The S Word (1)

(This is part of a series of devotionals I'm sharing where I work)

"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..." -Romans 3:23

"I tell you naught for your comfort, Yea, naught for your desire, Save that the sky grows darker yet, And the sea rises higher." -GK Chesterton

Last time we began to speak of God's plan to save man in Christ. But before describing the good news, it is necessary to consider the bad news: human sin.

Genesis tells us that man was originally placed in the garden without moral prohibitions. That is because man was a being without sin, in perfect fellowship with God, and in that fellowship, was obedient. That does not mean that man was perfect in his understanding and relationships, but that there was no assertion yet of himself against God and his order.

God gave man a test of obedience, one negative law, one "you shall not." Man failed this test. In the process he declared himself independent of God as the source of life, and set himself up as a self-contained god apart from the relationship that would keep him alive. I think of the old sponge divers who wore heavy suits and helmets attached by a hose to an air pump on the surface. The fall of man is as if a diver decided to be independent, cut his hose, and wander off on his own.

There were consequences of this disobedience. First, there was banishment from the presence of God, and resentment and distrust of God by man. After all, the fall occurred because Satan questioned God's goodness and motives for creating man to begin with. Second, the whole of Adam's descendents fell into rebellion with him. Theologians call this "federalism"--the idea that the leader of a group represents it, and his destiny is its destiny. We don't like this theory because we value independence far more than God does. Remember that federalism works in a positive way too: Christ represents a new race, and that race is declared righteous because their Head is.

The third consequence is what I call "primary" sin. That is the innate selfishness and rebellion against outside authority (especially God's) that is in all of us. Theologians call it "original sin." It is the opposite of love for God, it does not desire to see His beauty, and does not hold obedience as a joy, but a burden. It desires the small dark places of the heart rather than the light of perfect love and truth.

The Fourth is "secondary" sin--all the fruits of selfishness, hatred, bitterness, abuse, and perversion that leads to war, destruction of innocence, prisons, laws, and probation offices. It also includes religious sins: pride, self-righteousness, the inability to see another point of view, sectarianism, judgmental arrogance, and a critical spirit.

As much as we like to think of God as a tolerant grandfather who winks at sin, God's response to sin is anger (Psalm 7:11). It is important to understand that God never waivers in His justice. If He ignored His own laws the universe would fall apart. Every sin deserves retribution. Expecting God to "grade on a curve" is fruitless. Our only hope is that God finds a way to meet the demands of His own justice. More on why it is important how we view sin next time....

The Story Behind the Story (2)

"Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said. . . 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.'" -Hebrews 10: 5, 7.

"Theologians speak of another kind of covenant that is not between God and man, but is among the members of the Trinity. This covenant they call the 'covenant of redemption.' It is a covenant among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in which the Son agreed to become a man, be our representative, obey the demands of the covenant of works on our behalf, and pay the penalty for sin which we deserved." -Wayne Grudem

In the first segment of The Story Behind the Story, we ended with a look at Satan's motives and looked ahead to the fall of man.

God's response to man's rebellion against His will and purposes is anger--what the Bible calls wrath. We tend to equate wrath with outburst of anger or rage, but the wrath of God is an ongoing attitude towards those who will not recognize His sovereignty over them. The fact that we don't like this attribute of God is a pretty good evidence of the rebellion of our own hearts. When you think about it, God certainly has a right to set down the laws of His creation and enforce them if necessary.

But the wrath of God is the result of something deeper than just a challenge to His authority. Consider where God's love is principally centered: in the Person of His Son. If Satan could not attack the Son's majesty, he could twist and distort the image. When God looks at fallen man, he sees the most beautiful image in the universe broken, marred, and perverted. Satan's successful attack on man struck not just at the sovereignty of God, but at His very heart. Satan's temptation pulled man down to a level that deserved God's wrath; and yet the image remained, though marred. God had originally intended this creature to be part of a drama to be enacted before the whole creation. So what is God to do? Justice demands a penalty; love demands a solution that will not circumvent justice.

Somewhere in pre-history, or to be more accurate, somewhere outside time and space, the Trinity held a conference and agreed upon what theologians call the covenant of redemption. The Father made a plan, the Son agreed to carry it out, and the Holy Spirit agreed to apply it both in the Son and in believers. The Son agreed to become a second Adam. As Adam stood for all his descendants when he succumbed to rebellion, so the Son would become representative man, and do for them what they could not do for themselves: live a perfect life and bear the penalty of God's justice. The Trinity basically planned an invasion.

This plan was so unforeseen, so unbelievable, so audacious, so opposite to human thought, that even the most religious men of Jesus' day couldn't see it--though a calloused Roman soldier was moved by it on the spot. The plan was simply backwards. That's why when men hear of it, they are called to "repent," a word that does not mean to feel sorry or be remorseful, but to "change your mind"--flip your mind around to accept what is the foolhardy daring of God.

Next: The S-word.

The Story Behind the Story (I)

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.", -John 1:1

"Galadriel! Galadriel! Clear is the water of your well; White is the star in your white hand; Unmarred, unstained is leaf and land In Dwimordene, in Lorien More fair than thoughts of mortal men." -JRR Tolkien

I shared this obscure poem from Lord of the Rings because Tolkien peppers his trilogy with references to an older, brighter, and higher world that lies behind the trials of Middle Earth. In fact, he later wrote a book called The Silmarillion, to tell the story behind the story.

The Bible does the same thing. Throughout its long story of redemption, there are glimpses of a reality that transcends history. Its first words, "In the beginning...", implies that there was something there before there was a beginning. There was, simply, God: infinite in glory, beauty, otherness, purity, justice, and above all things, love. Such love begets loveliness, or an object of love, a beloved, the eternal Son. Because the Father has always loved, there has always been the Son. Both God the Father and God the Son are mutually committed to one another, and the fulfillment of each is to see the other exalted. The love between the two is so intense that (according to St Augustine) love itself takes on personhood, and proceeds from both as the Holy Spirit. This is a transcendent mystery and can only be expressed symbolically.

Notice that God has never existed alone. He has always been a community. That means he did not create man or the universe out of need, but out of joy and exuberance. It also means that God intended man to live in community ("it is not good for the man to be alone..."). God hates heresy in the fallen world because it breaks the community of the church. He hates adultery because it breaks the community of marriage. He hates selfishness because it breaks the communities of men, and even breaks a man's unity with himself.

The Bible states that man was made in the image of God. There's much theological debate over what the image means: the capacity to reason, to feel emotion, to imagine, to be spiritual. I lean towards Paul's statement in Colossians that Jesus is the image of God (1:15). In other words, Jesus was the model that God used for man when he created him. Men and women were meant to be little reflections of the Son; through their gifts, through their creativity, through their service and sharing with their Elder Brother, the Son was to be shown off to the universe. And likewise, as they turned with the Son to the Father, His glory would be increased.

As the story behind the story progresses, the Tempter enters. There is some indication that Satan hated the Son, and wanted His role as King of heaven. Since he could not dethrone Him, he turned all his energy and malice on destroying the created image. Satan succeeded in convincing man that God had a hidden agenda and couldn't be trusted. As a result, man chose autonomy, set himself up as his own god, exalted disobedience as a noble thing, and in turning away from life, fell into the cycle of selfishness and death.

Next time, the beginning of the solution.