“A powerful testament to the power of the human spirit!” “A moving tribute to the resilience of the human spirit!” “It will restore your faith in the human spirit!” If it’s from Hollywood, and it’s meant to inspire (and especially if it’s a based on a true story), chances are it’ll have some variation of those words endorsing it.
Whether the plot involves an underdog sports team, a fight for equality, a person beaten down by the circumstances of life, or someone literally fighting for survival, the “human spirit’s” ability to “rise above” is usually the primary take-home lesson. Even the not-so-directly-inspiring movies generally have the same message at heart. The action hero that uses his wits, muscle and firepower–lots of firepower–to save the girl/hostages/world, or the astronaut who makes it back to earth alive, or the survivors of any of a thousand other life-threatening scenarios are all teachers giving essentially the same lecture: eventually that good ol’ “power of the human will” comes through for them in the end, and generally without any meaningful mention of God or acknowledged divine intervention at all. All the glory is directed at the sheer will power of the individual(s) who overcame; that deep-down determination that just wouldn’t let them quit.
The Bible, though not using the same terminology, also speaks of the human spirit in a sense, and its “triumphing” quality. Though it’s infinitely more accurate, the picture God’s Word paints of our spirit isn’t nearly as inspiring as that of the entertainment industry. The term commonly used in Scripture is “the flesh,” and it’s nothing worth praising. Galatians 5:19-21 lists the “works of the flesh,” activities and motives that sound more descriptive of an arch-villain than a superhero who would try to stop him: “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like....” The Bible speaks of the unregenerate as those who live “according to the flesh” (Romans 8:5). In Romans 8 Paul goes on to say “...the carnal [Greek: sarx, literally, “flesh”] mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (vs. 7-8). We are told here that the mind governed by the flesh, that indomitable “human spirit,”is not, and furthermore cannot be, subject to God’s holy law. The mind driven by these fleshly desires views God, whether or not consciously, as its enemy, and it will not submit to His commands or authority. When Paul says that the carnal or fleshly mind can neither be subject to the law of God nor please Him, he’s not saying that the unsaved experience inner turmoil, wishing that they could do what pleases God by acting according to His righteous commands but are unable to do so; he’s saying that their desires are fully man-centered rather than God-centered, and nothing within them can cause their disposition towards God to change. From birth, sin has permeated every aspect of our being and holds us firmly. We don’t like the negative effects of sin’s rule over us, but we show our support of its dominion every time we choose to give in to our fleshly, self-centered desires. We are slaves to our sinful flesh, but we are voluntary slaves. This is the true human nature, and it has indeed triumphed over us.
“Wait a minute!” I can hear the protest. “You’re not comparing apples to apples here. What the Bible refers to as “the flesh” and what the world calls “the human spirit” are obviously not the same thing. The world is referring to the good in people, and Scripture is referring to the evil in people.” It is true, many of the “works of the flesh” listed in Galatians 5 are recognized even by the unregenerate as being morally repugnant. However, if we look below the surface of the world’s portrayal of that “good in people,” I think we’ll see that they are, in fact, two perspectives of the same human nature.
As mentioned earlier, when the world’s most praiseworthy heroes are overcoming the various difficult situations they find themselves in, they generally accomplish their victories apart from any assistance from God; and if God is fortunate enough to get an honorable mention, He’s pictured in passing as little more than always-only-sympathetic being who helps things along when it looks really desperate. There are exceptions, even in today’s mainstream entertainment, but that’s generally as good as it gets. The Almighty, sovereign over all circumstances, requiring heartfelt obedience and faith in Him, and working all things primarily for His own glory, is absent in today’s storytelling. The victory belongs solely to the human(s) involved. From a worldly perspective, people giving praise and glory to other people for showing inner strength and single-handedly overcoming when the odds are against them makes complete sense. After all, the hero is showing the world that he (and thus also the viewer) can do it, with or without God’s help. Furthermore, although they may ignore God and His ways, they can still be really good people, sacrificing for others and defeating real evil in the world. Ethan Hunt or 007 may not have much regard for the Lord’s name or treat women quite the way you’d want your daughters treated, but that doesn’t negate the fact that they’re obviously good guys when it counts! Right?
