What is done is darkness will be brought to light
You probably know that there has been a release of emails related to Jeffrey Epstein. The Wall Street Journal is basically writing an exposé a day featuring one particular tranche of emails exchanged between an individual in Jeffrey Epstein. The reporting has resulted in a number of resignations already, and I suspect there will be more.
So, what do I think about bringing the mind of Christ to bear on the Epstein files? I have a word that comes to mind and it is this: evil. Evil is being exposed and what is done in darkness, no matter who you are, and no matter how long you think you’re getting away with, it will be brought to the light.
Here are three thoughts about how we bring the Mind of Christ to this evil situation:
First of all, human depravity is real.
Sexual sin is real. Human exploitation is real. People who have power because they have money tend to imagine that they can have anything and anything they want.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There’s a lot of stories about this in the Bible. You don’t have to imagine that this only happens in 21st century America. No, no, this has been happening since the first century of time immemorial. Before we even had a name for it, there was an Epstein class.
And that brings me to my second observation.
What’s done in the darkness is always brought to the light.
Always. You are not getting away with it. I’m talking to you right now. If you’re the person who thinks you’re getting away with it, you are not getting away with it. What is done in the darkness is going to be brought to the light no matter what it is.
And no matter who you are, and no matter how well insulated you think you are, emails you thought were protected under attorney-client privilege, the insulation of having been the president of the United States or the Secretary of State, or chief legal officer of Goldman Sachs or the Crown Prince of Norway, it’s all out there now. The emails are exposing a lot of people and layers of support for a man who was by every definition, evil, evil.
The people who propped up his life are coming to light. Thus far, from what we know, most of these people did not do anything criminal. And I think that’s a good place to recognize there is a difference between doing something criminal and doing something wrong, wrong, morally wrong. Because it’s not illegal to prop up somebody like this. It is not morally righteous to do so.
So better to just come clean now, better to just throw yourself on the mercy of God and come clean. Now, there may still be justice for you in the world, but that is way better facing justice in the world than waiting to face the justice of God for unconfessed sin.
Which leads me to the third observation.
Justice prevails.
Real justice. Eternal justice. It may not come in this lifetime, but justice prevails.
I find Romans 1 particularly instructive here. So if you’ve not read it recently, I commend it to your reading today. I’m going to pick up at verse 16 and read through verse 32. This is Paul the Apostle speaking here.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not be done.
-Romans 1:16-28
Listen to that. Does that not sound to you like what’s going on in the world today?
Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do whatever, to do what ought not be done.
Paul continues:
“They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insulate, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.” (vv 29-32)
That’s my take on the Epstein files. It’s not just that people who have engaged in these horrific activities stand in judgment, but those who give approval to them, those who gave approval along the way to the practices stand equally condemned before God.
So you got to find yourself in this passage of Scripture today. You got to find yourself somewhere in this passage from Romans.
Are you like Paul? Not ashamed of the gospel, living in the power of the gospel, living in the power of God’s salvation as a believer in the gospel is the righteousness of God in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed by faith. For faith. Are you living by faith today in the righteousness of Jesus Christ? That’s question one.
And if not, if that’s not where you’re living, which by the way I invite you to do so, I invite you to turn from whatever you’ve been doing in the darkness and turn to Christ. The forgiveness of God is available right now. It doesn’t mean you won’t face justice in this world for whatever it is that you’ve been up to in the dark, but you’re not going to face the wrath of God in eternity if you turn now from your wicked ways to the cross of Christ and throw yourself on God’s mercy.
So I’m going to invite you to do that today in the gospel is the righteousness of God. The righteousness of Christ can become yours. But if that’s not where you’re living and it’s not where you want to live, maybe you’re living in verse 18, are you suppressing the truth? Are you denying the readily revealed reality and the nature of God and creation itself are you as the Bible says, without excuse, you know who God is. You know that God is and you reject him.
Maybe God has given you up to the lust of your own heart and mind. Have you exchanged the truth about God for a lie? And are you now worshiping and serving your own creaturely desires? If so, I cannot personally imagine a worse condemnation than knowing that God has given you up. But people are living right now as given up by God and that terrifies me. Verses 26 to 31 describe their reality. Then there’s this final category or class of people described, those who give approval to the suppression of the truth and the sin that follows. So I just want you to think about where you find yourself in this text today.
I hope that you are found with Paul at the very beginning in verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Do you believe? Have you received, have you turned to God in his mercy? And if you’re holding out hope right now for someone that you love to turn from their wicked ways to throw themselves on the mercy of God, then I want you to also pray today for the people whose sin has now been laid bare publicly through the Epstein files. Because my guess is most of us are not doing that.
Most of us are not praying for the people who are being exposed in the Epstein files. But if you’re holding out hope for someone you love to turn from their wicked ways and throw themselves on the mercy of God, then I think it’s incumbent upon each of us and all of us to be praying today for the people whose sin has now been exposed.
They now know that we all know their sin. And sin is sin and we’re all sinners. I mean once upon a time, that was you and me. Romans 5:8 declares, God demonstrates his love for us in this while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Your name was once on the naughty list as well on that list of sinners. But then you repented and you turned to God. And by his grace you were saved and he transferred you from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. And he wants to do the same thing for those people who are now exposed in the Epstein files.
That’s the way I’m praying today. And so yes, am I disgusted by what’s being revealed? Absolutely and rightly so. We ought to recognize sin for what it is and sinners for what we are.
