theology

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Introduction

I hope you don’t take this the wrong way. But I am so glad that in three days the election will finally be over. Can any of you relate? Every time I turn on the TV or the radio I hear one candidate or the other try to convince me that they are the solution to America’s problems. But here’s the most frustrating thing. While we all agree that America has problems that need to be solved we can’t seem to agree on the root cause of our problems. Depending on who you’re listening to you might be told that the root cause of America’s problems is that government has too much power, or too little power; that we’re spending too much money on education, or not enough on education; that the Democrats have screwed everything up, or that the Republicans have screwed everything up; that the religious powers are leading our country astray, or that the irreligious elite are leading our country astray. Well, which is it? It can’t be all of these things because they contradict each other. Which is it? What is at the root of America’s problems? How you answer that question will determine what solution you think is best. And your solution will only be as good as your diagnosis of the problem. The only way we can ever find an adequate solution is to first have an accurate diagnosis of the problem.

Let’s get out of the political arena for a minute and look into the health arena. Imagine you’re with a friend who is experiencing chest pains. You ask her to describe the pain to you and she does. You ask her when it started and she says it started right after she ate a large pizza all by herself. You offer her a solution. You tell her that she should take some antacid tablets. This is a good solution, isn’t it? Only if you have accurately diagnosed the problem. If your heartburn diagnosis was accurate then, yes, antacid tablets will help to solve her problem. But if your heartburn diagnosis was inaccurate then your solution will not only be ineffective, it may kill her. Because her chest pains may have nothing to do with the large pizza she just ate all by herself, she may be having a heart attack. Again, our solutions are only as adequate as our diagnosis is accurate.

So that’s what we’re going to do tonight. We’re going to focus on the problem. What’s wrong with the world? What’s wrong with this world where fathers abandon their children? What’s wrong with this world where children all over the world go hungry? What’s wrong with this world where people die because they have no access to clean water? What’s wrong with this world where CEO’s can lie and cheat their way to wealth while their employees are overtaken by poverty? What’s wrong with this world where every one of us knows people who have been sexually abused? What’s wrong with this world where governments get away with murdering their own people? What’s wrong with this world where marriages fall apart? What’s wrong with this world where we are betrayed, and lied to, and hurt by the words and choices of others?  What’s wrong with the world?

Whether we know it or not we all have an answer to that question. Even if we’ve never voiced our diagnosis, even if we’ve never consciously identified our diagnosis, we have one. And we live every moment of our life in light of that diagnosis. At the core of your being you have a deeply held belief about what is wrong with the world. And that belief determines how you think, how you speak, and how you live. You know where this comes through the clearest? It comes through the clearest at the coffeehouse. Something as simple and as “unspiritual” as our coffeehouse conversations reveals our theology – it reveals what we think is wrong with the world. Now sometimes we don’t notice that because we don’t spend much time intentionally talking about what we think is wrong with the world. Instead, we spend most of our time talking about what we must do to make our personal world better or what others must do to make the entire world better. We tend to speak about the solutions instead of the problem. But as soon as we start talking about the solutions we reveal what we understand the problem to be.

In my time at the coffeehouse I’ve heard people offer many solutions. I have heard people say that we say we need more education, or that we need our party to obtain political power, or that people just need to be more loving, or that we just need to work harder to be better people, or that we need to go to church more frequently. But here’s the thing. None of these solutions will work. None of these solutions will work because none of them are based on accurate diagnosis of the problem. The problem is not ignorance, the problem is not politics, the problem is not that we haven’t been as loving as we should be, the problem is not that we haven’t been trying hard enough to do right, the problem is not that we haven’t been fulfilling our religious duties — the problem is sin. According to the Bible, according to God’s Word, THE problem is sin.

