Sin, God, Us

Sin has marred everything. That’s what I started this journey explaining. Sin has messed up everything. It’s infected as a virus, as a pungent smell of rancid meat, feel free to come up with your own illustration, whatever it is for you the fact remains it marred the face of creation.

Our relationships with everything changed the moment that sin entered the world. Our relationship with God, self, nature, and others all changed.

God.

Genesis 3:9-10 “Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ So he said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.’”

How had the relationship changed so badly? This was Adam, the one who had walked with God, who had communed with him, who got to hang out in God’s creation, and now he was hiding from his friend, his creator … his God. What a shift. It feels like my last date ;-) … you know the kind ... things are great and poof it turns on ya, and your like “what changed??” God had to be hurt at the shift of relationship. His creation had turned on him seemingly instantaneously. But this was worse than “Aaron you’re a great guy but I just want to be friends …” no this was “God you’re ok, but we want to control our own lives.

And now Adam is scared of God. He’s naked and hiding from the one who sees him more clearly than anyone else. The relationship is suffering because Adam is pulling away, and it starts in motion the dangerous effects of sin. This really is the root of our problems. We have a marred image of God. Look a few verses earlier as Satan tries to get eve to eat the fruit, what does he use? He tries to change her image of God. When our view of God is messed up, then our are quick to follow.

Self

Genesis 3:11-12 “And he (God) said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’
Adam finally realized that he was naked. He noticed that there was something wrong with this state. Odd that it didn’t bother him before sin, but now he was shamed and he hid. This is the second state that sin corrupts. We first have a corrupted view of God and we subsequently have a tarnished view of self. No one had to tell Adam that he was naked now, he just knew it. And something inside of him said he should hide because God was coming.
So many “worm theologies” want to show us how small we are, and how big God is. And in a sense they are right, however there must be a balance. We were created in the image of God, and we are something special. We are the only beings I am aware of that get to commune with God of our own free will. We get to love him and have him love us. We get to worship him and have him inhabit our praise. I am not advocating a false sense of grandeur for humans, nor am I advocating we all run around naked; however I am advocating a healthy sense of self worth. Not only were we created by God to be in his image but when that image was marred he crafted an elaborate plan to bring us back.
When our concept of God is marred, then we immediately move to a poor concept of self. At this point the sin cycle is out of control. God becomes this judgmental, all-powerful, all-judging critic. He is the all-seeing eye of Mordor from Tolkien’s Ring trilogy, looking for one sin so he can smite us as the all-mighty smiter. Once we start to view God like in this way, we become these little slugs who always have to look over our shoulder for our salt wielding creator. Any time our view of God becomes marred we immediately have a marred view of his creation, starting with ourselves.


(Next post Creation and others.)

Of Sin and Hamburger

With the recent fall of Ted Haggard, I believe the issue of sin has been brought the forefront of the Christian and moreover Evangelical mind like never before (or at least since the last scandal). A man at the front lines seemingly fighting against sin and its consequences gets caught up in the very sin that he preached so strongly against.

My heart breaks for a man like that. One who got swept away into the darkness of sin and became addicted to the secretive nature of living a life that was not consistent with what he was preaching. As I waded through the stories and news articles images of past leaders, friends, and mentors flashed across the movie reel in my mind. Each memory still painful and dreamlike, yet very real.

Sin affects everything. That is where any discussion on holiness or full salvation must start. Since the fall of man sin has infested every relationship, thought, concept of self, action, natural object, and concept of God. All of these have been marred by sin entering the world.

A few weeks ago I was given a task, an objective, a mission that was pressed upon whether I chose to accept it or not. The plan was to take six tubes of hamburger meet out of our freezer at home, maneuver them into a plastic bag and transport them from my house to my grandmother’s house five blocks away. Accordingly, I counted out six tubes of hamburger, placed them in a plastic bag and into the back of my mothers van, and transferred them to my grandmother freezer, once again counting out all six tubes. My task was completed … or so I thought.

Four days later my father asked me to take my mothers van to church and put gas in it on the way back home, so my mom would be able to drive it to work the next day. As I stepped into the van I noticed a certain … aroma, which was permeating the air. Perhaps “aroma” is not the proper word. I feel as if “nasty stench of rancid meat” would more aptly describe the odor.
I couldn’t figure out what could have made the smell, therefore I drove to church and led worship for the youth group not giving the smell another thought. After service my father was in the parking lot, and I explained to him that there was a certain aroma in the van and I felt as if, perhaps, we should check it out. My uncle asked what it smelled like and I replied something to the effect of “much like rancid meat.” As Uncle Jim opened the door he confirmed that “Yes,” the smell did smell “much like rancid meat.”

