Tag: divine mystery

Inherently Paradoxical

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
            Huh?  What in the world is that?  Why do I have such a weird title for a blog post?  What do I hope to accomplish with such an egg-headed phrase?  Over a hundred and fifty years ago the great Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, described true Christianity as “inherently paradoxical.”  In the midst of a thoroughly scientific age in which having answers for everything through identification and classification ruled the day, Kierkegaard pushed back, recognizing and upholding the great mystery of the Christian faith.  Kierkegaard pointed out that we do not have the answers to everything revealed to us, but, instead, we must hold to the tension of what seem like competing realities.  A paradox is a statement that seems self-contradictory or illogical, but in reality expresses a truth.
 
 
 
            For example, the God whom Christians serve is One God in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Spirit.  This seems absurd; it is unexplainable.  But we must hold the tension of the truth that God is both One and Three at the same time all the time.  In addition, Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God at the same time all the time.  It appears foolish.  When Kierkegaard said Christianity is “inherently paradoxical” he meant that that it defies and transcends the scientific method; Christianity may seem to be full of ridiculous religious mumbo-jumbo, but is none-the-less truth.  Christianity is like standing in the middle of a train track with two rails on each side.  Each is there.  Each is real.  They never touch.  We look ahead and see that they much touch somehow since it appears they come together.  But the more we walk the more we never find the touching point.  So it is with Christianity.  The more we bend to rationalistic scientism the more frustrated we will become because we never get to explain the unexplainable; it never seems to touch or to make a lot of rational sense.  Instead, we hold the tension of paradox.
 
            So, what does this have to do with church ministry and the Christian life?  Oftentimes we want to embrace one truth while denying the other in order for things to make sense to us.  To embrace Christ’s humanity, but downplay his deity is the ancient heresy of Arianism; to emphasize Christ’s deity and toss the humanity aside as only appearing a man is equally heretical position of Docetism.  Both were soundly condemned by Church Councils as misguided attempts to reconcile the inherently paradoxical nature of Christian belief about Jesus.  We serve a risen Savior who was just like us but did not sin; a Champion who was God incarnate.  To downplay either truth is to run the train off the tracks and crash our faith.
 
            God planned for our deliverance from sin, death, and hell through predestination and gracious call to salvation.  However, we still have a human responsibility to turn from sin and believe the good news of forgiveness in Christ.  God elects us and chooses us; we choose God.  Which is true?  Both are equally true at the same time all the time.
 
            If we only emphasize God’s sovereignty and providence and ignore human responsibility, we might not pray, serve, or evangelize believing that our efforts do not really matter since God will do whatever God will do.  On the other hand, we might put all our eggs in the human responsibility basket to the point of also never really praying but relying on our own ingenuity, putting pressure on ourselves to serve and work and manipulate others to live the Christian life out of a misguided belief of eschewing the inherently paradoxical nature of our faith.  The truth is:  the way up is down; to save our lives we must give them up; to be great is to be a servant.
 

 

            We are to rely fully and completely on our triune God for everything:  salvation; living the Christian life; and, serving in the church.  We are also not to be passive but active in taking charge of our Christian lives and loving God and others responsibly with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  If we do not hold all this truth together in tension we will be frustrated and have endless angst and worry within ourselves.  We do not have to understand everything about the Bible and Christianity in order to be a Christian and serve in Christ’s Church.  In fact, there is so much mystery to the faith that we must take the time to simply stand and gape in wonder at the God who is so big that we are unable to comprehend him and his ways.  So, we need to learn to enjoy this awesome God and embrace the paradox of divine sovereignty and human responsibility so that we may worship, fellowship, and serve the church and the world.  In doing so we are witnesses to a faith that transcends understanding and allows us to freely operate within our churches, our families, and our lives.  May it be so to the glory of God.

