Spiritual Scoliosis - Tim Phillips

In his book The Gospel-Driven Life, Michael Horton makes this vivid observation:

“Picking up on a phrase from Augustine, the Protestant Reformers said that as fallen sinners we are all ‘curved in on ourselves.’ Born with a severe case of spiritual scoliosis, our spines are twisted so that all we can see are our own immediate felt needs, desires, wants, and momentary gratifications. But the gospel makes us stand erect, looking up to God in faith and out to the world and our neighbors in love and service. Not every piece of news can do that, but the gospel can.”

But do we really believe this? Perhaps the Reformers, et al, have made too much of this. Perhaps we are a little fallen, like wobbly toddlers, but not that fallen. Perhaps we have just enough life to pick ourselves up by our spiritual bootstraps and blaze our own spiritual trail unto salvation.

But then, on the other hand, the Apostle Paul makes the following statements:

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.”(Ephesians 2:1)

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)

“It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.” (1 Timothy 1:15)

We were dead (not just sick, not just dying) in our sins. We were helpless apart from the saving work of Christ. He came not to save the righteous, but to save sinners – even the chief of sinners.

So why do we bristle so much at this notion? The short answer is that we probably have more of the world in ourselves than we care to admit. The world resists the simple message of the gospel, and these objections manage to trickle their way into the church, to our shame.

Horton also notes:

“To the extent that we remain pilgrims in this life, the gospel will remain strange even to us. Until the day we die, we will struggle to believe the bad news and Good News that God announces to us. We do not just naturally think that we are born in sin, spiritually dead, helpless, and unable to lift a finger to save ourselves or impress a holy God. As a result, it does not just occur to us that our greatest need is to be redeemed, justified, regenerated, sanctified, and glorified by God’s saving work in his Son and by his Spirit. If the “Good News” that we proclaim is determined by what we already know—or think we know—and experience, it isn’t really news. Limited to whatever we already think is relevant, practical, and useful, the message will never be surprising, disorienting, and troubling. It can never throw us off balance or cause us to reevaluate our priorities and interpretations of reality.”

Until we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, our back will be bent under the heavy burden of our sin, and nothing we do, say, or think can change that. But God can, by His grace, through the good news of the gospel message. The gospel may offend, it may be foolish in the eyes of the world, but this is where true life will be found. Then in the cross of Christ we will – like Bunyan’s pilgrim – have the burden loosed from our shoulders,and fall off our backs, and tumble into the sepulcher, where we will see it no more.