People Need to Change
by admin ~ March 19th, 2016. Filed under: Brandenburg.People need to change. People are not fine just like they are. Everyone starts out in sin. They can’t and they don’t want to do what God wants. Psalm 51:5 says man is born in sin and Romans 3 says that everyone sins. Because men are sinners does not mean that they will do the worst they could do. But what holds them back? God gets the credit here too, because we know at least three factors explain why things are not as bad as they could be. One, men are made in God’s image, so there is the image of God in man. This gives men God’s law written in their hearts and their consciences. Two, the goodness of God is all around. God’s grace is evident every where so that men will experience God’s goodness. Three, the Holy Spirit, God Himself, indwells believers so that they are salt and light. The existence of true believers, their influence, holds back the unbelievers from being as bad as they can be. This is another way that the Holy Spirit restrains a wicked world. Men know in their hearts what is right and what is wrong and out of the working of God will do what’s right. However, they should not mistake that for their own righteousness or goodness to the extent that they don’t need to be changed. All of us still need the imputed righteousness of God, His justification, because we are lost without it.