Reflections on Jesus--Day 6

Sometimes seemingly innocuous events can have a monumental, lasting effect on your life--for example, a cocktail party.  When Paul Zahl was invested as the president of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, a cocktail party was held in his honor, and someone created a cocktail napkin with three notations:

1)Law v. Grace;    2)Free Will? Not;   and    3)Strength in Weakness.

That cocktail napkin gave me a framework for reading the Bible.  When I read the scriptures through the lens of these three themes, the Bible became alive and it came to have remarkable continuity from Genesis to Revelation.  Let me explain.

Law v. Grace


Christianity is the only religion that truly grasps that man cannot keep the law and, therefore, his only hope is grace.  In Genesis, there is only one law in the Garden of Eden--"do not eat from the fruit of this tree."  We all know that Adam & Eve broke this law--they couldn't keep just one, only one, law.  How did God respond?  Graciously.  God killed the first animal to clothe them with skins, because they were ashamed of their nakedness and the leaves were not a very good covering.  So, they couldn't keep the law, and God responded with grace.  In fact, driving them from the Garden was also gracious, but I'll leave that for a later date.  (Also, I don't believe in the 144 hour creation, so don't get wrought up about the Adam & Eve story. Whether this story is literally true or only allegorically true, it still exhibits a profound understanding of the fallen nature of man and the gracious nature of God.)  Then, came the Ten Commandments, which the people couldn't keep--God responded graciously with the sacrificial system.  Then, Jesus upped the ante by requiring perfection (not only pure actions, but pure hearts).  Obviously, man violates this every minute.  So, God responded graciously with the Cross.


Free Will?  Not


Do we have free will, or is God sovereign?  Theologians and philosophers have debated this forever and will continue to do so.  Luther said that man has "free will"  to sin, but not "free will" to do good.  This arises from Christ's pronouncement that many good actions (those beneficial to mankind) arise not from a true heart of good will towards one's fellow man, but rather from a narcissistic  desire to be thought well of by others.  For instance, the story of the  40 years in the desert reflects that the Jews were bound to sin--they simply couldn't help it.  We are the same way.  How many bad habits have you tried to break?  I never had any luck with my lust or anger by simply praying for it to be taken away--no matter how hard I prayed.  Only when I began to understand the grace and beauty of God did these sins begin to take a back seat to better qualities.  Luther's book "The Bondage of the Will" is a remarkable examination of the Biblical support for our bound wills.  Knowing that man is "bound to sin" allows us to view our fellow man as fellow strugglers, not as villains or libertines.

Furthermore, even though we are bound to sin, the Bible is rife with stories that exhibit that God is over man's sin--such as the story of Joseph and the birth of Israel, and is most wonderfully expressed in the Cross.  So, God's sovereignty trumps our sin.  In other words, we can be free to make mistakes.  What a wonderful God!  One who loves us through our mistakes and even is over them.


Strength in Weakness 


Islam and Christianity are two fundamentally different religions.  Islam is about God working through our strength;  Christianity is about God working through our weakness.  The worst times of Christian history, such as the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, etc., all occurred when persons forgot that Christianity is a religion of weakness, not strength.  Jesus himself died so that we might come to him.  Mohammed converted others to his religion at the point of a sword.  I'm not bashing Islam.  I'm simply stating the two religions are fundamentally different.

The Biblical stories for weakness triumphing over strength are many--for example, David v. Goliath;  Joshua and Jericho; and the Cross.  What's more, the entire history of Israel is one of weakness triumphing over strength.  When we see that weakness triumphs over strength, we realize that it is God triumphing, not us.  This is key.  When I win a case due to my legal skills, I can just as easily congratulate myself as thank God.  But, when there is triumph in an area of weakness--such as my desire to control situations--then I know without a doubt that it was God and I am thankful.  Thankfulness is the emotion which issues forth in love for God and our fellow man--the two most important commandments of Christ--ones which I cannot keep without experiencing the love of God myself.

These three themes allow me to evaluate not only Scripture, but to see Christian themes in art, books, and movies.  "Signs" has all three of these themes.  In fact, after seeing God's sovereignty and provision vis-a-vis his child, Mel's character returns to faith.  Another favorite movie of mine which exhibits these characteristics is "Kung Fu Hustle."  Perhaps being the oldest culture on earth allows the Chinese to understand these themes, because this movie is "chock full" of them.  My copy of the movie contains an interview with the director, writer, and main actor--Stephen Cho.  If you substitute "Holy Spirit" for "Chi Force" in his words, he sounds like a Christian.

As evidenced by "Kung Fu Hustle," these are universal themes, universal truths of how our world works.  It's simply that Christianity, in its true form, acknowledges these universal truths, while other religions do not.  There may be traces of these themes in other religions, but they are only embraced whole-heartedly in Christianity.  In fact, these themes are so radical that they are not embraced by most persons who profess to be Christians.  But, in my experience and, more importantly, the reported experiences of Joshua, King David, St. Paul, Augustine, Luther, and C.S. Lewis, they are true.

So, I am extremely thankful to whomever created those cocktail napkins with the three themes.  It not only has allowed me to understand Christianity more profoundly, but has allowed me to express the beauty of Christianity to others and, importantly, to understand the views of those who do not embrace Christianity.