This is uncomfortable to hear, of course, whether in a church, a coffeehouse, or anywhere. We fight against this diagnosis because none of us wants to think that we are the problem and not the solution. Because of that, some of you are writing this diagnosis off as false right now. But in reality the fact that you want so much to prove this diagnosis false is evidence that it is true. To say that our core problem is anything other than sin requires that you literally write off the entire Bible as utterly useless. Apart from the first two chapters of the Bible the whole subject of every paragraph in the Bible is the problem of sin and what God is doing about it. To say that our core problem is anything other than sin requires that you do away with this entire book. It also requires that you do away with all of human history. With all of the world’s wealth, with all of the world’s education, with all of the world’s healthy families, with all of the world’s love and generosity, with all of the world’s religious devotion, with all of the world’s politics, we have yet to make any progress. Murder, genocide, poverty, hunger, racism, divorce, war, selfishness – they haven’t gone away. In many cases they have grown stronger. To say that our core problem is anything other than sin requires that you do away with the Bible, it requires that you do away with human history, and lastly, it requires that you do away with your own experience. Why is it that you still haven’t become the person you want to be? Why is it that you find yourself doing things that you judge other people for doing? Why is it that you still sometimes go against your own conscience? It’s not that you’re not trying hard enough. No matter how hard you try you still fall into the same thinking and the same behavior. To say that the core problem is anything other than sin is to throw out the Bible, throw out human history, and throw out your own experience. This is why it has often been said that the Biblical doctrine of original sin is the only doctrine of the Bible that can be proven empirically. Even if you’re not convinced of this there is more than enough evidence to make it worth looking into. So let’s do that together tonight. Let’s take a closer look at God’s diagnosis of our core problem. Let’s take a close look at sin. Specifically, we’re going to answer three questions: what is sin, how does sin work, and how do we fix it. Let’s start by looking at the nature of the problem and asking, “what is sin?”

What is Sin?

Sin is the core problem that needs to be solved. But what is sin? The words that our Bible translates as “sin” literally mean “failing to obey authority” or “missing the target.” This is important to grasp. If sin is failing to obey authority or missing the target this means that God and God’s will are the measure of sin. Our culture is not the measure of sin. Popular opinion is not the measure of sin. How other people live is not the measure of sin. My particular strengths and weaknesses are not the measure of sin. God and his will are the measure of sin. To sin is to turn from both. To sin is to turn both from God and his will. Think about this with me for a minute. This is the Biblical picture of sin. And it is different from how most people think of sin. Both religious people and irreligious people most often think of sin as a behavioral problem. We generally think that to sin is to behave in the wrong way or to not behave in the right way. This is why we think we can solve the problem through education and effort. If sin is simply a behavioral problem then once we learn what the right behavior is all we have to do is make the effort to do it. So we seek out more sermons, and more books, and more television that will tell us what to do and how to do it. But that solution won’t work. Because sin is not primarily a behavior problem. At its root, sin is a worship problem. We see this in the first human sin ever committed. Do you remember how the story of Adam and Eve unfolds? Let’s look at Genesis 3:1-6.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?’ The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

God created Adam and Eve as good. They were in right relationship with him and with each other. He walked with them. He talked with them. He gave them everything they could ever need. And, because of that, they worshiped him. But then something changed. Suddenly they were no longer in a right relationship with God or each other. Suddenly God no longer walked with them and talked with them. Suddenly they were hiding from God and cast out of his presence. So what happened? The traditional answer is that they ate the fruit. And that’s true. They did eat the fruit that God clearly told them not to eat. But that’s not the main issue. If you read the story carefully you’ll see that the real issue is not that they ate the fruit. The real issue is that they gave their worship to creation instead of to the Creator. That happened first. And then they ate the fruit because of that. The behavior problem was simply a symptom of the worship problem. Let’s take a closer look at how it went down.

What happens first? The first thing that happens is that the serpent tells the woman to believe him and doubt God. And she does. That’s a worship problem. She chose to trust a created thing more than she trusted the Creator of all things. What happens second? Second she decides to disobey God and eat the fruit. But why? Look at verse 5, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” She decided to eat the fruit because she wanted to be like God. She wanted to be able to determine what was good and what was evil. She wanted to take herself — a created thing — and make it greater than the Creator of all things. That’s a worship problem. What happens third? Eve eats the fruit and encourages her husband to do the same. That’s a behavior problem. But the behavior problem came third. The only reason Eve ever sinned in her behavior is because she had already sinned in her heart. She had given her trust and her worship to created things instead of to the Creator of all things.

What is sin? Sin is turning from God and his will. It is a worship problem first and a behavior problem second. Let’s look at one more passage that drives this home. Turn to Romans 1:22-25.

“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen.” – Romans 1:22-25

Look at the chronology here, look at the cause and effect. The first thing we see, in verse 23, is that human beings have committed idolatry. We have failed to worship the True God. But we haven’t stopped worshiping. We’ve just put other things in his place. And the consequence of this, as we see in verse 24, is sinful behavior. It’s because we have a worship problem, it’s because we have not made the True God the object of our worship, that we are given over to the sinful desires of our hearts and to all sorts of bad behavior. And that’s the real issue. The real issue is not our behavior problem, it’s our worship problem. Verse 25 explains it beautifully. It says we “worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.” This is our problem. This is the source of every problem in the world. Human beings have chosen to give to creation what belongs to Creator. We have lived for ourselves and for other created things instead of living for the Creator of all things.

Since our sin problem is really a worship problem and not a behavior problem it can’t be solved by simply changing our behavior. So education can’t fix it. Human effort can’t fix it. Sermons that just tell us what to do can’t fix it. In fact, these things can actually make it worse. Because though they can teach us to do good things they may be teaching us to do good things for the wrong reasons. Instead of doing good things as an act of worship to God we might be doing good things so that we can feel good about ourselves, or we might be doing things so that we can get what we want from God or other people, or we might be doing good things out of guilt, or we might be doing good things out of fear, or we might be doing good things so that God or other people will accept us or love us. That stuff doesn’t look like sin to the human eye. It looks like good deeds and acts of righteousness. But God sees it for what it is. He sees it as sin because he sees that it is done in service to someone or something other than him.

When we understand what sin really is – when we understand that it is a worship problem and not just a behavior problem – we start to see just how sinful we really are. We start to see that we are far more sinful than we ever dared to believe. You don’t need to be a Christian to see that. Whether you believe the Biblical testimony or not you know that even your good actions are often done out of impure, self-serving motives motives. What is sin? Sin is turning from God and his will. It is to trust in someone or something else to give you pleasure, security, meaning, value, identity, and joy. That’s the nature of sin. And that is the core cause of every problem in your world and every problem in the entire world.

How Does Sin Work?

 So we’ve defined what sin is. Now the question is how does sin work? Sin is the root cause of all of our problems but how does sin work? We could talk about this for weeks but for tonight we’re just going to look at three ways that sin does its work in us and in the world.

First, sin works universally. Sin works universally. What this means is that sin is at work in every single person on the planet. Sin doesn’t just work in the religious or in the irreligious, it doesn’t just work in the rich or in the poor, it doesn’t just work in the powerful or in the powerless, it doesn’t just work in the conservative or in the liberal – sin is alive and at work in every single person on the face of the earth. I love the imagery of Romans 3:9-12.

“What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Sin works universally, in all of us. Read a few verses down and in verse 23 you’ll find this communicated again, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” How does sin work? It works universally so that not one of us is righteous, not one of us seeks God, not one of us does good, all of us have turned away, all of us fall short of the glory of God. None of us want to hear this about ourselves. But it can’t be denied. The Scriptures are clear. Human history is clear. Your own experience is clear. You can’t point to a single person that was not under the power of sin. Including yourself.  Especially yourself. Why? Because sin is universal. It’s universal because it is in our nature. It’s in our nature because our father, Adam, sinned and he passed this on to us. It’s explained this way in Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned…”

