"[T]he grand paradox or supreme irony of the Christian faith is that we are saved both by God and from God. The God of perfect holiness, who demands satisfaction for His justice and who will not wink at sin, has from all eternity decreed that He Himself should provide salvation to those very people who, by their sin, are exposed to His wrath and judgment." R.C. Sproul
God demanded a sacrifice, and God became that sacrifice. Pretty strange when you stop to think about it. No wonder it takes God opening our spiritual eyes in order to accept His plan for salvation. No amount of earthly logic can truly make sense of God's plan as demonstrated through the sacrifice of Christ.
In Christian theology one of the most important concept is that of propitiation. If you don't read the King James Bible or if you don't have a M.Divinity degree, that word most likely is not in your working vocabulary and you probably can't find it in your Bible without a concordance
(1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10, Romans 3:24-25). The word itself isn't used too often but the concept is basic to the Gospel.
Essentially this fancy and outdated sounding word is a word that is used to describe a sacrifice that appeases God's wrath. For Christians, we believe that Jesus fully met that standard. Of course, believing does not mean that we will ever fully comprehend the gravity of what Christ did for us, at least not in our earthly forms.
Acknowledging that the Gospel does not fully make sense to the fleshly mind is not heretical; quite the contrary, it is actually Biblical. Until God unhardens a heart, it simply cannot comprehend the Gospel (Deut. 29:4, Matthew 13:11,John 6:44 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, Romans 8:7-8, Romans 11:8, Romans 11:25), and even once God soften our hearts and we become Christians, the fact remains that we are still human, and in our humanness there will always be elements of God that we simply cannot comprehend, but ultimately must accept. God is the same today, yesterday, and forever, and I believe that from the beginning of time He has wanted relationship with his creation, but as John 1:18 tells us, "Nobody has ever seen God but [Jesus]." And as we're told in the Old Testament in Exodus 33:20 , we can not see God's face, for nobody can see it and live.
I believe that we can know God, serve God, and love Him, but as we come to know and trust Him more and more, we should realize that in His greatness, we must accept that our finite minds simply could never grasp all of who He is. Like it or not, God designed faith in such a way that it ceases to exist when all answers have been given. Without questions, faith simply is no longer faith. Doubt is actually a vital component to faith because it acts as catalyst (sorry if my analogy is totally off base or is that off acid... get it? Ha ha. Waka waka. Anyways, I was a terrible chemistry student and I don't even know what a catalyst is, and a base is something you steal in baseball, but I think the word fits and I think I sort of made a decent science joke). God can and does build strong faith out of an honest heart that is willing to admit its inabilities and weaknesses. In Our weaknesses, God is made strong ( 2 Corinthains 12:9). Be bold, confront your doubts, but make sure that you take them to God and see what He can do with them. If you're patient and willing to let Him have control, you'll be amazed at the results. They too will probably seem a little bit crazy to your earthly mind!
Let's look at Mark 9:22-24 for a second, because I don't want to leave the impression that I am pulling my ideas out from a hat. Jesus is able to see into the depths of our hearts. Time and time again throughout the New Testament that fact is made soberingly obvious. Why do you think 1 John 3:15 tells us that if we're angry at somebody we have murdered them? God measures the heart. Again, why do you think Jesus says that if we lust, we commit adultery? God sees every aspect of us - the good, the bad, the motives known and the motives unknown, the dark, the light, the faith, and the doubts. God see that all. So, back to Mark 9:22-24. The father asks Jesus to cure his son if He is able. Jesus' response dissects the father's belief structure in a matter of a few breaths. Jesus' response was classic. I imagine Him looking the father right in the eyes as he responded back "If You can?" Here is a man approaching Jesus and asking Him to heal his son who has had an affliction since childhood. An affliction that nobody else could heal. An affliction that I'm guessing the man had spent countless amounts of time and money trying to get healed. Jesus saw the doubt of the fathert, but He also saw that the man did not let His doubt overcome him so much that he lost total belief. The man was still willing to come to Jesus and ask. Sometimes, I think that is all that God requires of us - that we approach Him openly and honestly, and with humility.
