Merciless Mercy

Luke 20:18 describes what I call the 'Rock of Grace' "Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."

A recent discussion on the Grace of God reminded me of this passage in Luke. And since perhaps humans tend to the extremes and fearing a lean too far towards a libertine philosophy that seemed to rear its head, wise shepherd Ken Sweers on Kingdom Grace reflected on Paul:

“For we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” -2 Corinthians 5:10, Paul writing to believers!

“Yes, God’s grace is indeed amazing. But it does not excuse humans for the choices we make in this life. There is much greater dimension to God’s ways than we can possibly imagine.”

I'd like to draw these two together a little and, though it be grace we reflect upon, let it be Him we seek. To that end I second Ken's statement on the dimensions of God's ways. All things here on earth, the actors and their acts so to speak, even the sets and subplots will come to fruition in heaven. All will find purpose in God’s grandeur. C.S. Lewis played with this idea a bit in the last of the Narnia stories. Almost neo-Platonist to the first time reader, all things merely shadow the reality that lies in the eternal Aslan, Lewis’ icon for Christ. The point was lost on many (which speaks volumes on the quality of modern education), but the point was that the Lord God will bring all things together for His purpose, and at the Last (which is the Beginning) we will see the accumulation of all we have known and done for all must appear before the Throne.

At that “time” I think it will be made clear that all good is God’s, none of it ours for the claiming. Even the consequences of our sins, which must be met, will be found to be made into an everlasting wonder. For those that believe and love God, though we are forgiven, God’s world is one of cause and effect and we are called to face it one day (did David, though forgiven, not bear the brunt of his sins with Bathsheba?). Elbert Hubbard once noted, “we are not punished for our sins so much as by them.” Perhaps he was right.

After all, we must be pruned. But the Father works the greatest miracles by pruning us, for that which is pruned burned, and that which is burned turned into fertilizer. God turns the worst evil to into good. Is that not the miracle that Christ proved; is this not the true power of God? God is Life itself and its source, He has given it to us freely, and indeed independently. Adam had a choice to follow or stray. He strayed (and we seem to run full out). When we stray (run) from Life all that is left us is death. Entropy. Death isn’t evil, its just the natural consequence for turning away from the Source of Life, from God. Death is the wage of Sin we are told. Evil is not exactly the opposite of good, it is the lack of it; it is the degenerate and decaying hole left in the absence of the life-giving goodness of God’s Breath.

And running away leaves us breathless.

But you see, though it is easy for mankind in our pride and arbitrary humanism to do evil - and we took all of Creation with us when we fell – it is within the power of God, and God alone, to turn evil into good, to reverse death. Christ’s resurrection gives new life to all of Creation, it puts Breath back into dry bones. Death where is thy sting?

God takes everything He has made and bends it to His will, yet still allows us the freedom of our own humanity. For those who are willing to accept God’s call, to accept His love, to live under His Kingship, though we find pain in death and in bearing our cross, He has parted that water and promises us passage through the river Styx and life on the other side.

Truly all things are made to His purpose – we can either bend willingly or be broken by His merciless Mercy. All will be dashed upon the Rock of Grace.


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SCIENCE! will continue next

Jubilee!

Image by Sacred Destinations via Flickr

A man noted the other day to a friend, that if we (Christians) experience hardship, it must be by the will of God. Our friend was very disturbed and retorted that it is never God's will that evil be upon us; evil results from the Fall, not God.

I know what she means, and she is 100% right, but I think the fella may have a point. I'm not saying that God does will evil on us, but what I mean is that I can't believe that it's God's will to just magically will Christians happiness and peace and prosperity in spite of others. He wills the good of all people. Yes, indeed, hardship and evil come from the Fall, but God Himself bore the brunt of that evil for us, saving us from death, once again - and Jesus' contemporaries thought in exactly these terms - God rescued His people from Exile and reconciled His people to Him. And here is the point: it is not just for our sake's, nor His, but the whole world's (1).

Jesus proclaimed the year of Jubilee, freedom for all peoples: ending slavery, suffering, canceling debts and redeeming the lost. And this is done by the healing of the blind, curing the sick, and in more earthly, less miraculous terms, the wealthy giving up their wealth, the rich sharing their hoard, and the blessed blessing those less fortunate. Jesus became Israel to the world and did only what God alone could do. You see, Israel was the city on the hill, the light in the darkness and was to be the way of salvation for all, showing the surrounding nations a better way of life - by enduring the suffering of the Fall, trusting in our God, loving amidst the pain and coming out the Red Sea of death and alive on the other side. As the Living Temple of God, and, consequently, the Body of Christ, is this not what we are called to do?

