A Truth Refined, Not Redefined

One morning, I woke up and admitted to myself that I was, indeed, striving to redefine truth, instead of accepting the refined truth already set out for us to know and understand in the Bible. For years, I spent countless hours cursing what I had deemed to be an unknowable God--the supernatural entity that Alfred Lord Tennyson described as the "one far off divine event to which the whole creation moves." I realized on this particular morning, having witnessed my own pride and insolence reach an ultimate pinnacle the night before, that God was not the problem in my life--I was. I had been systematically accepting the blessings that God bestowed upon me, quickly shoving them to the side, and then began hastily marching onward to my next venture. Forgetting about yesterday's blessings, I became outraged at God's absence in my life when today's trials became overwhelming tribulations. I was a classic hypocrite. Neither a full-time believer or a full-time atheist, and too afraid to commit to one or the other, I walked through life convinced that I had a better plan than God did for my life. How could God allow me to suffer so readily? How could such a loving and compassionate Lord not grant me the wishes in my prayers? Indeed, I did not realize that God was answering my prayers, but doing so in a way that seemed convoluted and unfair to me: I had to suffer in order to know.

Malcolm Muggeridge comments that Jesus' life and death summarily depicts how suffering is necessary to triumph over evil: "Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful, with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness...(Zacharias 205).

So often, human beings blame God for suffering, pain, and evil in this world. We actually believe that we deserve to live happier, more peaceful existences. But, at what point did we discard the most important anecdote in the Bible: The Fall of Man and banishment from the Garden of Eden?

In choosing to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, human beings committed the act which symbolized our insolent propensity to aspire to the power and glory of the Creator. In short, we often think we know better than God, and we find ourselves continually proclaiming on high our own accolades, accomplishments, and greatness. All glory to God descended into a the empty quagmire of self-aggrandizement. Ravi Zacharias argues, "Yet in the condition of our uprightness, we chose to rewrite the laws of God and become the god of God. The response of God was to show that his Word is and was true. We do not violate God's laws without the entailments of brokenness...Desiring that everything we touch become gold, we found that the body could not live on gold...The words of Pascal are true: we are the glory and the shame of the universe" (197). While all this is important and undoubtedly true, especially concerning human nature and its timeless relationship with Adam and Eve's banishment from the Garden, it should be comforting to know that Jesus Christ symbolizes--and most remarkably stands as--our opportunity to return from exile--to be reunited with a loving, compassionate, and forgiving Creator who offers salvation simply through a knowledge of Christ. In essence, Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, transcends the Tree of Knowledge--taking on its representational form in the Old Testament--and shows us the way back home to our beloved Garden of Eden. The way home is through the Lord, who forgave us our sins through suffering and death on the cross.

N.T. Wright puts it this way in his concluding remarks of Jesus and the Victory of God: "[Jesus] would embody in himself the return from exile, the defeat of evil, and the return of YHWH to Zion" (651). Put simply, N.T. Wright explains that God embodied himself in the flesh--Jesus Christ--to suffer at the hands of evil, letting Satan do his worst to him, so that not only would our future suffering not be in vain, but so that our sins could be washed clean from our spirits, thereby purifying our beings and existence on Earth.

The refined truth is the story of the New Testament. The New Testament refined the teachings of the Old Testament, as the story of Jesus served as the culmination of the struggle between good and evil on Earth. We can do no better than the forgiveness that the story of Christ offers to us. To put it in a rather juvenile fashion, human beings simply could not make this story up on their own. We're neither compassionate enough or knowledgeable enough to pull a trump card on the story of Christ's life, crucifixion and resurrection. Because God is all-knowing, we neither have to aspire to be so knowledgeable, nor do we have to move toward perfection. However, we do have to be accountable for our actions, and we do have to always remember to serve the Lord before serving ourselves and others. It is through serving Christ first that we can then serve and honor ourselves and others with vehement and powerful love. I like this particular verse to remind me of this, though I fall short quite often: Galatians 1:10--"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? If I were still trying to seek the approval of men, I would not be a servant of Christ."

In upcoming blogs, I will be addressing the arguments of atheism and even postmodern approaches toward religion. This is a topic that cannot be exhausted in my own mind. It's important to remember that while atheism contends that Christianity is a frivolous belief system, grounded in no fact whatsoever, those folks often fail to recognize that atheism, in and of itself, is a belief system. While atheists claim that no one can prove the existence of God, they on the other hand, simply cannot prove that He doesn't exist. Atheists are faithful non-believers; Christians are faithful believers.

Enjoy your weekend, and may your hearts stay light. And remember, we ought not try to redefine the truth which has been refined in the wonderful news that is Jesus Christ.

--KSR