The Paradox of “Foolish Wisdom” (Matthew 11:25, 1 Corinthians 1)

2. God’s Wisdom Is Foolishness to Man

This paradox is very similar to the one just described. It is, I think, largely the same idea, described in somewhat different language, particularly language of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, foolishness, ignorance, etc.

“Jesus declared, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.’” – Matthew 11:25-26, see also Luke 10:21, Psalm 8:2, Matthew 21:16

Those who think themselves “wise” are prideful, thinking that they can understand the things of God on their own. It is not these to whom God delights to reveal his ways, but to the humble – those who acknowledge their childlike weakness and dependence on God.* It is to these “children” or “infants” that God will give knowledge and wisdom. (John Piper expands on this theme in chapter 10 of The Pleasures of God – a book well worth reading.) This concealment from the “wise and understanding” was the purpose of Jesus’ speaking in parables, as he describes in Matthew 13:10-17 (see also Luke 8:9-10). Jesus knew that Israel was, as a nation, largely stubborn and hard-hearted, unready to hear the secrets of the kingdom explained fully; he thus spoke in parables, and only those who were humble, lowly, “little children,” like his disciples, were told the fuller meaning.

*The same idea is present in the Old Testament. See, for example, Jeremiah 9:23-24: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me”; Jeremiah 8:9, “The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what kind of wisdom do they have?”; Isaiah 5:21, “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!”; Psalm 131:1, “O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” See also Job 5:12-13, 37:24; Proverbs 21:30.

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The Paradox of “The Last Shall Be First” (Luke 9:48)

1. “The Last Shall Be First”

The prideful and haughty will be humbled and brought low by God’s judgment. On the other hand, those who are humble and lowly, God will honor and exalt. Those who are meek, God will reward, and those who are poor in spirit, God will fill. This theme is very common in the Old Testament (for example, see 1 Samuel 2:7-8; 2 Samuel 22:28; Job 5:11, 22:29; Psalm 18:27, 37:11, 138:6; Proverbs 16:19, 18:12, 29:23; Isaiah 57:15; Ezekiel 21:26; Daniel 4:37) and is also present in the New (for example, James 2:5,¹ 4:6,10; 1 Peter 5:5-6),² especially in the sayings of Jesus in the Gospels:

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” – Matthew 23:12, cf. Luke 14:11, 18:14

“Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” – Matthew 20:26-28, cf. Mark 10:44-45

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 18:3-4

“Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.” – Luke 9:48

“Let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.” – Luke 22:26

“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” – Mark 10:15, cf. Luke 18:17

“Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 19:14

The one who is last will be first, the smallest will be the greatest, he who serves others will be honored, and little children will receive the kingdom of heaven! Perhaps most beautiful, though, are the Beatitudes in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.”
– Matthew 5:3-6, cf. Luke 6:20-26

As we saw briefly (see “The Paradox of Jesus: Philippians 2 in Action”), it was this truth that Jesus lived out in his ministry. He devoted his time largely to the weak, needy, or oppressed in his society. He intentionally embraced and cared for children, women, and sick, crippled, or disabled people in a way that others did not, and he did not shy away from eating with those who were looked down upon by society, whether because of their work (“sinners” like Zacchaeus the tax collector; cf. Matthew 9:12-13) or ethnicity (non-Jews, such as the Samaritan woman at the well).³ He took the man who was lowly in heart and poor in spirit by the hand and lifted him up, and he rebuked the proud Pharisee. And at the cross, “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). In Jesus Christ we find the visible image of the God described by Mary as recorded in the “Magnificat,” the Song of Mary:

“He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.”
– Luke 1:51-53

¹ James alludes to Jesus’ Beatitudes when he writes “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?” (2:5).
² In Psalm 45:4, “the king” is said to “ride out…for the cause of truth and meekness.” Humility is a virtue, a treasure to be sought after (cf. Proverbs 11:2).
³ The acceptance of the poor, the oppressed, or the outcast is a theme not only in the Gospels, but in the Bible generally, both OT and NT.

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The Paradoxes of Jesus’ Way of Life

…Thus far I have been describing paradoxes in God’s nature and in what he has done in the world through Christ. I will now turn to paradoxes in “Christian living,” that is, paradoxes in the way of life taught by Scripture, especially in letters in the New Testament, and even more importantly, by Jesus himself. All of the following paradoxes are deeply connected; they can be thought of as different aspects or formulations of the same essential theme or truth. Furthermore, the beauty of the way of life they describe is defined ultimately by Jesus Christ, the God-man, and is seen most brightly in his death and resurrection…

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The Paradox of Jesus: Philippians 2 in Action

…Let’s take a closer look at the character of Jesus as described in the Gospels. Not only is his very nature paradoxical, as we have seen, but his words and actions richly reflect that paradox to the world. Jesus demonstrates an authority that shocked his listeners – they had never seen anything like it (Matthew 7:28-29). During Passion week he roared into the temple in rage, tossing tables left and right, infuriated that his Father’s house should be so abused. He taught as if his word was the final and decisive truth. Jesus also dropped not-so-subtle hints to his divine identity. He would say things like, “before Abraham was, I AM,” (John 8:58), calling to mind the Old Testament name of God (Exodus 3:14). He claimed to be one with the Father (John 10:30), to which the Jews replied in astonishment, “you, being a man, make yourself God.” In response to the high priest’s question “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” he replied “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62). And he forgave sins, which God alone can do (for example, see Luke 5:20-21). What kind of person says such things?!

