Christianity is a timeless message that is revealed in time. The fact that it is revealed in time makes it adaptable, and it’s timelessness makes it liberating.
By timeless, I mean that it is a voice from outside any human culture across time and geography but is able to speak in to those cultures an unchanging message. It is the unmoving center that draws all 360 degrees of the circle to itself.
How does that make it liberating? Isn’t conformity to an unchanging standard the exact opposite of freedom?
I think the answer to that question hinges on how you define “freedom.” If freedom means the ability to act in complete independence without outside influences, then the answer is no, Christianity does not make people free no matter its being timeless. But I would also add that not only does Christianity not make people free in that way, but nothing does. If that is freedom, then no one has ever been free. This definition of freedom comes out of the belief that to be free one must have no master – one must be completely autonomous, but we are all slave to something. Even the person who is most independent is still a product of a culture and a time and a place and those factors become the blinders around which he sees the world. Even the prevailing worldview in the west, which has so tenaciously held up this definition of freedom and insisted that an individual is only free when they are not living under any other banner than that person's own has only resulted in flying another banner under which people can live.
But if autonomy is not freedom, then what is? The gospel holds out a definition of freedom that is not autonomy, but obedience. Freedom is not being able to occupy any place, but it is occupying specifically your own place. Think of it like this: a fish is limited in that it cannot breath the air, but to that fish water is not limitation, but life. Happiness is found in this limitation, and anything else is death. Freedom is when human beings live in the place they were made for, and under the banner they were made to live under.
If humanity cannot escape living under some banner then it is no longer a question of living under one or not, but it becomes a question of which and why.
If all worldviews are the same then it does not matter which you choose, but if there is a worldview that is timeless truth, then everything depends on living under its banner. If the gospel is a human product then it is just good advice, but if it is the timeless voice from outside then there is a chance it can be the breath of life it claims to be. If living under the banner of the gospel leads to destruction then it is a lie even if it does counter the blind spots of our personal and cultural idols, but if it creates human flourishing then it’s yoke is easy and it’s burden is light because it is the yoke humanity was made for. If it makes us flourish then our happiness lies not in being autonomous and independent, but in living in the place that was made for us and for which we were made.
Showing posts with label Why I am a Christian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Why I am a Christian. Show all posts
Friday, November 21, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Why I Am A Christian (6)
To quote Jerram Barrs, “The message of the gospel is timeless, but it is always revealed in time.” What does this mean? That the gospel is "once for all delivered to the saints" However, the gospel does not enter into a vacuum, but into a human culture. The gospel and culture are not in opposition, but there is a wonderful and perfectly fitting interplay between the two.
Christianity is incredibly adaptable. Over thousands of years history has seen it adapt to cultures across geography and time. This adaptability is not a strike against Christianity, as though its truth were by nature a compromise, on the contrary, adaptability demonstrates the truth of Christianity and is one of the reasons I am a Christian.
This is exactly what you would expect to be true of the real meta-story of the world, that the stories of every human culture (and human life) would have parallels to that meta-story, but none would have the full story. That would make the real meta-story incredibly “contagious” and incredibly durable. It would not be limited to one culture, but would still be “at home” in every culture it entered. No single culture would be able to contain it, to tell the whole story, but each culture would reveal new facets of the greater story. This is exactly what we find when we look at the interaction of Christianity and culture. This is a beautiful aspect of Christianity - culminating at the end of Revelation in which every nation brings their glory into the new Jerusalem.
The Bible is full of examples of the fact that this is how the writers of the Bible viewed the interaction of God's truth and culture. One of the best of these is Paul’s interaction with the Athenians on Mars Hill in Acts 17. (Jerram Barrs has been helpful to me in seeing this about Christianity. Most of the following comes from his course, Apologetics and Outreach, at Covenant Seminary. Specifically the lecture on Apologetics and Understanding.)
Paul speaks with the assumption that there are many things in pagan Athenian culture that overlap with God’s truth. Paul quotes two poems to the Greek God Zeus and uses them to say something true about God. Acts tells us that Paul has spent his time in the marketplace in Athens and studying their idols, and when Paul is addressing the Athenians he begins by pointing out an idol to an unknown god, and praises them for their spirituality. It is also possible that Paul alludes to some of Plato’s writing here, as he uses language that is identical to quotations from the Greek philosopher. We are told that Epicurean and Stoic philosophers his audience that day. The first half of Paul’s message (that god is not served by human hands) is something that the Epicureans would readily affirm, and the second half (that God gives men life and breath and everything else) is exactly what the Stoics would have said. Paul does not condemn their culture entirely false and backward, in fact, he has memorized their poets and reflected on them and how they point to the one true God. He has stayed up long hours of the night perhaps pouring over their philosophers. He affirms so much of their culture, and here we see the adaptability of Christianity at work in the hands of a master communicator.