So lets travel to another story in the Bible that affirms doubt as being a natural component to a living and growing faith life. If we're going to walk this life with Jesus and do so authentically, sometimes we're going to have doubt(s), which we see narrated perfectly clear in John 11. This chapter provides the account of the death of Lazarus. Lazarus was the brother of Mary, the same Mary, the Bible tells us, who loved Jesus so much that she humbled herself and poured expensive perfume on his feet and began to wash them with her hair. Foot washing is a practice that is more or less extinct, at least beyond a ritual sense. But if we can take our minds back to a time where roads were dirty, Nike didn't exist and sandals were primitive, and walking was the main source of transportation, we can sort of begin to understand why people would wash the feet of guests before they entered their homes. It wasn't because they had expensive carpet they wanted to keep clean - it was done as a gesture of hospitality, and whomever was doing the foot washing was acting in a very humble role. So Mary was humble, and Mary obviously loved Jesus because the perfume she poured was extremely costly. Jesus heard about Mary and her sick brother and instead of rushing to them, He stayed where He was and continued doing His own thing for the next two days. Jesus tells the disciples that Lazarus is dead but that He is happy about that because He is about to blow their minds and show them a pretty amazing miracle. The disciples are kind of cluesless like usual but they follow Jesus to Bethany, where Lazarus has died. When Jesus arrives, we get to see both the faith and doubts of Lazarus' two sisters, Mary and Martha.
I'm not advocating that we begin to doubt everything, I'm simply saying that there is not much point trying to hide our insecurities and doubts from a God who already knows them. Read John 11 and see how Jesus was loving and faithful to Mary and Martha. When we try to hide things from God, even if it is something we identify as negative like doubt, we aren't fully trusting in Him. If we believe that He is a God who knows all, then lets give Him all.
Let's look at Mark 9:22-24 for a second, because I don't want to leave the impression that I am pulling my ideas out from a hat. Jesus is able to see into the depths of our hearts. Time and time again throughout the New Testament that fact is made soberingly obvious. Why do you think 1 John 3:15 tells us that if we're angry at somebody we have murdered them? God measures the heart. Again, why do you think Jesus says that if we lust, we commit adultery? God sees every aspect of us - the good, the bad, the motives known and the motives unknown, the dark, the light, the faith, and the doubts. God see that all. So, back to Mark 9:22-24. The father asks Jesus to cure his son if He is able. Jesus' response dissects the father's belief structure in a matter of a few breaths. Jesus' response was classic. I imagine Him looking the father right in the eyes as he responded back "If You can?" Here is a man approaching Jesus and asking Him to heal his son who has had an affliction since childhood. An affliction that nobody else could heal. An affliction that I'm guessing the man had spent countless amounts of time and money trying to get healed. Jesus saw the doubt of the fathert, but He also saw that the man did not let His doubt overcome him so much that he lost total belief. The man was still willing to come to Jesus and ask. Sometimes, I think that is all that God requires of us - that we approach Him openly and honestly, and with humility.
So lets travel to another story in the Bible that affirms doubt as being a natural component to a living and growing faith life. If we're going to walk this life with Jesus and do so authentically, sometimes we're going to have doubt(s), which we see narrated perfectly clear in John 11. This chapter provides the account of the death of Lazarus. Lazarus was the brother of Mary, the same Mary, the Bible tells us, who loved Jesus so much that she humbled herself and poured expensive perfume on his feet and began to wash them with her hair. Foot washing is a practice that is more or less extinct, at least beyond a ritual sense. But if we can take our minds back to a time where roads were dirty, Nike didn't exist and sandals were primitive, and walking was the main source of transportation, we can sort of begin to understand why people would wash the feet of guests before they entered their homes. It wasn't because they had expensive carpet they wanted to keep clean - it was done as a gesture of hospitality, and whomever was doing the foot washing was acting in a very humble role. So Mary was humble, and Mary obviously loved Jesus because the perfume she poured was extremely costly. Jesus heard about Mary and her sick brother and instead of rushing to them, He stayed where He was and continued doing His own thing for the next two days. Jesus tells the disciples that Lazarus is dead but that He is happy about that because He is about to blow their minds and show them a pretty amazing miracle. The disciples are kind of cluesless like usual but they follow Jesus to Bethany, where Lazarus has died. When Jesus arrives, we get to see both the faith and doubts of Lazarus' two sisters, Mary and Martha.
I'm not advocating that we begin to doubt everything, I'm simply saying that there is not much point trying to hide our insecurities and doubts from a God who already knows them. Read John 11 and see how Jesus was loving and faithful to Mary and Martha. When we try to hide things from God, even if it is something we identify as negative like doubt, we aren't fully trusting in Him. If we believe that He is a God who knows all, then lets give Him all.
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