“But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; all those who hate me love death.”

— Proverbs 8:36

Explore with me one final modern myth: “Suicide is a viable option.” Dr. Arthur Caplan, the director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Biomedical Ethics, says that the most significant bioethical event in our country’s history “is not artificial hearts; it’s not grandmothers who give birth to their grandchildren. It is the matter of doctor-assisted suicide because it is a break from a two-thousand-year-old tradition that says [in the words of the Hippocratic Oath] doctors cannot harm.” We can’t tell what harmful actions will follow in the wake of doctor-assisted suicides. We can trace the atrocities of the Holocaust to a small beginning: the blurring of the line between physicians healing people and killing them. As serious as this subject is, it has generated its own class of humor. Picture this: A cartoon shows a doctor’s waiting room full of elderly patients with their crutches, canes, and wheelchairs. The nurse steps cheerily to the door and announces, “The doctor will kill you now.”

Advocates for doctor-assisted suicide call it “death with dignity.” But that watered-down term masks the reality that this practice is self-murder. Charles Hodge of Princeton Seminary put it this way, “Suicide is … self-murder in the sight of God … We have no more right to take our own life than the life of another … It is a crime which admits of no repentance and consequently involves the loss of the soul.”

If you have lost a friend or loved one to suicide, let me hasten to make something clear. I believe that a Christian may fall prey to intense, overwhelming despair and could, in such a mental state, commit suicide without forfeiting his or her soul. But for the most part, as Hodge says, “Suicide is most common among those who have lost all faith in Christianity.” Remember that God has given you your life as a precious gift. Cherish and preserve it whatever difficulties come your way.

“Let us not be cowards, deserting our posts, flinging
back thanklessly in the face of God the gift of life.”

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

— Ephesians 2:8–9

No doubt you’ve heard the statement “God helps those who help themselves.” What is your reaction when I tell you that this, too, is a myth of our culture? Do you feel shocked? Indignant? Relieved?

We’ve heard this statement again and again, sometimes from deeply spiritual people whom we trust. In fact, we’ve heard it in church so many times that many people think it comes from the Bible. But it doesn’t. We buy into this myth because it has that can-do, pioneer spirit that built our nation, but it often leads us astray.

God does expect us to help ourselves in some things, such as working diligently. But when it comes to salvation, we must rely entirely on God’s provision and mercy. From the beginning, we’ve tried to help God provide us with salvation, but He has put up a sign that clearly states, “No help wanted or needed.” As the late Anglican bishop, Taylor Smith, received a shave from his barber, the bishop brought up the topic of salvation. The barber snapped, “I do my best, and that is good enough for me.” Through the rest of the shave, the bishop remained silent, and when the barber finished, Smith paid his bill. In the meantime, another man had come in for a shave. The bishop picked up a razor and said, “I’ll give this man a shave.” The barber exclaimed, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, bishop.” The bishop said, “Ah, but I assure you, I’ll do the best I can.” The barber said, “But I’m afraid your best will not be good enough for this gentleman.” The bishop replied, “And neither, sir, is your best good enough for God.”

Our best falls far short of what God accepts for our atonement, and for that reason, we can’t help ourselves. And fortunately, we don’t need to. Christ has already fully paid our debts. As far as salvation is concerned, God helps the helpless who trust in Him. Today, thank God for that truth, and rest yourself in Him and in His provision for your atonement.

“Not the labors of my hands can fulfill Thy law’s demands,
All for sin could not atone; Thou must save and Thou alone.”
“Rock Of Ages” (Hymn) By Augustus Toplady

“And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”

— Matthew 7:28–29

What part does your relationship with God play in your life? Your answer to that question will affect your reaction to the myth we look at today.