Christianity is incredibly adaptable. Over thousands of years history has seen it adapt to cultures across geography and time. This adaptability is not a strike against Christianity, as though its truth were by nature a compromise, on the contrary, adaptability demonstrates the truth of Christianity and is one of the reasons I am a Christian.
This is exactly what you would expect to be true of the real meta-story of the world, that the stories of every human culture (and human life) would have parallels to that meta-story, but none would have the full story. That would make the real meta-story incredibly “contagious” and incredibly durable. It would not be limited to one culture, but would still be “at home” in every culture it entered. No single culture would be able to contain it, to tell the whole story, but each culture would reveal new facets of the greater story. This is exactly what we find when we look at the interaction of Christianity and culture. This is a beautiful aspect of Christianity - culminating at the end of Revelation in which every nation brings their glory into the new Jerusalem.
The Bible is full of examples of the fact that this is how the writers of the Bible viewed the interaction of God's truth and culture. One of the best of these is Paul’s interaction with the Athenians on Mars Hill in Acts 17. (Jerram Barrs has been helpful to me in seeing this about Christianity. Most of the following comes from his course, Apologetics and Outreach, at Covenant Seminary. Specifically the lecture on Apologetics and Understanding.)
Paul speaks with the assumption that there are many things in pagan Athenian culture that overlap with God’s truth. Paul quotes two poems to the Greek God Zeus and uses them to say something true about God. Acts tells us that Paul has spent his time in the marketplace in Athens and studying their idols, and when Paul is addressing the Athenians he begins by pointing out an idol to an unknown god, and praises them for their spirituality. It is also possible that Paul alludes to some of Plato’s writing here, as he uses language that is identical to quotations from the Greek philosopher. We are told that Epicurean and Stoic philosophers his audience that day. The first half of Paul’s message (that god is not served by human hands) is something that the Epicureans would readily affirm, and the second half (that God gives men life and breath and everything else) is exactly what the Stoics would have said. Paul does not condemn their culture entirely false and backward, in fact, he has memorized their poets and reflected on them and how they point to the one true God. He has stayed up long hours of the night perhaps pouring over their philosophers. He affirms so much of their culture, and here we see the adaptability of Christianity at work in the hands of a master communicator.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Why I Am A Christian (5)
The gospel makes open-minded people. I don’t mean to say that gospel makes people for whom all truth claims are valid and equally right. I think that is a twisted definition of open-mindedness. It opens the mind precisely because it claims to be the True truth. There is a challenge here, of course. It is hard not to become unloving or arrogant in the way you communicate when you are convinced that what you think is right, and thus, what it would be better for everyone to think. However, understood rightly, the gospel makes us people who, rather than being territorial and arrogant, are:
1. Quick to love truth wherever it is to be found,
2. Free to pursue and encounter new ideas,
3. Have respect for other traditions and ideas.
Why?
1. In the Biblical worldview there is no truth that does not belong to God - that does not find its home and origin in him. It is not just "Christian truth" that is tied to the Christian God. If God is really the creator of all the world and everything in it, then he is not just a territorial deity whose realm does not extend past certain boundaries. It is all his. It is all borrowed from him, so to speak. This means that Christians should expect to encounter truth apart from the setting of the whole Christian framework. They should be the first to love it wherever they encounter it, and love it deeply, because they deeply love the God to whose realm it belongs.
2. If that is true then you can move through life and encounter new ideas, new experiences, new cultures and discern the falsehood as well as the truth in them. Christians do not have to be defensive and fearful, but should joyfully explore the world God has made. This reverses the paradigm that says the best place for Christians is sheltered away from the world where they will not be touched by (and cannot touch) the things that are false in the world. The place for Christians is in the midst of those things. That is woven into the very fabric of the identity of the church. The fact of the incarnation demonstrates that - at the heart of the Christian religion is a God who loved the world so much as to enter it although there was falsehood in it, and love it and work to save it. Christians ought to be so deeply rooted in the gospel that leaving places where there is only agreement is not a thing that holds any fear, but the gospel strengthens them to take those risks.
3. The Christian gospel contains God's revelation of himself to mankind and tells the story of how, in Jesus, God is reconciling the world to himself, but nowhere does it affirm the idea that because salvation exists in the Christian gospel alone that wisdom exists only within Christianity. Quite the contrary. And so Christianity gives solid grounds for increased respect for the wisdom contained in other traditions and religions. On top of that, it gives solid grounds for loving and respecting those who follow different traditions, because the same God that made the world made them also. All people, no matter what they believe, are made in God's image, and as such ought to be honored.
1. Quick to love truth wherever it is to be found,
2. Free to pursue and encounter new ideas,
3. Have respect for other traditions and ideas.
Why?
