Red Onions
You come back from grocery shopping and prepare to make the salad you’ve been craving. The greens are torn and tossed. Some shredded carrots added for color, and now for that bit of red onion to fill out the flavors before adding the final accent bits. But when you slice the onion in half you discover the center is black and slimy. The outside of the onion gave no indication of this problem. It had no blemishes. It felt firm and sound, but its interior is useless, rotted and disgusting.
Other produce can give us that same experience. They look fine on the outside but inside is a worm or rot or some other unpleasantness. But what about people? What about yourself?
Nearly every one of us has something we hope no one else ever finds out about. We take great care to polish our outer appearance… to do all we can to conceal what is within. And most of us are quite successful. We can go through our lives with most of the people we meet believing we are good people, and by human standards we probably are.
But our human nature is still corrupt and rotten. It continually wants to drag us toward those things we know we shouldn’t do or prevents us from doing what we should. Our old Adam was drowned in our baptism, but he seems to be a pretty good swimmer, surfacing over and over again. And if he gets his way, he’s going to drag us down to drown in our sinful desires.
Mark 7:20-23
20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Romans 5:15-17
For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
With a rotten piece of produce all you can do is throw it away and get another one. But through the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, His Son, our rottenness has been restored to freshness and vigor. While our sinful nature defiles us, Christ restores and redeems us. In Him and through Him we are worthy of forgiveness and everlasting life with our Lord.