What's Wrong With The World?

It is one of the marks of fallen man to blame shift, to see to it that responsibility not be taken for his sinful actions.  Well, let me be clear.  Fallen man means to see to it that someone else take the responsibility for his sinful actions.  It began with Adam in the Garden.  And it has continued, faithfully, throughout history, even to you and me.

This is who we are and not necessarily merely what we learn from others.  A boy misses a ball - it was the sun's fault.  A husband cheats on his wife - it was his wife's fault.  A politician fails to follow through with promises - it was the other party's fault.  The world is filled with chaos and disaster - it is God's fault.  And on and on it goes.  We like taking responsibility for our successes, but not for our failures.

I am reminded of G.K. Chesterton's response to the London Times question, "What's wrong with the world?"  Chesterton replied,

Dear Sirs, 
     I am.
Sincerely yours,
G.K. Chesterton

Chesterton got it.  He understood that, in a fallen world, we could forever sit in our pathetic chairs and blame everyone else for our own failures.  It's not hard to find flaws in other humans; and if that is an acceptable means of diverting responsibility, then it becomes a most common practice.  A man who takes responsibility moves; but a man who does not, just sits and points at others.

One of the glories of the gospel, however, is that it frees us from this tiring, lazy and relationship-fracturing practice.  Because the Lord Jesus Christ is authoritative, present and in control, we are free and responsible to obey regardless of the sinful actions of others.  We live unto the Lord; and He is faithful as well as able to ensure that we are not tempted beyond our ability (1 Cor 10:13).  We only need to repent and believe - to humble ourselves and trust Him.

In other words, we don't have to try and pin the blame for our sins upon another person.  We have the grace of having the root cause of our sin identified for us.  The Scriptures tell us that we are what is wrong with the world.  After all, if we are never sinful and everyone else is always sinful, then we exempt ourselves from the category of humanity Christ came to save - sinners.  This does not give us an excuse to sin; but cause to repent and believe the gospel.