Cheer Up! You're Far Worse than You Think You Are...

This title may not be appealing, but it's super important to explore. Just because we may not like tough subjects doesn’t mean we can ignore them. (Trying to ignore it never works either, by the way). So, let’s look first at the bad news, then the worse news, then the worst news, and finally, the worst of the worst news. By then we’ll be ripe and ready for the GOOD news, and what good news it is!
The BAD news is we’re all sinners. Every single person who has lived, is living, or will live is a sinner. Though this isn’t revolutionary, let’s review so we’re all on the same page. A sinner is someone who has sinned in his or her life. One sin counts. That means if you’ve ever lied, cheated, stolen, been jealous, condescending, or short-tempered, welcome to the sinner club. Lying to your mom about sneaking a cookie from the cookie jar when you were 3 is a sin. Lusting after someone other than your spouse makes you a cheater in your heart. Being a sinner does not mean that we’ve committed sins that society deems egregious like murder or fraud. It means that we have sinned; all sin causes us to be sinners and fall short of God’s standards.
The WORSE news is we’re separated from God because of our sin. It’s pretty straightforward: sin (of any kind, shape, or form) creates an impenetrable barrier between us and God. Commonly known as the Great Divide, this barrier is 100% our fault and compounded daily by the sin we continue committing.
The WORST news is we are doomed to be sinners. Starting at the beginning, God created a perfect world with perfect people who enjoyed His presence without restraint. But because fallible creatures are FALL – IBLE (i.e. are able to fall), we did! Adam and Eve sinned and simultaneously cast a curse on the rest of humanity to be sinners as well. (Thanks A & E).Two sinners cannot produce a non-sinner. Fallen people produce more fallen people. Just the way it is.
The WORST OF THE WORST news is we are totally depraved and stuck in our sin. Total Depravity is one of those theological terms that smart people like to argue about. It basically means that we (as fallen and sinful human beings) are corrupted in every aspect of our beings—body, mind, soul, spirit, and heart. Not one part of us is exempt from the depravity sin besets upon us. Understandably, being totally consumed by sin means that we are totally stuck in it. We cannot free ourselves from the sin that entangles us. Just as we could not rescue ourselves from a pit of wet cement, because of our depravity, we cannot rescue ourselves from our sin.
Thus, we are far worse off than we think we are.
We often fall prey to the crazy notion that we’re really not that bad. After all, she does this and he does that; we’re far better than both of them in comparison!
That’s precisely the problem though. The standard to compare ourselves with is not other fallen people (as preferable as that option is). If we're going to compare ourselves to anyone, we must compare ourselves to Jesus. Which leads us to the good news…
The GOOD news is God crafted a plan to rescue spiritually dead and broken sinners via Jesus Christ! Jesus lived a perfect life, died on the cross, was buried and rose again in our place. He who knew no sin became sin for us. Jesus is the only person who’s ever lived who didn’t deserve to die; but He surrendered Himself to the most gruesome form of capital punishment so we could be freed from our sins.
God knew we were dead in our sins, stuck, and incapable of saving ourselves. So He did for us what we could never do! He sent His Son in our place to endure the death we deserved so we could live the life He came to give.
Because Jesus died, we’re free to live. He experienced rejection so we’d be unconditionally accepted. He endured our chains so we could be set free. He suffered the punishment of our bad, worse, worst and worst of the worst news so He could offer us best news EVER!
When we accept Jesus, God sees us in Him. That’s what it means to be covered by His blood. No longer are we condemned. We’re set free from the punishment of our sins and can live in the power of His freeing grace.
So cheer up! We’re far worse off than we think we are; BUT He’s far greater than we ever could imagine!