A friend of mine once described an interaction he had with an atheist at a coffee shop. The guy was really smart. One of these types who reads biology textbooks and physics journals for fun. Incidentally this detail serves to illustrate fairly well the trouble with an evidentialist approach to apologetics as opposed to a presuppositional one– My friend had developed a decent rapport with this man and over time had discussed the gospel to no avail. The man in the coffee shop is positively drowning in that which breathes fire into his equations and creates a universe for them to describe and yet he does not believe. But this is not the topic at hand and so I digress– Eventually my friend asked a very simple question and left it at that. I don’t think he ever got an answer but it occurred to me that the question is indispensable in a conversation about the Gospel.
“What do you do with your guilt?”
This question should resonate with you. Seriously, what do you do with your guilt? The reason it’s so effective is that it applies universally. There is not a solitary soul on this good earth who is free of guilt one way or another. People have spent much energy and brain power trying to deny this fact. Philosophies have been constructed which seek to assuage the guilt of the race of man or simply deny its existence all together. From the little I’ve interacted with them, none of these philosophies are terribly compelling. The problem is that everyone knows these ideas are fraudulent. Ask anyone if they’ve done things they shouldn’t have done and they will tell you ‘yes’. Yes, they’ve lied and stolen and cheated and thought poorly about someone lesser. Original sin is universal and inescapable and whether recognized as such or simply recognized experientially, we all find ourselves guilty. For the natural man, there is no answer to this dilemma. Adam has purchased for him the curse of sin and to that curse he is condemned. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned” Romans 5:12.
Enter the second Adam. “Thus it is written, ”The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” 1 Corinthians 15:45
The reason the natural man is consigned to darkness in light of his sin is that he has no capacity to pay the penalty for it, not even if he wanted to– which he doesn’t. And it is by the converse that the man of the spirit is free from the same sentence– on his behalf, the payment is rendered. Where Adam failed, the God-man succeeded and in the place of Adam He became the representative of His people in righteousness. Adam simply became a living being. He had no power in himself to give life. Again the converse is Christ. He was not made. Existent eternally with the Father and the Spirit, He gave life to His bride the church and in that life is freedom from sin.
This is the victory of the second Adam. He accomplished our salvation and He has given us unity with the Father. He is our Savior and our King and to Him belong our obedience and eternal loyalty.
So what do we do with our guilt? We cast it on Him, the second Adam. We cast it on Him because He has already paid for it once and for all and He has promised that for any who will repent of their sin and put their trust in Him, He will give unity with the Father and life eternal.
Semper Soli Deo Gloria.
Amen.
Amén