Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own*

We are all familiar with the classic Bible story of the Tower of Babel. Found in Genesis 11, this old tale tells the story of how the peoples of the Earth came together to build a massive tower that would reach to the heavens. God, in His divine omniscience, knew that this was a terrible idea, and he came and scattered the peoples and confused their languages. As orthodox Christians, we rightly ascribe the beginning of different languages to this event. But I think there’s more here than just a historical explanation for the creation of languages.

As strange as it may sound, as I interpret the passage, I think God is teaching us a political lesson here. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a new political movement sprung up in America. It was called “progressivism.” Progressivism was a political ideology that saw the need for major reforms in American life, politics, and economics. So far so good. Reform is often needed, and there have been many excellent progressive reforms in the past and even today. The fatal Biblical flaw of progressivism (which still is around today) is not that it saw radical reform as right and proper, but that it saw this reform as a means to self-perfection and utopia. Basically, progressives held (and still do believe) that if their reforms are implemented, then humanity as a race will be improved, bettered, and even perfected. The obvious flaw here is progressivism’s failure to take into account the sinful nature of man. Basically, progressives think they can make individuals and societies better by self-improvement.

I know the analogy isn’t airtight by any means, but I think that those who tried to build the Tower of Babel were the progressives of their day. Their idealistic belief in human progress and in their own goodness led them to think that they could build the tower and make a great society through their own means and the works of their own hands. It was their pride that brought their downfall.

But even more dangerous than political progressivism is personal progressivism. Did you know that every human on the face of the Earth is by default a personal progressive? I don’t mean that we are all in support of universal health care or market reforms. I mean that as sinners, we all try to earn our salvation by ourselves. We think we are good enough to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, earn our own salvation, better and perfect ourselves, and raise ourselves to a new plane of existence and living. The bad news is that we are wrong. For one, the Bible tells us so. Secondly, anyone can see from the evidence around us that we are not perfect, will never be perfect, and are in desperate need of something/someone to fix us. We are far too optimistic about our sinful position before God. And unfortunately, if we never repent of our pride, idealism, and rebellion, then God will judge us, just as He judged the people at Babel.

But thanks be to God that He has already provided a way out! Deep down inside, we know that we can’t make it on our own. We can’t make ourselves better, and we certainly can’t change ourselves enough to be perfect in God’s sight. So God, in His infinite love, sent His Son to take all of our punishment and give us righteousness, goodness, and perfection (theologians call this the imputation of active obedience/righteousness). We can’t change ourselves, so God changes us for ourselves by believing and trusting in Jesus Christ. And at the end of the day, that’s far better than trusting in ourselves. Only Jesus can bring about the type of changes that Babelians and progressives thought they could but really couldn’t. Only Jesus can change us. We would do well to remember that.

*I like U2 a lot, and I guess that really you can never make it on your own, not just sometimes