Humanity in Rebellion

We all reject the ruler--God--by trying to run life our own way without him The sad truth is that, from the very beginning, men and women everywhere have rejected God by doing things their own way. We all do this. We don't like someone telling us what to do or how to live--least of all God--and so we rebel against him in lots of different ways. We ignore him and just get on with our own lives; or we disobey his instructions for living in his world; or we shake our puny fists in his face and tell him to get lost.

How ever we do it, we are all rebels, because we don't live God's way. We prefer to follow our own desires, and to run things our own way, without God. This rebellious, self-sufficient attitude is what the Bible calls `sin'.

But we fail to rule ourselves or society or the world

The trouble is, in rejecting God we make a mess not only of our own lives, but of our society and the world. The whole world is full of people bent on doing what suits them, and not following God's ways. We all act like little gods, with our own crowns, competing with one another. The result is misery. The suffering and injustice that we see around us all go back to our basic rebellion against God.

How the Bible puts it:

Jesus went on: ``What comes out of a man is what makes him `unclean'. For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.' (Mark chapter 7, verses 20-22)

There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God. All have turned away. (Romans chapter 3, verses 10-12)

By rebelling against God, we've made a terrible mess of things. The question is: what will God do about it?

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