“The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good” (Psalm 14:1).
Stephen Charnock: “ ‘They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who doeth good’. He speaks of the atheist in the singular, ‘the fool;’ of the corruption issuing in the life in the plural; intimating that though some few may choke in their hearts sentiments of God and his providence, and positively deny them, yet there is something of a secret atheism in all, which is the fountain of the evil practices in their lives, not an utter disowning of the being of a God, but denial or doubting of some of the rights of his nature. When men deny the God of purity, they must needs be polluted in soul and body and grow brutish in their actions. When the sense of religion is shaken off, all kinds of wickedness is eagerly rushed into, whereby they become as loathsome to God as putrefied carcasses are to men. Not one or two evil actions is the product of such a principle, but the whole scene of a man’s life is corrupted and becomes execrable [utterly detestable; abominable; abhorrent…very bad].
Clay Miller: There is what is described as an absolute atheist and then there are the actions in all of us that betray an atheism in our hearts. I think about this a lot and am still a work in progress in grasping the enormity of it. Every time I sin, in one way or another, I am acting on atheistical principles. Something of me, in those moments or times, is rejecting something about God. That scares me. It is both scary and relieving. I said that in an earlier post and forgot to explain. What I mean to say is, it is frightening to know how offensive I am in and of myself to a holy, holy, holy God. It frightens me how easily I am distracted from Him. It shows how utterly unworthy I am of him. But it is also relieving. I probably should say it like this instead, it is scary but it is also a great reminder. A reminder of what? A reminder that God’s grace covers even this sin, even this principle that I battle everyday. It is a reminder of how great God’s grace is. It is a reminder that I am insufficient and incapable of making up for my sins, or even keeping the law from here on, but God had imputed to me a righteousness that has done both…Christ’s righteousness.
The scary thing that remains scary is watching so many live in these atheistical mindsets and think they are “okay” with a God who “might” be there, or with a God they think is there (but they have created in their own image). We do not realize anymore that without Christ’s covering, we are stinky, rotten, foul smelling, putrefied dead men and women. It taints every part of our being…because even the good things we do are filthy rags to God…because they do not meet His standard of good. All of this is to drive us to the cross for forgiveness and salvation. It is to teach us that we need His Son’s sacrifice and substitutionary atonement for the propitiation (satisfying) of our sins. More later.