And yet he was at the same time an incredibly gentle, loving, and humble person. He ate with “sinners,” the outcasts of society (Matthew 9:10-11) and took the little children into his arms (Mark 10:13-16).* He lived among the poor and lowly – he “came not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). And perhaps his act of greatest humility (other than the cross) was taking on himself the identity of the lowest of servants and washing his disciples’ feet (John 13:1-16). At the cross, though, we see the full extent of Jesus’ humility – the humility of the God of the universe, reigning in utter shame and humiliation from a tree.

So authoritative, so bold and even shocking in what he said and did, and yet so kind, gentle, and humble. He is the Lion of Judah, the Messiah, the Son of David, the King of the Jews and Lord and Savior of the world, and yet also the suffering servant, familiar with sorrows (Isaiah 53:3-7), the Lamb who was led away to be slain (Revelation 5:5-6). This is what happens when the God of the universe becomes a 1st-century Jew, and yet does not cease to be God. This is the kind of character God demonstrates to us when we see him most clearly for who he is, and in Jesus’ character we see the beauty of God. John Piper, describing this “combining of attributes that would seem utterly incompatible in one Person” (The Pleasures of God 30), observes that “the worth and beauty of the Son come not just from his majesty, nor just from his meekness, but from the way these mingle in perfect proportion" (The Pleasures of God 29).

Jesus in his character revealed his paradoxical identity as the God-man and exemplified the paradoxes he taught to his disciples, which we will now examine…

*God is the “keeper of all the stars, friend of the poorest heart,” in the words of Fernando Ortega. The God of all reality, the Maker of the universe, is here with us – he loves us and cares for us and wants to be our friend, and he has come into our world in the person of Jesus (see “What God Has Done”). C. S. Lewis writes in Perelandra that God’s greatness is not in sheer majesty or magnitude, but in his paradoxical presence in the smallest and lowliest of things: “He dwells within the seed of the smallest flower and is not cramped: Deep Heaven is inside Him who is inside the seed and does not distend Him. Blessed be He!”

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The Paradox of Free Will and Predestination

…Another paradoxical facet of our humanity is the fact that we have free will, yet God is in sovereign control of our lives. This is not a contradiction, but there is definitely a dynamic tension – a practical tension that can affect the way we live – between knowing that God has given us the ability to make free choices (to step out on our own two feet, apart from God’s determining guidance, as C. S. Lewis describes in Perelandra), and knowing that God brought the universe into existence knowing all our choices, orchestrated them into his divine plan for salvation history and the telling of his story, and predestined our eternal fate from eternity past (see, for example, Ephesians 1:4-5, Romans 8:29-31, Acts 13:48). I am inclined to think that God, foreknowing our free choices in any possible situation, structured history around them, in so doing found a way to accomplish his purposes (including his sovereign guidance in each individual’s life), while preserving our freedom. We must learn to embrace this paradoxical tension in life, realizing that although God knows the future and is in control of it, it is often through our free choices (which he foreknows) that he brings about what he knows will happen. We ought not stumble into lazy inaction, justify wrong choices, or downplay the importance of free choice just because it was all “meant to be.” Nor does our free will throw the future out of God’s hands (he is not that small – he’s God!). Rather, we must make the most of every opportunity in life (Ephesians 5:16) while at the same time resting in the peace of knowing that God holds all things in the palm of his hand, including the effects of our choices.

Free will is an essential quality of humanity. Without it we would be machines, almost animals, but in giving us the freedom to choose God raised us to a new level of value and dignity as his children, made in his image. Our moral responsibility results from this essential mark of humanity. Consequently, far from being a degrading insult, God’s discipline and punishment of those who do wrong testifies to their dignity as morally responsible human beings. In treating us for who we are, creatures made in his image whom he loves (see Hebrews 12:6), God respects us. C. S. Lewis writes that in disciplining us God is training us to be who he intends us to be: “We may wish, indeed, that we were of so little account to God that He left us alone to follow our natural impulses – that He would give over trying to train us into something so unlike our natural selves: but once again, we are asking not for more Love, but for less” (The Problem of Pain).

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The Paradox of Sinful Man

…Fallen human beings in particular are a very paradoxical part of the world. We are God’s sons and daughters, made in his image to shine his light as “little gods,” but we have fallen into sin and are now corrupted and depraved to the core, prone to sin and dead in sin:

• “The wickedness of man was great in the earth, and…every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).
• “The hearts of the children of man are full of evil” (Ecclesiastes 9:3).
• “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
• “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:21-23).
• “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin’” (John 8:34; cf. Matthew 7:11, where Jesus actually calls man “evil”).
• “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God” (Romans 3:10-11).
• “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7-8).
• “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
• “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins…by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1-3).

