"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity..." (Para. 1, Line, 1). This quote has been taken from the famous opening paragraph of Charles Dickens' novel, A Tale of Two Cities. It suggests an age of radical opposites taking place across the English Channel, in France and the United Kingdom. It contrasts and compares London and Paris during the French revolution. It might also be applied to the world in which we're living today.
There is much to be celebrated, honored and emulated all around us; the true heroes, the contributions men and women make for the sake of a better culture and community, the sacrifices everyday people make for their children and grandchildren, even neighbors and strangers. There is good all around us, and beauty and nobility. But then, there's also ugliness, inhumanity, greed and licentiousness.
What are we to make of these times in which we see the best and the worst? It really depends on our perspective, the glasses through which we see and interpret life in us and around us; our worldview. My worldview, since becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ and a student of God's Word, the Bible, is a biblical worldview. I find helpful insights and understand regarding past, current and possible future events in the timeless, truthful revelation of God's relationship with this world from creation.
Therefore, I see the good, the bad and the ugly we're all capable of displaying, and I see it from the perspective of Genesis 3, humanity's first sinful, disobedient, rebellious act and Romans 3:23: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." People do bad things to each other because there is bad in us. From creation, people were given freedom to choose what to believe and how to live because God wants us to choose Him, but we abuse our freedom and use it for selfish, destructive choices and others suffer directly or indirectly because of it.
Likewise, we can choose to do good. We can choose to bless. We can choose to love. We can choose to be unselfish servants of others for their sake and to grow a community that more closely resembles God's Kingdom. How does the best of times happen in the worst of times? How is it that anyone can choose the good over the bad, the best over the worst? My biblical worldview informs my perspective.
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked ... But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even though we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ -- by grace you have been saved ... for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:1,4,10).
The choices we make, that too often come from a sinful, rebellious, selfish spirit can be dominated instead by the new spirit, the Holy Spirit who inhabits the hearts of those who confess that sin, trusting by faith that Jesus Christ, the sinless manifestation of God, took on Himself at the cross all that sin. He satisfied God's righteousness conviction of humanity's sin and its consequence, dying in its place, and rising in God's victory over sin and death in which believers become benefactors!
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he/she is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself..." (2 Corinthians 5:18,18).
That we live in "the best of times and the worst of times" should not surprise any of us. There is a battle going on for the hearts and souls of humanity; that battle has been raging since the first sin of Adam and Eve and will continue until Satan's ultimate and final defeat.
You and I choose whose side we're on in all this. We choose the worldview and perspective we use to look at ourselves and the world around us. And that choice has consequences. Every choice does.
I invite you to look at what God is encouraging you to choose, that is, a life redeemed through faith in the One Whose mission it was, and is, to save people from the ultimate destruction that sin causes: the worst of times for all of time. For the person who confesses his or her need and trusts in Jesus Christ to be rescued, redeemed, redirected and repurposed ... life, even at its worst, is the best of times.
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Mark Voll is pastor of the Village Bible Evangelical Free Church. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Religion on 03/27/2019