The Beauty of Explanation: The Solution

Freedom. Grace. Mercy. A clean slate. Love. Aren't these the kinds of things we all wish for?

From various sources you will hear various views of the human condition. (We looked at the Christian viewpoint last time). All of them agree on one this: there is something wrong. Something is missing. We sense an incompleteness. We know we are not what we could be or should be.

All worldviews save one tell us it is up to us to solve our problems. Moslems, Hindus, and Buddhists tell us we must work our way toward the final solution, be it Paradise or Nirvana. Secularists know we are hurting ourselves and each other, and offer nothing beyond ourselves for hope; so it is up to education, therapy, and dialogue to bring us out of our darkness.

Christianity is too often considered a dark view, because we speak of sin and death. We're not alone in this, of course. Secular environmentalism--perhaps the chief religion of the West--speaks of sin and death with different words, like pollution and global warming. Hinduism speaks of karma and the near-infinite cycle of death and rebirth. I do not think that sin is so far from all of our minds. We may rebel against the idea that we have transgressed the standard of an infinite, personal Being who holds us accountable; but we know something is wrong.

And this Being, God, is the way out of our darkness. I will never forget--I frequently relive--the glorious, free joy I felt as a new Christian, knowing that my sins are forgiven. By God's grace, I don't have to work my way out of the hole I'm in! I am completely accepted in Christ! I am accepted in the fellowship (read friendship if "fellowship" sounds too churchy) of God's people. I am in the light, not in the darkness! How did Christianity get so distorted that anyone thinks anything differently about it?

I may know an answer to that question, actually. There is a reason all other world religions, including modern secularism, teach us we have to work our way to acceptance. It seems to be the default position of our consciousness, for it takes a lot to hang on to grace. The earliest Christian writings in the New Testament, including the books of Galatians, Romans, 1 John, Hebrews, and more, take on this error. It is the heresy of the ages: the belief that God's grace isn't quite enough, but I must add to it by being somehow good enough. Christians have been committing this error down the ages. I have to remind myself often that this is not how God works; that even though my pride tells me I can and should have what it takes to make myself right before God, he has a different way for me.

Certainly, Christianity involves good works; it wouldn't be Christianity without them. But these are works done in the freedom of forgiveness. They are the fruits of grace, not ways to earn it. Freedom in Christianity means the liberty to do what we know we ought to do and want to do, in response to the lavish love of God.

How does that forgiveness come, and the freedom that accompanies it? We started this series with Jesus Christ, and moving toward a close now we come back to him. He came to earth as the God-man, tasting our weaknesses, taking up our sins, and dying on the cross for us. This was the ultimate act of love. He himself said there is no greater love than to lay one's life down for another, and hardly anyone would disagree. How much greater that gift is when offered by one who never actually had to die! If I lay down my life for a friend, I shift the date a bit earlier. He did not even have to have such a date; but he made himself an offering for us in love.

William Lane Craig said (at the 10:53 mark in the podcast),

"God shows us in the cross that he is not a distant 'ground of being' or an impersonal creator who coolly sits by and watches us suffer. When people ask, when they go through intense suffering, 'Where is God?', then we ought to point them to the cross and say, 'There is God.' God is a God who enters into our world of suffering and takes upon himself the unimaginable suffering of bearing the penalty of the sins of the whole world, even though he was completely innocent.... Though he was innocent, he took upon himself the death penalty of sin that you and I deserve."

We are in need. We are dying. Picture yourself as drowning in an immensely wide ocean. Death is inevitable (it is for real, too, isn't it?). Other religions come by with handbooks, instructions on how you can swim better. It's up to you to get yourself saved. Secularism is even less helpful; it says there is no solution, and death isn't for real anyway. Jesus Christ us a lifeguard who comes personally to lift you out into the rescue boat. And not only does he rescue you from death, he imparts a new kind of life into you so you can begin to be the person you were designed to be, growing in love, fruitfulness, and the joy of freedom.

The Christian answer for the human condition is a real solution. Other proposed answers are bootstrapping: "Here, tie this rope to your shoes and life yourself out of this pit!"

This too is a beauty, and a joy and a delight, a gift from God you can appropriate for yourself. I urge you to "taste and see that the Lord is good!"

Part of a series on Beauty as reason to believe in Jesus Christ:
1. The Beauty of Christ
2. The Beauty of God's Word
3. The Beauty of God's People
4. The Beauty of Virtue
5. The Beauty of Creativity
6. The Beauty of Explanation: The Human Condition
7. The Beauty of Explanation: The Solution
8. The Beauty of Hope

(See the introduction to Part 1, The Beauty of Christ, for the purpose and context of the entire series.)

Posted: Thu - March 22, 2007 at 03:22 PM |

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The Beauty of Explanation: The Solution

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson