There are two kinds of people in this world, or so the expression goes. There are dog people and cat people, Jay Leno people and David Letterman people, Coca-Cola people and Pepsi-Cola people, indoor and outdoor people, morning and night people, introverted and extroverted people, and roll the toothpaste tube and flatten the toothpaste tube people. These categories of distinction are really of no serious consequence. They are for fun. They relate to our personal preferences.
But most would add another category of distinction. There are two kinds of people. There are Christians and there are non-Christians. There are those who know Jesus Christ and there are those who don’t. There are sheep and there are goats. There is wheat, but then there are weeds. There are those on the straight and narrow path that leads to life, and there are those on the broad path that leads to destruction. There are those who build their homes on the rock and those who build on sand. There are godly people and there are ungodly people.
Now we are no longer talking about something that is just for fun. We are talking about the difference between life and death, hope and despair, substantive meaning and futility, and direction and aimlessness.
Jesus made clear lines of distinction between people.
There is value in drawing solid lines of distinctions, or at least Jesus thought so. Jesus made a clear distinction between two groups of people. He employed dozens of metaphors to distinguish his children from those who are still orphaned in the world. Some are born again, some unborn. There are those in Christ and those outside of Christ. There are those who have been clothed with righteousness and those still wearing the old garments of sin. There are those who are saved and those who are lost. There are those who are still under the curse of the law and those freed from the curse of the law. We may not like it, but Jesus clearly taught that there are heaven-oriented people and hell-oriented people. There are hot people and cold people, and according to Revelation 3:16 lukewarm doesn’t count!
We typically don’t see things in black and white. We prefer seeing shades of gray. We don’t want there to be a clear-cut distinction between the godly and the ungodly. We prefer a more permissive God. A sin-tolerant God. A God that shrugs at the presence of sin in our lives. A God of love. A God who does not judge. A God whose own holiness and justice is inconsequential. A God who does not punish, who never disciplines, who never gets angry, who is never stirred to wrath, and who never ever becomes jealous.
We might try to fabricate such a God, but such a God of grayness does not exist. The God of scripture draws a thick black line right through the middle of humanity. In Romans Paul profiles three types of ungodly people. He goes to great lengths to demonstrate how all three groups of people earned God’s righteous wrath. For these profiles I will rely heavily on the material found in a book Max Lucado published back in 1996 called In the Grip of Grace. But the essence of each is vividly described in Romans 1 through Romans 3.
First, we have what Max Lucado calls the "hut-building hedonists."
The hut-building hedonist is that person who would rather build a hut on earth than inherit a mansion in heaven. To fully appreciate this image, you will need to read Max Lucado’s book! But the hut-building hedonist totally disregards God and begins a futile pursuit for happiness. With God out of his life, he will chase anything that holds the illusion of fulfillment. As he becomes more desperate in his quest, he will exert tremendous energy and pay incredible prices. He willingly destroys his health. He will wreck his mind. He will risk disease, death, incarceration, and unemployment. He will wreck his family. He will ruin his marriage. He will destroy precious friendships. He will endure shame and public humiliation.
Potentially, as he slides deeper into dissatisfaction, he will cross every moral boundary. In Romans 1 Paul describes the ungodly turning down most every dark alley that life offers. They ignore God. They deny God. They replace God. They worship and serve creation. They degrade their bodies with one sexual impropriety after another. They indulge in the most shameful lusts, imaginable and unimaginable. They pursue the emptiness of homosexual relationships. They exchange natural desires for unnatural. They commit indecent acts. They sear their own consciences. Their minds become depraved, corrupted, and decadent.
Their thoughts and lifestyle overflow with wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They become so full of envy that they will murder, steal, slander, gossip, and malign people. They disobey their parents, lose all sensitivity and respect for people, become arrogant, boastful, heartless, and ruthless. They will even promote evil.
