In this part the Biblical doctrine of sin and death will be presented to answer the problem of the need for salvation. It will be shown that idolatry or trust in a false god is the basic sin; that all men sin because of the spiritual death received from the first man, Adam; that the wrath of God is the personal opposition of God's love to sin (idolatry) that would destroy man whom God loves; and that the law of God was given to show the true character of sin as basically idolatry and God's direct opposition in wrath to man's sin.
Thus in this section it will be shown that man needs to be saved because he is spiritually dead, separated from God, not knowing Him personally as a living reality. Since the wrath of God is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18) and sin by death (Rom. 5:12d), salvation is basically from death to life and then from sin to righteousness and from wrath to peace with God. In PART III this will be shown to be the Biblical doctrine of salvation.
"You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3) This first of the Ten Commandments of the Mosaic Law introduces us to the Biblical view of sin. From the Biblical point of view sin must be understood in terms of idolatry. It is the central theme of the message of the Law and the prophets concerning sin. The first two commandments of the Law are about idolatry (Exodus 20:3-6; 20:23; 22:20; 34:12-17; Deut. 5:7-9). Moses often and strongly warns the children of Israel against this sin.
"14 You shall not go after other gods,The message of the prophets is also directed against this sin. The prophet Jeremiah writes:
of the gods of the people who are around about you;
15 for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God;
lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you,
and he destroy you from off the face of the earth." (Deut. 6:14-15;
see also Deut. 4:15-19, 23-28; 7:4-5, 16, 25-26; 8:19; 11:16-17, 28;
12:2-4, 29-31; 13:1-16; 17:2-5; 29:24-28; 31:16-18; 32:15-22.)
"2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:Thus, it can be seen that the Old Testament writers were primarily concerned with the sin of idolatry.
you have seen all the evil that I brought
upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah.
Behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them,
3 because of the wickedness which they committed,
provoking me to anger,
in that they went to burn incense and serve other gods they knew not,
neither they, nor you, nor your fathers.
4 Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets,
saying, "Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!"
5 But they did not listen or incline their ear,
to turn from their wickedness and burn no incense to other gods.
6 Therefore my wrath and my anger were poured forth
and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem;
and they became a waste and a desolation as at this day."
(Jer. 44:2-6; see also Josh. 23:15-16; Judges 2:11-15; 3:7-8; 10:6-7;
I Kings 14:9; 16:25-26; 22:53; II Kings 17:9-18; 21:2-6;
Psa. 44:20-21; 78:56-64; 81:8-10; 96:4-5; 106:19-21, 34-39; 115:2-8; 135:15-18;
Isa. 2:8; 37:18-20; 40:18-20; 41:29; 42:8,17; 43:10-12; 44:6-20;
45:5-6, 16-17, 20-22; 46:5-7;
Jer. 1:16; 2:11-13, 26-28; 5:19; 8:19; 10:1-16; 19:4-5; 44:22-23;
Ezek. 14:2-11; 20:15-18, 23-24; 36:17-18;
Hosea 2:13; 4:11-13; Micah 5:13-15; Hab. 2:18-19; Zeph. 1:4-6.)
Idolatry is not just the worship of graven images made of wood, stone or metal (Col. 3:5; see also Eph. 5:5). The false gods whose worship is idolatry are not always so crude or absurd. Many things such as pleasure, wealth, power, education, the family, society, the state, democracy, experience, reason and science, which are good in their proper place, may become a person's god. One of these sophisticated deities has recently been given the following public confession:
"Men bet their lives on it [science] as they do on other gods,
and on the record, it functions no less divinely than any other....
'God' is no less fitting an appellation for this [science] than for
any that churchmen so name and require laymen to bet their lives on, worship and adjure." [1]
Science, of course, is not the only god to which modern man looks for deliverance. Today's pantheon is as full of gods as those of ancient Greece and Rome. The only difference is that these twentieth century gods are not so easily identified as such. They have become more sophisticated and civilized. But the absence of a label does not alter the content of the package. Although anonymous, they are none the less gods when they become the object of faith and trust in a man's life. If anything, they are more dangerous and deceptive because they are not generally recognized as gods.
What is a god? Martin Luther in his comments on the first commandment in his Large Catechism answers this question very clearly:
"A god is that to which we look for all goodFaith is the commitment and devotion of a person to some object which is for that person of ultimate significance and supreme importance. That object to which a person is committed and devoted is that person's "god." The term "god" need not refer to the personal triune God of the Christian religion nor to the object of faith and trust of any historical or formal religion. It is a functional term, that is, a term which takes its meaning from the particular function or operation performed by the object to which the term applies. A god performs the function of the object of supreme importance and ultimate significance to which a person or group of persons may commit and devote themselves.
and in which we find refuge in every time of need.
To have a god is nothing else than to trust
and believe in him with our whole heart.
As I have often said,
the trust and faith of the heart alone make both God and the idol...
For these two belong together, faith and God.
That to which your heart clings and entrusts itself is,
I say, really your God." [2]
"Taken by itself this word [god] carriesAt the suggestion that he worships a god the irreligious may be shocked and incredulous. But every man must have a god. By his very constitution a man must necessarily have a god to which he can commit and devote himself, in which he can trust. This is apparent from an analysis of human freedom. There are three elements in every decision: an agent with the ability to choose, the alternatives to choose between, and the criterion by which the choice is to be made. This last element is often overlooked or ignored in the analysis of freedom. The choice between the alternatives is made with reference to some criterion of choice, and the choice cannot be made without this reference. That is, it is impossible to make any decision as to how to act or think without appealing to some criterion of the good and the true. Every human decision necessarily involves a relation to something beyond the self as a criterion of decision. In other words, behind every decision as to what a person should do or think there must be a reason. And the ultimate reason for any decision, practical or theoretical, must be given in terms of some particular criterion, an ultimate reference or orientation point beyond the self or person making the decision. This ultimate criterion is that person's god. In this sense every man must have god, that is, an ultimate criterion of decision. Thus in the very exercise of his freedom -- decision -- man shows he is a creature who must have a god. [4]
as little specific meaning as the word 'good.'
Both are empty receptacles whose content varies from man to man
and from religion to religion." [3]
From this point of view no man is an atheist in the basic meaning of the word, that is, no god. Every man must have a god. Man is a religious animal who necessarily must have some object of ultimate allegiance and trust which functions as his guide of truth and his norm of conduct. Every man must choose a god. Though free to adopt the god of his choice, no man is free to avoid this decision. Every attempt to do so turns out to be not a denial of having a god but an exchange of gods. To ask whether one believes in the existence of God is to completely misunderstand the issue. The issue is not whether one should choose between theism or atheism, that is, to believe in the existence of God or not, but whether one should choose this god or that god as the true God.
[1] Horace M. Kallen, Democracy's True Religion
(Boston: The Beacon Press, 1951), p. 10;
quoted in E. LaB. Cherbonnier, Hardness of Heart
(New York: Doubleday & Co., 1955), p.153.
[2] Martin Luther, The Large Catechism of Martin Luther,
trans. Robert H. Fischer
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), p. 9.
[3]Cherbonnier, Hardness of Heart, p. 40.
[4]Ibid., pp.39-40. See also E. LaB. Cherbonnier,
"Biblical Metaphysic and Christian Philosophy,"
Theology Today 9 (October 1952): p. 367.
To read this article, click
here.