This portrayal of fallen, sinful man is described perhaps most vividly in Romans 1:28-32. We are filth, repulsive vermin, “worms in the dust.” None of us is any less sinful than the worst of killers (see “While We Were Still Sinners”) – we are all criminals against God, all corrupted, all prone to evil. “A fountain of pollution is deep within [our] nature” (The Valley of Vision, p. 73). This may seem extreme, but only a brief glimpse of the outward manifestation of sin in human lives and events plainly reveals how corrupted and depraved we really are – look at the wars and genocides of the 20th century. We ought to be careful of distancing ourselves from the men who committed these crimes – they were children too, once. Rather, let us be humble enough to admit that the same potential for evil lies in all of us, just waiting for circumstances in our lives to develop it into a heartless thoughts and actions. It is our own sinfulness that we see in the cruelty of dictators and murderers.

Our position as criminals against God is sharply contrasted by the fact that we are also, at the same time, God’s sons and daughters, glorious and beautiful creatures who reflect the knowledge, wisdom, majesty, and love of the Creator. Although we are sinful, we are nevertheless God’s creatures, and everything God creates is originally wholly good (Genesis 1:31). Even though God detests the sin that corrupts us, he still loves us. And although we are not so inclined, we are still capable of knowing and loving him. Even in our fallen state we are still God’s children – we have not ceased to be created in his image.

God’s chosen people, his church, will make known throughout the created order the wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10), judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3), and join Christ as he reigns on his throne (Revelation 3:21). This people of God is described (metaphorically) as nothing less than the radiant bride of Christ, even as the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27; see Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12). What a stunning role for creatures who have raised their fists against God in rebellion and are, in this present world, depraved, wicked, and corrupted to the core by sin and deserving of hell! G. K. Chesterton describes the paradox this way:

“In one way man was to be haughtier than he had ever been before; in another way he was to be humbler than he had ever been before. In so far as I am Man I am the chief of creatures. In so far as I am a man I am the chief of sinners…Man was a statue of God walking about the garden. Man had pre-eminence over all the brutes; man was only sad because he was not a beast, but a broken god” (Chesterton, Orthodoxy ch. 6, “The Paradoxes of Christianity”).

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The Paradox of God’s Kingdom on Earth: “Already, But Not Yet”

…This paradox is strongly related to the paradox of a fallen world – it is a paradox of the present age in that fallen world, the messianic age, the age of God’s Spirit, in which God is at work in and through his people to bring the good news to the ends of the earth and thus complete the renewal of creation begun with Christ’s death and resurrection. We are at a point where the world is still fallen and broken, yet at the same time on its way to redemption; indeed, in a sense it has already been accomplished. The paradoxical nature of this age in salvation history can be summarized with the phrase “already, but not yet”:

• The kingdom of God has already been inaugurated on earth (in the Church), but has not yet been brought to its final destination.
• Evil has already been defeated at the cross, but the evil one has not yet conceded defeat. God’s victory has already been accomplished and ensured at the cross, but the full manifestation or revelation of that victory has not yet been completed.
• Satan has been robbed of his accusing power and he cannot touch our salvation – we are held in God’s hand (John 10:28-29). Still, we are warned to beware his power to harm us in this world – he still “prowls around like a roaring lion” (1 Peter 5:8) (see p. 240 of The Cross of Christ, by John Stott).
• God has already taken humanity upon himself, in Christ, but we have not yet been fully transformed into his image, as we were intended to be.
• God’s people have been reconciled to him and are already part of the divine community of God’s family (Ephesians 2:19), yet they have at many times in history been treated by the world as “the scum of the world, the refuse of all things” (1 Corinthians 4:13).
• The sins of mankind have already been paid for at the cross, but sin itself has not yet been eradicated.
• God’s people have already been justified before him (justice has been carried out, and our debt has been paid), but we have not yet been sanctified (we have not yet become the holy, righteous people that God has declared us to be in Christ).
• The Holy Spirit is at work within us and has given us a new understanding of the things of God and ability to live humbly and obediently, but we still struggle with our natural inclination towards sin and selfishness (Romans 7:14-25). These last two points bring me to the next paradox…

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The Paradox of ‘Beauty Marred’: A Fallen World (Romans 1, 8)

…So far I have been describing paradoxes in the being of God himself. From here on, I will focus on paradoxes that involve not only the Creator, but also creation. First, the fallen world we live in is paradoxical. It is created by God, and therefore fundamentally good and beautiful and majestic, revealing its Creator and shining his glory (Genesis 1:31, Romans 1:20). But it is also corrupted by evil powers which hold the world in bondage and have bound it to decay and death (Romans 8:20-22). Ours is a dying world (see my posts on “Integrating Scientific and Biblical Eschatologies” as well as “Death and Resurrection,” parts II and III), marred, wounded, and filled with evil, and yet its author is God, and it has not wholly lost its original beauty. Satan is “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31, 14:30. 16:11; see also 2 Corinthians 4:4); indeed, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19, see also Ephesians 2:2). And yet God is sovereign over Satan’s every move, and even in this dying world, seeds of renewal and resurrection are being planted. The world is dying and being raised to life, under Satan’s power and God’s, scarred deeply with pain and evil and yet still beautiful. This is the paradox of a fallen world.

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The Paradox of Christ: God and Man (Philippians 2)

…Another paradox can be observed in the being of God himself. In the person of Jesus Christ, God became a man. Jesus Christ is both a human being and the second person of the Trinity. Put simply, this man, Jesus, was and is the God of the universe. It is a shocking statement.

