Adolf Hitler was a baby, likely as innocent-looking as any other. This fact has led some to ponder a moral dilemma: If we knew what Hitler would become, would it be just to end his life as an infant to prevent the suffering of millions? For most people, it is a no-brainer. They would argue that doing so would have preserved the lives of millions of Jews. When it came down to the actual execution, very few people would sanction the killing of an innocent baby because babies belong to the most innocent category of human beings, and we don’t kill the innocent. The thing however is that babies grow, and little hands that find fulfillment in gripping a feeding bottle to suck from could grow to find the same pleasure in snatching the lives of others and tearing family apart. But how come babies lose their innocence? How does a cute harmless baby become a hardened criminal?
Some argue that circumstances surrounding Hitler’s socialization warranted that he ended up as a dictator. They would claim that if anyone was ‘copied’ and ‘pasted’ in the very same context as Hitler, assuming identical genetic characteristics, they would end up like Him. Others maintain that he chose the path he trod upon. They might go as far as pointing to a few people who underwent comparable circumstances without resorting to evil. A few others might propose that it was likely a combination of both. While we can't predict with certainty who might become a tyrant, the teachings of Christ provide a clear way for us to understand why babies can become hardened criminals, and how hardened criminals become saved.
The Origin of Death
The scriptures teach that, when the first humans broke God’s law, they died and subsequently became corrupt. Death, in this context, speaks plainly about the absence of a Life that they once had. Recall that before this point, nobody had ‘physically died’. They lost the "Life of God," severing their connection to His Spirit. The Spirit of God, like electricity, had been powering man's true existence. He was not merely existing to clear the bushes; his thoughts and actions were literally on another level. So much so, that man was able to fellowship with God at a very intimate level.
When man lost access to God’s Spirit, this electricity went out. So, while mankind was still able to operate at a high level of truth or morality for a little while, over time, this declined. The decline was not sharp. It was gradual, like a pressing iron unplugged from its power source, or a loaf of bread left out in the open. Several millennia later, the level of corruption that most of humanity experiences can be traced to the decline that occurred from the beginning.
The reason a baby can become like Hitler is because no child is born with this Life of God or electricity. Babies are born without this direct connection to God's life force. While they have the potential for connection, without the Life of God, even the most innocent child can go astray, grow up to have good morals and also learn good habits. In other words, a person can attempt to live a moral life without God, the problem is: that they can only go so far.
The Necessity of God’s Life
Unless a person has the Life of God, there is every tendency for them to end up like Hitler. This claim sounds ludicrous to most people until you realize that most of the people who served Hitler and helped him accomplish his horrible ideas were ordinary people. They would have been the simple, unassuming folks who would wave at you when you were taking your kids to school. Some of them were likely caregivers who, in those days, became pain-givers. The average person overestimates how much of a good person they are, but you see, it is not enough to be a good person. You must possess the Life of God!
When Jesus Christ walked the earth, He showed people how a man could live fully powered by the Life of God. Before Christ came, there were a lot of good men who had lived, including some which we still idolize up until today. But Christ showed God’s original blueprint for man. He died and was resurrected to become the means through which any man to receive God’s Life. Most people don’t know that God made a robust provision to utterly transform a person from the inside out. To a lot of people, Jesus only saves from hell, to some others, Jesus provides another option for humans to cope with the drudgery of life and while many others believe that Jesus forgives their sins and provides a one-way ticket to heaven. But it’s way more than that.
At the beginning of a journey to follow Jesus, a person receives the Holy Spirit in the similitude of a seed. The scripture calls this the Seed of God and of course, this is metaphorical language. The point is that just as a mango seed breaks open to release a “mango life” that produces a “mango tree”, the Seed of God contains the “Life of God”. It is this Life that makes a person bear fruits like Jesus. This implies that the reason a Christian can organically desire kindness, love, or patience is because the Life of God powers those desires! The Holy Scriptures put it like this, “It is God who works in you (His follower) to both will and to do of His good pleasures” (Phil 2: 13).
The Cure to Death.
But does this mean that everybody who follows Jesus is unable to end up like Hitler? The answer is No! Most people might know a self-professed Christian whose day-to-day actions and thoughts look different from Christ. The reason is not far-fetched: every true follower of Christ has the Life of God inside of Him, but he or she doesn’t experience the dividends of this life without yielding to it.
Yielding is what you do when you connect your house wires to the power grid. When you connect, you let the electricity flow through and as electricity flows, the job of the wires is to conduct. But during conduction, the electrons travel however they choose to; the conductor only helps transport them.
The Life of God comes with new leadings, desires and instructions: for example, a man who was previously given to indiscriminately lusting after women might sense an uneasiness or even guilt if he attempts to do that after He begins to follow Jesus. This is God’s Life provoking an ‘alarm’ response within Him. Now, if he wants to yield to God’s Life, He might: Pray to God for Help or intentionally seek a friend who will serve as an accountable partner to Him’.
On the other hand, He might choose to ignore this alarm response and continue gazing at women lustfully. By ignoring the Spirit of God, he willfully unplugs himself from the flow of electricity. The sad part is that he might spend the rest of his life justifying it as a ‘weakness’, whereas he only needed to turn away from that sin and reconnect to the grid.
The Call to Life
God’s power grid is open to everyone – Old or young. It doesn’t matter how dark or despicable a person’s life is, the brilliance of God’s Life can illuminate His Spirit, transforming the vilest sinner into a beacon of faith. You just need to connect!
ACTION POINT
You can only connect to this life by surrendering to God completely, confessing your sins, and accepting Him as your Lord and personal Saviour. If you have just done that, I congratulate you, and I also welcome you to God's Kingdom.
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