Now that’s uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable to believe that we are not sinners because we sin but, rather, that we sin because we are sinners. It’s who we are. That is a very unflattering thing to believe.  So we try to find another explanation. We can’t deny that sin is universal so we try to find some other way to explain why it is universal. The most common way this is done is by arguing that the reason all people sin is because sin is a learned behavior. This argument claims that human beings are basically good but we have been corrupted by our environment. This explanation is attractive because it tells us that we’re not sinners, we’re good people who happen to sin because we live in a sinful society. But while this explanation is attractive it is obviously false. If human beings are basically good and sin is a learned behavior then where did the first person learn sin from? If we’re only sinful because we live in a sinful society how did the first society become sinful? Sin cannot be a learned behavior, sinful society cannot be the cause of sinful people, because sinful people created sinful society. Thus, sin is universal. Every one of us is sinful by nature and we inherited that nature from Adam, the first sinner.

How does sin work? It works universally. Sin also works totally. When we say sin works universally we mean that all human beings are sinful. When we say sin works totally we mean that every part of every human being is sinful. We’re not saying that every part of us is as bad as it could be but that no part of us is as good as it should be. To say that sin works in us totally is to say that sin has infected our mind, our heart, our will, our motivations, our emotions, our bodies – every part of us. Sin works in us totally so that every part of us is sinful. Let’s look at two Scriptures that explain this for us,

“I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature…” – Romans 7:18

“…Everything that does not come from faith is sin.” – Romans 14:23

In the first passage, Paul writes that there is no good in who we are as human beings. Now the word “good” can be used in many different ways. Of course it’s “good” that you haven’t killed anyone. It’s “good” that you often do generous things. Those things are good compared to what you could do. But they are not truly good. And the second verse explains why. Even what appears to be good is not truly good if it is motivated by anything other than true faith in the True God. Every one of us – religious and irreligious – often does good things for the wrong reasons. We often do them for reasons more than or less than pure faith in God. We often do them for reasons more than or less than true love for God, and his will, and his glory. Which means that even our greatest goodness is actually impure. And if even our greatest goodness is actually impure how impure is the rest of us? Sin works in us totally so that our mind, our heart, our bodies, our will, our emotions, our motivations – everything in us has been tainted by sin. No part of us is truly good.

How does sin work? Sin works in us universally. Sin works in us totally. And, lastly, sin works in us disablingly. To say sin works in us disablingly is to say that sin makes us moral quadriplegics – it makes us utterly unable to do what is right. Look at how the Scriptures explain this,

“The sinful mind is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” – Romans 8:7

“..For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing.” – Romans 7:18-19.

In our sinful nature we are moral quadriplegics. We do not and cannot do what is right. The Scriptures give this testimony again and again. But let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that you don’t believe the Scriptures to be God’s Word. You still know this to be true. You have a conscience. Your conscience tells you what is right and what is wrong. You say that you want to do what is right but time and time again you go against your own conscience. Even when you know what is right you do not do it, you cannot do it. In addition to having a conscience you also have a mouth. And your mouth often condemns other people for things they’ve done. Your mouth condemns liars, your mouth condemns the proud, your mouth condemns the selfish. By doing that you show that you know what is right and what is wrong. And yet time and time again you are guilty of the very same things you condemn others for. Even when you know what is right you do not do it, you cannot do it. If I were having this conversation with a friend at a coffeehouse I’d ask them, “Why is this the case? Why is it that even when you know what is right and you say you want to do what is right you don’t do it?” It’s interesting that when I ask that question most of my Christian and non-Christian friends give the exact same answer. “I’m only human, and humans make mistakes.” There are two problems with that answer, though. The first problem is the word “mistake.” Is it really a mistake if you willfully choose to do the same thing over, and over, and over, and over again even though you know it’s wrong? Is that a mistake? No, that’s willful rebellion against what you know to be good and true. The second problem is the phrase “I’m only human.” That’s not an explanation for why you continue to do what is wrong when you know what is right. The phrase “I’m only human” doesn’t even have any meaning until you can tell me why it is that humans do wrong when they know what is right? Science can’t tell us why we do that. Animals don’t do that. What is it that’s unique to humans that leads them to do what is wrong when they know what is right? Only Christian theology can answer that question. And here’s how Christian theology answers it. You don’t do what is wrong when you know what is right because “You’re only human, and humans make mistakes.” You do what is wrong when you know what is right because you are a slave to sin. Here’s how Jesus explains it,

“Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” – John 8:34

Why do you do what is wrong when you know what is right? Because you are a slave to sin. You are a moral quadriplegic. To ask you to do anything other than sin is like asking my 10 month-old son to write a 30 page essay on the second law of thermodynamics. It’s asking the impossible. It’s asking you to do what you cannot do.

How Do We Fix It?

Let’s review what we’ve covered so far. We started by asking, what is sin? All sin, at its root, is a worship problem. It flows from hearts that find their ultimate meaning, their ultimate fulfillment, and their ultimate pleasure in creation instead of in Creator. To sin is to turn from God and his will. That’s what sin is. Then we asked, how does sin work? We said sin works universally (so that every one of us is infected with it), it works totally (so that every part of us is infected with it), and it works disablingly (so that not one of us has the ability to overcome it). Now we will look to our third and final question, how do we fix it?

How do we fix the sin problem? How do we fix all that is wrong with us and all that is wrong with the world? The answer is…we can’t. We can’t fix it. Remember, it’s not a behavior problem. If it were a behavior problem we could easily fix it but it’s not, it’s a worship problem. It’s a worship problem that is universal – it affects all of us – there’s not one person we can call on to fix the problem because all people are equally infected with it. It’s a worship problem that is total – it affects every part of us – there’s not one part of us that can see clearly enough to find a solution because every part of us has been infected with sin. It’s a worship problem that disables us – it renders us absolutely crippled – so that we are powerless to do anything other than continue sin. How do we fix it? We can’t.

And yet we try. And the funny thing is religious people and irreligious people we try to deal with the sin problem in the exact same ways. We think that education will break us free. So we go to the schools that promise to give us the knowledge we need to succeed, we read the books that promise us the keys to contentment, we listen to the sermons that promise to tell us the 5-steps to a good marriage, or the 3-steps to financial health, or the secret to living a life of purpose. But if we’re paying attention we will eventually see that education hasn’t solved our problem. So we think the key to breaking free is to work harder than we have been. So we take all of the information that we’ve gathered and we try to work as hard as we can to put it into practice. I just need to be more disciplined in my finances, I just need to be more patient with my spouse, I just need to be more committed to my job, I just need to be a more loving person, I just need someone to hold me accountable, I just need to read my Bible more, I just need to pray more, I just need to go to church more. But if we’re paying attention we will eventually see that all of our hard work has not eliminated the problem. We still do the things we are trying so hard not to do, we still fail to do the things we are trying so hard to do, our relationships are still a mess, our world is still corrupted. The education hasn’t worked, the extra effort hasn’t worked so we think if we could just change our circumstance we can break free. “Oh, if my candidate just gets elected,” “Oh, if my pastor just spends more time with me,” “Oh, if I could just get married,” “Oh, if I could just get divorced,” “Oh, if I could just relocate to another city then my problems would be solved, then I’d be willing and able to do the things I know I should do.”

This is what comes out in our coffeehouse conversations. We’re always talking about what we need to do in order to fix our problem. But these solutions we offer will never work. Because they fail to properly diagnose the problem. The problem is not that you don’t know what you should do – you do know. The problem is not that you aren’t working hard enough to do it – no matter how hard you work you don’t have the ability to do it. The problem is not that you’re just in the wrong circumstance – your problem will remain the same no matter what circumstance you’re in. Your problem is you! Your problem is that you allow people and things other than Jesus Christ to rule over your heart and wherever Jesus Christ does not rule sin does! Your problem is not that you don’t know enough, not that you don’t work hard enough, not that you’re in the wrong circumstance of life. Your problem is that you are sinful to the core of your being and you can’t do anything about it.