“Christ Jesus…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” – Philippians 2:5-7

“The Word was God” (John 1:1) and “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14) – in Christ God revealed his glory to his people as never before in history, yet this was done in the humble act of incarnation, becoming flesh. This person, this God-man, both exists eternally outside of and beyond time as the omniscient, omnipotent Creator (John 1:3, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:2) and came into existence within time at a specific point.* He emptied himself (Philippians 2:7, “made himself nothing”) of the full extent of his divine qualities (presumably knowledge, comprehension, etc.) and took upon himself the limited, finite mind and body of man. The implications of this are quite interesting. For example, as a man, the divine author of mathematics would have been, like all humans, fallible in his human understanding of mathematics. The designer of the universe would have been, as a 1st-century Jew, completely oblivious to the wonders of quantum mechanics and relativity by which the world functions. How strange, this divine emptying, this kenosis, in which the God of all reality “makes himself nothing” and gives himself for man out of love, becomes incarnate that man might be deified:

“He came below to raise me above, he was born like me that I might become like him.” – The Valley of Vision, p. 16

*There is something of a paradox in the virgin birth. Mary was a virgin, and she conceived and gave birth to Jesus. It is not a logical contradiction, but a miraculous event, unique in history.

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The Paradox of the Trinity: Unity and Diversity

…First, and most importantly, the Triune God is a paradox to the human mind. In a mysterious, incomprehensible way, God is both one united being and a community of three persons. Given our understanding of what being and personhood mean for finite, created human beings, this would seem to be a contradiction, but we cannot presume that the incomprehensible, transcendent God would be understandable to our finite minds.

Perhaps more generally, there is both unity and diversity in the nature of God. God is (and here perhaps I speculate) multifaceted; inherent to his nature there is, I think, emotion and thought (ie., in the love and joy shared in the community of three persons), mathematical truth (how can God exist in three persons without number being a facet of who he is?), a standard for moral right and wrong (which would find application in the created order), and perhaps many more beautiful treasures that have not yet been even partially revealed to us. These realities are very diverse. For example, God’s moral aspect is very different from his mathematical aspect – they are distinct realities. And yet all these “parts” or “facets” or “aspects” (and all those words fall short, because they call to mind ideas about created things, and God is transcendent and uncreated) of God are united into one “thing,” the singular divine nature, or, more simply, the being of God. There is nothing more singular or united (one might even use the word simple) than God. The diverse God is One.

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The Paradoxes of Christianity

What is Christianity? A set of doctrines or truth claims? A story? A description of reality? Perhaps all of the above. Whatever language we use to describe the Christian faith, its very essence is paradoxical.

“As dying, and behold, we live...as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing everything.” – Paul

I must be careful to define what I mean by “paradox,” or else the language I use will be ambiguous, and will not give the reader an accurate understanding of my thoughts. By “paradox” I do not mean a logical contradiction. A paradox is a true and logically consistent proposition or statement that establishes a connection or relationship between starkly contrasting ideas or objects (and may thus seem to be inconsistent or internally contradictory, but is in fact true). In this new dynamic relation, there is contrast and tension: paradox emerges. For example, “one must die in order to live” (a sequential or causal connection is established between death and life, two opposing ideas). Or “Jesus Christ is both God and a man” (in this case, a connection of identity is made between God and man, two seemingly mutually exclusive categories).¹

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.”
– Jesus

When I say that Christianity is paradoxical in essence (and so also in ways is the very fabric of reality), then, I mean that there is in Christianity a deeply-embedded theme of paradoxes, a beautiful theme that is ultimately derived from a beauty in the nature of God himself, a theme in the Story that reflects the Author, or in the Music that reveals the Composer.

In the next several blog posts, I will attempt to trace this theme throughout Scripture² and identify instances of paradox (present in both the Old and New Testaments) in key Christian doctrines, the words and actions of Jesus, the central event of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and especially in the Christian life, that is, the way of life taught by Jesus and his followers, as recorded in the New Testament. I will also share some thoughts on what may be paradoxical elements in the larger Story of Christianity, and even in the very nature of reality, but these ideas will be more speculative and less grounded in Scripture…

¹One might, alternatively, formulate some paradoxes as pairs of contrasting, seemingly contradictory truths. For example, “Jesus Christ is God” and “Jesus Christ is a man.” This is similar to Niels Bohr’s principle of complementarity, which states that a particle can have seemingly contradictory properties (we, however, cannot observe both properties at once). Not all paradoxes can be stated this way, though.

²Of course, I do not presume to have identified all or even most instances of paradox that can be found. The treasures of God’s word are valuable beyond price, but are often somewhat hidden and somewhat mysterious. I am merely gathering jewels from the surface of a vast and deep cavern of riches.

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The Mandlebrot Set

The Mandlebrot Set is the set of complex numbers c such that the series z_n+1=z_n²+c (where z_o=0) is bounded (it does not tend to ∞ or -∞). For some examples and more information, see wikipedia. Since, in the complex plane, the complex number a+bi is plotted at the coordinates (a,b), a set of complex numbers is represented as a region of space in the complex plane. The Mandlebrot Set is the black region shown here; its boundary is a fractal:

Slightly zoomed in:

Here are a couple videos that zoom in on different "places" in the Mandlebrot set:


In the words of physicist Roger Penrose, "The Mandlebrot Set is not an invention of the human mind: it was a discovery. Like Mount Everest, the Mandlebrot set is just there" (Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind). The fact that the Mandlebrot set "is just there" is remarkable. It's mere existence is worth wondering at.