After a thorough search, we found the culprit. It was a seventh tube of hamburger meat that somehow snuck into the van (I am presently blaming it on Zoe … my year and a half old black lab). The package was swollen with hamburger juice ebbing from the top. The smell was awful and the look was almost as bad. I threw the package away and felt as if my job was done. However, I found 3 days later when I got in the van, that my job was not done. Although the meat was gone the stench still lingered. And what a stench it was. Seven bottles of Febreeze and two cans of air freshener later, I still had a problem. Finally, I had to shampoo the entire carpet. I had to unbolt the seat and remove all of the nasty juice that had soaked into the carpet. Just removing the meat was not enough; I had to get to the root of the problem.

I believe that sin is the same way. We should not and cannot be content with just forgiveness (getting the meat out of our lives). There must be a deeper cleaning that makes the smell go away. If all God was capable of doing was getting the meat out, but the stench of sin and decay was always there, we would not believe in a very powerful God. Sin must be dealt with on all levels because it infects all levels of life.


(next blog the four fold problem of sin)

Virus

My dad’s computer caught a virus … like a bad virus. I don’t really know how. There is a bit of speculation as to how the virus got on the computer, but the fact of the matter is it did. It’s there and there is nothing we could do to get it off. Oh and we tried. We deleted things, downloaded things, reloaded and restored things, but it was there set in and actually getting worse. You see this particular worm multiplies and gets in so deep that there is nothing that you can do to fix it. Even if you turn off the computer and tap F10 when the computer comes back on, to try and make it go to factory settings … nada. So how you ask do I get this stupid worm out of my computer … this worm that has infected everything, every program registry, system, and causes my computer to act in ways it shouldn’t … how do I fix that problem?

Apparently there is a disk. A disk that comes from the outside. A disk that in a sense is connected to my computer and is an embodiment of my computer programs, in that it has the code of the programmer on it. When you put this disk in, the computer goes back to what it was created to be without the virus. A fully functioning complete computer.

To me the doctrine of Original Sin (OS) was odd. I couldn’t really grasp why it was so important to understand that nothing good could come from me. I took me a while to understand that I was infected with the virus of sin. So much so that only when something (moreover someone) from the programmer was inserted would I become a fully functioning complete human. We weren’t made to be a mess. We weren’t made to be incomplete. However when sin entered the world it dirtied everything. Every program, every restore, every system, became infected. However, God in his mercy came down and was “inserted” into the world, and although he was connected with the world and embodied all it meant to be human, he conquered the virus.

So what does that mean? How much of the virus could God conquer? I don’t know how long I will be doing this but I think I’m going to use my next few blogs to put my thoughts on “Full Salvation” down before I move on with a few more sections of the Peter Book. Thanks for indulging me.

pain

I’m going to take a quick break from the book to give you some personal thoughts.

I have been thinking a lot about pain recently. I am not contemplating that, I stubbed my toe pain, or even, my girlfriend broke up with me, pain, but real pain. The type of that rips at your soul and makes you question things, that is the type of pain I have been mulling over. You see the problem is that I don’t understand it. Now don’t get me wrong, there are many things I don’t understand. I don’t understand how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop. I don’t understand why we pay athletes tons of money to put a ball into a hoop. However, I can live with those things and say, “it’s a mystery.” Yet, this concept of pain gnaws at me. It bothers me. It makes me question things.

Sometimes I think we do one of two things with pain: either we treat it too simplistically, or we tread around it too carefully. I’m going to be honest, it always bothers me when someone is hurting and another well-meaning person says “God has a plan for this you just can’t see it yet.” While that may be true to some extent, I really don’t think it helps anyone in the situation. Nor do I think it is good to totally ignore that someone is in pain and just move on.

C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors. I love the Chronicles of Narnia; I thought that The Screwtape Letters was an excellent book; anything he has written I have enjoyed. I thought The Problem with Pain was a masterpiece; a great intellectual discourse on why there was pain in the world, and why it had to be there. And then came A Grief Observed. A brilliant and transparent book that Lewis wrote after his wife died. He starts to understand pain and grief better.

A friend tells him that “… the same thing seems to have happened to Christ: ‘Why hast thou forsaken me?’” Lewis’ response? “I know. Does that make it any easier to understand?” You can almost hear his heart being wrenched from his chest as his mind tries to play catch up and reconcile his faith with his feelings

“Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not ‘So there’s no God after all,’ but ‘So this is what God’s really like. Deceive yourself no longer.”