1. In the Biblical worldview there is no truth that does not belong to God - that does not find its home and origin in him. It is not just "Christian truth" that is tied to the Christian God. If God is really the creator of all the world and everything in it, then he is not just a territorial deity whose realm does not extend past certain boundaries. It is all his. It is all borrowed from him, so to speak. This means that Christians should expect to encounter truth apart from the setting of the whole Christian framework. They should be the first to love it wherever they encounter it, and love it deeply, because they deeply love the God to whose realm it belongs.
2. If that is true then you can move through life and encounter new ideas, new experiences, new cultures and discern the falsehood as well as the truth in them. Christians do not have to be defensive and fearful, but should joyfully explore the world God has made. This reverses the paradigm that says the best place for Christians is sheltered away from the world where they will not be touched by (and cannot touch) the things that are false in the world. The place for Christians is in the midst of those things. That is woven into the very fabric of the identity of the church. The fact of the incarnation demonstrates that - at the heart of the Christian religion is a God who loved the world so much as to enter it although there was falsehood in it, and love it and work to save it. Christians ought to be so deeply rooted in the gospel that leaving places where there is only agreement is not a thing that holds any fear, but the gospel strengthens them to take those risks.
3. The Christian gospel contains God's revelation of himself to mankind and tells the story of how, in Jesus, God is reconciling the world to himself, but nowhere does it affirm the idea that because salvation exists in the Christian gospel alone that wisdom exists only within Christianity. Quite the contrary. And so Christianity gives solid grounds for increased respect for the wisdom contained in other traditions and religions. On top of that, it gives solid grounds for loving and respecting those who follow different traditions, because the same God that made the world made them also. All people, no matter what they believe, are made in God's image, and as such ought to be honored.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Why I Am A Christian (4)
The Christian worldview provides me with a framework to understand and love beauty.
There is much beauty in the world. There is sadness and pain and ugliness, but there is no doubt that even in the midst of the most pronounced ugliness and suffering, beauty can be found. It can drive away the ugliness and plant new seeds of creation in the wake of its departure.
The Bible says that the source of all that beauty is the beautiful creator behind the creation. God makes the world overflow with grace and the world becomes beautiful because that is what he is. The beauty we see in the world is not an accident. It is not a chance alignment of particles. It is not a senseless preference. It pours like a fountain at all times from the maker of the world.
If that is true then:
1. It changes the way we interact with the beauty we see in the world
2. It changes the way we interact with the beauty we see in people
The world
If God has lavished his beauty on the world then there is nothing that does not retain traces of that beauty. Even the most ugly things in this world are simply “borrowing” from the good creation that God has made.
That means that as people shaped by the gospel we are not free to divide things into “sacred and beautiful” and “secular and ugly” categories, but we are now able to go wherever we must go and find and love the beauty that is there – and it is there. That means every inch of life. Christians must find and love the beauty in movies, in music, in literature, in animals, in plants, poetry, and the list goes on.
Think of the interaction between the beauty of God and the things of the world as the relationship between light and stained glass windows. A stained glass window separates light into a dazzling display of color. The beauty was always there, but you would not have been able to experience it in the same way if not for the tint in the glass. So it is with the things of the world and the beauty of God. You stand in that splash of color and are drawn to the light beyond the window. The beauty of the window does not diminish or rival with the beauty of the light, it glorifies it, so it is with the world.
People
Humanity is made in the image of God. That image cannot be erased. It is indelibly stamped into us. It is there even in the most wicked action of the most wicked person – it is still part of that person’s identity. Sometimes religion points to our fallenness as the fundamental part of our identity as humans, as if we were fallen before we were anything. But that is not the way it is. In order to be fallen you have to fall from something. When God made humanity it was very good, and that making has not been undone. Evil does not eradicate the original goodness of the creation; it just twists it, and the story of the gospel is the story of creation being untwisted – restored to what it was made to be.
So that is the fundamental identity of every human you have ever come in contact with. They are bearers of the image of God. C. S. Lewis puts it this way in The Weight of Glory, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship... There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal... Next to the blesses sacrament itself your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” That means there is beauty in the people in whom beauty is hardest to see, and that beauty can never be extinguished. Even the person whom you most enjoy to hate shares with you a common heritage, and that common heritage is a wellspring of goodness and loveliness in their life every day, even when it is hard to see and even if the person himself is not conscious of it. The Christian worldview gives resources to interact with one another based on that deep truth, not the surface ugliness. It lets us act in hope that all things, people especially, will one day find their fulfillment and restoration in returning to what they have always been even if that has become twisted from years of living in a fallen world with fallen hearts that do not yet reflect the beauty of their making as they were made to.
There is much beauty in the world. There is sadness and pain and ugliness, but there is no doubt that even in the midst of the most pronounced ugliness and suffering, beauty can be found. It can drive away the ugliness and plant new seeds of creation in the wake of its departure.
