In the last two months, former President Trump, the current Republican presidential candidate in the 2024 election, has had two attempts on his life. The first occurred on July 13, 2024, at a rally in Pennsylvania, where a young man fired shots at Trump from the roof of a building, wounding him in the ear while also taking the life of a spectator. Secret Service agents took the shooter’s life in response. The second attempt was at a golf course on September 15, 2024, where a man was found hiding in bushes along a fence line with a rifle pointed through the fence. The Secret Service agents, who were sweeping the area ahead of Trump, fired upon the would-be gunman when they spotted his rifle barrel. The man fled the area and was later apprehended.

These attempts are historic during an election period. The last effort of this nature occurred on March 30, 1981, when John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to shoot then-President Ronald Reagan. To have two separate attempts on the life of a former President currently running for office is unheard of in modern American history. Much can be said about the circumstances surrounding these attempts. The political rhetoric on all sides during one of the most contentious election periods in current times certainly brings into question how much influence the media, politicians, activists, and commentators have in inspiring such attacks. Questions are rightly raised as to the motivations of the shooters themselves.  Of further importance is the failure at the organizational level of the Secret Service to provide proper security for a politician who has ongoing and active threats to his life. Yet, a matter that should be discussed is that, but for God’s restraining grace, every single person is capable of the evil these men have perpetrated.

That is an uncomfortable and offensive statement to make to the average person. Most of us would be aghast at the thought of being compared to wicked and violent men who callously attempt to take the life of another. We believe there is no possible way we could be that evil. It is easy for us to think this way when we seek to compare ourselves to the most open and flagrant evil acts. Yet, when we compare ourselves to the pure goodness of God, when we examine ourselves in the light of His holy law, the sinfulness of our hearts becomes more apparent. After all, it was Christ Himself who said that to look with lust was to commit adultery of the heart (Matt. 5:28), and to harbor unjust hatred or to use harsh language of someone was equivalent to murder of the heart (Matt. 5:21-22). Wickedness cannot be determined by merely comparing what we do outwardly with other people. It is unveiled when we examine even the thoughts and intents of our hearts against a holy God.

The apostle Paul makes it clear in his letter to the Ephesians that we all are cut from the same cloth. Every single human being that has walked this earth has fallen into the same condition, none of us have escaped. In writing to the church in Ephesus, he tells the Christians, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience…” (2:1-2). Paul reveals that every person has the same problem: we are dead in our sins. We are born sinners into this world; it is our default state. As such, we think, speak, and act with the taint of sin in everything we do. There is nothing free from the stain of sin about us. We are, at heart, as wicked and vile as the rest of humanity. We may delude ourselves because our sins committed in the open are “not as bad” as someone else’s, but such a comparison only reveals that we are willfully ignorant as to how rebellious our hearts are.

Yet, we cannot deny that the sins committed by some are far more flagrant and viler than others. To what can we attribute such a vast difference? One answer can be found in the opening chapter of the book of Romans. In speaking of those who have rejected God and pursued their desires and idols, Paul writes, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 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” (Rom. 1:24-25). This reveals something about the gracious nature of God, even with those who rebel against Him; He, by his gracious kindness, restrains the wickedness of mankind. Therefore, while some sinners are allowed to pursue their evil to the most devious ends, many men, women, and children are kept by God’s hands from pursuing their sin to the uttermost. There does come a time, as people express their hatred of God in greater ways, that He will remove His hand of restraint and give people over to their depravity. Woe to those cultures and nations that fall under such judgment from a holy God. Their eventual end and His great wrath will not be stayed. Therefore, it can only be concluded that the only difference between the man who occasionally lies on his timecard about how much time he worked and the man who is a serial murderer is the gracious hand of God who keeps the former from becoming the latter openly.

This is exactly the point Paul makes to the Ephesians when he writes, “among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (2:3). We live, think, and speak just like the rest of the sinful world. We are no better than the worst criminal or terrorist we have seen on the evening news. In the eyes of God, we are the same at heart. With that in mind, if there is no difference between any of us, what possible hope can we have? Paul gives us the answer, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…” (2:4-5). The only solution, the only way we can be saved from the wickedness of our hearts, is to turn to Jesus Christ, who redeems the sinner and makes him a new creation. It is when we repent and trust in Christ alone that the sinner is no longer a rebel against God. We are changed, we are freed from our sinful nature and clothed in the righteous robes of Christ. We are given new hearts and a new nature, one formed by the hands of God that desires to love and obey our Savior rather than to be at war with Him. This is what brings us hope, that which brings freedom and joy to a heart once enslaved to sin.

Therefore, when we turn on the evening news and see another great tragedy, when we see the depravity of man on display, we ought to be forced to examine our hearts and see the true nature of ourselves on display. For the sinner, it should cause him to tremble, to see himself as God sees Him, a wicked rebel deserving of His just wrath. For the Christian, it should bring great joy, not because we are better than those who commit great acts of evil, but because we are simply better off. We were once as vile as those persons once were, but God, in his grace and mercy, purchased us and made us new. Now, we can live as people free from the stain of sin. This becomes the driving force behind us to live as God has called us to, for as Paul wrote, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (2:10). Let this also be our motivation to call guilty sinners to repentance, to call them out of darkness into the light of Jesus Christ that they too may be freed from bondage and given the new heart that God once did for us. Let us remember that we are no better than the rest of the wicked world. And let us be moved with compassion to be His servants to be used in saving the lost.

This article is also published on X.com.