Many people believe that they can have morality without religion. What do you think about that statement? It’s a myth so ingrained in the modern American mind that people take it for granted. In fact, we continue to build our current educational and legal systems upon it, despite the warnings of great people in history. For example, George Washington, in his farewell address, warned us to avoid this myth: “And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.” Dostoevsky, an author of the last century, reminded us, “If there is no God, then everything is permissible.” Jean-Paul Sartre echoed Washington and Dostoevsky: “[Without God] all activities are equivalent … Thus it amounts to the same thing whether one gets drunk alone, or is a leader of nations.”

And I say: We cannot have morality without religion. Why? Because people don’t follow a code of ethics when a fellow human being has drawn it up. While the humanists have drawn up a Humanist Manifesto that many have chosen to follow, this manifesto includes many things originally forbidden by God—divorce, suicide, free love, fornication, adultery, and euthanasia. No one can impose his or her morality on others. The atheists and humanists have only accomplished this because they’ve legislated whatever behaviors they’ve wanted to sanction. We also can’t have morality without religion because if we get rid of God, we have nothing left to guide us except what we see other people doing. And what someone is doing is not necessarily what he or she should be doing. You cannot get an “ought” from an “is.”

No one but God is just enough, powerful enough, or wise enough to create a moral code by which humankind must live. God not only created this code, but He sent His Son to pay the penalty for all our violations of it. Today, thank God not only for the creation of His code but also His fulfillment of it through Jesus Christ. Then submit your will to Him, allowing His moral code to guide you in everything you say and do.

“And let us with caution indulge the supposition
that morality can be maintained without religion.”
George Washington

“As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one.’”

— Romans 3:10

Most people in America today believe that people are basically good. This belief astonishes me because it flies in the face of Biblical teaching and contradicts much of human history.

Today we hesitate to mention the word “sin.” We don’t talk about “right and wrong;” we talk about “right and stupid.” A person doesn’t admit to sinning but instead says, “I did something dumb. I acted stupid. I should have been more careful.” We no longer label violent criminals as “evil.” Instead, we say they are “victims of illness.”

But the Bible expounds on humankind’s basically evil nature. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

“But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Jesus also believed in humanity’s evilness. He said that we are all sinners; children of Satan; hypocrites; filled with evil thoughts—murder, adultery, fornication, and theft; vipers; fools; and blind. History confirms humanity’s evil nature. Historians tell us that one-third of all human beings who have lived on this planet have died at the hands of their fellow human beings.

We’re all sinners. God knows our base, evil nature. He knows that none of us could ever be good enough to have a relationship with Him. So He made a way for us to spend eternity in Heaven by placing all our sinfulness on Christ and having Him die in our place. Praise God that He hasn’t left us to our own devices but instead has forgiven us and imputed to us Christ’s righteousness. By God’s good grace, we have Christ’s basic goodness resident within us.

“The greatest saints, down through the centuries, have all
acknowledged themselves to be the greatest of sinners.”

“And you shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free.”

— John 8:32

Over the next few days we’ll look at some modern myths—assertions by our society that contradict Biblical truth.

The first and perhaps most prevalent is “There are no absolutes; all truth is relative.” Have you perceived this attitude recently? You can hear it in statements such as “Things change, and what we believed ten years ago no longer fits”; “That may be true for you, but it’s not true for me”; “That concept works in America, but it would never work in China.”

The statement “There are no absolutes; all truth is relative” contradicts itself because it’s an absolute statement. When people assert that no absolutes exist, they really claim that God doesn’t exist because God is the ultimate absolute. “No absolutes” means no inspired Word of God. It means no Jesus Christ.

But absolutes do exist. The Bible constantly deals with absolutes: life and death, obedience and disobedience, righteousness and sin, saved and lost, light and darkness, good and evil, faith and unbelief, Heaven and hell, God and Satan. Not only do absolutes exist, but we can know and understand them. The Bible says, “These things I have written to you … that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). We can know that we must receive Christ as our Lord and Savior; that no one can mock God; that all have sinned; that one day we shall all give an account of ourselves; that Christ is the Way, the truth, and the life; and that Christ prepares a place for us in Heaven.

