Spirituality Column #328
February 26, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters

Spirituality Column #327
February 19, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters

“Quid pro quo” is a Latin idiom that means “this for that.”

Innocently it implies “I do a favor for you; you do a favor for me.” You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.  Tit for tat.  Barter.  Let’s make a deal.  Value is traded for value.

In a sinister connotation, “quid pro quo” is a legal test determining whether bribery, blackmail or coercion was used to create iniquity or inflict injustice.   It arises in workplace sexual harassment lawsuits, academic fraud (trading grades for favors, for example), disingenuous political schemes, and on and on.

For better and worse, the world is a “quid pro quo” place, and it trips up our Christian faith.  We are prone to imagine, mistakenly, that we are trading favors with God, either by being faithful in order to get something we want (health, wealth, love, success, whatever), or trying to pay God back for the gifts He has bestowed.  The first will leave us disappointed; the second will make us crazy.  Either will ultimately direct our focus onto ourselves rather than onto Christ’s glory.

Our life in Christ is not a game with a score – two points for Him, three points for me, how much time is left, hey that wasn’t a foul ….  God, you see, gives us what we need; not necessarily what we want (Matthew 6:8).  His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8).  His righteousness is perfect, even when we do not understand (Psalm 19:7).  Faith in God is about the unseen; worldly evidence is about the seen (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Still, we panic and beg to know whether “we are saved.”  Our faith hangs in the balance.  Quid pro quo.

Well, I’m an old sportswriter; let’s look at the scorebook.

Divine Jesus entered humanity in complete humility, served others, healed the sick, fed the hungry, died on the cross, defeated death, forgave our sins, restored mankind’s fellowship with God, expressed the infinite depth of divine love, assured our eternal life in the company of God in heaven, fulfilled the Old Covenant, instructed us – with His life and Gospel – on the New Covenant, sent the Holy Spirit as our comforter, promised to return in perfect judgment and justice, and said (John 14:6), “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.”

There is simply nothing about that “quid” for which mankind has anything approaching a “quo.”  Thank the Lord, we are stuck at the humble mercy of God’s infinite grace and peace.

We can’t really ask Him for anything more; He’s not going to give us anything less.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) really was a sportswriter, but this isn’t about that.

Spirituality Column #326
February 12, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters

Spirituality Column #325
February 5, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters

Modern man loves logic.

From the ancient Greek philosophers before Christ to our science-laden academy of today, the Western mind has an abiding fascination with logic as the primary test of truth.

Yet for the nearly two millennia separating these eras, theology was the dominant academic pursuit.  The appearance, death, burial, resurrection, witness and story of Jesus Christ required an entirely new way of thinking about God, humanity, life, creation, relationships, love, and eternity.

Who was that Guy?

Philosophy and science are great at establishing logical systems and/or facts.  But they are entirely inadequate when it comes to explaining love and relationships, which are who and what Jesus is.  Mistakenly-coveted secular "truth" – what man can prove logically, philosophically or scientifically – is diminutive when compared with the Truth of the Lord and Creator of the universe.

Philosophy is man’s own intellectual search for life’s meaning, and science often substitutes as modern man’s empirical search for Creation.  The logic of sophisticated argument, or the evidence of repeatable science, tickles our sensibilities and imaginations.  As such, man by his own effort triumphantly and “logically” captures center stage in the carnal sweepstakes of cosmic purpose.

Except … that’s not our place, and not God’s plan.

Man’s logic can be used to prove almost any “truth” one might imagine: God exists; God doesn’t exist; God’s nature is this; man’s nature is that.  But logic’s limitation is that while it can define and categorize things, it can’t love things, and it can’t abide faith.  Evidence is great for the things one can see, but incomplete for the things of the heart, the mind and the eternal that we can’t see (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Faith, you see, is what ties it all together – logic, love, evidence, purpose.  Faith makes the world larger and more coherent to human intellect.  Faith allows man to put Jesus Christ, who is “all things” (John 1:3), properly at the center of our own lives and all Creation.  That’s where God puts Him, where God wants us to put Him, and the only place where we can truly recognize Him.

If we don’t recognize Jesus, we’ve put Him somewhere that’s not the center.

We can learn a great deal about God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit – the Trinity – by logical investigation (the Bible, study, etc.) and using the systems of philosophy and science.  But we cannot be in relationship with the divine without faith.

Sure, God gave us the freedom to try to figure things out on our own.  Logic suggests God will do a much better job of it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that theology fails to serve the Lord’s purpose when Christianity is explained as a system rather than as a relationship.