As an evangelical Christian in 21st century America, the constant challenge I find myself in is learning to balance grace and truth. As followers of Christ, we know that both of these are equally essential and mutually reinforcing. The Gospel of John says that Jesus came as “the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
In a practical sense, this means we must never shy away from holding on to our Christian convictions, namely those derived from the Bible. But on the other hand, we are to always be sharing this truth with openness, love, and empathy. If I was to guess, I’d say that Christians have historically known what it means to proclaim the truth about God, what He expects of us, and what He has done to rescue us. However, grace is a concept that has often befuddled people, both religious and irreligious.
I remember being taught in Sunday School that grace means “unmerited favor.” Sounds pretty good, but what does that look like? Of course, the chief example of grace from the Bible is God’s far-reaching love for those who have rejected Him, even to the point of being willing to come as a human and die for their sins. Again, this helps to fill out what we’re talking about when we use the word grace, but what does it look for us to show grace to others? After all, I cannot die for the sins of my neighbor, and they certainly cannot die for mine.
I think for starters we have to consider ways we can follow Christ’s example, such as the way He warmly embraced and unconditionally loved those who were considered spiritually and morally inferior. Jesus showed acceptance for people of every political stripe. For example, among His twelve closest companions was a former tax collector employed by the Roman Empire (Matthew) and a member of the Zealots (Simon), a group committed to dismantling Roman rule through guerilla warfare.
Jesus’ radical love for social outcasts even earned him the nickname “Friend of tax collectors and sinners,” a label the religious elite intended as an insult. At the same time, Jesus never downplayed the significance of repentance, costly discipleship, and the need to commit ourselves wholly to Him as both Savior and Lord. He called people to leave their sin behind, even while He embraced them in their sin.
A distinguishing feature of grace is not merely to show love toward those who don’t deserve it, but especially to show unconditional love and forgiveness toward those who have wronged you. Grace doesn’t hold a grudge in silence or seek to get even openly. Instead, it is the third option of accepting the one you would more naturally be inclined to disdain.
Both truth and grace are essential, but if I had to guess, Christians today are known less for their gracious attitudes than their willingness to stand for the truth. Many who have recognized this deficit have made the equally egregious error of sacrificing biblical truth on the altar of good public relations. However, I believe there is a far better way to show the world both of these necessary, Christ-like qualities.
One recent example I read about involves American pastor Tim Keller. Keller is known for his remarkable ability to communicate the relevance and beauty of Christianity within a secular culture. In 2017, Keller was given the highly esteemed Kuyper Prize at the Abraham Kuyper Center for Public Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary – that is, until it was abruptly taken away. Keller was well-deserving of the award for his leadership and ministry. In fact, he was even named among Fortune magazine’s “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” in 2018.[1] Nevertheless, when word got out that Keller would be the recipient of the Kuyper Prize, several students and faculty objected that Keller was unfit to receive the award, citing his conservative views on marriage, sex, and women’s ordination.
The incredible thing is that while the award was taken away, the Kuyper Center asked Keller if he would still be willing to speak at the conference where the Kuyper Prize would be given to someone else. Instead of harboring resentment, Keller gladly accepted the offer.
Whatever your opinion of Keller’s convictions, no one could deny that Keller exhibited remarkable humility in doing this. Because of Keller’s trademark graciousness, many spoke out in his defense. In an op-ed piece, Katherine Alsdorf, the co-founder of New York’s Center for Faith and Work, even had this to say about Keller:
“We partnered in the establishment of the Center for Faith and Work, which may have done as much as any church in decades to honor Abraham Kuyper’s vision of humble, respectful engagement in a world of many faith perspectives. His teaching combines a deep confidence that the gospel can change everything from our hearts, making us more humble and generous, to the institutions and society around us. While he would never have sought a “Kuyper award,” I can’t imagine anyone more worthy of it. Like some of the women who have objected and instigated the withdrawal of this award by Princeton Theological Seminary, I do not share Tim’s complementarian views. However, I am deeply saddened by the tone of these objections, more so by the final effect.”[2]
What I love about this is that Keller’s response allowed him to have a far greater impact on his detractors than any act of retaliation would have. There are many times when it is easy for us to want to tear down our opponents for some scathing remark made about us. But how much more effective – and more importantly, how much more like Jesus – it is to “turn the other cheek.” To allow ourselves to be insulted, if only that will mean we can have an opportunity to put both grace and truth on display. Because in doing this, we will be putting Jesus on display.
Feel free to comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” (Romans 5:5, BSB)
Hope is something our world desperately needs right now. Widespread suffering and bleak economic projections have left people feeling lost and disoriented. Many feel caught in the perpetual cycle of hearing messages of gloom and doom.
Into this dreary darkness, God wants to shine a ray of hope. I love the chorus of a Switchfoot song that goes, “My heartbeat, my oxygen. My banner, my home. My future, my song. Your hope is the anthem of my soul.” Now, perhaps more than ever, Christians must recognize our anthem really is hope.