The Bible says that the source of all that beauty is the beautiful creator behind the creation. God makes the world overflow with grace and the world becomes beautiful because that is what he is. The beauty we see in the world is not an accident. It is not a chance alignment of particles. It is not a senseless preference. It pours like a fountain at all times from the maker of the world.
If that is true then:
1. It changes the way we interact with the beauty we see in the world
2. It changes the way we interact with the beauty we see in people
The world
If God has lavished his beauty on the world then there is nothing that does not retain traces of that beauty. Even the most ugly things in this world are simply “borrowing” from the good creation that God has made.
That means that as people shaped by the gospel we are not free to divide things into “sacred and beautiful” and “secular and ugly” categories, but we are now able to go wherever we must go and find and love the beauty that is there – and it is there. That means every inch of life. Christians must find and love the beauty in movies, in music, in literature, in animals, in plants, poetry, and the list goes on.
Think of the interaction between the beauty of God and the things of the world as the relationship between light and stained glass windows. A stained glass window separates light into a dazzling display of color. The beauty was always there, but you would not have been able to experience it in the same way if not for the tint in the glass. So it is with the things of the world and the beauty of God. You stand in that splash of color and are drawn to the light beyond the window. The beauty of the window does not diminish or rival with the beauty of the light, it glorifies it, so it is with the world.
People
Humanity is made in the image of God. That image cannot be erased. It is indelibly stamped into us. It is there even in the most wicked action of the most wicked person – it is still part of that person’s identity. Sometimes religion points to our fallenness as the fundamental part of our identity as humans, as if we were fallen before we were anything. But that is not the way it is. In order to be fallen you have to fall from something. When God made humanity it was very good, and that making has not been undone. Evil does not eradicate the original goodness of the creation; it just twists it, and the story of the gospel is the story of creation being untwisted – restored to what it was made to be.
So that is the fundamental identity of every human you have ever come in contact with. They are bearers of the image of God. C. S. Lewis puts it this way in The Weight of Glory, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship... There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal... Next to the blesses sacrament itself your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” That means there is beauty in the people in whom beauty is hardest to see, and that beauty can never be extinguished. Even the person whom you most enjoy to hate shares with you a common heritage, and that common heritage is a wellspring of goodness and loveliness in their life every day, even when it is hard to see and even if the person himself is not conscious of it. The Christian worldview gives resources to interact with one another based on that deep truth, not the surface ugliness. It lets us act in hope that all things, people especially, will one day find their fulfillment and restoration in returning to what they have always been even if that has become twisted from years of living in a fallen world with fallen hearts that do not yet reflect the beauty of their making as they were made to.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Why I Am A Christian (3)
If I were to make a list of reasons I am a Christian this one would have to be on the list also: it makes sense of life.
I met a guy in an airport once who was explaining to me his perspective on life. He was saying that it didn't matter what anyone believes about the universe because when we die we will find that all roads lead to the same place. It is like we are all climbing a mountain though it may look like we are all on different paths in life, one day we will meet at the peak and realize that every path was leading here all along. He seemed to be saying that no matter what our preconceptions of the universe is, the reality is such that it conforms to them all. I understand - I think - why that model of things makes sense, but I think the reality of the universe is different. The guy in the airport was saying that reality is elastic - it stretches so that no one's conception of reality is actually wrong. I want to say that the universe doesn't stretch - it is what it is. The reality of things is objective - it is one way and only one way. Think of it like a lock that only fits one key.
If that is true, then every worldview is a key that either fits the lock of the universe or it does not. In fact, every day each one of us is making our lives in to a key of a certain shape, as though we were betting without knowing it, that this is the shape of key that fits the lock. I am a Christian because I think that the gospel-shaped worldview is the key that fits the lock.
I believe this because of two things that have to be true of whatever the real key is:
1. The life lived according to the worldview that fits will not necessarily be perfect, but will be spared the friction that comes from living as though the universe is something it is not.
2. It makes sense of every inch of life.
I think Christianity satisfies both of these.
1. If the gospel is the key that fits the lock then the things that the gospel calls sin should really lead to destruction and pain, and things that the gospel calls righteousness should really lead to human flourishing. Morality is more than simply a list of do's and don'ts. Righteousness is a smooth click of the key in the lock. Sin is the painful grinding of trying to live a life against the grain.
Take the example of marriage. If the gospel is true then the list of things that it takes to have a good marriage should match the list of things people slowly become when they believe the gospel more and more. Or, to put it another way, as the gospel grows in a person and they become more patient, kind, joyful, honest, caring and compassionate, having a selfless, sacrificial love - more Christlike, they are growing the exact qualities that it will take to have a healthy marriage. If human relationships and morality are both part of the fabric of life then the worldview that fits the way life really is should create human relationships that flourish.
