The Cross and a World Come of Age

In his Letters and Papers From Prison, Deitrick Bonhoeffer wrestled with how Germany, one of the most civilized, enlightened nations in the world, had succumbed to Nazism. He concluded that God had been pushed out of a world that had “come of age.” The God of Scripture had become the One people called on when they reached the end of themselves.[1] Evil stepped into the spiritual void.

In the 1930s, Hitler civilized evil by exalting the Aryan race and vilifying Jews as parasites that fed off the German people. Hitler outlawed Jewish civil rights, deported entire families, and finally sent them to death camps.

Hannah Arendt, a Jewish philosopher, attended the trial of Adolf Eichman in the early 1960s and wrote Eichmann in Jerusalem, A Report on the Banality of Evil. Banality means ordinary, dull, unoriginal. Arndt was struck by Eichmann’s insipid shallowness and inability to think deeply about anything. The examining psychiatrist said Eichmann was a completely normal man. He didn’t hate Jews, never personally killed one or gave an order to kill one. He even helped a Jew in Auschwitz get lighter work.[2] He prided himself on designing, developing, and managing the most efficient, cost effective way to settle the Jewish problem for Hitler.

This everyday man was responsible for killing six million Jews and millions more Poles, Christians, Russians, gypsies, Blacks, and the physically and mentally disabled. This is evil.

The Evil of Sin

In everyday life, the depth and breadth of evil is too awful to comprehend. No medical, psychological, or social science theory can sufficiently explain why a man stabbed a young woman on the lite rail for no reason at all or an assassin killed Charlie Kirk because he hated him for his politics and Christian faith.

People who don’t know Christ must deny the depth and breadth of evil within and around them. They carelessly deem evil good, and good evil, but mainly they prefer not to think deeply about it at all.

For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person (Mk 7:21–23).

Sometimes I wonder if Christians believe that sin is as evil as the Bible says it is or that repentance before God and others heals them, body and soul. America has “come of age” and many people, including Christians, prefer the counsel of therapists, counselors, and recovery groups rather than prayerfully repenting before God and those they’ve harmed.

Secular Counseling and Repentance

In my twenties, I worked at a state psychiatric hospital that treated people with chronic mental illnesses such as serious depressions, delusions, and psychotic disorders. For many years, I conducted a private practice and treated people struggling with relationship issues, depression, anxiety, and fear. Before and after Christ saved me, I watched psychological terms and theories and those of the recovery movements enter American mainstream culture. Today conventional wisdom is that a person’s childhood experiences and relationships strongly influence and perhaps determine adult functioning. The culture has “come of age.” If something can be explained by the physical and social sciences, most people assume that nothing spiritual is involved.

Andy, a Christian man, had a violent temper. His wife threatened to leave, and his children begged him to see a counselor. He agreed and in counseling Andy talked about his anger problem. He shared that his father’s explosive temper terrified him as a child, just as he now scared his wife and children. The counselor listened compassionately and suggested ways for Andy to manage his anger. Eventually, Andy apologized to his wife and children for losing control and explained that experiences with his father predisposed him to act badly. His wife and children appreciated his effort and self-control. Andy prayerfully thanked God for loving him in spite of his shortcomings.

Learning to control one’s temper is commendable, and counseling and medications can be helpful. But noticeably absent from the story is a acknowledgement and confession of sin. Also missing is prayerful repentance to God and to each member of his family. Rage-filled attacks against family members, and any one for that matter, are not slip ups. They are evil and an affront to God.

Clothed in Christ and armed with his Word, Christians can appreciate the seriousness of sin and influence of the demons. Christians must think deeply and prayerfully from a biblical perspective. God alone cleanses us of unrighteousness and evil.

Repentance is Godly Sorrow

King David saw Bathsheba, sent messengers, took Bathsheba (Uriah’s wife), and lay with her (2 Sam 11:4 ESV). He ordered her husband to the front lines where he was killed (14–17). Later Nathan the prophet confronted David who repented. He prayed, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Ps 51:4). David’s sorrow was sincere and deep. He appealed to God’s hesed, his loyal love—love that never lets go. God restored David to fellowship with him. God wants us close to him.

Repentance is godly sorrow and deep grief for sins that separate us from God and one another. Genuine repentance restores our relationship with God and those we’ve injured. God transforms us to reflect the righteousness of Jesus who lived a sinless life, died a dreadful death on the cross to atone for human sin. He rose from the dead and sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for his people. We mustn’t diminish the evil from which Christ saved us or the cost he paid to rescue us from the dominion of darkness.  

Since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful (Heb 10:21–23).  

Without Christ, people cannot discern evil or God’s amazing Presence in his world. Christ gives us the ability to discern good and evil (1 Cor 2:14–15). Christians draw near to Christ and think deeply about what we see, read, and hear. Inspired and emboldened by God the Holy Spirit, we proclaim the gospel and represent Christ in this fallen world. When sin increases, his grace abounds (Ro 5:20). Praise God! Praise the Savior Jesus Christ!

[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters & Papers From Prison (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co, 1971) 327, 341.
[2] Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York: Penguin Group, 2006) xv, 22, 51.