DISCIPLE

Utter uncompromising, abandonment of hope in man is the first preliminary to understanding or preaching the gospel. Man says, "I am not so bad; I can make amends"; "There are many people worse than I am"; "I might be better, but I might be worse."  But God's indictment is sweeping: it reaches all. "None righteous; all have sinned; there is no distinction."  And the first step of wisdom is to listen to the worst God says about us, for He (wonderful to say!) is the Lover of man, sinner though man be. You and I were born in this lost race, with all these evil things innate in, and, apart from the grace of God, possible to us. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and is desperately wicked." Only redemption by the blood of Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, can afford hope. William R. Newell, Romans Verse by Verse, Moody Press, 1938, pages 27-28

     The human race is morally and spiritually fallen. The much-talked-of human brotherhood is a brotherhood of fallen men. Should the hope expressed in the sticky little song be realized and "the world become one through a prayer" it would still be a lost world. Were the United Nations truly united they would still be but a confederation of nations in rebellion against God.      The very idea of human brotherhood, about which large numbers of pseudo-philosophers bleat so plaintively these days, rather than bringing us comfort, should throw the fear of God into us, for the Apostle Paul was long ago inspired to write, "Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned" (Romans 5:12). The unity of mankind with itself means universal condemnation for all its members.      Strange as it may seem, hope for all of us lies not in huddling up to th...