Max Lucado describes the attitude of the hut-building hedonist in this way. "His life strategy is summarized with two words: indulge myself. His life goal is to satisfy his passions. His favorite phrase is, 'Live it up!' He has no established boundaries in life except, 'If it feels good, do it.' His bumper sticker reads, 'Life is short. Play hard.' His one complaint in life is, 'I can’t play enough.' His theology is to disregard God. His view of sin is that no one is guilty. His self-analysis is, 'I may be bad, but so what?' His view of God’s grace is, 'Who, me?' He is always bored because he cannot find satisfaction in the hut that he exchanged for the mansion in heaven."
A lot of times when I’m done eating I’ll put my plate on the floor for our dogs. The paper plate may contain a few crumbs. But the dogs always attack the plate with ferocious, unquenchable zeal, as if being given a feast. But the crumbs aren’t even a snack. They aren’t intended to satisfy. Yet our dogs will literally lick a hole in the plate. They live totally in that moment, hoping to squeeze maximum satisfaction out of breadcrumbs.
The hut-building hedonist earns God’s wrath because he tries to replace God. He tries to squeeze ultimate satisfaction out of family relationships, his spouse, his children’s successes, education, job advancement, career moves, money, possessions, material things, clothes, vacations, hobbies, recreation, sexuality, lust, alcohol, eating, drugs, partying, carousing, television, internet, video games, sleeping, people, and self.
But ultimate satisfaction is not found in anything but Jesus Christ alone. The gradual dissent down the slippery slope of ungodliness, while promising everything, actually delivers nothing but brokenness, hardship, and one unfulfilled desire after another.
In Romans 1:18 (NIV) Paul speaks of God's righteous judgement on the hut-building hedonist. "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness."
Second, Paul profiles what Max Lucado calls the "fault-finding judgementalist."
The fault-finding judgementalist is the person who is always comparing himself to others. He is always monitoring his neighbor. He is a finger-pointer. He is stuck up. He is always looking down his nose at the faults of others. He believes that as long as he can find someone worse, he is safe. The fault-finding judgementalist is very evasive. He wants to distract God by putting a microscope on others, while pulling a dark curtain over his own life.
He fuels his goodness by pointing out the failures of others. He is the neighborhood watchdog, passing out citations for people to clean up their acts, never noticing the garbage on his own front lawn. He spends all his time looking over the fence at his neighbor. His one regret in life is, "I can’t see enough." His bumper sticker reads, "God is watching you, and so am I."
His view of sin is, “He is guilty." His view of grace is, "Yes, you." His self-analysis is, "I may be bad, but I’m better than…" The distinguishing trait of the fault-finding judgementalist is bitterness. He is bitter because he conveniently focuses on the sins of others instead of dealing with the sin in his own life.
This past week Jason, Jay, and I went out for breakfast. At the restaurant Jason breaks the news to me that the reverse lights on my jeep are not working. Perhaps I just blew a fuse, who knew? Have you ever blown a fuse? Deeply hurt by his accusation, I resolved to do something about it as soon as possible. But then we were driving back to the church and sure enough, in my rear view mirror I notice that Jason himself had a headlight out! I thought, "That rascal. How dare he point out the failures of my reverse lights when all the while he is driving around with a headlight out!" Filled with righteous indignation, I confronted Jason in the parking lot as soon as he parked his car. I shouted, "You hypocrite!"
As he drifted into deep shock, I told him that his headlight was out and that he should first take the plank out of his own eye before telling me about the speck in mine. Okay, perhaps I was being a bit melodramatic. "Jason, I took care of my reverse lights. What about your headlights?"
Anyhow, this is exactly what the fault-finding judgementalist does. He accentuates the negatives of others, but is blind to the sin in his own life. He purports an image of morality, but in reality it is clever diversion and a smoke screen. Listen to what Paul says about God’s judgment on the fault-finding judgementalist.
In Romans 2:1-11 (NIV) Paul says, "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?"
