TODAY’S VERSE:

Romans 3:10 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;”

As we continue our study on Christianity vs. Religion in prep school, we are learning about the real differences between these two ways of approaching God.  Religion says, “I don’t need a savior, I can earn my way to Heaven” because it does not acknowledge that we are all born 100% depraved. Christianity says, “Please save me, Lord” because it fully acknowledges the depravity of man.

Do you know what depravity means? The definition of depravity is: moral corruption or wickedness. Let’s define these two terms, as well, to gain a better understanding of what depravity truly means. Corrupt= dishonest, putrid, decayed, rotted, infected. Wicked= evil, sinful, dreadful, vicious, spiteful, mean, dangerous, beastly. Oh my! So, to summarize, we are all born rotted, infected, evil beasts.

As you can image, most people do not want to believe this about themselves or their loved ones- the Truth isn’t “pleasant” to hear when you do not understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so they choose religion, which claims that “deep down” all people are good. What does the Bible, so God, have to say about that belief? Well, first go back to Today’s Verse and then read this one…

Isaiah 1:6 From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness-- only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with olive oil.

Yup, that sounds a bit like our definition, all right… rotted, infected, evil beasts.

So, God looked down on all of us and saw that we were completely depraved. But, guess what? While we were still so evil and still His enemies, God loved us and chose to save us.

Romans 5:10a For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son...

The Good News is that though without God we are evil creatures- He loves us and wants to spend all of eternity with us. So, God the Son became a man. He was righteous, while we were completely unrighteous. He bore the penalty for our sins so that we could be saved.

I Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

If we accept the fact that we are depraved, repent, admitting that we, indeed, need to be saved from that depravity, accept that Jesus Christ is the Savior who bore the judgement for our sinful nature, and then accept Him as our Lord and Savior…. we are given a new nature that is not depraved, one that is perfect and able to spend all of eternity with the Lord in Heaven. That truly is Good News!

Hebrews 10:14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.