The beauty of Christianity is that it heralds a message of spectacularly good news especially for dark and dismal times like the present. The message of Jesus Christ carries a hope that nothing in this world can snuff out. What makes it so unstoppable is that it’s a hope that shines all the brighter as the world looks darker. It’s a message for this world precisely because it is a message that transcends this world. It stands above even a global pandemic and urges every person to listen and believe.
This hope found in Jesus does not rest on the success of political campaigns or how quickly a coronavirus vaccine is discovered – which I pray is very soon. The Bible calls this hope “an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19, NIV), something strong enough to weather even the fiercest storms. In Scripture, hope is something solid and sure – not a whimsical and flimsy pipe dream. Our “hope of eternal life” will never let us down because the “God who cannot lie” promised this “before time began” (Titus 1:2, BSB). We say things like “I hope it won’t rain on Saturday” or “I hope our team makes the Super Bowl,” but such hopes often ring hollow and really belong to the category of wishful thinking. The Christian hope, on the other hand, “does not disappoint us” (Romans 5:5, BSB).
So what is the Christian hope? Many have supposed that Christianity is about God rewarding the faithful. In other words, Jesus came to save the good, moral, and godly among us. What else could they think? After all, aren’t Christians engaged in a culture war eager to impose a biblical morality on the rest of society? I’ve spoken to many who see it that way.
But… what if Christianity’s message is filled with hope and joy, not because it’s first and foremost about moral reform, but about redemption in Christ. The reason I say it’s not about Jesus saving “the good, moral, and godly” is because the Bible itself says, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). Read it again. Jesus died for the “ungodly” – the immoral, the vile, the perverted.
Does that offend you? Well, it could be that you’ve missed the fact that, according to genuine Christianity, no one is saved except “by grace” (Ephesians 2:8). Grace is a biblical term that means “God’s infinite love to the infinitely undeserving.” The reality is that every last one of us has inherited the brokenness of our first father, Adam. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).
As a human race, we essentially told God to shove off, thinking we could become gods apart from Him. Because of our sinful nature, we all come into this world separated from God and justly condemned. We have all gone wrong, which is why our greatest need is to be reconciled to God and somehow put in the right. But “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). God’s moral standard cannot change. “The soul that sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20). God loves us dearly, but if He failed to punish our sin, this would lead to the moral order of the universe crumbling to a heap. Justice would be out the window forever. So what is God to do?
There is only one way God could save us while remaining perfectly just. He Himself would have to come and bear the punishment for our sin in our place. This is where the hope of the gospel glows with the brightness of heaven itself. You can probably think of someone you’d be willing to die for. But can you imagine dying for your enemy – for someone who has offended you, insulted you, and devalued you incessantly? Because that’s what Jesus did.
“For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:7-9). To be justified is to be “declared righteous” by God because when Jesus hung on the cross, He took your sin and gave you His righteousness.
The truly astonishing thing is that while we were plotting to become gods in our rebellion against God, God became a man in order to rescue us. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life” (v. 10).
This is the greatest message of hope our world could ever know. The moment you trust in Jesus Christ and His death for you, you are reconciled to God. From that moment on, “the wrath of God” (v. 9) no longer hangs over your head because you are covered in the grace of God. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 1)
The Bible says that when you know this peace with God, it changes everything. Your whole world turns upside down… or, rather, right side up. Paradoxically, you can now have tremendous joy in the midst of trials.
“…and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (vv. 2b-5).
More than that, ours is a “living hope” because Jesus Christ is alive today. This is why Christians celebrate the resurrection of our Lord every Easter. His defeat of death signals to the whole world that the suffering of this world has an expiration date.
Do you see why this is the message of hope the world most needs? Whereas other hopes are dashed on the rocks of adversity, here is a hope that actually is strengthened by suffering. It’s a hope that God is offering you right now, because “Christ died for the ungodly” (v. 6). No matter how badly life looks, the Christian can always have this confidence: Our anthem is hope.
“When I consider your
heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set
in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you
care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned
them with glory and honor.” (Psalm 8:3-5, NIV)
Have you ever reflected on the purpose of your existence?
Have you ever sensed deep within your bones that this short life cannot
possibly be all there is — that there must be something more?
Where did we come from? Are humans merely biological
machines, or is there something more to us? Why is there something rather than
nothing?
Throughout the centuries, humanity has asked these perennial
questions related to our origins. We are persistently curious about where we
came from. What got this whole thing
going anyway? It is for this reason that inquisitive children ask their
parents, “Where do babies come from?” Atheists and theists alike agree that our
meaning is rooted in our origins. Our past is the key to our future.
Having said that, I fear that our culture often discourages honest reflection on the deeper purpose of life. The vast majority of Hollywood scripts and commercial advertisements suggest that true happiness and pleasure is found in the here and now. It is not just our culture, however. Something in us prefers immediate gratification to thoughtful reflection. We seem hesitant to consider what may lie beyond the horizon of our material world. Nevertheless, despite our endless pursuits, there remains the nagging sense that we were made for something transcendent.