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Synopsis for The Cross of Christ, by John Stott

I have recently been reading John Stott's book The Cross of Christ, in which he gives an in-depth explanation of why the cross so central to Christianity, what happened on the cross that resulted in our salvation, a greater revelation of God, and the defeat of evil, and what it means for us today. Here's the synopsis from the back of the book:

"'I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross...In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?' With compelling honesty John Stott confronts this generation with the centrality of the cross in God's redemption of the world—a world now haunted by the memories of Auschwitz, the pain of oppression and the specter of nuclear war.

Can we see triumph in tragedy, victory in shame? Why should an object of Roman distaste and Jewish disgust be the emblem of our worship and the axiom of our faith? And what does it mean for us today?

Now from one of the foremost preachers and Christian leaders of our day comes theology at its readable best, a contemporary restatement of the meaning of the cross. At the cross Stott finds the majesty and love of God disclosed, the sin and bondage of the world exposed.

More than a study of the atonement, this book brings Scripture into living dialog with Christian theology and the twentieth century. What emerges is a pattern for Christian life and worship, hope and mission.

Destined to be a classic study of the center of our faith, Stott's work is the product of a uniquely gifted pastor, scholar and Christian statesman. His penetrating insight, charitable scholarship and pastoral warmth are guaranteed to feed both heart and mind."

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Romans 5:8 - "While We Were Still Sinners"

After going on a mission trip over spring break to minister to prison inmates, a friend of mine remarked that the song "I Am a Friend of God," which had previously seemed boring or simplistic to him, took on a whole new meaning and depth when he sung it with convicts in prison.

Most of us believe that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but it takes a glimpse of the outward manifestation of that sin in human lives and events in order for us to realize how corrupted and depraved we really are. Most of us agree mentally that God loves humans and is a very powerful being, but it takes experiences of sin and redemption to show us what it means to be embraced and loved by God - to show us how far God's love and power reaches.

We are all criminals against God. You and I have turned our backs on God and scorned his honor just as much as the worst serial killer. "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside" (Romans 3:10-12). "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). "For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Therefore, in order to understand ourselves better, let us not elevate ourselves above "sinners" and criminals, as the Pharisees did, but let us rather see our own sinfulness in the wretchedness of humanity. Let us be humble enough to admit that, were we to live in different places or times or circumstances, we may have been criminals or terrorists (see “The Paradox of Sinful Man”).

The more we see ourselves for who we really are, the more we will be filled with awe and wonder at the fact that God, who is holy and beautiful and perfect and glorious and without any defect at all, loves us, even us. God's love would still have been high and deep and wide if we had been beautiful creatures who knew him and embraced him in return, but that he loved us when we rejected him and turned our backs on him, when we threw ourselves into the pit of sin and became ugly and repulsive - how great must his love be! Like Hosea pursuing his faithless wife, like the father running to his prodigal son, so is God's love towards those who turned away from him.

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:6-8

While we were sinners! While we were sinners God loved us and pursued us as his treasured possession, and not only that - he gave himself for us, he endured shame and humiliation and great suffering for us. He died for us. And all this for wretched, ruined criminals! In Paul's words, "for a good person" I can perhaps see myself dying. But for a convict? For one who had insulted me and grieved me and caused me great pain? Or could I love those who murdered my only child, while they were still murderers, unrepentant? I don’t think I could. God's ways are too high and beautiful for me to grasp - this, even this, is what he has done! God the Father allowed his Son, with whom he is one, to be murdered for the salvation of the murderers, to be slain to redeem the killers!* It was to save the very ones who spit in his face and thrust the crown of thorns upon his head and mocked him saying, "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross" - it was for these very ones that Christ came! It was for them that he set his face like flint (Isaiah 50:7, Luke 9:51) and went to Calvary. For you, for me.
*The human analogy is imperfect; Christ was not a helpless victim, but submitted freely to his own murder.

There is no greater love than this, no love so high and deep and wide and strong as the love of God for us, and nothing can separate us from him (Romans 8:38-39). Not any evil power. They were defeated at the cross. Not even our sin. It was nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14-15), and we are forgiven. Over the highest-security prison with the worst killers, over corrupt governments in Sudan and North Korea, over the death camps in Nazi Germany, even over America, even over your home and mine, the cross of Christ stands as a light in the darkness. Even here Christ has come "to seek and save the lost."

And it is the same power of God seen in the cross and the resurrection (Philippians 3:10) that is at work in our lives to redeem us, to transform us from criminals to radiant sons and daughters of God. Even those with the hardest hearts are being broken and made new. The other day I saw a video of a white man who, by the grace of God, came to Christ and sought out a black man whom he had beaten publicly in the 1960s, in order to ask for forgiveness. Be encouraged and keep praying - there is no one who has fallen so far that they are beyond the reach of the cross. God is mighty to save. And stand in awe of his power and love to seek and accomplish the redemption of sinners - even you, even me.

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Could Jesus Have Sinned?

