Repent and believe the gospel. Which is precisely what I would have said to George Floyd, had I the opportunity. Which doesn’t in the least suggest a moral equivalency between the actions of the two. It does, however, suggest a moral equivalency between the persons of the two. Both men bear the image of their Maker. As such both are due, on this earthly sphere, dignity and respect. That one failed to show such to the other changes not what both are owed.
From their Maker, however, both are due nothing but wrath and judgment. Both have fallen well short of God’s call to live in perfect obedience. Each of these two men woke up, in themselves, and just like the rest of us, under a death sentence from the Judge of heaven and earth. That sentence, because of the absolute justice of the Judge, must be served. The promise of the gospel, however, is that Jesus suffered that sentence for all who rest in Him. It is finished.
Repenting and believing the gospel, however, impacts not just eternity but the here and now. What it does is remind us that we are all Chauvin-ists. We all think too highly of ourselves, and see others as the wicked. They, whomever “they” may be to “us” the bad ones and we the good. Except the truth is we are the bad ones and He the good. We are a nation of murderers. Roughly 40 million moms, along with 40 million husbands, boyfriends, fathers, in this country alone have murdered their own children.
Such does nothing to diminish the horror of what Derek Chauvin did. Instead it reveals the horror that we are all more than capable of. I know a man who took a couple of children, and without their consent, put them in his car and proceeded to endanger their lives and the lives of many others by driving down the highway while fall-down drunk. Those children were my own. Who would do such a thing? Me. I did it. Lifelong Christian. Theology professor. Author of multiple Christian books. Conference speaker. Sinner, saved by grace.
When the eyes of the nation are drawn to the spectacle of video of a man being slowly choked to death by a man sworn to protect and defend, and then to the spectacle of looting, rioting, cities in flames, the question to ask is not, “What is wrong with you people?” but “What is wrong with me?” Now is not the time to bloviate on systems of oppression, to pontificate in order to mitigate, to contain and explain the inexcusable. Now is the time to recognize what is in us, the vile stench of our own sinfulness that has been viral from the beginning. We don’t need a national conversation on race. We don’t need remedial teaching on proper restraint techniques. What we need is a national conversation on our universal need for God’s grace and the fullness of His provision in Christ.
When we witness wickedness we are called to recognize ourselves. When we see ourselves we are calle to call on the name of the Lord. Repent, and believe the gospel. It is what we all need to hear, submit to, embrace, proclaim and rest in.
Romans 7
…15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[d] a slave to the law of sin.
James 3
…Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.