Monday, September 23, 2013
358 - Systems and Concepts and Christ
Spirituality Column #358
September 24, 2013
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
September 24, 2013
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
Systems and Concepts and Christ
By Bob Walters
Jesus
Christ was a real person – a human being with feelings and actions who lived in
and with a time, place and purpose in history.
Largely,
these are accepted facts.
Jesus
Christ is also the real son of God, fully God, equal to God, the Word of God,
the creator of all things, beings, wisdom and truth, judge of all men, and the
resurrected, divine still-living eternal savior of mankind who defeated death,
forgave sin, and restored humanity’s relationship with God. The Bible tells us so, and the Holy Spirit, when
given the chance, confirms it in our hearts.
Largely,
these are facts that only faith will allow.
For the majority of the world and more than a few Christians, the divine
identity of Jesus becomes a collection of suppositional “facts” or conditional propositions
because they are assertions reason cannot prove. A common intellectual response is, “That’s a nice
story, but …”
“But”
is man trying to grab the steering wheel.
Man
often hesitates to accept the very best parts of Jesus Christ – joy for example
–because man, in general, has a tough time accepting God on God’s terms. So man creates “systematic theology” and
presents eloquent concepts of Christ, figuring – errantly – that man is smart
enough to dictate terms and define God.
It’s an easy mistake to make.
Mankind
possesses an animated lucidity and mental creativeness that works against the
spiritual acceptance of “how” and maybe more especially “why” that lucidity and
creativeness came to be in the first place.
“How” is “God
made it that way.” “Why” is “For God’s
own glory.”
God didn’t
create man to glorify man; God created man to glorify God.
Repackaging that
truth in human terms of self-interest, egotism and arrogance, we fail to
understand that our life’s purpose is far bigger than we can imagine. Most of us can imagine glorifying ourselves; but
glorifying God is a job that quite understandably seems above any earthly pay
grade. “God can’t possibly want me to do
that.”
But, yes, He
does. Jesus’ mission is hard to figure because fallen man is geared toward
avoiding fear and gathering power, while the fearsome all-powerful God has
provided a savior who promises peace and calls for humble service to others. Words don’t adequately describe Christ’s
mission; but the actions – and love – of Jesus do.
For nearly 2,000
years man has instituted systems of worship and concepts of Christ’s identity to
animate and explain all this. But systems
and concepts – falling short – are liturgies and dogmas, man-made procedures and
human ideas.
Man’s reality –
and real purpose – is relationship with God through faith in Christ.
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