Jesus, as a human being like us, was able to make choices freely (assuming one believes in "free will" as it is commonly understood), and yet he was presumably without sin (Hebrews 4:15, 2 Corinthians 5:21). Never once during his life did he do anything wrong. But does it not seem suspicious - a little too coincidental - that Jesus alone never did wrong, while all other human beings make wrong choices every day? Was he really free to choose what was wrong? Did he really subject himself to the temptation to sin (Hebrews 4:15) and thus identify fully with humanity?

Here, I think, it is helpful to remember that Jesus, while being man, was also God. Since sin is an offense against the moral value or standard that is inherent to God's being, it is wholly contradictory with his character. God would never sin, or else he would not be God. And if we believe Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, then he would not sin, or else he would not be Jesus. It may then seem that Jesus cannot sin, but what is preventing him from sinning? No cause or force external to himself prevented Christ from sinning. He choose freely to do what was right and just - to live in step with the Father's will - and although he did so infallibly because it was in his divine nature to do so, he nevertheless chose freely, unconstrained by any external force.

One might respond that, by being God, Jesus "cheated" in withstanding temptation as a man, and that consequently he did not fully identify with humanity. The question, then, is whether God's nature, which results in his not sinning, is at odds with human nature. In other words, is the possibility of sinning - of going out of God's will - an essential aspect of human nature? It may seem so, but perhaps this is only so because that is what free will means for any being whose nature was not wholly contradictory to sin - any being other than God. In other words,
"free will + not being God = possibility of sin"
We must distinguish between the possibility of sinning and free will. Perhaps it is not the possibility to choose wrongly per se that is essential to humanity, but free will. What is necessary for the possibility of choosing to sin is both free will and not being God (see above "equation"). Any human except for Jesus satisfies these two requirements, but Jesus, according to Christian doctrine, is both man (and thus has free will) and God (and thus is not among those beings that are not God). In other words, if it is fair to assume that God's free will is the freedom to act unconstrained by anything outside his nature, and that this freedom is preserved in the man Jesus, then Jesus, being both man and God, can have free will and yet choose infallibly what is right. Indeed, God's nature is not at all at odds with human free will; rather, man's freedom of choice is derived from God's freedom (nothing outside of God constrains his actions or choices in any way).

Lastly, we might ask, "is it beyond God to fully assume humanity?" That is, can we really say with any confidence that God would be unable to identify himself fully with humanity and assume free will as a man? We must retain a measure of intellectual humility when talking about the infinite, transcendent God. For more thoughts on God's power and freedom in making choices, see my post God: Incomprehensible and Omnipotent.

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The Victory of God: The Cross and the Resurrection as an Answer to the Problem of Evil

Here is a list of links to the each post in this series of posts I've been doing on "The Victory of God":

The Problem of Evil
Evil Points to God
A Greater Redemptive Purpose
An Unbalanced Duality
The Problem of Good
The Eucatastrophe
Made in the Author’s Image
Tolkien on Stories and Sub-creation
The Great Rider
A Strange Way to Triumph
The Suffering of God
The Weight of Sin
The Justice and Love of God
Atonement
The Paradoxical Riches of the Gospel
The Paradoxical Riches of the Gospel, con’t
Solving the Problem of Sin
The Forsaken Son of God
Forsaken, But Still One with the Father
From Humiliation to Glory
The Cross as Revelation of God
Satan Opposed the Cross
A Mind in Darkness
The Ruin of Satan
A Deeper Wisdom
Death Defeated
Resurrection
The Passion of the Christ
God’s Eucatastrophe
Jonathan Edwards on the Two “Wills” of God
The Cross Predestined
Sin and Free Will
The Free Will Defense
A Greater Revelation of God’s Perfections
A Deeper Knowledge of God’s Love
A Higher Joy
Quotes from Tolkien, Lewis, Dostoevsky, and Jesus
A More Glorious Reality
The Accomplishing of God’s Purpose for Creation
Conclusion: The Best of All Possible Stories
The Victory of God: Summary, part 1
The Victory of God: Summary, part 2
The Victory of God: Summary, part 3
The Son Rises on Reality
Is God That Great?
The Victorious God
The Triumph of Christ
Heaven and Earth Redeemed
Hope and Strength from the Cross
Some Great Books by C. S. Lewis, John Stott, John Piper, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Jonathan Edwards

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Some Great Books by C. S. Lewis, John Stott, John Piper, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Jonathan Edwards

If you are interested, here are some excellent books that I found pertinent when writing this series of posts on the problem of evil, the cross, and God's victory over evil

• The Cross of Christ by John Stott – “‘I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross…In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?’ With compelling honesty John Stott confronts this generation with the centrality of the cross in God’s redemption of the world.”
• “The Grand Miracle,” chapter 14 of Miracles by C. S. Lewis – on the death and resurrection of Christ
• “Is God Less Glorious Because He Ordained that Evil Be?” – a sermon by John Piper on God’s sovereignty over sin and evil
• Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose for the Glory of Christ by John Piper – addresses specific sins throughout redemptive history in the Old Testament and examines how God brought a greater good out of each evil, ultimately leading up to the cross of Christ. The main idea is that “God’s saving victory for his people often comes through sin and suffering” is a “general pattern that turns up over and over in the Bible” (82).
• Perelandra by C. S. Lewis – a beautiful portrayal of the glory of redemption and God’s victory over evil, and a fascinating perspective on free will and the Fall
• The last several pages of On Fairy-stories by J. R. R. Tolkien - it is here that he describes "eucatastrophe."
  
