Wednesday, July 20, 2011

dev179

“For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”
1 Corinthians 1:21
There was a time that I wanted to argue with God about this verse. Surely the message that God had given Paul could not have been foolishness, as this verse suggests. After all, a foolish message is one that only a fool would accept, and, since I had accepted Paul’s message, surely I the gospel I received was the culmination of the wisdom of God. How could Paul say that this message was foolishness?
I continue to believe that the gospel is the wisdom of God, but I have recently come to see how it can also be seen as the foolishness of God. Living in a very secular culture, I have often had discussions about Jesus with people who deny even the existence of God. These discussions often involve complex philosophical discussions then end up going very deep into theories about existence, truth, and morality. When I finally sift through all of the excess baggage involved in the discussion to reason my way to a gospel presentation, the message can seem way too simple. Is the answer to the whole universe really no more than a man who gave himself to be sacrificed like an animal?
No doubt Paul experienced the same thing. He was encountering all the rival philosophies and worldviews of the Roman Empire, and no doubt had many such philosophical discussions. He took firm stances on epistemology, morality, and the nature of truth. And, much like when I evangelize, he presents the gospel as a culmination of all the knowledge that is known. The deepest argument that all other arguments lead to is the simplest notion of all. Christ died of our sins according to the Scriptures. It really is as simple as us being bad and God taking our punishment.
Why did God choose to save us in such a simple and foolish way? Why should the real truth be so bizarre, while at the same time be so accessible even to the simplest of minds? Why should not man have to climb intellectual mountains and cross perplexing seas to come to the truth? Why should enlightenment not be the results of the efforts of man?
To think this way is to forget the original problem. The sinfulness of man commenced with the pride of trying to do things ourselves. This led us into self-glorification and a desire to overthrown the reign of God so that we could sit on His throne. The foolish message, however, will not allow such nonsense. The Ph.D. who has spent years in the library must humble his intellect before the simplicity of the cross just like the preschooler and the homeless beggar.
The gospel is not foolishness in that it presents a lack of wisdom. It is foolish in its simplicity. For the wise man, the scribe, and the debater of this age to come to know Truth incarnate, they must humble themselves before the cross of Christ. They must admit their sinfulness and declare Another king of the cosmos. They must submit that the uneducated and the ignorant have obtained the same wisdom that they have received; namely, a wisdom that is revealed by God and not obtained on a voyage around the world or in the dark corner of a library. They must give up their pride.
Perhaps this is why Paul said, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Friday, July 8, 2011

dev178

‘If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him. 
Leviticus 24:19-20
Perhaps no precept set forth in Scripture is so looked down upon as this idea of “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.” It is true that in the New Testament Jesus commands his disciples to turn the other cheek when struck and to not resist evil people, seemingly contradicting this core Old Testament principle. Many argue against this idea, and often it is seen as being primitive and inapplicable today. Gandhi, for example, said, “An eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.”
Gandhi, along with many people today, has missed the wisdom behind this important biblical principle. His quote makes it seem like someone who believes in this notion walks around plucking everyone’s eye out. This is not the point the Old Testament is making here.
The Scriptures are establishing the idea of justice. Unfortunately, we live in a world where people actually do evil. Since evil is done, there must be a system in place where the evil that is committed is made right again. The harm must be repaired by giving a punishment equal to that which was committed, or else there will be unfinished evil left on the table. If a punishment is more severe than the offense committed, then the punishment itself was an evil. If the punishment was less than the evil committed, the offender had not received just recompense. This precept is always right.
Now, if this precept is always right, how can I justify Jesus’ words about turning the other cheek and forgiveness? Jesus was speaking to individuals who also had need of being forgiven of their sins. The people who had been struck on one cheek were also people who were guilty of striking someone else. All individuals in this world are in need of pardon, and therefore all should be willing to pardon. Anyone who has ever committed a sin in their life should be willing to turn the other cheek and forgive others, just as they need God to forgive them. Only a person is capable of forgiveness.
However, the law cannot be forgiving. The law is the moral standard that God has established, and it must be upheld at all costs. Just recompense is necessary for those who transgress it. Imagine a society where murderers were not punished or people weren’t required to pay back what they had stolen. Such a place would be a lawless hell. The eye for an eye principle exists to make sure that justice is done, and that justice must be fair to the offense that was committed. So, to address Gandhi, the Bible is not saying that individual people should be going around creating their own justice, nor randomly plucking out people’s eyes. The only people walking around blind will be the ones guilty of making other people walk around blind, and it is the law that will enforce this.
While we Christians often rejoice in the fact that God, a Person (or, rather, three Persons), has given us forgiveness. Yet we must also rejoice that God will judge according to the law that He has established, for any God who made universe where evil was not made right would not be worthy of worship at all. But our God is just, and all will be made right. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, all sins will be given their due recompense.
The choice as to whether or not you want Jesus take your penalty is entirely up to you.