I recall thinking the same things throughout my High School and college years. God was so real to me that I couldn’t get rid of him altogether, however there were moments where I wondered what kind of God was I serving.

I remember a time when I had been healed as a freshman in high school. I suppose I should have been joyous. I expect that I should have had better thoughts, and better words. Nevertheless, all that I could really think was “Why was I, one with so little faith, healed, and my sister, one who thirsts for God daily, not?” (Before we go on, I do not want any particular responses to that question. I have come to the realization that it will never be answered, and I’m ok with that, smarter people than you have tried and failed. Thank you for your thoughts, but move on to the next section please.)

As I got older, I saw more pain, and these were the worse types. They were not caused by any act of free will, or any particular choice; NO, freaks of nature, tsunamis, hurricanes, and earthquakes caused them. My “freewill” defense went out the window on those situations. And my intellect mocked me. “Come and answer Aaron, come and fix this problem of pain.”

So what is my answer? What is my grand scheme to help all in pain or who are watching someone they love experience it?


I don’t know. I don’t have an answer. I have no intellectual reason for all of the pain in the world. I don’t know why an all-loving, all-powerful God allows for this kind of suffering either. I suppose many of you will read this and come up with something. And that’s ok. If you want to share it that is ok as well. I’m always impressed with those that can rationalize better than I. Those whose minds work in overtime, and overdrive. As for me, I’ll end with this. It is from Lewis in his last chapter.

“I thought I could describe a state (of grief); make a map of sorrow. Sorrow, however turns out to be not a state but a process. It needs not a map but a history …”

Until we experience real pain, we don’t understand it, and even then we are so blinded we can’t comprehend it, and once we are over that, the scars won’t let us totally recall it. Perhaps I will try to grasp it after death … and maybe not even then.

Tonight the question is why

Tonight the question is why?

Tonight my heart aches, back breaks, shoulders shake
From the pain, weight, and sobs.

My mind hurts, as nothing works
Quite like it should.

Dark nights turn to days I know
But now bitter seeds are sowed
And the harvest seems to be the same.

I know I’m real small, and not tall
And I cant’ see all
Of his plans

But right now my empty hands, want to grasp
I want to lay down this happy mask
And weep and cry
And just ask why
Such a beautiful rose has to whither, bruise, and die.

---Aaron Duvall

Tonight a good friend died. She was one of the happiest human beings I know. I had never heard her complain in my life. She was never just good, never “ok”, she was always terrific, until she couldn’t say that anymore, and then it was a thumbs up and a salute. She was the best example of unconditional love that I had ever seen. Always good for a hug and a smile. I hope some day when I become a good Christian I can be one like Kim. I don’t think she would have complained about this. But tonight I’m not Kim. Kim Hawk is heaven, and I’m here …. Tonight …. Asking why.

A quick break for station Identification

I am taking a break from the Christology today. I want to talk about something I about which I am a little more passionate. I watched a man die today; not metaphorically or spiritually. I was physically in the room as a man breathed out his last few breaths. I stood there and hugged the family. I prayed with them as they asked us to “pray for peace please.”

At that moment, I gained a whole lot of perspective on ministry and on life. I do not think they cared about my theology; they did not care if I was a good preacher, or if I understood the theandric union. All they really wanted I think was a warm body that loved them to hug.

Sometimes I get caught up in a lot of junk that really is not important. Most recently, I have been fighting online about tithing, and Civil Religion, and the environment, and I have been real caught up in it. Very passionately staking my claim and logically making my case. I was fighting about stuff that is useless when there are souls hanging in the balance!

I recognize that everything effects and plays a part in your theology and ministry, but man …I am on the front lines right now and I don’t have time for the ivory tower. I was talking to a friend of mine and he said “If it is impeding people from getting into the kingdom then it needs to be dealt with, and if you have a new way to help people see Christ in a better light then fine, but quit complaining, people here enough of that.”

Moreover, he was right.

A while back, my dad was talking to a man and the man was dying. He told my dad “I don’t want to leave my wife but if I can see my son in heaven right when I die I think I can manage.” Then was not the time to discuss soul sleep and bodily resurrection with this guy. I don’t’ know exactly what dad said but I think it was something like “Being absent of the body is being present with the father, I think Jesus will take your hand and lead you to heaven.”

I want to comfort people and show love. I want to love and love to its fullest. I want to preach a complete Gospel of a resurrected Jesus who ransomed me, brought me to the father, and gave me the Holy Spirit. I want to show people that “JESUS LOVES ME THIS I KNOW!!”

And for them to know that is enough to start it out!!

