Alright, I'll admit it. We Christians are usually guilty of being on two extremes. On one hand we're super serious kill joys, sucking the enthusiasm and life out of the people around us. Ever met one of us? You'll recognize us by the sour pout on our face, the scowlish attitude that reminds you of Ebeneezer Scrooge. The room seems to darken when we enter and our critical attitude about everything creates a hushed silence out of fear that somehow something said or done will be verbally attacked with Bible references. People just want dish us a punch right in the face. On the other hand we're loony, gullible fairies who haven't any depth of reasonableness or foundation in our belief system. Plus we're very mystical, emotional and just plain too happy all the time. People pretty much think we're on drugs.
Somewhere in between these two extremes exists a very rare breed of Christian. You recognize them by their striking humility, their character, their kindness and grace in how they treat others especially unbelievers who attack them. But the most appealing yet somewhat foreign characteristic is their deep joy and abundance of love. Something about these Christians seems shockingly different. There's a joy about them, they seem to radiate something wonderful but you can't put your finger on it. But there's also a stark seriousness to their lives and the effort they put into their work. Their lives seem fervently driven by something or someone far beyond them but its not rooted in fear. There's a word for this. Devotion. Devotion is rooted in the deepest meaning of love and it is the only proper driver of duty. Duty devoid of love and then devotion is cold, dry and miserable. But duty rooted in devotion brings about a motivation that says “I MUST do this for Him because God has done so much for me”. You devote yourself to someone you truly love from the depth of your soul. You can do no other except exert energy toward this devotion. It's selfless and beautiful. It's almost too grand to watch, too beautiful to see for in it you realize that you lack anything that even resembles this in your life. What is so awesome, literally, awe inspiring about this person? There is something transcendent about them. This is the Christian who's very being has been and is being transformed at the heart level, in their soul.
The first extreme is the Christian who understands with their head, their faith is more an intellectual belief system and often times, these are Christians who are struggling with the stark realities of what they have believed. Understand dear friend, that often a person goes from Pollyanna to Scrooge to Devotion, sometimes in the same day and multiple times in that day! They understand excitedly that there is a sufficient bridge to Heaven, to God through Jesus Christ. It just moves them emotionally to profess faith in Jesus. Then going out into the world determined to tell everyone about Jesus and their experience of conversion, they get tested, challenged and pressured from critics and skeptics which drives them to study their Bible, doctrine, theology in order that they can be prepared to give an answer and a defense for the hope that is in them. At this point, it often happens that they come face to face with doctrines and truths that are hard to stomach and to the human heart can be downright depressing and hostile. There is a Holy God. Man was made for a union and perfect relationship with this God. But man sinned and fallen short of this glory and therefore we all are born into this world with a sin nature. The consequence of this is wrath judgment and hell. We find ourselves a a sort of twilight zone if you will. We are stuck between two worlds in a space where there should be none, somehow we are in a void that should not exist. Number one, love for the world. Number two, hated by the world. We have a set of beliefs that go against the natural human heart. We have been convicted and there is no going back for us. But because our message is hostile, we will not be heard and moreover we will be attacked. Our desire is that every person in all the world everywhere would be saved and believe this message. Yet we must live with the knowledge that most of the world will not accept this message and by not accepting it, their doom is certain. There is a judgment that is coming. Suddenly we find ourselves drawn toward bitterness, pessimism and a hopelessness in our ability to reach the world. The beauty of the Gospel, the "Good News" essence of its message becomes tainted with the Pre-Gospel conditions, the "Bad News" that makes this good news so good. We get stuck and fixated on wrestling with the badness of this bad news and until we wrestle through this, our countenance will be and feel very dark. Just understand, dear unbeliever, that if you have a Christian Scrooge in your life, he or she is probably struggling with the spiritual reality of your very soul and they are heavily burdened for your spiritual well being and their inability to convince you of their message for your own sake. Here is what they believe as revealed in Sacred Scripture.
#1. There is a God, who is Holy above all else. Above even being loving, He is holy. This has radical implications for our postmodern culture and sentimental Christianity. It means first that God is angry with unholiness and his justice demands punishment for crimes against His laws. He cannot just sweep sins under some holy rug in Heaven. Any moral creature who does sin MUST die and endure His fiery wrath. He is referred to as a consuming fire. He is more terrifying than the deadliest and most cunning terrorist. He is more dreadful than any demon could wish to be. He is to be feared far above Satan and his entire demonic army. Every person in Scripture who experienced God's presence was not lifted into some spiritual euphoria but sunken into the depths of terror, trembling in His presence and completely undoing them in every capacity, primarily morally.
#2. Man is a creature and therefore a created being. He was specifically created to be with God in perfect relationship and union in which there was no fear. But Man fell from this relationship and from this all men and women throughout all of History have inherited this disease of a sinful nature. No matter whether it's fair or not, you and I both know that we have done things intentionally that were morally wrong. Our conscience bears witness to these things, but we sear our conscience and delude ourselves into thinking that we're victims of our own imperfect nature so we shouldn't be held responsible for doing what comes most naturally for us.
#3. Man disobeyed God's one law and thus sin entered every human heart.
TO BE CONTINUED...