When we know the absolute truth, it sets us free to realize God’s will in our lives. Don’t let cultural relativism fool you into thinking that each person can determine his or her own “truth.” We all may perceive minor aspects of truth differently, but that doesn’t support the idea of relative truth. Truth is eternal and unchangeable.

Do you want to know the absolute truth? Then look into God’s Word today. Search the Scriptures for God’s truth, and let it set you free.

“Those who deny moral absolutes find themselves
in even greater bondage to sin.”

“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before unknown men.”

— Proverbs 22:29

A gentleman was walking down the street, and he passed a large construction site where a group of men were laying brick. He asked one of the workers, “What are you doing?”

The man answered, “I’m laying bricks, stupid. What does it look like I’m doing?”
The gentleman asked another man, “What are you doing?”
The second man replied, “I am making a wall.”
The passerby asked a third man, “What are you doing?”
He said, “I am building a magnificent cathedral to the glory of God!”

What’s the difference between the narrow vision of the first two men and the great vision of the third man? The third man saw the ultimate purpose of his work: to glorify God.

We need to have the same focus in whatever work we do, whether we work directly for the Church or in a secular profession. As the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Confession states, the chief end of humankind is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. So as we live and work, our ultimate purpose should be to glorify God.

How can you and I glorify God in our work? By pursuing excellence in all we do. Too often, work done in the Church by professing Christians is sloppy or below par. But when we do things well, God is glorified. For this reason, Christian books should be of a higher caliber than secular books, and Christian videos should be of a higher quality than secular ones.

Whatever God has called you to do, pursue excellence both professionally and personally. Make it your end to glorify God in all you do, and God will help you achieve the highest quality of which you are capable. Remember that even the smallest, most mundane task will ultimately result in a magnificent cathedral of glory to our God.

“Excellence in all things and all things to God’s glory.”
Motto Of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church

“… Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

— Revelation 2:10

What is one goal you’ve reached that you feel particularly proud of? Is it graduating from school? Running a marathon? Teaching your children good morals? Bringing a friend or family member to Christ?

Now, what did it take for you to reach that goal?

Columbus set the goal of sailing around the world. Every day of his voyage, he penned these words in his diary: “And this day we sailed on.” Columbus achieved incredible results because he continued the pursuit of his goal day after day. In the same way, if we want to reach any goal, we need perseverance and faithfulness. How well we start doesn’t really matter. In any goal we set out to achieve, we need to persevere until the end.

Would you like to know a couple of secrets about living successfully? Then read with me a verse from Genesis which contains two great secrets of success in any sphere of life: “And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.” Do you see in these words the two great principles of success in life? “And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan.” The first secret to succeeding in life is this: We must set out to achieve noble goals, goals worthy of our effort as people who will dwell eternally in Jesus Christ’s presence. Second, we must keep going. Abram and his family made it to Canaan because they persevered. They traveled toward Canaan day in and day out until they arrived. If we expect to lead successful lives, we can’t give up after we’ve set out to achieve a goal. Instead, we must everlastingly keep on keeping on.

If you haven’t already determined some goals for yourself, choose a goal today, a goal worthy of your time and effort. Then set out to meet that goal, persevering today and in the days to come.

“There aren’t any hard and fast rules
for getting ahead, just hard ones.”
Anonymous

“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.”

— Ephesians 3:16

Leap tall buildings in a single bound. Run faster than a locomotive. Defeat villains with superior wit and strength. You know who I’m talking about, right? We’ve all seen characters such as Superman and Batman bending steel beams and knocking out criminals, and we cheer as good wins over evil.

Perhaps we cheer because we see a kind of power that can affect our world. We know we don’t have that kind of power within ourselves, so we live vicariously through the superheroes our culture has created. Through them, we attempt to compensate for what we so obviously lack.

We all need the power to triumph over evil. However, our real need lies not in the external world but in the internal combat zone where we fight our moral battles. None of us will ever need to leap a tall building or bend steel beams with our bare hands. But we do need to conquer sin, overcome temptations, and bend our iron wills in obedience to God. And we can’t do those tasks without strength and power.

