Perhaps it may turn out a sang,
Perhaps turn out a sermon.

-- R. Burns Epistle to a Young Friend

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

The Cross and the Single Christian



For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. -- 1 Corinthians 1:18


The truth has a tendency to interfere with our fun, so we think.  The cross, in particular, seems to be a challenge for us to accept.  One of the things that adds to our struggle is the disdain in which so many around us hold the reality of Christ crucified.  Man wants to be able to figure out his own way of living, control his own destiny, and find his own way of salvation.  The cross empties human ambition and achievements of their glory. 

When we receive the gospel and the light that it gives, we begin to see the transience of so much that enraptured us in the past.   What we thought vital when in darkness is seen through and understood as no longer having significance.  As worldly wise we perhaps valued the acclaim of the crowd and the cachet of our positions and possessions.  Seen from the perspective of the cross and eternity, the crowd is made up of fickle fools and all that we have is dissolving in rust and ruin. 

It does seem like foolishness when we look at how God wants to save the world through blood and death and suffering.  The intellectual stumbles upon this and calls it accursed by his rejection of it.  How can one save his life by losing it?  How can we be unburdened by bearing the cross?  How can we be righteous by laying aside our own righteousness? 

Here is God becoming weak, taking on flesh and submitting Himself to an ignominious death, crucified as a slave and criminal.  Yet in this death is life, and through this apparent weakness is the ultimate revelation of God in all His might and power and wisdom and glory.

Mankind was enslaved and held captive by death.  I’m sure I do not have a full understanding of what that means, but I can see that life appeared to be defeated by death.  This dark terminus marked all our efforts, all our ideas, all of our intellect and understanding as futile for the individual. 

Apart from Christ, death makes a mockery of you and I as persons.  We are meaningless.  The only thing that matters in a Christ-less world is our genetic material and our contributions to the perpetuation of the species.  And even that, if we look far enough, is vanity, as the Preacher would say. 

The Cross shows us the death, so to speak, of death.  To God it is the individual who matters most of all.  Nations, tribes, peoples, races, ethnic groups, the human race itself – these are the transitory.  

Jesus lives.

You will live forever.  I will live forever.  This truth puts the lie to the idea of “the greater good”, of a merely Darwinian and natural survival of our species.  Christianity is anti-statist, anti-collectivist. 

As Christians we practice love and kindness and goodness and forgiveness, not to the tribe or the nation or the race, but to the neighbor, to my sister and my brother.  God doesn’t save Rome.  He saves a Roman, and another, and another  … because nations pass away but the soul of a man never dies.      

7 comments:

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

"The Cross shows us the death, so to speak, of death. To God it is the individual who matters most of all. Nations, tribes, peoples, races, ethnic groups, the human race itself – these are the transitory.
Jesus lives.
You will live forever. I will live forever. This truth puts the lie to the idea of “the greater good”, of a merely Darwinian and natural survival of our species. Christianity is anti-statist, anti-collectivist."

I wholeheartedly cooncur, Mushroom.
Christianity is also pro-liberty. Christ set the captives free, each of us, individually.
It's our choiceto accept God's gift to be free or to return to Egypt and be slaves.

mushroom said...

Yes, the truth sets us free. Thanks, Ben.

John Lien said...

The cross empties human ambition and achievements of their glory.

Bingo! Er, um, lots of gems in here. Just pretend I re-posted the rest of the post here..
Remainder of post.

I spent some time, a rare event, in the car with my two daughters and son-in-law last weekend. They think they can be atheists and still be moral. I was trying to make the argument that why not cheat if you can get away with it if there is no more beyond the material world. I posited that their objection to cheating is a signal from God. I don't know, I am not a good pursuader but I had to stand up for the Truth. Maybe I planted a seed, who knows.

All three are in their 20s and immortal and ready for fame and fortune and the adoration of the World.

I was the same then.

I just pray they outgrow it.

mushroom said...

They will. It's not just the invincibility. There's a certain lack of experience and some insulation from reality that we benefit from growing up in a strong home with good parents. We get a little more buffeted by the truth as time goes by.

The root of a lot of youthful atheism is a quarrel with the traditional mode of church-based Christianity. We can't see past the flawed people who make up the Body, so we think the Body's flawed. That will change, too.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Mushroom is right, John.
One of our daughters used to feel the same way in her 20's.
Now that she's in her 30's and is a mom those views have begun to dissapate more and more rapidly.

Breitbart was correct when he said the culture war is important to fight, because she got most of the bad ideas from the false idealism and propaganda many films and songs and tv shows try to push.
Truth has a way of breaking through and wishful thinking can never stop reality.

All we can do as parents is keep planting seeds, and pray for them.

John Lien said...

Thanks for your words of encouragement, guys.

"The root of a lot of youthful atheism is a quarrel with the traditional mode of church-based Christianity. We can't see past the flawed people who make up the Body, so we think the Body's flawed."

That really nails their version of "atheism" based on their saying so.

I'll even throw in the "we're spiritual but not religious" kind of talk coming from them. So, I'm not in full panic mode.

Hell, when I was their age, I joined a Hindu cult. Made my parents nuts.

Payback is a bitch.

Ben, yes, their home base is Charlottesville and the younger daughter's boyfriend's family live on one of the intentional communities in the next county over, so they are soaking in it.

mushroom said...

Intentional community EQ Pretend-village.