2. The Christian worldview makes sense of life. The Christian story is that everything was created good, it fell and was broken, and it is being made good again. This allows for us to take every new thing and know something about where it came from and where it is going. Take sex for example. Sex is something that was created good - it has a purpose and a place and that purpose is a glorious one. That is not the state we find sex in today. The gospel says that there is something wrong with our appetite for sex, as C. S. Lewis writes, "You can get a large audience together for a strip-tease act - that is, to watch a girl undress on the stage. Now suppose you come to a country where you could fill a theater by simply bringing a covered plate on to the stage and then slowly lifting the cover so as to let the every one see, just before the lights went out, that it contained a mutton chop of a bit of bacon, would you not think that in that country something had gone wrong with the appetite for food?" The gospel does not leave the issue there, however. It tells the story of sex redeemed, sex made right again, free of its abuses and the pain that comes of them.
That is just one example, but the Christians story makes sense of every area of life. The gospel-shaped worldview is a framework which contains every aspect of the human experience - it is comprehensive. There is a place in the framework for suffering, for happiness, for laughter and friendship, for love and heartbreak, for work, for politics, for every inch of life. It weaves them all together in a whole and makes a tapestry of them. Again, as C. S. Lewis said, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." There is a place for everything in the story; it is the light by which all of life is made visible and understandable.
Series:
Why I am a Christian (1)
Why I am a Christian (2)
I met a guy in an airport once who was explaining to me his perspective on life. He was saying that it didn't matter what anyone believes about the universe because when we die we will find that all roads lead to the same place. It is like we are all climbing a mountain though it may look like we are all on different paths in life, one day we will meet at the peak and realize that every path was leading here all along. He seemed to be saying that no matter what our preconceptions of the universe is, the reality is such that it conforms to them all. I understand - I think - why that model of things makes sense, but I think the reality of the universe is different. The guy in the airport was saying that reality is elastic - it stretches so that no one's conception of reality is actually wrong. I want to say that the universe doesn't stretch - it is what it is. The reality of things is objective - it is one way and only one way. Think of it like a lock that only fits one key.
If that is true, then every worldview is a key that either fits the lock of the universe or it does not. In fact, every day each one of us is making our lives in to a key of a certain shape, as though we were betting without knowing it, that this is the shape of key that fits the lock. I am a Christian because I think that the gospel-shaped worldview is the key that fits the lock.
I believe this because of two things that have to be true of whatever the real key is:
1. The life lived according to the worldview that fits will not necessarily be perfect, but will be spared the friction that comes from living as though the universe is something it is not.
2. It makes sense of every inch of life.
I think Christianity satisfies both of these.
1. If the gospel is the key that fits the lock then the things that the gospel calls sin should really lead to destruction and pain, and things that the gospel calls righteousness should really lead to human flourishing. Morality is more than simply a list of do's and don'ts. Righteousness is a smooth click of the key in the lock. Sin is the painful grinding of trying to live a life against the grain.
Take the example of marriage. If the gospel is true then the list of things that it takes to have a good marriage should match the list of things people slowly become when they believe the gospel more and more. Or, to put it another way, as the gospel grows in a person and they become more patient, kind, joyful, honest, caring and compassionate, having a selfless, sacrificial love - more Christlike, they are growing the exact qualities that it will take to have a healthy marriage. If human relationships and morality are both part of the fabric of life then the worldview that fits the way life really is should create human relationships that flourish.
2. The Christian worldview makes sense of life. The Christian story is that everything was created good, it fell and was broken, and it is being made good again. This allows for us to take every new thing and know something about where it came from and where it is going. Take sex for example. Sex is something that was created good - it has a purpose and a place and that purpose is a glorious one. That is not the state we find sex in today. The gospel says that there is something wrong with our appetite for sex, as C. S. Lewis writes, "You can get a large audience together for a strip-tease act - that is, to watch a girl undress on the stage. Now suppose you come to a country where you could fill a theater by simply bringing a covered plate on to the stage and then slowly lifting the cover so as to let the every one see, just before the lights went out, that it contained a mutton chop of a bit of bacon, would you not think that in that country something had gone wrong with the appetite for food?" The gospel does not leave the issue there, however. It tells the story of sex redeemed, sex made right again, free of its abuses and the pain that comes of them.
That is just one example, but the Christians story makes sense of every area of life. The gospel-shaped worldview is a framework which contains every aspect of the human experience - it is comprehensive. There is a place in the framework for suffering, for happiness, for laughter and friendship, for love and heartbreak, for work, for politics, for every inch of life. It weaves them all together in a whole and makes a tapestry of them. Again, as C. S. Lewis said, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." There is a place for everything in the story; it is the light by which all of life is made visible and understandable.
Series:
Why I am a Christian (1)
Why I am a Christian (2)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Why I am a Christian (2)
We live in a culture that hates judgment or condemnation towards any person or group of people based on objective standards of right and wrong. The solution we have come up with is to get rid of the idea that such standards exist. There is the implicit belief in Western culture that once this is accomplished we will then know the harmony we are seeking.
