For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God,the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:20-23
It seems that decade upon decade, century upon century, and millennia upon millennia, Humanity has recognized that something is off. Wars, protests, debates, discussions (these days, it seems shouting matches) have done nothing to solve this sense of "wrongness" that all of humanity seems to agree exists. The majority of us seems to want to blame the "other guy." After all, it's easy to find fault in someone when you're looking for it. We are, however, missing the point that the "other guy" is not the problem. We are the problem. All of us, and if we looked at ourselves honestly, maybe we'd see that. The problem isn't ethnicity, politics, poverty, or inequality. Those are all symptoms of the bigger issue. The problem, at its heart, is our sin and rebellion against God, which always leads to death. While every one of us will die physically, we're all spiritual beings that have eternity in store for us. The state of our sinful rebellion has us set at a default destination for eternal hell.
Some say this is cruel (though they say they don't believe it), but what the real cruelty is that we're living in Someone Else's creation and demanding that WE be allowed to make the rules. Then when this great "wrongness" hits us, we want to blame skin color, or economic status, or political affiliation. This is an age old debate that no one has ever really won, to my knowledge. You see, God designed this world, making us in His image. We know something is off because our sin has broken our original design, and instead of returning to the creator to fix it, we, the creation, try to fix ourselves: a task we're not qualified to do. Yet, at the right time, God sent His son in our place. The Creator sent His son to fix the programming, not by rebelling against the rebellion, but by obeying the original design. In doing so, He was humiliated, beaten, and crucified, but unlike our forefathers, He embraced death, not in rebellion, but out of obedience. And being buried, He walked out of the tomb, forever changing the programming, and beginning the restoration to our original purpose. Should you choose to follow Jesus, cast off rebellion. He is the only one who can fix our brokenness, change hearts, and heal what is wrong with the world.
