The Colossal Wreck

Deceived and Deceiving

A colleague was ruminating on the human condition the other day and pointed out one of the paradoxes of human nature.

The only human being who has ever managed to live and die in total, impeccable truth is the Lord Jesus Christ.  He alone spoke and lived in total truth before His heavenly Father, before the angels, before His family, before the state authorities, before all whom He met and with whom he interacted.

Everyone else upon earth, to one degree or other, lives a lie.  Whilst in almost every way humans are superior to all other life-forms on earth it remains true that humans are the only species on earth who live in deceit, lies, and untruthfulness--to one degree or another.  Does not the prophet say, "the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?"  [Jeremiah 17:10]

So, here we have mankind--the highest and most developed being upon the earth--at the top of the evolutionary tree, the humanists would argue.  Yet this one species is in many ways the most flawed and warped of all creatures.
  Who alone, amongst all the birds of the heavens, beasts of the field, and fish of the sea is so warped that he deceives others.  Who alone is frequently deceived by other human beings.  And who amongst all creatures finds himself the most degraded of all--that is, he wilfully deceives himself and others.

In these matters, the epitaph of Ozymandius is most apt:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Man--the highest of all creatures upon the earth.  Such a claim is both made and ardently defended by evolutionists.  Yet, way beyond every other species, every other life form upon earth, he remains deceitful above all other things.  He deceives even himself, and is desperately sick.  But such is the extent of his self-deceit he cannot see it.

Christ alone of all human beings has been able to join these two achievements.  Firstly, He remains thoroughly and completely human.  Secondly, not for one second was He ever deceived, including self-deceived.

Therefore, there is no other Name by which we may be saved--if we are to be saved at all.  [Acts 4:12]