The Mind of Christ

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
            The classic comic book villain is a tragic story of misplaced power.  Take, for example, the Fantastic Four’s arch-enemy “Dr. Doom.”  Victor von Doom was born to gypsy parents in Europe whom were killed when Victor was very young.  His entire growth was marked by the machinations of evil men.  Victor became a scientific genius, motivated by a desire to change the world and make it a place free from the kind of upbringing he experienced.  But the more Victor grew in intellect and power, the more he discovered he did not have enough control of the world to effect real change.  While working on an invention that he believed could free his mother’s lost soul from the netherworld, the machine literally blew up in his face and “Dr. Doom” was born – an iron masked man signifying his new iron stance toward the world and covering both the actual and emotional scars on his face.  Dr. Doom returned to Europe, took over his native Latveria and sought to, in essence, destroy the world and remake it in his own image.
 
 
 
            A serious God-complex for sure!  Yet without the mind of Jesus Christ even our best attempts to make a difference in this world not only fall short, but actually damage others.  We absolutely and totally need the mind of Christ.  The Spirit of God works through the Word of God.  16th century pastor and theologian, John Calvin, repeatedly instructed and encouraged his Geneva congregation to not separate the Word of God from the Spirit of God because it is the Holy Spirit who illumines truth to us.  It is the Spirit who joins us to Christ and assures us of salvation and grows us in confidence through the Scriptures.  Calvin, who I am convinced was a genius, did not, like Dr. Doom, rely on his intellect or abilities but insisted we need the Spirit’s witness in order to mature as followers of Jesus.
 
            We gain the mind of Christ when our minds are filled with God’s Holy Word.  So, we must be careful about what we put into our minds.  In order to have the mind of Christ, we must receive the Spirit of God through believing that Jesus died on the cross in order to save me from my unmanageable life and circumstances.  We need to be immersed in the Word of God.  When we believe we have the power to change within us, we simply use the Word of God as the frosting on top of the cake or the extra sugar on top of the cookie – it makes things better but I really did all the work of baking.  Instead, we need to be like pickles – absolutely and totally and completely immersed in salt water.  Cucumbers do not become pickles by sprinkling some salt and vinegar on the top – cucumbers become pickles by being soaked in the stuff.  We need the mind of Christ, and to have the mind of Christ we need to be soaked in the Word of God because the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to bring lasting spiritual truth into our lives.  In other words, there is no real change apart from God’s Word.  Wisdom for our lives comes through the Spirit of God using the Word of God.
 
            It is a mystery to us how this actually happens. Pastor H.B. London recalls an experience he had with a young couple with their first child at the hospital.  “I stood by helplessly as one doctor spoke.  “Your baby has died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. We want to give you a chance to hold your child before we take her.” I watched this young couple; their shoulders shook with emotion as they held their firstborn for the last time.  My mind raced to find something to say to the shocked young couple. I wanted to tell them that everything would be okay, but that wasn’t true. Their baby was gone. I began, with words that were broken and slow, “I don’t know why this awful loss has to come to you. But I know God loves you as if you were the only ones in the whole world to love. If you accept his love…if you believe he does love you, you’ll make it. If you don’t, you won’t.” Those were the only words I had for them. They seemed awfully empty at the time.  I choked back my own emotions while they tried valiantly to cling to their faith. But something happened in that hospital room. Neither the couple nor I had words to erase the pain. A Holy Presence invaded that place. God joined the three of us. Just as in the Old Testament story of the fiery furnace, when God himself came to comfort Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we felt in the fiery trial of suffering an assurance that God was caring for us.  One day, after coming to Focus on the Family, I received a letter with a picture of this young couple holding a beautiful baby. They wrote:  H. B., you probably don’t think we heard you when you encouraged us to cling to the love of God when our baby died. But we heard you clearly. So we have believed over and over that God loves us as if we were the only ones to love. We have learned to live in the love of God. We quote your words to each other often. The Lord is gracious. Notice in the picture we are holding a beautiful new baby—God’s special gift to us. We don’t understand why we lost our first child. We still hurt when we think about it, but we have come to rely on God’s Word and God’s Spirit….”
 
Some tough situations are mysteries beyond our comprehension, are greater than our answers, and bigger than our attempts to change our circumstances. They are mysteries that stretch our faith and force us to turn and cry out to God and Christ’s church for help because we are powerless to manage our lives and our emotions.
 

 

We absolutely and totally need the Holy Spirit of God.  We absolutely and totally need the mind of Christ.  Without them we are lost, but with them we experience the saving power of Jesus and his cross to deal with everything in our lives.  Soli Deo Gloria.