As Christians we have only one source for such might: the explosive power of Jesus Christ in our hearts. Not only does Christ’s power expel the evil within us, it conquers the attacks from without. Christ calls us to triumph, but He never leaves us to fight on our own. Jesus always leads us forth in triumph, exhorting us to “go and conquer in my name.” With Christ’s power inhabiting our souls, we can conquer evil and draw people to Jesus. God can use us to transform people and thus the society around us.

Christ is the only true superhero, and He lives within us and works through us. Allow Him to empower you for the challenges and temptations you face this day. By Christ’s power, you can conquer all evil that comes your way.

“Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.”
Old English Hymn

“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

— Luke 12:7

A couple of years after the end of World War II, the British author W. H. Auden wrote a poem about the age in which he lived. Auden entitled this poem “The Age of Anxiety.” Amazingly, the label still describes our time though Auden coined it half a century ago.

Do you ever lie awake at night, worrying about this and anxious about that? If so, you know how distressing that experience can be, tossing and turning, trying to sleep while your concerns hound you. But if you’re a Christian, you needn’t allow worry to plague you. Instead, you can turn over your anxieties to your heavenly Father, casting them on the One who cares for you. I heard about one Christian man who envisioned lifting each of his big burdens, like a large stone, and handing it to Jesus. When Christ took hold of it, suddenly the rock shrank to a pebble. Our worries do indeed shrink when we leave them in God’s care.

A missionary was teaching a Hindu woman, who had just accepted Christ, how to pray the Lord’s Prayer. The woman prayed, “Our Father, which art in heaven.” Then she said, “Stop! Do you mean that God is our Father?” The missionary said, “Yes.” She said, “That’s enough! If God is our Father, then there’s nothing to worry about!”

Do you remember being a child, trusting your parent or guardian to take care of all your concerns? Remember how, no matter how frightened you might have been, all your fears dissipated when you put your hand into the hand of a loving parent? In the same way, we have a divine and heavenly Parent on whom we can still cast our burdens, no matter how big or how small they are.

Do you have a burden causing you to worry today? Hand it to God, your Father who cares for you. Allow Him to give you the peace that comes from trusting Him with everything that concerns you.

“When you have nothing left but God, then for the
first time you become aware that God is enough.”
Maude Royden

“Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?”

— 1 Corinthians 1:20

Our world prides itself on nothing more than its vaunted wisdom. Having confused sophistication for wisdom and knowledge with understanding, our world looks down on those who believe in God and trust in His Word. Yet the Bible says that God has made the wisdom of this world foolishness. Most, however, do not really believe that. Sadder still, even Christians are impressed and intimidated by the world’s apparent wisdom.

But let’s take a quick look at what the world’s wisdom has accomplished through the years. Wisdom supposedly reached a pinnacle in the Golden Age of Greek philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle brought to light vast stores of knowledge that the world had not hitherto known. Yet their writings have done little to regenerate humankind and alleviate humanity’s problems. More recently (several hundred years ago), we ushered in the Age of Reason, supposedly a golden age of wisdom. But in truth, these were some of the bloodiest years France has ever seen. The guillotine, like some huge monster, consumed its victims until the streets of Paris ran with blood, and that Age of Reason became a very unreasonable, frightening, and terrible time. Even in this modern age, we haven’t learned our lessons. We’ve accumulated great stores of knowledge, so much that we cannot even measure it. Yet have we really arrived at wisdom? The twentieth century has been history’s bloodiest era.

Do we really want to rely on the world’s “wisdom” if it has resulted in all this bloodshed? Let’s bank our lives on the wisdom of God, wisdom that resulted in a different type of bloodshed—the blood shed by Jesus as He hung on the cross to die for you and me. God’s wisdom can do more to ennoble human life and alleviate the pain of human existence than anything conceived by the wisdom of this world.

“Wisdom is the something that enables
us to use knowledge rightly.”
Paul Lee Tan