Soft Christologies

Adoptionism was an early heresy that has consistently shown up throughout the history of the church. It states that Jesus was only a man and he was later “adopted” by God. This view permeates modern Christianity, specifically in *yes I’m going to use the word* liberal and mainline churches.

“The position gives the human Jesus an independent status. He would simply have lived on as Jesus of Nazareth if the special adoption by God had not occurred. This was more a matter of God’s entering an existent human being than of a true incarnation. Sometimes this event is regarded as unique to the life of Jesus’ sometimes it is compared to the adoption of other human beings as children of God.” [1] (Christian Theology, Millard J. Erickson, 728)

(although not explicitly I feel that this is the view of “The Last Temptation of Christ.”)

Adoptionism is what Gerald O’Collins would call a soft Christology. Those believe in the full humanity of Christ but seem to compromise the divinity. They are also, those that show Jesus as a mirror, or a representative of God, as opposed to actually being God. (once again popular among the American church)

Ebionism is a view of Jesus that says he is totally and uncompromisingly human. Trough a rejection or at least a denial of Paul’s letters they decided that Christ was not God or truly anything supernatural, but merely a normal human having good commune with God.
“Jesus as, according to the Ebionites, and ordinary man possessed of unusual but not superhuman or supernatural gifts or righteousness and wisdom. He was the predestined Messiah, although in a rather natural human sense. The baptism was the significant event in Jesus’ life, for it was then that the Christ descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove. . . Thus Jesus was primarily a man, albeit a man in whom, at least for a time, the power of God was present and active to an unusual degree” (Christian Theology, Millard J. Erickson, 694)

Here you see the underlying adoptioninist view, as well as the overall “soft Christology” that is voiced. This is the most humanistic one in my opinion. We all can pull this off, and in reality we don’t need Jesus, he was just there to help us figure out what we can become.

As easy as it is to rip on evangelicals falling on the opposite side log I have to say this is the largest problem in the church today. It is far too common to see a mainline church love the concept of Jesus and his teachings, but they want the “Sermon on the Mount” without the Christmas or Easter story to back it up. Although I will discuss the “other side” of this problem I will always say I would rather someone error towards the divinity than away from it.

The Mystery of the Union

“’We confess that He is very God and Very Man; Very God by His power to conquer death and Very man that He might die for us’ (Belgic Confession 1562). ‘He continueth to be God and man, in two distinct nature and one person forever’ (Westminster Shorter Catechism, 1647). To deny either the undiminished deity or the perfect humanity of Christ is to put oneself outside the pale of orthodoxy . . . The Hypostatic union is the theological description of this a refers to the two hypostases, or natures, forming the one person in Christ.”( Evangelical Theology: A Survey and Review, Robert P. Lightner, 80)

The Dictionary defines paradox as “A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true.” The Bible is filled with them. To be first we must be last, to live we must die, those who serve will be exalted. Perhaps, though, none are quite as complex as the statement that Jesus is one man, fully human, yet fully divine, taking part in the triune God.

However, we must also realize that we are dealing with an ultimate mystery, which can be considered but never truly grasped, which can be contemplated, but never adequately explained. As much as we would like to try, we have to recognize that our words and minds are not sufficient to completely fulfill the task that has been set before us. However, this cannot stop us in trying to clarify what we mean when we describe Jesus as having a “God-manhood.”

To say it is easy to explain one side or the other of Jesus is an overstatement. Yet, as most heresies will show us, our rational will point us towards one or the other.

“Whenever the attempt is made to bring Christology to a logical conclusion, and formulate it, the difficulty of avoiding Ebionism or Docetism, Nestorianism or Monophysitism, which stand on either side . . . will present itself.”(Christian Theology, H. Orton Wiley, page 171)

We cannot completely comprehend how a man can be fully God and fully man. Yet, that is the paradox that the Bible points us to, and that the tradition of the church has affirmed. Nevertheless, it is easy to power out of one ditch only to stumble blindly into another. Specifically, in the current evangelical church, we have over emphasized the deity of Christ and we have regulated his humanity to the sidelines. However, if that is the case within conservative denominations, the majority of the mainline ones have made his divinity look like an underachieving bench warmer.

“ . . . The most fundamental issue, the most basic problem is the distinction that is made between the Father and the Son. All Trinitarian theology ultimately hinges on this distinction, and this distinction, as we are all well aware, has been variously interpreted in the history of Christian thought . . . Why should we posit two terms, Father and Son, in the Godhead? How could the Father and the Son be God and yet be One God? In what way do they differ?”( Aspects of the Theology of Karl Barth, William P. Anderson, page 33)

Where Barth struggles with this distinction between the Father and the Son, I pose the same to be discussed between the divinity and humanity of Christ, is most difficult in Trinitarian theology. I would speculate that these very same questions affect one’s Christology. How can Jesus be fully man and fully God? Why do we posit two terms, humanity and divinity? How can the humanity and divinity be Christ and yet Christ be one person? In what ways do these differ?