But this falls short in two ways:
1. No one can ever really jettison their moral standards.
I can remember a few conversations that start like this: "I don't like Christianity because it implies judgment. It proclaims a fixed and absolute morality which I don't believe in. Who am I to say to a person that their sexual preference or life choices are wrong? We each must decide right and wrong for ourselves," friends say.
Then I want to ask if there are any examples of people doing things that are wrong regardless of what the person of their action. Hitler and the Holocaust come to mind. The person says that yes, the Holocaust was wrong. I ask why? Because it is. Hitler's acts are unjustifiable even though he believed them to be moral. Then there really is an absolute moral standard. If you take a step back and look at it, people who say that are really advocating their own moral platform. They still have an idea of what is good for everybody and what is wrong for everybody, but that is the very thing they are seeking to avoid.
2. Getting rid of the idea of standards doesn't actually lead to the harmony it is seeking.
The idea is that if everyone is free to determine their own morality and no one is free to condemn anyone else's morality then that kind of tolerance will eliminate condemnation and judgment and create community and love. But the opposite is actually the case. That kind of tolerance will never lead to real love or real community, but only to politeness. The goal is to eliminate conflict, but the prescribed remedy is to ignore it. But if there is really an objective right and wrong, and none of us can escape the idea that there is, then this is not a loving act. Nor are the conflicts between people resolved by not addressing them, they only fester. The true route to what our culture wants lies through the very kind of judgment that it outlaws. To retain the concept of wrong is the only way to ever have the possibility of real community and real love. The first layer is mere manners, politeness. The second layer is conflict and resolution. The third layer is community. We live in a fallen world, often it takes passing through the second layer to come to the third layer. A harmony that is achieved through remaining only on the first layer is only superficial. A love that is reached through retaining the idea of wrong and overcoming it, resolving it, loving people despite profound disagreement, is real love.
What does this have to do with why I am a Christian?
The things we desire have their home in Christianity. Our culture believes that absolute moral standards inevitably lead to judgment, condemnation, oppression, and intolerance, but when you look steadily into the heart of Christianity you see that belief does not hold together. At the heart of Christianity lies a man who, holding uncompromisingly to absolutes, gave his life for his enemies. The picture of a God who is holy and yet loved his people so much as to die for them should enter the heart of every Christian and explode there. Christians ought to be more uncompromising in their adherence to what is good, true, and beautiful, and more loving, more sacrificial toward those who disagree, more gracious.
Christianity has the greater resources for providing the good things our culture wants. It says that all people were made in the image of God, they are his masterworks, they are cared for, provided for and loved by their maker. Because of this each individual has dignity, deserves respect, concern, and love regardless of distinctions society puts on them. It has greater resources to impel believers to sacrificial service for their fellows. This is the path to the love and community and harmony our culture wants.
In Western culture it is a chance preference, a moral taste which has no grounding, no foundation (because we do not believe in absolutes, so how could such a preference be absolutely true for all people?). In Christianity, however, it is an absolute which flows from the wounds of God made by his enemies for their sakes.
But this falls short in two ways:
1. No one can ever really jettison their moral standards.
I can remember a few conversations that start like this: "I don't like Christianity because it implies judgment. It proclaims a fixed and absolute morality which I don't believe in. Who am I to say to a person that their sexual preference or life choices are wrong? We each must decide right and wrong for ourselves," friends say.
Then I want to ask if there are any examples of people doing things that are wrong regardless of what the person of their action. Hitler and the Holocaust come to mind. The person says that yes, the Holocaust was wrong. I ask why? Because it is. Hitler's acts are unjustifiable even though he believed them to be moral. Then there really is an absolute moral standard. If you take a step back and look at it, people who say that are really advocating their own moral platform. They still have an idea of what is good for everybody and what is wrong for everybody, but that is the very thing they are seeking to avoid.
2. Getting rid of the idea of standards doesn't actually lead to the harmony it is seeking.
The idea is that if everyone is free to determine their own morality and no one is free to condemn anyone else's morality then that kind of tolerance will eliminate condemnation and judgment and create community and love. But the opposite is actually the case. That kind of tolerance will never lead to real love or real community, but only to politeness. The goal is to eliminate conflict, but the prescribed remedy is to ignore it. But if there is really an objective right and wrong, and none of us can escape the idea that there is, then this is not a loving act. Nor are the conflicts between people resolved by not addressing them, they only fester. The true route to what our culture wants lies through the very kind of judgment that it outlaws. To retain the concept of wrong is the only way to ever have the possibility of real community and real love. The first layer is mere manners, politeness. The second layer is conflict and resolution. The third layer is community. We live in a fallen world, often it takes passing through the second layer to come to the third layer. A harmony that is achieved through remaining only on the first layer is only superficial. A love that is reached through retaining the idea of wrong and overcoming it, resolving it, loving people despite profound disagreement, is real love.
