PIGS ONE, PIGS ALL.

‘Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil’ (Jeremiah 13:23; NIV).

Jeremiah was no biologist or anthropologist but with his cool sense of observation he spoke the obvious. A man cannot change the color of his skin nor can a leopard scrub off his spots. These are qualities intrinsic to their very nature. The reader would certainly agree with the ancient prophet’s analysis and think nothing of it. It is the second part of Jeremiah’s statement that would cause an outcry. In effect Jeremiah says that sinners cannot do anything good. Now it must be understood that the two sections of this verse are parallel. The second statement is true in the same way that the first statement is true. This is terrifying. According to Jeremiah, a man who does evil cannot make himself good any more than a black man can make himself white. Whoa, Jeremiah, isn’t that going a bit too far? Truly, most people would disagree with Jeremiah’s assessment of the human condition. The man on the street thinks that humans can make themselves better. In fact he sees many evidences of this. People quit bad habits and find victory in support groups. Who hasn’t had a relative or friend who beat some addiction? So we are left with the choice of disbelieving God’s messenger, or reconsidering the meaning behind his words. I choose to do the latter. The solution to this conundrum is to consider what we mean by the word ‘good.’ Men and God define the word ‘good’ in quite opposite ways. Jesus dealt with this issue when approached by the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10::17-22. The man came to Jesus and addressed Him as ‘good.’ What the man meant by this was that flattened, banal use of the word good that we use today. He saw Jesus as a religious cleric, a person who did not engage in grotesque sins and who no doubt helped old ladies across the street. And in that sense, Jesus was ‘good.’ And indeed in that that sense, Jesus was good. But this is not God’s meaning behind the word ‘good’ and Jesus was not about to let the man hold to a faulty understanding of the word. So Jesus answers, ‘why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is God.’ Jesus was telling the man that his view of ‘good’ was on a purely horizontal level. He was calling Jesus good by looking at sheer externals. To correct the man Jesus pointed the man to the only being who is intrinsically good, which is God. What we must conclude from this is the idea that to God goodness is always a matter of the heart. A pure and holy heart that obeys God’s law perfectly is a good heart. All other hearts are wicked, no matter how clean they be on the outside. Paul would later on analyze the human race and say, ‘there is none righteous (good), no not one’ (Romans 3:10). Indeed, Paul had read Jeremiah. The problem is that when we begin to think men are good from this horizontal perspective we fall into all kinds of theological errors. But when we take Jeremiah’s statement at face value we begin to see things as they really are. On the inside all men are evil. Psalm 58:3 agrees, ‘the wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.’ Watch any talking child and you will know this is true. But the prophet goes a step farther. Not only are men wicked but they can do nothing about their condition of wickedness. That is, they are wicked in the same sense that a man is black. It is part of their being. Now that is a serious issue! And I submit that people intrinsically know it is serious. That is why they continually try to fix themselves. Knowing they are not all they should be, they try to become better people; they try to improve themselves. They join clubs, they make resolutions, they do nice things for others, they say they are sorry, they visit their ageing grandmother once a week.  Men continually try to scrub the outside of their moral character so that they can live with themselves. That most people think this way is proven by the universal belief that they are going to heaven when they die. It seems that moral self-cleansing has a high success rate… or does it? Oh dear! That scowling prophet stands in their way,,, our way. Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil’ . Clean ourselves as we would, we cannot change ourselves. In God’s eyes we are evil and no matter how much makeup we put on, we remain evil through and through. Once a pig who loves mud, always a pig who loves mud. Years ago I wrote this poem.

GOD’S PIG

Take a pig and clean him up

And loose him from his sty

Put flowers on his curly tail

Paint mascara on his eye.

Take him to balls and concerts too

And teach him Attic Greek.

Then rub fine oils on his skin

And massage him every week.

The big day comes to let him go

To shop a high priced store.

That in his training he will crave

Exquisite things galore!

You gasp as he comes smilin’ home

A spectacle to dread

His breath smells like some rotten corn

Mud dripping from his head.

 To clean a pig from outside in

Will never make him new

You must first change the piglet’s heart

Which only God can do.

Dear reader, you want to be good in the sight of God? Then stop trying to clean yourself up. Stop using religion to cover your warts. Give up doing nice things to compensate for all your bad things. You are a pig. A red bow in your hair changes nothing. But there is good news. All is not lost. There is a way to be changed, permanently and forever. You must allow God to cleanse you. You must go to Him as a unwashed sinner. You must beg him for a new heart that hates sin. You must ask him for the one and only thing that will clean you up, the blood of Jesus Christ. That is a theological way of saying that you must trust in the death of Jesus Christ for the cleansing of sin. You must accept that cleansing stream and turn away from all attempts at self-cleansing. Turn to Christ with your mud covered body and He will clean you up. It is your only hope. Jeremiah was right. Men who are evil cannot possibly be good. But the gospel is also right. Men who are evil can become good when God takes the blood-soaked sponge drenched in the blood of Christ and washes them clean. God promises it in Isaiah 1:18, ‘though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow; though they be red as crimson they shall be as wool.’ That’s a bath worth taking. Amen.