• The End For Which God Created the World by Jonathan Edwards – argues that God’s ultimate purpose for creation is both the glory of God and the joy of his people, and that these two ends are one.”
  

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Hope and Strength from the Cross

Why did I write all this? In part, to give a defense for the hope I have (1 Peter 3:15) by describing the purpose for which I believe God allowed and purposed evil and arguing that evil ultimately serves the purpose of revealing God all the more. I wanted to share what is most important to me and what is at the center of my faith. In my mind, this is the most important piece of writing I have posted or will post on this blog. Of all the arguments for God or ideas about the nature of God or about how God acts in the world, what I have described in “The Victory of God” shines most brightly and clearly on my heart and mind, and I wanted to share it. It is my hope that “the riches of the glory of this mystery” (Colossians 1:27) will fill you with a real and deeply rooted hope that strengthens you even here and now in the struggles of life. If God can take his own death and turn it into something glorious, then nothing is too terrible for him, no evil is so great that he cannot defeat it.

May the cross of Christ be for you a beacon of undying hope and “a light in dark places when all other lights go out.” May you live on even in death, and rejoice even in sorrow (2 Corinthians 6:9-10). May you press on, seeing more clearly the joy God has prepared for us just as Christ endured the cross for the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:2). May your sufferings strengthen and deepen your joy in God (Romans 8:17, 2 Corinthians 1:5, Colossians 1:24, 1 Peter 4:13), who has so beautifully made all things “perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10). May these truths “have a profoundly practical effect in making you strong in the face of breath-stopping sorrows and making you bold for Christ in the face of dangerous opposition – Christ exalting strength in calamity and Christ-exalting courage in conflict” (Piper, Spectacular Sins 97).

For more reflections on suffering and joy, see “Death and Resurrection,” parts V and VII.

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Heaven and Earth Redeemed

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more…I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’
…And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day – and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
– Revelation 21:1-5, 21:22-22:5

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The Triumph of Christ

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!...To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” – Revelation 5:12-13

“…wisdom sat upon his brow, and strength and healing were in his hands, and a light was about him” – Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“…power was in his hand. Between wonder, joy, and fear, they found no words to say.” – Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” – Daniel 7:13-14

“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” – Revelation 1:12-18

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The Victorious God

King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Savior, Redeemer, Deliverer, Liberator – he is mighty to save. He is victorious. He is the great Healer, the One with the power to redeem a broken and fallen world, and the wisdom to turn evil on its head to achieve the redemption, to bring a higher beauty out of ugliness. He is the Lord of all, the King of the universe, and of all people, and yet also our Father, and we are his treasured possession, his sons and daughters. He is the Giver of life and being, the one who knit together our very consciousnesses, the Creator and Designer who brings majestic things into being and upholds their existence, the Orderer who gives symmetry and beauty to all things, the grand Weaver in whom all the diverse threads of the tapestry of reality hold together, the Composer of the Great Music and the Great Themes, the Author of the Great Story, the Perfecter of the fallen and of all reality. He is our Captain and our Banner, our Great Rider who is with us and goes before us in battle. To him belongs all beauty, majesty, wisdom, knowledge, strength, power, honor, and glory. He is worthy. Surely here is one whom we can serve and honor and love, one for whom we can live and die, one in whose ranks and in whose power we can stand our ground against the rulers and authorities and powers of this dark world. The battle between good and evil is real and terrible, but God has triumphed over death and made a Way. There is a way to God.

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Is God That Great?

One might object that there is simply too much evil, and suffering too horrible, that it could possibly be used for good. You might ask me if I know that I would keep my faith in suffering. Do I know that if I saw fully the horror of evil, my pathetic delusion of God would not have died quickly? No, I cannot be certain. But what I have seen is too beautiful – too compelling for me not to place my hope in it. I have seen too much of the goodness of God to seriously doubt that good will defeat evil. It is a power and wisdom that no evil could conquer, a light that no darkness could put out. Can you believe that God is great enough to do this? This world has fallen far, so far that it may seem beyond redemption. But with God, the Maker of the Universe, all things possible. Can you believe in a God that is great enough to save this world?

Can you believe that the Creator of the universe has the power and wisdom to bring out of this dead world a glory and a goodness even greater than the worst of evils in human history? Paul wrote that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). Might it be, then, that the enormity of pain and sorrow in this world actually provides a glimpse of how incomprehensibly beautiful and glorious and joyful heaven must be? Yes, this world is filled with horrors, but is it possible that God might be found even in the darkest places?

We live in a fallen world, a beauty marred. It is full of evil and suffering, yet not without hope and love and joy. The darkness is great, but it is doomed because of the primary, victorious nature of good (see “An Unbalanced Duality”). Our hope comes from God, whose wisdom is deeper than the deepest hidden place, higher than the heavens, and at the far edges and the foundations of reality. There is a light in the darkness that cannot be overcome (John 1:5). “Hope and memory shall live still in some hidden valley where the grass is green” (Tolkien, The Return of the King 26). Truly the Enemy cannot conquer forever.

