Waskom's National Night Out: Christianity is Crimes Cure

The second crime recorded in the Bible was Cain’s murder of his brother Abel. Cain was green with envy over the Lord receiving Abel’s offering but having no regard for his (see Genesis chapter 4). What was the trouble? Was God showing favoritism? Had Abel somehow offended Cain in their worship of God? No, neither of these is tracking. Abel gave from the “firstlings” or from the best of what he had while Cain brought only “an offering” which in the Hebrew way of thinking meant he simply “grabbed” something in haste without any forethought or regard for God’s worship. To worship God haphazardly puts one in peril. So Cain, burning with envy in his heart, slaughtered his brother. In other words, the heart of the problem was the problem of his heart.

Later, when God sent Moses to redeem his chosen people from slavery in Egypt we learn Pharaoh had a heart condition not allowing him to comply with God’s demand reading in Exodus 7:13 that “Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them (Moses and his brother Aaron), as the LORD had said.” Again, the heart of the problem was the problem of his heart. The problem was endemic in Israel with nearly all her rulers as was the case with King Zedekiah. God adds to our hard heart another issue putting it this way in 2 Chronicles 36:14 saying that king “stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD God of Israel.” It seems this stiff neck issue affects human hard-heartedness.

God reveals in Genesis 8:21 that “the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth…” Israel’s greatest king, David understood the root of the problem stating it this way in Ps 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” We live in a broken world. Since rebellion and crime (i.e., sin) entered the world the problem of bad, inappropriate or evil intentions and actions has been the bane of human kind. All crime has its nexus, its center, in the problem of sin. King David, under divine inspiration, reveals what God expects from us in Psalm 51:6 saying “behold, You (God) desire truth in the innermost being…” The antithesis or opposite of truth is literally sin.

Jesus defines it this way in John 8:44 saying to the religious elite in his day “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” So sin, i.e., crime, is a “Satin thing” or the “devil’s deal.” And it matters not if you are a non-Christian, an anti-Christian or a pretend Christian (like the religious elite in Jesus day) the root of the problem is a corrupted and defective heart. We all need radical heart surgery and Christianity is the only solution.

When a hard-hearted, stiff-necked criminal (any sinner at any level of sin – and we are all sinners in God’s judgment) turns by faith alone to sin’s solution – Jesus Christ and his works alone (his own suffering, death, burial, resurrection and ascension) – God does an amazing heart surgery. Here is how it works: Ezekiel reports in 36:26-27 that God “…will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [27] “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” God solves crimes problem through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

But the marvelous anesthesia he uses along with and inseparable from faith is repentance. Repentance is a divine gift whereby the repenting criminal turns away from a life of crime (a life filled with and motivated to sinfulness) and bows to the lordship and kingship of Jesus Christ, endeavoring to live a holy life for God’s glory and his neighbors greater good.

Many try to fake it but in the end, they will return to crime until and unless the Almighty God grants them faith and repentance by divine heart surgery. It comes only through Christianity and only by redeeming faith. Until Christ comes again and brings his heavenly kingdom to earth, the only viable solution to crime is prison or God’s heart surgery. May it be the latter and not the former for you.

(Want to know more? Visit your local Christ-centered, cross bearing, Bible teaching church. If you cannot find one, call Ed Bowman, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Waskom at 903-687-3408 – he’ll be happy to assist you.)