The Dominant Characteristics of Human Life
The dominant characteristics of human life are basically rebellion
and helplessness. Have you ever noticed how true that is? I read
recently of a man who was given a speeding ticket. When the officer handed him the
ticket, the man read it, handed it back to the officer, threw his car into
gear, and sped off. The officer jumped into his car and they wound up in a
high-speed chase in which the man finally ran his car off the road and
destroyed it, killing both himself and his six-year-old daughter who was in the
car with him.
Now what made him do that? Wasn't it simply that same innate
rebelliousness of the human heart that does not want to be confronted with
authority? That is the problem with all of us, isn't it? People often say to me
in counseling: "I know what I ought to do, but I have to confess that I
don't want to do it." Why not? We all have this problem of rebellion and
helplessness, don't we? It is reflected in the growing despair and sense of
futility that grip so many people today -- the loneliness and apparent
meaninglessness of life.
Twice in the book of Isaiah - in the Bible -- you find the
answer that God addresses to a world that is gripped by rebellion and
helplessness. God declares: "Come now, let us reason together ...
though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
(Isaiah 1:18)
God offers us forgiveness and pardon. "Let the wicked forsake
his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And
He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
(Isaiah 55:7)
There is a way that seems
right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12) You
see, God's message to man is not condemnation. His message to man is,
"Come, come; the salvation of Jehovah is available to all." And when
we accept what God's word says, we will discover the answer to our deepest need
-- All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him
(Christ) the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6) The rebellion can be cured and the
helplessness canceled. Yes, we can become what God intended us to be in Christ
Jesus.
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Rev. Telema W. Okobi, 