Sometimes what the world views as virtue is an amoral wolf in a virtuous sheep’s clothing. Scripture has words for those who would say that we can do it all without the Lord. Much of Ecclesiastes consists of Solomon’s rebuke against just such an attitude, one of living as if what is before our eyes, or “under the sun,” is all there is. Verses 11 and 12 of chapter 9 say this, “I...saw under the sun that—The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all. For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them.” In other words, you can think your strength or intelligence can save you, but.....they won’t. What the onlookers in the world may see as “time and chance,” Scripture reveals to be the providential hand of God. God controls the outcomes of the more trivial events in life (the race) and the world-changing events (the battle). Daniel 2:21 says of God, “He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.” How vain for any of us to think the successes we have experienced in this life are due ultimately to our own wisdom or efforts! The apostle James even warns against the simple, commonplace assumption that our own plans will surely work out when he says, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil” (James 4:13-15). Though they may stop far short of outright saying, “I don’t need God’s help,” people (including Christians) can send essentially the same message by quietly neglecting to give credit for their victories where it is truly due: to God. Even in the context of doing “good” or admirable things, if the person shows no true regard for God, it’s no true virtue at all. Consider as an example: what could be considered more virtuous than sacrifice (in the Old Testament era) or prayer? Yet even “the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,” (Proverbs 15:8a) and “One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination” (Proverbs 28:9). How much less the sacrifices or other outwardly selfless deeds we may perform towards our fellow man? “Without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Hebrews 11:6, emphasis mine). That “go-get-em” human spirit may look like something good to the world, but that does not necessarily mean God is pleased.
Though in my attempt to be interesting I might be unintentionally obscuring the connection, I see these opposing views of the human nature as having a direct relationship to the first of the doctrines of grace (a.k.a. the five points of Calvinism) addressed in my last few articles posted some time ago. The foundational first point in the acronym TULIP is Total Depravity. This term refers to the all-encompassing nature of original sin–how no part of our human nature or faculty of mind or body is excepted from its corruption. The will, described by Jonathan Edwards as “that power...of mind by which it is capable of choosing,” is affected just as thoroughly by original sin as the physical body and the spiritual soul. The body gets sick and eventually dies, the soul is spiritually stillborn, and the unconverted mind (of which the will is an integral part) is oriented away from pleasing God; it is “enmity against God” as Paul put it. This understanding is the basis for the Calvinist’s conviction that when an unregenerate person is confronted with the gospel of repentance from sin and faith in Christ, apart from the effectual, saving grace of God in opening his heart to the gospel message (i.e., regenerating him), that person will reject the essential truths presented to him. His rejection of gospel truth will invariably continue to the bitter end, which is death and eternal punishment. Praise the Lord that He does indeed open hearts (see Acts 16:14)!
Man’s total or whole-person depravity is the foundational reason why the world focuses on glorifying both the self-sufficient and the self-sacrificing, but never the sovereign Lord who truly and perfectly rules over all. Mankind’s chosen perception of its own triumphing spirit may appear inspiring during a two hour movie, but as Christians, a people called to be discerning, let’s endeavor to train ourselves, even while we watch, to look a little deeper. If the only Author of true beauty is rejected, whatever is left, however it may appear, cannot be truly lovely. People will always act in accordance with their nature; if their nature is fundamentally at odds with God’s righteousness, they’ll glorify themselves in one way or another while making it look as if that’s the only reasonable and virtuous thing to do. Of course we can still cheer when the bad guys are stopped, and we can learn all kinds of worthwhile lessons from the small portion of today’s entertainment media that is worth ingesting, but let’s be careful to remember Who’s really behind the action when good goes toe to toe with evil in the real world.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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