Written by Gary L. Welton |
Monday, April 18, 2022
Data collected from individuals in about 150 countries through the Gallup World Poll, and summarized by the World Happiness Report, provides an answer to this question. In at least one way, we have changed for the better. This survey, conducted annually since 2006, includes three questions about altruistic behavior. Respondents are asked to indicate their behavior in donating to charity, helping a stranger, and volunteering. Answers to all three questions, across every part of the globe, increased by about 25%. During these challenging times, we have become less self-focused, and behaved in ways that showed more love and concern for others.

For the first time in our lives, we have experienced a universal international event, known as Covid-19. The World Series doesn’t come close to being a global event. The World Cup and the Olympics are much more global, but even these events bypass certain parts of the globe (and many around us have no interest in these sporting events). All of us, however, have been impacted by Covid-19. We have all, at times, been wearing masks, monitoring our social distancing, and discussing the pros and cons of various treatments and vaccines.
This pandemic has wrought tragedy in so many ways. We have seen more than six million Covid deaths across the globe, with a disproportionate number in the United States, where we are approaching one million deaths. In addition, there was a surge in alcohol-related deaths in 2020. We have seen heightened levels of anxiety and depression associated with the social distancing, an increased sense of vulnerability, and a loss of perceived control. This has occurred in conjunction with issues of social justice, an opioid crisis, and Putin’s attack on the country of Ukraine.
It is certainly a troubling time to be alive, yet my mother always said that above every cloud, the sun shines. Where can I find that silver lining?
Data collected from individuals in about 150 countries through the Gallup World Poll, and summarized by the World Happiness Report, provides an answer to this question. In at least one way, we have changed for the better.
This survey, conducted annually since 2006, includes three questions about altruistic behavior. Respondents are asked to indicate their behavior in donating to charity, helping a stranger, and volunteering. Answers to all three questions, across every part of the globe, increased by about 25%. During these challenging times, we have become less self-focused, and behaved in ways that showed more love and concern for others.
I have observed such behavior as I saw people donating their stimulus checks to those who needed the money more than they did. I have seen offering numbers within my local church and across my denomination increase in unexpected ways. This survey indicates that we have become more willing, not only to help our brother, but also to help strangers. Yes, I am my brother’s keeper, but also, “we are the world,” and we have indicated that our concerns and behaviors have broadened to the helping of strangers at this difficult time.
Now, as we are anticipating yet another Covid wave in the United States, based on increases across Europe and in certain parts of Asia, and as we see inflation approaching 10%, we realize that our struggles pale in comparison to the citizens of Ukraine. European countries in general, and Poland in particular, have risen to the challenge, welcoming refugees by the hundreds of thousands, even by the millions, demonstrating that not only are we our brother’s keeper, but we are also a keeper of the strangers across the globe.
The Covid years have been a deadly era, and I speak as one who lost a close family member, and as one who grieves with students, classmates, church colleagues, and many friends. In comparison, the Ukraine invasion has totally disrupted the lives of an entire region of Europe. This is an era that will live in infamy.
Yet, there is a silver lining. If we respond by reducing our radical individualism, to demonstrate more concern for our brothers, our neighbors, and the strangers around the world, there will be a lasting positive impact, in the midst of human tragedy. Let’s all accept this challenge.
Dr. Gary L. Welton is assistant dean for institutional assessment, professor of psychology at Grove City College, and a contributor to the Institute for Faith & Freedom. He is a recipient of a major research grant from the Templeton Foundation to investigate positive youth development. Use with permission.