So why are Christians surprised when we find ourselves suffering? We are to rejoice in pain so that the world may see a new way of living. God does not call us to be His people in order simply to bless us. We are blessed so that we may bless others. The only reason God blesses us is so that He may use us. Are we to cry out in our affliction? By all means! What other way to bear our cross but by the strength of God, for we have none of our own. But is it His will we are afflicted? No, but it is His will that we endure as He did. It is His will that we march into the fray right by His side -

As the Father sent Me, so I send you; receive the Holy Spirit; forgive and retain sins.(2)

- as He is present with us in the midst of it, bearing the harshest evil for us, and we for our neighbor and thus the world, God claims every evil as His own victory and thus turns the tide battle by battle – indeed, He has already won the war. These are merely after skirmishes.

It is His will that we be for the world what He was (and is) for us. A suffering servant, bearing our crosses, not because He wills us evil, but because He wills all the greatest good. Lights upon a hill are we. Let us be Christians or die trying.

(1) I'm not talking of universal spiritual salvation, that isn't what John meant when he said that 'Christ died for all' (well, in some sense it was, but that's another post. I speak of more immediate, present Kingdom matters.)
(2) John 20:21-23

What Good is Evil?

Question No. 56 asked of Dr. William Lane Craig on his web site sparked my interest in tackling freewill and evil.

"Why it is necessary that we be able to choose evil for us to have free will, while it is not necessary that God be able to choose evil for Him to have free will?" was the actual question.

For starters, I must admit my limits and refer my readers (all one of me) to Lewis or Augustine, Bonhoeffer or Athanasius for a detailed answer. Dr. Craig is certainly well thought out, but I always like to think things through myself.

Short answer: Good is defined by who God is, His very nature. Evil is turning from or disobeying God, and as we are like but separate entities, we have that choice. A choice that God does not have. God cannot turn from Himself, though He may do as He pleases.

Longer answer:

Let us begin by defining God's qualities, as best we can quickly (listing them all is of course impossible) - Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient, (and Good) So, Infinite, Outside of all time and space, ie, not bound by them, and being God, that is, uncreated and the Source of all Creation, we can agree that He is the Ultimate Reality. He is so full of being that He gives it away. God simply Is. It is indeed His very name.

Now, is what God has Freewill, as we would describe it? No, as we humans would describe it, I think not.

If God is the Ultimate Reality and knows everything, then He certainly knows Himself. Complete self awareness is something that we cannot imagine, particularly in an infinite being. God is not in doubt as to what to do, He simply does. He is not at all in doubt when anything is put before Him for who is there to present something novel to the Creator? So, we come back to the fact that since He is the Source of all and is outside, apart from, all time and space, there is nothing that God could really choose to do that is outside of His own nature, which is itself, goodness. The source of goodness. It would mean there was something other than Himself, outside of Himself. This is not the place for an argument in Dualism, but I think its safe to say, God is alone (in a Trinity). (The true term, God actually has no plural.)

Now we must go about defining Good and Evil. Good is defined by who God is; all that God made was declared good. All of Creation is good. Christian theology tells us that God cannot make evil. Out of something Pure, only pure may come. Everything that we would call good usually means, uncorrupted, fresh, alive, beautiful. But because the created thing is not eternal, and infinite (1) it is therefore open to choice, this or that, being or reverting back to nothingness. What this means is that just as God Is, and good is, evil is not. Evil is not the opposite good, it is the lack of or the perversion of it.

The devil, even was once the most brilliant of angels, and now, as Lewis points out, is merely God's ape. He can't make anything himself, he can only twist what is God's. Even the pleasures that you think sinful, are goods used in the wrong way or at the wrong time. Food is good, food taken in and of itself, apart from the intention God made of it, ie, as nourishment, is bad. Gluttony is nasty. Greed as well. Money isn't evil, but loving it is. Sex is good, but separating it from the vows of marriage and bonds of the other loves due the marriage bed is a sin. Only God is infinite and good. Loving anything created (unless it is ordained, eg your neighbor - he/she is created in the image of God) is simply putting eternal hope on something that isn't eternal. You are separating it from the fullness of its original intention. Note, even love, without justice, faith and honor leads to all sorts of envy, pride, greed and hate.

So now we have four things: God IS, therefore good IS, evil IS NOT, and God's "freewill" is not quite the same as our freewill. God simply cannot violate His nature anymore than you can. Sinning doesn't mean defying your nature, it means more of, defying the nature of God in you. God doesn't have 'the choice to do evil' anymore than you have the choice to become a giraffe.

Lets sum up. Freewill does not mean just choosing between good and evil, as though there were only two choices, in this we have greatly limited ourselves. The truth of it is far more complex. You must choose this good or that good, this evil or that evil. With what we have discovered about good, there is an infinite number of "goods" available to us. All of creations sings it. I can choose a myriad of ways to help my neighbor, but far fewer ways to cause him ill. As a doctor in Iraq once said, 'Violence (and evil) are for those who lack imagination...' (2)

Thoughts?

(1) Christ is God and is eternal and infinite - See Lewis' Trinity

(2) "Violence is for those who lack imagination. Does your country have no imagination?" Anonymous Iraqi doctor speaking on the war.