Getting Job-ed
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:8 ESV
As most people know, the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was a huge and monumental decision in the past week. I feel that the decision is a definite victory in the fight for the value of the human life, but it’s not without its hurdles that are going to be faced, and systematic changes that will have to occur (for instance, making adoption way more accessible both legally and financially for those willing to adopt, etc.).
But with this decision, the backlash that has been seen really does show us some characteristics of the human heart within our country. In this article, we’re going to reflect on how the culture of America has gotten to where it is today and then also provide hope for moving forward.
Sin
As simple and easy of an answer it is, sin is the ultimate cause of where we are today. Issues with abortion, LGBTQ, drug trade, sex trade, and the moral disintegration of society are just symptoms of an underlying problem. We as people love our own autonomy and want to be God. Romans 1:18-26 ESV sums this up:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions…
Look at the verbiage here: suppress the truth, exchanging the Glory of God for a lie, claiming to be wise… Sound familiar? This is the condition of the human heart. Although I definitely feel the Supreme Court ruling was needed and right, laws and edicts do not change hearts. People need a spiritual heart transplant (Ezekiel 36:22-36, Jeremiah 31:31-37). This is what Christ came to do for us.
Relativism
Freedoms and liberties are a catch-22. Inevitably, someone’s freedoms and choices infringe on someone else’s. This is clearly seen in the “my body, my choice” movement. Relativism teaches that there is no ultimate, objective authority in truth, and I believe this sin is a huge factor in where America is culturally today. “Your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth” sounds good and fluffy on paper, but in reality, it’s disastrous. In a lecture on relativism, John Piper quotes Michael Novak on relativism:
Totalitarianism, as Mussolini defined it, is . . . the will to power, unchecked by any regard for truth. To surrender the claims of truth upon humans is to surrender Earth to thugs. It is to make a mockery of those who endured agonies for truth and the hands of torturers. Vulgar relativism is an invisible gas, odorless, deadly, that is now polluting every free society on earth. It is a gas that attacks the central nervous system of moral striving. The most perilous threat to the free society today is, therefore, neither political nor economic. It is the poisonous, corrupting culture of relativism. . . . During the next hundred years, the question for those who love liberty is whether we can survive the most insidious and duplicitous attacks from within, from those who undermine the virtues of our people, doing in advance the work of the Father of Lies. “There is no such thing as truth,” they teach even the little ones. “Truth is bondage. Believe what seems right to you. There are as many truths as there are individuals. Follow your feelings. Do as you please. Get in touch with your self. Do what feels comfortable.” Those who speak in this way prepare the jails of the twenty-first century. They do the work of tyrants.
We have to be able to see that this mindset has shaped a great deal of modern philosophy and the clear dangers that are involved with this. Mankind has been given a truth and standard, God’s Word. We resist and hate that truth because we love ourselves and us being “like god” rather than God Himself.
Hope
Our only hope as a culture and society moving forward is truth. We need an objective standard of truth. That truth points to God Himself, who is the ultimate reality and standard for truth. That truth is found in God’s Word. Scripture is breathed out by God (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and is able to change the hearts of people (Hebrews 4:12). Scripture never changes and is always relevant to our day and time (Isaiah 40:8, Matthew 24:35). We need this truth as a society and culture. Submission to this truth is vital for us moving forward.
Moving Forward
This was a huge week for the fight for the sanctity of human life and the image of God. However, more reform is for sure needed as stated before (adoption as a more accessible option, birthing services/accessibility, mother/baby healthcare availability/options, etc.)- all of this is far from done. But more than this, people’s hearts have to change. No law or edict will do this. The Gospel can do this.
-Austin