That’s not something you want to hear, is it? That’s not something you want to believe about yourself, is it? That’s not something you want to admit, is it? And yet believing it and admitting it is the one thing that will solve your problem. The only way the sin problem will ever be solved is if we admit that we are the problem, that we are disabled by sin, and that we need someone outside of us – someone who is not disabled by sin – to save us from our own sin, to save us from the sins of others, and to save from the righteous judgment of a Holy God. Let us do away with all of this nonsense that says being a Christian is about being a good person. Being a Christian is not about being a good person. Being a Christian is about admitting that no matter how hard you try you can never be a good person. It is that honest and accurate self-awareness that leads you to cry out, “God…save me.” And when we speak those words in faith that is exactly what he does.

See, God is not a part of the sin problem. He is not in any way shape or form complicit. He is completely free from sin and entirely untainted by it. Because he is the only truly free being, because he is the only being who is untainted by sin, he is the only being who can do anything at all about the sin problem. And what can he do to fix the sin problem? The most obvious way that God can fix the sin problem is to destroy sinners. If he wipes us out then the sin problem is solved. And of course he has every right to do that. He created us and we have rebelled against him and what he created us for. Our sins against him are so numerous that is evidence of his mercy and grace. He has every right to judge us, he has every right to give us an eternity in Hell, he has every right to snatch the breath out of your lungs right at this very instant. He can do that and the sin problem will be solved once and for all. Or he can do something else. He can devise a way to destroy sin without destroying sinners. But the only way this can be done is if God destroys a fully righteous person who deserves life in place of totally sinful people who deserve death. And since he alone is righteous what that really means is that he would have to destroy himself in order to save the very people who hate him, deny him, and reject his authority. To do so would be an act of love, humility, and self-sacrifice beyond human comprehension. Yet this is the solution God chose.

Instead of destroying sin by destroying sinners he chose to destroy sin by destroying his own innocent Son. God the Father clothed God the Son in human flesh and sent him to live in a sinful world. God the Son, Jesus Christ, was filled with God the Holy Spirit and lived a life of perfect righteousness. Even in a sinful environment, surrounded by sinful people, and endless temptations Jesus did not once turn from God the Father or from God the Father’s will. Even when that meant dying a criminal’s death on a cross. Because Jesus was fully committed to the Father and the Father’s will he willfully went to the cross and he willfully died in your place so that you could live. Not only that, he willfully took your sin upon himself so that you could be given his righteousness. Not only that, he willfully took God’s wrath for your sin upon himself so that you could be given God’s reward for his righteousness. You see, God didn’t solve the sin problem by reaching out and crushing sinners, he solved the sin problem by becoming sin and being crushed by and for sinners. Three days later Jesus rose from the dead showing that sin and death had no hold over him. Forty days later he ascended into heaven, returning to his seat next to the Father, so that he could bring his people into God’s presence. Through all of this Jesus purchased your freedom from death and your freedom from judgment because he purchased your freedom from sin.

If you’re not a Christian this gospel message may contradict the beliefs you came in here with. But maybe it’s time for you to let go of those beliefs. We’ve already seen tonight that they don’t conform to reality and they don’t work, all of the evidence is consistent with the Biblical teaching on sin. Which means that Jesus and his gospel are your only hope. If you’re a Christian you’ve already trusted in this message for your salvation. But the danger is that many of us stop there. We trust in the gospel for our salvation and then we trust in ourselves for our sanctification, we trust in ourselves to become more holy. But that is sin, and it doesn’t work. Christians, Jesus is not only your only hope for salvation, Jesus is the only hope for your marriage, Jesus is the only hope for your singleness, Jesus is the only hope for you finances, Jesus is the only hope for your work, Jesus is the only hope for dealing with difficult people, Jesus is the only hope for every problem in your life because every problem is a sin problem and Jesus and Jesus alone gives you victory over sin. Christians and non-Christians let’s stop trusting in more education and more effort and let us trust in Jesus and Jesus alone.