The opposing law that can overcome the law of sin and death is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit is able to overcome the law of sin and death with life by working faith in the sinner’s heart and thus uniting the sinner to Christ as the source of the sinner’s salvation. By working faith in the sinner’s heart, the Spirit applies to the sinner the redemption accomplished by Jesus.The hymn “Rock of Ages” says, “Be of sin the double cure: save from wrath and make me pure.” Another version of the same hymn says, “Be of sin the double cure: save me from its guilt and power.” Both versions are expressing the same thought. Lost sinners have a double problem. Sinners have broken God’s law and therefore have a bad legal record before God. They are guilty of sin and are under God’s condemnation and are subject to God’s judicial wrath. Their second problem is that they have a bad heart, a heart that is in rebellion against God, a heart that is inclined toward disobeying God’s law. This is the double problem, and Jesus through His saving work is the double cure. Our salvation through our saving union with Jesus saves us from the condemning guilt of sin and from the enslaving power of sin. In Christ Jesus, we have a new legal record and a new heart.
Now these two cures are two distinct cures that address two distinct problems. We mustn’t confuse them or mix them together. At the same time, we mustn’t separate them. These two cures always occur together because they are both based on our saving union with Jesus. Jesus never gives someone a new legal record without giving them at the same time a new heart, and Jesus never gives someone a new heart without at the same time giving them a new legal record. Someone may say that he wants Jesus to forgive his sins but not to deliver him from his sinful lifestyle. This sort of thinking is not uncommon today. Someone more religious might say that he wants Jesus to deliver him from sinful living but that he does not want Jesus to forgive his sins outright because as a matter of pride, he wants to help earn his own forgiveness, as if that were possible. Jesus says no to both these requests. Salvation is always a double cure. Saving faith is trusting Jesus and Jesus alone for salvation, and that salvation consists in both forgiveness of sins and deliverance from sin.
I want to examine this double cure as it is found in the first four verses of Romans chapter eight:
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (NKJ)
In Romans chapter eight, the Apostle Paul first said, “There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” The key word here is “condemnation.” That is a legal term, and that tells us that the Apostle Paul is here referring to the legal aspect of salvation. When a judge condemns someone, he declares him guilty. That is the opposite of justification. When a judge justifies someone, he declares him innocent or righteous. When the Apostle Paul said that there is no condemnation to the person who is in Christ Jesus, that was just a negative, backdoor way of saying that a person who is in Christ Jesus is justified.
The second thing to notice here is the use of the word “now.” The word “now” indicates that this new legal status is immediate. It is a complete reality at this very moment. A person doesn’t have to wait until the end of this life to see if he is justified because his good works outweigh his bad works or if he is condemned because his bad works outweigh his good works. That is the way that many people think about salvation. They think that they won’t know and can’t know if they will spend eternity as a justified person or as a condemned person until after this life is over. That is not what the Apostle Paul said. The Apostle Paul said that “there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”
The third thing to notice here is the use of the little word “no.” The word “no” as in “no condemnation” indicates that the legal status of justification is perfectly complete. The Apostle Paul didn’t say that the person who is in Christ Jesus is mostly justified or has only a smidgen of remaining condemnation or has been washed almost as white as snow. The Apostle Paul said that there is absolutely no condemnation, not one iota, not one molecule, not one single scrap, to those who are in Christ Jesus. All of a Christian’s guilt, one hundred percent of it, has been erased, removed and buried in the depths of the sea.
The fourth thing to notice here is that this is true of all those who are in a saving union with Jesus Christ, a saving union that we experience as our faith in Jesus alone for our salvation. The Apostle Paul was here describing the legal status that gets a person into heaven, the legal ticket that gains admission to heaven, the legal key that opens the door to heaven. This is the perfect and complete righteousness that only Jesus can provide for us based on His saving work in our place and on our behalf.
Jesus accomplished this through what some call the great exchange. Jesus accepted responsibility for the guilt of the Christian’s sins and then suffered the punishment for that guilt through His suffering and death on the cross.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.Isaiah 53:5-6
Jesus accepted the responsibility for the guilt of our sin. Jesus then bore the punishment for that sin and paid the penalty in full. On the cross Jesus said, “It is finished!” or “It is paid in full!” Jesus then gives those who believe in Him forgiveness based on His atoning work in their place. That is one half of the great exchange.
The other half of the great exchange has to do with Jesus’ legal record of perfect obedience. Jesus never once sinned in thought, word or deed. Though tempted by the devil with the full force of his diabolical ability, Jesus never once sinned. Though obeying the will of His heavenly Father meant submitting to the painful and shameful death of the cross, Jesus never once sinned. Jesus has a perfect legal record before God, and Jesus imputes this perfect legal record to all who believe in Him. Jesus reckons this perfect legal standing of righteousness to all who believe in Him. Jesus is our righteousness.
For [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.2 Corinthians 5:21
This is the great exchange: Jesus receives our guilt, and we receive His righteousness.
So the Apostle Paul begins chapter eight with this wonderful statement about the Christian’s justification. The Christian’s legal status before God is right now, at this very moment, perfect and complete based on the Christian’s saving union with Jesus and Jesus’ saving work.

That is a terrifying reality. Everything – every harbored thought, every nursed sense of entitlement, every quiet resentment or lust or whatever – will not be private forever. They will all eventually be laid bare before the One who already knows them. And as if that thought isn’t frightening enough, we are reminded that these are not innocuous secrets – we are accountable for them, too. So what do we do with that reality?

“Where are you?”
The question rang out across the garden. The first humans, who had enjoyed perfect fellowship with their Creator and lived in perfect harmony with the rest of His creation, had walked and talked in naked transparency with God and with each other. But not any more.
Now they were hiding.
Now they were self-conscious.
Now they were filled with the guilt and shame that came from their lack of faith and rebellion.
And God asked them a question. But He wasn’t asking because He didn’t know the answer; He knew very well where they were, just as He knew very well what they had done. The purpose of the question was not informational; it was confessional. The man and woman needed to own what they had done; they needed to acknowledge it to God. They weren’t telling Him anything He didn’t already know – they were owning up to what He already did.
There are no secrets with God. Confession, for us now as it was then, is not informational in nature. That is, for most of us, a terrifying reality because all of us like to think we have secrets. Secret thoughts. Secret desires. Secret hatred. Secret selfish ambition. And yet all of that secrecy is really a matter of self-delusion – God already knows. In fact, He already knows more about the inmost recesses of our hearts than we do.
And yet we talk ourselves into the notion that we actually do have secrets. Or at least we do temporarily, because in time, even the idea of secrets will be obliterated:
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Heb. 4:12-13).
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