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The Son Rises on Reality

“I would catch a glimpse of the cross – and suddenly my heart would stand still. In an instinctive, intuitive way I understood that something more important, more tumultuous, more passionate, was at issue than any our good causes, however noble they might be.” – Malcolm Muggeridge, Jesus Rediscovered, as cited in Tim Keller, The Reason for God ch. 12

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!...For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” – Romans 11:33, 36

“The refulgence shines upon and into the creature, and is reflected back to the luminary. The beams of glory come from God, are something to God, and are refunded back again to their original. So that the whole is of God, and in God, and to God; and he is the beginning, the middle, and the end.” – Jonathan Edwards, The End for Which God Created the World

Look at what our God has done! Come and see – how awesome are his designs! Do you see it? Do you see the grace and power of the cross and the resurrection? – that bright, piercing light that God has sent from himself so that we might know him for who he is, shining like “a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19). I have done my best to communicate with words what I see in this Great Eucatastrophe, yet words are so shallow and weak when they are used in reference to such deep and weighty truths. To describe the reality itself, to convey the force with which it hits me – the brightness of the light of eucatastrophe – I can think of little more that could be said with words. I might also say this: when I look at it – the victory of God – I understand why we are here in this world and I know who I am. I see why anything at all exists. As I turn my gaze towards the Son of God as he rises from death and shines his victorious light on all reality, I think, “so that is why there is a world filled with living beings, rather than nothing at all!” When I look at the cross, I think, “so that is the firm foundation of reality and the meaning of existence.” This meaning of existence is most transparent to me – indeed I see it beyond the shadow of a doubt – when I listen to certain pieces of music,* and for you the light may shine down in some other unique beam, giving a similarly small but bright glimpse of the same beauty and power – that of the eucatastrophic victory of good over evil. It is this light, streaming forth from the Victory of God in the resurrection, that illuminates all reality, showing how all the pieces fit together in God’s Story and the dance of creation. In the words of C. S. Lewis, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” And the Son has risen. The mystery of God is being fulfilled (Revelation 10:7). The tide has turned towards redemption. This is the morning.


*I might be accused of letting my thoughts become crowded in emotions. Is not one’s clarity of rational thought dimmed and confused by an “emotional high?” This could happen, but it is by no means a necessary quality of emotion. For some thoughts on reason and emotion, see my posts on “The Reason of the Heart.”

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The Victory of God: Summary, part 3

All this God carries through with complete sovereignty and foreknowledge – the cross was (like all sin) an evil event in itself, but it was planned from eternity for a good purpose. But all this would be impossible without a fallen world and the horrible reality of evil. Only by freely choosing against God’s will, by falling into sin and evil, and thus pain and grief, could we need redemption, and only through redemption – only by death and resurrection – could there be eucatastrophic victory over evil. The full light of God – revelation not only of his love and justice, but of all his perfections – could shine on us only if both man and God passed through sorrow and suffering. And only by seeing this light could we see God for who he is, and be filled with the joy that comes from knowing him. Evil, then, is necessary to accomplish “the end for which God created the world” – the deepest and highest joy of God’s people – joy in God that is given by God and honors and glorifies God. God is just, and he will destroy evil and sin in the end – it is a temporary and passing reality, and exists so that God may conquer. A time will come when evil is no more, and when there is no longer a “problem” to be troubled by. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). But without the difference it makes, God’s Story and our joy would be incomplete.

In the deeper wisdom of the cross and the power of Christ’s resurrection, then, we find an answer to both the problem of evil and the “problem of good” – our hope is confirmed and a greater redemptive purpose is seen. And in seeing how God has so beautifully and powerfully defeated evil in order to write into being the best of all possible stories, we have cause to step back in awe and wonder (which we also ought to do in response to good and evil, and indeed to reality itself). What must God be like that he has made such a creation and written such a story, for our joy* and for his glory?

*Chiefly in heaven, but also here and now to some extent – the process of being raised to new life in Christ has already begun. One might ask, “why doesn’t God complete the redemption of the world right now? If the cross was the important thing, why does suffering continue after it?” This is a valid question, and one that I will consider in future posts. There are, I think, things that are accomplished through a long and gradual history of redemption that would not have been otherwise accomplished.

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The Victory of God: Summary, part 2

What is it, though, about the cross that makes it so deep and mysterious and yet so high and majestic and glorious? It is a terrible event – we have cause to fear and tremble at the death of God. The roots of the cross go down deep, to the foundation of reality – to God himself, who fills the cross with beauty and wisdom and riches and treasures, and with the power of resurrection. At the cross God showed his love for us (Romans 5:8) and at the same time vindicated his justice and holiness. Evil, justice, forgiveness, and love come together in this mystery.

By dying on a cross God turned this fallen world’s “wisdom” on its head and revealed himself in a sharp, paradoxical contrast with human expectations of what victory would look like (1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5). Here we see most brightly the beauty of paradox that comes from God. By bearing sin, God eliminated sin and showed himself to be holy and sinless. By dying our death, he gave us his life. By being forsaken by the Father, Christ showed himself to be one with the Father in wisdom and power. By becoming weak and powerless, Christ unveiled incomparable power. By dying on a cross, he conquered death and showed himself to be the Living God. By being defeated, God is victorious. By submitting to suffering and death, God solved the problem of our sin, reconciled us to himself, turned Satan’s schemes backwards, and conquered death and evil forever. It is at the cross that the ways of God – his “treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2-3), made known in this great revelation of his character, are shown to be deeper and stronger and more original than the ways of the Enemy.

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