This part came quicker than the next few will I think. But it gives a start to what questions I want to answer and a peek into why I think it's more difficult than some of us make it out to be

Theandric Union

As J. Kenneth Grider would state oh so eloquently,

“Off with our shoes, please, for (this) is holy ground. Away with finely figured syllogism and ordinary arithmetic: here, logic and mathematics do not suffice. The need is rather for a listening ear, an obedient heart, rapt adoration, a careful engagement with the Holy Scriptures.”(Basic Christian Doctrines, Carl F. H. Henry, “The Holy Trinity,” J. Kenneth Grider, page 35)

Although Grider was speaking specifically about the trinity, I feel as if it resonates with any discussion of the absurd and divine. It is here that we lay our religion and even our salvation. For if Christ was not God then there is neither absolvent of sin nor victory over death. Yet, if Christ was not human, there is no victory over sin and no true revelation of what humanity is supposed to look like.

The very foundation of our faith lies in the person of Jesus Christ. How one views Christ and his attributes will determine where the rest of one’s theology flows.

“Christianity is Christ! He is the center and circumference of the historic Christian faith. . . Jesus Christ and his work on the cross are absolutely central and essential to Christianity.” (Evangelical Theology: A Survey and Review, Robert P. Lightner, Page 65)

It may sound a bit cliché but one’s view of Christ is the neck that turns the head of one’s theology, Christ is the lighthouse to which our theological ship must be reconciled with.


That is the start of this new series I'm going to try. The theandric Union of Christ. I'm going to divide this into a few sections.
I) The Mystery
II) The Heresies
III) Orthodoxy (three views)
IV) The Creeds
V) Conclusions

Any thoughts you may have are appreciated

What is it about the view of atonement in the Chronicles of Narnia that I love so much? Well I’m glad you asked because that is the very thought that I was having. I’d like to lay out my thoughts on that very subject.

I) It was done for others.

I’m not sure that I dislike any theology more than one that says that Christ died solely for his own glory and for the glory of the father. Yes God was glorified through the resurrection, but man give me a break. “For God so loved the world …” and other various proof-texting verses can be spewed forth here, but instead I’m only going to say God died for me. And you, and everything other sinner a.k.a. human who needed to be redeemed from sin. If he wanted only to show his glory I’m sure he could have come up with something better.

II) It was fully redeeming

Edmond didn’t go “Oh thanks, but I’d really like to dabble in the White Witches stuff for a little longer.” No way man. He was redeemed, and because of that he was going to live as a king of Narnia, because that’s what he was. How exciting is that?? Man’s sin is not more powerful than the cross. The choices of man in The Garden of Eden could be undone by the decisions made in The Garden of Gethsemane. We don’t have to wallow around in the winter any longer (enter joke about cold weather being evil and Dante being correct that Hell is ice not fire) cause When Aslan comes upon the scene CHANGE IS MADE!!

III) It was out of love!!

There was no wrath of a higher power that needed to be satisfied, it was only the law of the deep magic. Aslan willingly gave his life because the deep magic said a traitor would be paid for with blood (one of my favorite lines in the movie and second only to “He’s not tame but he’s good” is “Don’t quote the deep magic to me, I was there when it was written”). The Wrath of God really starts showing up in Anselm’s writing, the early church had this great view of Jesus dying because Satan owned the rights to us, but in the end Satan was tricked. Jesus was the bait on the hook and Satan took it and lost. FANTASTIC. Is it an incomplete view … yeah a little … however it’s more orthodox than “God was ticked off at the world, and Jesus said ‘Father I’ll take your wrath for them.’” Saying that pits one person of the trinity against the other. I prefer the conversation to go something like this.

“Son, Our children down there are lost, and you and I both know the only way to save them is for US to become like them and to die.”

“Yeah Dad, I know, and I’m willing to make that sacrifice”

“It’s going to be hard Son … you will be separated from us to an extent you haven’t experienced before and you will have to empty yourself and assume all that they are, for that which is not assumed is not redeemed.”

“Yeah I know Dad … But I think it’s worth it, and with your help, and the Spirits help, I know we will turn this world around.”

That may have some flaws with it, and I’m sure you guys will point them out … but for the moment … it excites me.

Thanks be to God for pursuing me with love.