"But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God 'will give to each person according to what he has done.' To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism."
Last, Paul profiles what Max Lucado calls the "rock-stacking legalist."
The rock-stacking legalistic independent and proud. He thinks he can save himself. He sees his sin and sets out to resolve it all by himself. He strives to make himself righteous. He tries to build his own pathway to God through morality. He invites others to measure his merits. He is a busy beaver. He is always stressed out from shouldering the requirements of the law. He proudly declares, "I’m a good person, and all good people go to heaven."
Paul is less than impressed with the rock-stacking legalist. He smells a rat. In Romans 2:17-24 (NIV) he unravels the legalist's self-righteousness. "Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: 'God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.' "
Paul’s point is that the rock-stacking legalist ultimately gets buried under an avalanche of his own making. His self-made righteousness comes crashing down when measured according to the most basic standards of God’s law.
Godlessness is relying on self.
In reflecting on the hut-building hedonist, the fault-finding judgementalist, and the rock-stacking legalist, Max Lucado has this to say. "Quite a trio, don’t you think? The first on a barstool. The second in the judge’s chair. The third on the church pew. Though they may appear different, they are very much alike. All are separated from the Father. And none is asking for help. The first indulges his passions, the second monitors his neighbor, and the third measures his own merits. Self-satisfaction. Self-justification. Self-salvation. The operative word is self. Self-sufficient. They never give God the time of day."
Lucado continues, "Paul’s word for this is godlessness. Godlessness. The word defines itself. A life minus God. Worse than a disdain for God, this is a disregard for God .How does God respond to godless living? Not flippantly. Romans 1:18 (NIV) says, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and wickedness." Paul’s main point is not a light one. God is justly angered over the actions of his children."
Let’s run with Max Lucado’s understanding of godlessness. Godlessness is the absence of God in a person’s life. The absence of God in our lives angers and offends God. It is the basis for his wrath. The hut-building hedonist is guilty of self-satisfaction. The fault-finding judgementalist is guilty of self-justification. The rock-stacking legalist is guilty of self-sufficiency. All three have diminished God and have become the center of their own universe. One suppresses the truth by his wickedness. One suppresses the truth by pointing out the faults of others. And the last suppresses the truth by being religious.
In Romans 3:9-12 (NIV) Paul asks, "What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: 'There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."
What Paul is saying is that all of us, without exception, have dipped our hands in sin. There isn’t a righteous person in this room. Some of us tend to be hut-building hedonists who try to find ultimate satisfaction without Christ. Some of us tend to be fault-finding judgementalists who walk around with a magnifying glass on the faults of others, pointing out other people's sins while ignoring their own. Some of us tend to be rock-building legalists who try to build our own paths to God through good works, through religion, through rituals, and through self-effort. But all of us need Christ. None of us are righteous. No, not one. If left to ourselves we will face the fierce wrath of God and perish for eternity.
In Romans 3:20-24 (NIV) Paul says, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. Butnow a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."
The good news is not that we are all sinners. That is the bad news. The bad news is that apart from Christ, we are under sin and under God’s curse. But the good news is that God has intervened on our behalf.
Romans 5:6-8 (NIV) says, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
We can move out from under God’s curse by stepping into a relationship with Christ. Through faith in Jesus Christ we can crucify the ungodly old man and live for God. Through faith in Jesus Christ, Christ can become the greatest reality in our lives. Christ can be enthroned king forever. We can transition from ungodliness to godliness.
There are two kinds of people in this world. There are godly and ungodly. There is no third alternative. There is no gray area. There is a line in the sand. You are either for God or against God. You either have Christ or you don’t. You're either heaven-oriented or hell-oriented. I know where Jesus Christ wants you. He wants you stepping off that slippery slope of ungodliness. He wants your faith. He wants your repentance. He wants to wash you clean of sin in the waters of baptism. He wants you to confess him to be Lord and Savior of your life. He wants to be the biggest fact in your life.