oak Street Baptist Church
