September 24, 2023
Exposing the Sinfulness Of Mankind
“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’” John 15:20-25 (NASB)
One day, my wife and I, along with my daughter and her boyfriend were entering a store. The girls wanted to go shopping. As we entered the Marshalls store, I opened the door for the girls. They entered the first set of doors and waited for me to open the second set. As I was going to release the outer door for the boyfriend (to hold), he started to walk inside. I put my hand out and stopped him. I told him I didn’t open the door for him, but to hold it while I went in to open the second set of doors for the girls. He genuinely did not know this custom. After we went in I asked him if he thought I should hold the door for him. He asked, “Why not?” I told him “This is what you do for women.” From that day, he knew he was responsible for opening doors for women. Whether he knew it or not, he was accountable to this new truth every time.
“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.” This sentence compiles the entire thought of the verses above. When Jesus came to the world, it didn’t mean the world was sinless. It meant mankind decided to reject and rebel against God and His truth revealed through Jesus Christ. “It was the decisive sin of rejection, the deliberate and fatal choice of darkness over light and death over life of which He spoke. He had done so many miracles and spoken innumerable words to prove He was Messiah and Son of God, but they were belligerent in their love of sin and rejection of the Savior.”[1] This exposure of the sinfulness of mankind meant every person was now conscious of their response and would be held accountable. John’s entire gospel primarily concentrates on this failure of mankind to see Jesus as sent by the Father. If they receive Jesus, they receive the Father. If they reject Jesus, they reject the Father, and will “have no excuse for their sin.” Since Christ appeared in the world to show the plan of God, Jesus said “They hated Me without a cause” (or without sin). This is because Jesus truly is the Son of God, without sin. When a person is innocent, there is no accusation or condemnation to be found. They are set free from their accusers. If the person is not innocent, there is cause to hate and condemnation will come.
In the world today, there are so many people who genuinely do not know standards of genuine decency and respect for others. This is because the world teaches self-centeredness. It only wants what it wants, and it better be right now. When Jesus came to the world and it received him not (John 1:11), they showed the true condition of mankind’s heart. It is self-centered. Anything that reveals the true condition of the heart is to be rejected and hated. Now Jesus has come, the world is without excuse. Sin is revealed for what it truly is. Death. This death comes through the rejection of the Son of God. They now “have no excuse for their sin.”
[1] (MacArthur, John, 1997), 1616.