No One is Safe

"No one is safe," Johnny Depp complained as he bemoaned the cancel culture prevalent in our day. Oh, make no mistake, it is prevalent. Transgress the line in your personal life and they will come for you and they will end you. That line is variable and moving, but it is no less real. Depp complained about it when he was about to receive a lifetime achievement award for his acting roles. He was convicted in the UK of being violent with his ex-wife, and he hasn't worked much since. Even this award was protested by women's rights groups even though the award was not for his character, but his work.

It is, however, trivial in the broader view. The psalmist wrote, "If You, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" (Psa 130:3). Who indeed? Consider. "If You, O LORD, should mark iniquities ..." the psalmist begins. And God does. He knows everything. He doesn't merely know the violation. He knows the motive, the actions, the actual fault, the severity of the crime. Further, the claim of the Depps of this world is, "I didn't do it!" Maybe. Maybe not. Lacking omniscience, we can't know for sure. We can just remove "reasonable doubt." God has no such problem. He knows everything (Psa 139:3-7). Our sin is not hidden from Him (Jer 16:17-18). There is no question, no evasion, no mitigation. He knows our iniquities; we cannot hide our guilt from Him. What He offers is perfect justice ... and that's not something we can stand.

It is, then, a matter of immense importance that we find a solution to this intolerable condition. We cannot simply go back and apologize. The requirement is "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt 5:48). The requirement is that everything we do is for God's glory (1 Cor 10:31). We all fall short of His glory (Rom 3:23). Johnny Depp is convinced that "no one is safe" from this cancel culture. It is much, much worse to consider this sin condition we face.

In the face of this horribly bad news, the good news becomes huge. Left to ourselves, the just response to our sin condition would make the cancel culture look like a play date. So when Jesus comes on the scene and becomes sin (2 Cor 5:21) in order that we might become righteousness, it is phenomenal. It isn't achieved by being good. It isn't obtained by hiding the "bad marks" against us. We don't get a pass on justice. He paid the price -- the just price we owed. The good news, then, is that we who trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness can stand in Christ's righteousness before a just Judge. In fact, it's an option that cancel culture does not provide.