Back in 2015 nine people died in a church in Charleston.

Shootings are getting to be a common occurrence.

But the frequency of the violence doesn’t make it easier to accept.

No matter how many time we witness violence done to innocent people, we feel the same hopeless outrage.

This is what happens when rational human beings contemplate depravity.

The media always asks, “Why?”

“Why gun down 9 innocent people in a church?”

There is an answer to this question,

…but it’s not reasonable.

It’s not psychological.

It’s not political.

It’s not cultural.

It’s not even racial.

It’s this:

Not everyone has faith in Jesus.

By myself, I’m no different from any other deranged killer.

By the grace of God that I haven’t revealed all the evil of which I’m capable.

The words of the gunman are chilling.

He almost didn’t go through with the shooting because,

…everyone was so nice…

Yet he slaughtered them anyway.

An inner voice whispered truth.

He ignored that voice.

He chose wickedness.

There will be no satisfactory explanation for that.

Depravity has no cogent cause.

It is what humanity is without God.

Asking ‘why’ a person would do such evil

…is like asking ‘why’ water is wet.

Obliterating evil of this intensity requires supernatural intervention.

The media’s outrage will not suffice.

Neither will yours or mine.

The collective horror of our nation can not erase such sin.

This…

…is why Christ was crucified.

Had they not been extinguished,

…the victims would say it themselves.

This is why Christ was crucified.

I listen to the words of Chris Singleton

…speaking one day after the shooting…

Love is stronger than hate.

Is that a reasonable statement from the son of a murdered mother?

Does that make any rational sense?

Can you atheists explain it to me?

Can you scientists write out the formula?

I’ve no doubt that justice will be served.

But not through the courts of men.

God will do what the law cannot.

He will turn evil for good.

And the tears shed in South Carolina

…will be evaporated by His glory.

Hate crime will never stop as long as there is hate.

The only thing that stops hate is love.

And the only source of love is Jesus.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:1