Can mankind start all over again and get our values right?

on Jun 15, 2024

From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

Q: Is there any hope that mankind can start all over again and get our values right? God gave us a perfect world, Adam and Eve really messed up, and people continue to destroy everything God has given. – S.O.

A: Some will say that education is the answer to these questions; suggesting that crime doesn’t pay, that illicit sex is psychologically harmful, that excessive drinking is injurious to the body and brain. Programs of social and personal reform are launched continually.

Others say that science is the answer, saying that science can make a clean bomb or a harmless cigarette. Science, they say, can tap the brain of man and alter his desires.

But the Bible tells us a different story. It says that we are possessed of a sinful, fallen nature which wars against us and it seeks to destroy us. Paul wrote of his struggle (see Romans 7:21). Evil is present to cleverly disguise itself as good, to control and deceive us. We aren’t at peace with ourselves or with God. That’s what the cross of Christ is all about: to reconcile us to God and to give us a new nature.

Man without God is a contradiction, a paradox, a monstrosity. Paul found the cure for his violent, destructive disposition – not at the university, or in the culture of Greece, but on the Damascus road in Syria when he met Jesus Christ. He wrote, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free” (Romans 8:2, NKJV).

Before his conversion, Paul saw Christ as the greatest evil, but after he encountered Him, he loved what he had so fervently hated. Then he could see evil as evil and good as good. His values were straightened out because his nature had been changed by the redeeming grace of God. It is possible to start life anew.

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(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)