This is Dolan Falls on the Devils River in southwest Texas. Devils River is considered the reference stream for its region, meaning it is the standard for “naturalness” and pristine beauty against which all other streams in west Texas are judged. I once spent an hour swimming in Dolan Falls and I have visited many of the top water landmarks in Texas. Devils River truly possesses a soul-refreshing beauty that is unrivaled. The watershed is distant enough from human settlements and such significant efforts have been made by state and private groups to protect it from abuse that it has retained its status as a premier Texas river for decades. As the Devils River Conservancy puts it:
Today, The Devils River is considered the most unspoiled river in Texas. Its remote location in a hostile environment limits pollution from human and domestic animal populations, as it has for generations.
Not only is Devils River largely free of unsightly blemishes, such as tires and beer cans, it also possesses clear, cool water with a mix of riffles, runs, pools, and waterfalls all teeming with fish, including some rare and endemic species. When the ecological health of a river in west Texas is assessed, it is compared to the biodiversity and physio-chemical qualities of the Devils River. What should an ecologically healthy west Texas river look like? Check the Devils.
When the health of a soul is assessed, to what standard is it compared? When asked what God requires of a person to get into heaven, many respond with some variation of “be a good person”. This begs the question: How good? The response is either “you know, don’t do anything really bad and treat people decently” or it’s “be better than the next guy”. The latter is sometimes expressed as “I haven’t murdered anyone or robbed a bank”, implying that compared to the guy they saw on FB yesterday that stole a truck, they should be considered good in God’s eyes. They think God will look at the crowd of people on Judgement Day and segregate them by above average and below average. People who answer this way are unfamiliar with the standard. The moral reference point is God Himself: “Be holy, for I am holy” (e.g., Leviticus 19:2, 1 Peter 1:16). When God describes Himself as holy, He refers to His perfection, His absolute purity of goodness, His set-apart-ness. Moreover, in God there is not only the absence of badness, but also the fulness of goodness. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus said. Hebrews 12:14 states that “without holiness no one will see the Lord”. To be in God’s presence requires holiness. And to be holy all people must not do any evil (the negative command) and must do all good works (the positive command). A holy soul is both free of pollution and teeming with life.
The Apostle Paul gave this warning to Christians in Galatia, located in modern central Turkey.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ~ Galatians 5:19-21
Have you ever acted immoral sexually? I have.
Have you ever lashed out in anger at someone? I have.
Have you ever felt bitter because you couldn’t have something you wanted? I have.
Have you ever gossiped or slandered someone? I have.
Have you even kept the first commandment?
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your might.
So then, how can anybody be saved? If God’s moral perfection is the reference point, the standard by which everyone will be judged, aren’t we all going to spend eternity in the torment of Hell?
Oh, weary soul, polluted with sin and shame, hear the good news! The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). Yes, we have all earned Hell by chasing after evil. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Jesus lived the perfect life we couldn’t and satisfied God’s just wrath against our sin when He offered Himself on the cross. For those who believe in Him, He gives them His perfect righteousness and takes on Himself all of their unholiness. What a great exchange!
There is a visible, historical, physical reference point for goodness and it isn’t you or me or our good deeds. His name is Jesus Christ, in whom “all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19). Jesus, who is Himself a well of Living Water to those who believe in Him, is the cosmic Reference Stream. If you believe in Him you will have all of his holy perfection accounted to you and all your guilt and shame removed. If you refuse His free gift of salvation, then you will have the Hell you earned by your “goodness”.
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David is co-author and artist for the paper Early Development of the Devil’s River Minnow, Dionda diaboli (Cyprinidae).
