A youth ministry initiative by RBC Ministries
where you can find devotionals and resources for youth.
A youth ministry initiative by RBC Ministries
where you can find devotionals and resources for youth.
By Rachel Ang, 21, Singapore
The portrait of a beautiful young man sits in an abandoned and dusty corner of a luxurious mansion. As the owner of the picture travels the path of hedonism, denying himself none of his desires for pleasure, the figure on the canvas decays, wrinkles and turns loathsome and hideous. It was a reflection of the man’s ravaged soul.
So goes the story of Oscar Wilde’s only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, even if slightly over-simplified. But for a person who indulged in an equally glamorous, pleasurable and terrible lifestyle, Oscar Wilde seemed to have a good idea of the toll of sin on a person’s soul.
And the degradation of sin is inevitable. “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death” (James 1:14).
We might not be over-indulging in pleasure as Dorian Gray did, but none of us can truthfully say that we have never had wicked thoughts before. We have to be taught how to be good, and even then, we often fail. If left to ourselves, our depravity would overwhelm us.
But we seldom realize this. I often find myself feeling proud of all the good things that I’ve done, while forgetting to be ashamed of all of the bad that far outweighs them. Because the ugliness of sin is not visible or tangible to us as it was to Dorian Gray, it’s so easy to become self-righteous and forget that we would not be able to make it on our own strength and efforts alone.
Hold on a moment. Why is it so important to keep in mind that we are bad? Shouldn’t we be focusing on the good and happy things so that progress in humanity can be made? What’s the rationale behind this almost masochistic harping on how deplorable we are?
The answer: It is only when we realize how wicked we are, and how helpless to save ourselves from that wickedness, that we can truly appreciate God’s grace in providing us salvation through Christ.
All of us used to live that way [in sin], following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature . . . But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)
Ephesians 2:3-5
When Jesus Christ came to die on the cross, He was here not for the spiritually healthy, but the sick. “’For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners’” (Matthew 9:13b).
Admitting transgression is something most of us would have been trained not to do. Yet it is the first step to being saved. At the display of Jesus’ divine power, Peter’s reaction was to fall to his knees in fear and declare, “I am too much of a sinner…!” (Luke 5:8b). Without this conviction of sin, we remain blind to the truth of how much we need God in our lives.
As a Christian, this thought helped me to appreciate so much more what God has done for me in sending Christ. I am thankful for God’s mercy and grace.
If you are not yet a believer, maybe you could take some time to think about this question that Dorian Gray was eventually challenged with: “What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?” (Mark 8:36).