What does this have to do with why I am a Christian?
The things we desire have their home in Christianity. Our culture believes that absolute moral standards inevitably lead to judgment, condemnation, oppression, and intolerance, but when you look steadily into the heart of Christianity you see that belief does not hold together. At the heart of Christianity lies a man who, holding uncompromisingly to absolutes, gave his life for his enemies. The picture of a God who is holy and yet loved his people so much as to die for them should enter the heart of every Christian and explode there. Christians ought to be more uncompromising in their adherence to what is good, true, and beautiful, and more loving, more sacrificial toward those who disagree, more gracious.
Christianity has the greater resources for providing the good things our culture wants. It says that all people were made in the image of God, they are his masterworks, they are cared for, provided for and loved by their maker. Because of this each individual has dignity, deserves respect, concern, and love regardless of distinctions society puts on them. It has greater resources to impel believers to sacrificial service for their fellows. This is the path to the love and community and harmony our culture wants.
In Western culture it is a chance preference, a moral taste which has no grounding, no foundation (because we do not believe in absolutes, so how could such a preference be absolutely true for all people?). In Christianity, however, it is an absolute which flows from the wounds of God made by his enemies for their sakes.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Why I am a Christian (1)
Every now and then I get asked the question "Why are you a Christian" by friends. It is a good question to be asked and to ask yourself. When I take the question seriously I come away with a greater confidence that the Christian faith is the truth, and that there are good reasons to hold to it. I want to take some time and put a few of my answers to that question up on the blog, starting with this one:
One of those reasons is that the gospel tells a story that reconciles God’s justice and his mercy without resulting in a world that is unlivable.
The Bible depicts God as both perfectly holy and perfectly loving. His holiness means that all his actions serve justice. His love means that there is infinite mercy to be found in him. This is fine as long as there is no sin, but that's not the world we live in, so we have a problem. At this point the question enters: which side of God's character wins out?
It seems there are three options:
1. God's love trumps his holiness. His mercy wins out and nothing is unforgivable. We do not get the justice out actions deserve. There is no judgment for evil.
2. God's holiness trumps his love. Justice is done and only the people who are holy like him escape getting what they deserve. There is only judgment for evil.
3. God denies neither part of his character, but both his love and holiness are upheld and fulfilled in something marvelous and unexpected.
People often wish for the first option and become angry at God that he is not more lavish with his love, and then reject him. When there is anything which carries even the slightest hint of divine judgment God is often also painted as the second option, and then rejected. The real Christian gospel tells a story of how the third option miraculously came true, and when I understood this, rather than causing me to reject God it became an anchor to my faith.
1. The God Who Is Only Mercy.
The wish for a God who is only mercy goes hand-and-glove with a culture who hates judgment and who defines tolerance as never saying anyone else is wrong. At first it is logical to long for this (isn't unconditional, all-encompassing mercy a good?) but when you look closer the wish for God to be like this is wishing for God who is terrible and a world that is unlivable. This is to wish that God were not holy, or wish that his holiness did not matter to him so much. But who wants to live in such a world? Aren't we all secretly banking on God's holiness and his justice in the end? That there would be equality in the scales? That all the unpunished evil that has wrought such havoc and suffering throughout history did not go unseen by Heaven? That there is someone who has the power and goodness to make it all right again? Who also saw all the unpraised and unthanked goodness that has gone on in the world and will not forget it? Of course we are. If you have a God who is only mercy then there is an infinitely elastic line between right and wrong. God saves, but he does it by a shrug - by sweeping it under the rug of his mercy, which is there for the taking. It would go against his very nature to condemn evil in any real way that would amount to more than just shaking his finger at it. Who wants to live in this world?
2. The God Who Is Only Justice
So if we do not see (and should not wish for) a God who is only mercy, then does Christianity present a God who is only just? No. You can have a relationship with the Christian God, and you could not with a God who is only just. Why? If that were true of God then you would only be left with a judge. If he is an omniscient one, then he would know all the ways you have fallen short, even more than you know. If he is an infinite one, then even the smallest cruelty you commit against your fellow man is an infinite rebellion. Our sin would fit his magnitude, not ours. And if he is a just one then we would receive from him only punishment, for that is justice. Our sin does not seem to us to be such a terrible thing to merit such a judgment, but that is because we are handicapped by the fall. We are unable to see clearly either the ugliness of our sin or the glory of God's holiness. If we could see our sin as God does, we would see that if God were any kind of holy at all he would have to be infinitely removed from that kind of darkness. But infinitely distant from a God who is only justice is not where the Christian gospel leaves us.
3. The Something Unexpected
Either of the first two options leads to God denying part of who he is, but this is not how any true mercy or justice is achieved. God is one. He cannot deny himself or any part of himself. If there is to be mercy or justice at all it must be in both his holiness and his love being upheld simultaneously, and that is exactly what the gospel says took place on the cross. As C. S. Lewis said, "On the Cross justice and mercy kiss". God himself, in Jesus, pays the penalty his justice requires, which his creations earned for themselves but could not pay for themselves. Now his love is lavished on those very creations and his mercy is achieved at the price of his own wounds.
Christianity tells a story that errs neither to the left or to the right. It is neither only justice nor only mercy because it is both. And this makes a world that is worth living in. It is one where there will be judgment for evil, where there is a moral standard higher than ourselves and all will bow before a holy God. Then when that moment comes the hammer of judgment does not fall because God, in love, took the hammer's blows on himself. This makes Christians both uncompromisingly moral and lavishly, radically loving.
One of those reasons is that the gospel tells a story that reconciles God’s justice and his mercy without resulting in a world that is unlivable.
The Bible depicts God as both perfectly holy and perfectly loving. His holiness means that all his actions serve justice. His love means that there is infinite mercy to be found in him. This is fine as long as there is no sin, but that's not the world we live in, so we have a problem. At this point the question enters: which side of God's character wins out?
It seems there are three options:
1. God's love trumps his holiness. His mercy wins out and nothing is unforgivable. We do not get the justice out actions deserve. There is no judgment for evil.
2. God's holiness trumps his love. Justice is done and only the people who are holy like him escape getting what they deserve. There is only judgment for evil.
3. God denies neither part of his character, but both his love and holiness are upheld and fulfilled in something marvelous and unexpected.
People often wish for the first option and become angry at God that he is not more lavish with his love, and then reject him. When there is anything which carries even the slightest hint of divine judgment God is often also painted as the second option, and then rejected. The real Christian gospel tells a story of how the third option miraculously came true, and when I understood this, rather than causing me to reject God it became an anchor to my faith.
1. The God Who Is Only Mercy.
The wish for a God who is only mercy goes hand-and-glove with a culture who hates judgment and who defines tolerance as never saying anyone else is wrong. At first it is logical to long for this (isn't unconditional, all-encompassing mercy a good?) but when you look closer the wish for God to be like this is wishing for God who is terrible and a world that is unlivable. This is to wish that God were not holy, or wish that his holiness did not matter to him so much. But who wants to live in such a world? Aren't we all secretly banking on God's holiness and his justice in the end? That there would be equality in the scales? That all the unpunished evil that has wrought such havoc and suffering throughout history did not go unseen by Heaven? That there is someone who has the power and goodness to make it all right again? Who also saw all the unpraised and unthanked goodness that has gone on in the world and will not forget it? Of course we are. If you have a God who is only mercy then there is an infinitely elastic line between right and wrong. God saves, but he does it by a shrug - by sweeping it under the rug of his mercy, which is there for the taking. It would go against his very nature to condemn evil in any real way that would amount to more than just shaking his finger at it. Who wants to live in this world?
2. The God Who Is Only Justice
So if we do not see (and should not wish for) a God who is only mercy, then does Christianity present a God who is only just? No. You can have a relationship with the Christian God, and you could not with a God who is only just. Why? If that were true of God then you would only be left with a judge. If he is an omniscient one, then he would know all the ways you have fallen short, even more than you know. If he is an infinite one, then even the smallest cruelty you commit against your fellow man is an infinite rebellion. Our sin would fit his magnitude, not ours. And if he is a just one then we would receive from him only punishment, for that is justice. Our sin does not seem to us to be such a terrible thing to merit such a judgment, but that is because we are handicapped by the fall. We are unable to see clearly either the ugliness of our sin or the glory of God's holiness. If we could see our sin as God does, we would see that if God were any kind of holy at all he would have to be infinitely removed from that kind of darkness. But infinitely distant from a God who is only justice is not where the Christian gospel leaves us.
3. The Something Unexpected
Either of the first two options leads to God denying part of who he is, but this is not how any true mercy or justice is achieved. God is one. He cannot deny himself or any part of himself. If there is to be mercy or justice at all it must be in both his holiness and his love being upheld simultaneously, and that is exactly what the gospel says took place on the cross. As C. S. Lewis said, "On the Cross justice and mercy kiss". God himself, in Jesus, pays the penalty his justice requires, which his creations earned for themselves but could not pay for themselves. Now his love is lavished on those very creations and his mercy is achieved at the price of his own wounds.
Christianity tells a story that errs neither to the left or to the right. It is neither only justice nor only mercy because it is both. And this makes a world that is worth living in. It is one where there will be judgment for evil, where there is a moral standard higher than ourselves and all will bow before a holy God. Then when that moment comes the hammer of judgment does not fall because God, in love, took the hammer's blows on himself. This makes Christians both uncompromisingly moral and lavishly, radically loving.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