In the words of A. W. Tozer, “The yearning to know what
cannot be known, to comprehend the Incomprehensible, to touch and taste the
Unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man. Deep calleth
unto deep, and though polluted and landlocked by the mighty disaster
theologians call the fall, the soul senses its origin and longs to return to
its Source.”[1]
Cosmically
Irrelevant?
Consider the alternative: “Man is the result of a
purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind.”[2]
Now really, can anyone actually believe this? Can anyone truly live as if they
are the result of a mindless, purposeless, and accidental process? Harvard
professor James Wood writes of an atheist friend who at times awakes in the
middle of the night with a piercing anxiety:
“How can it be that this world is the result of an
accidental big bang? How could there be no design, no metaphysical purpose? Can
it be that every life — beginning with my own, my husband’s, my child’s, and
spreading outward — is cosmically irrelevant?”[3]
Even for the atheist, this bleak picture of existence is a tough
pill to swallow. For life to be utterly devoid of meaning seems impossible. I’m
reminded of a line from the film On the Waterfront,
spoken by Marlon Brando’s character, Terry Malloy. Terry longs to be a prizefighter,
but one obstacle after another prevents him from achieving his dream. He tells
his brother, “I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody,
instead of a bum, which is what I am.” We all want to be somebody in this world.
We want to matter. Yet, the atheistic worldview mocks the whole human race for being
caught in some grand delusion.
When nearing his death, Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs said, “I’m about fifty-fifty on believing in God… For most of my life, I’ve felt that there must be more to our existence than meets the eye… It’s strange to think that you accumulate all this experience, and maybe a little wisdom, and it just goes away. So I really want to believe that something survives, that maybe your consciousness endures.”[4]
Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia
Most of my friends know that I am an avid Seattle Seahawks fan. My friends and I have joked about how the four preseason games that precede the regular NFL season are a waste of time to watch. After all, many of the stars play for only a small portion of each preseason game and the wins and losses have no bearing on the regular season and postseason. Even when aired on national television, the fact that these games are merely preseason seems to suck all of the magic and drama right out of the stadium.
Now think about this: if you really are the accidental byproduct of nature and you are ultimately headed for non-existence, then it is not just NFL preseason games that are meaningless. Everything is ultimately meaningless. Whenever we push the transcendent out of our thinking, life becomes, in the words of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” If there is no God, we have no basis for ultimate meaning in life, and we are compelled to agree with Shakespeare’s Macbeth that life “is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Without God,
we have no explanation for how the universe came to be, and we have no reason
to think our lives have more value than the bug squished against your
windshield.
On the other hand, what if the Bible got it right, and we
are the creation of an all-wise and beneficent Creator who molded us and
designed us with a purpose, namely, to know Him?
How you answer the question of origins has profound
implications for what it means to be human and for understanding our ultimate destiny.
Ancient Wisdom for
Today
To solve this perplexing enigma, we need to return to the ancient wisdom of Genesis, the biblical book of beginnings. However, before we consider the sacred text, I think it is important to consider some of the biases that inevitably effect the way we read Genesis.
Despite the oft-repeated motif that science and religion are
forever at war, this view is misguided for several reasons. Everyone comes to
the evidence of nature with certain presuppositions, and these presuppositions
color our interpretation. Science is based on observations of natural processes
today, but this does not explain the origin
of those natural processes.
Metaphysical naturalism is the worldview that nature is all
there is. Carl Sagan articulated this view when he famously began his
television series Cosmos with the
line, “The cosmos is all there is, or has been, or will be.”
In contrast to this
nature-is-all-there-is perspective, Scripture begins with the radical claim “In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1).
In response to all false worldviews
which would have nature be eternal or be god itself, the Bible claims that the
cosmos had an absolute beginning and that God created it, and therefore stands
outside and over it. Therefore, God — not nature — is the eternally
self-existent ultimate reality.
“Before the
mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are
God.” (Psalm 90:2, my emphasis)
“To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.” (Isaiah 40:25-26)
M31 Spiral Galaxy. Photo Courtesy of Jason Ware, NASA
Imago Dei
Genesis not only tells us how God created the universe in
general, but also how He created the first human beings. After creating all the
other creatures, great and small, God speaks within His own Trinitarian
council, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may
rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and
all the wild animals, and over all creatures that move along the ground”
(Genesis 1:26). The Bible is very clear that the first humans did not descend
from apelike creatures. [5]
Instead, God directly fashioned them and breathed life into their nostrils (see
Genesis 2:7, 21-22).
In creating human beings, God’s purpose was to have a creature uniquely designed to image — or reflect — His character and nature in a way no other creature could. Unlike all the animals, we alone have the ability to reason and reflect on our own existence. All it takes is one visit to the zoo to witness the striking differences between a human being and every other creature. You will never find a chimpanzee writing a sonnet, a dolphin studying algebra, or an orangutan making laws by which his fellow apes should live. Human beings alone are morally accountable to God. We all know this intuitively. After all, no one ever charges the lion who preys on a zebra with murder.
Bearing God’s image has many implications. Because God is
personal, we are personal. Thus, we can relate to one another with language.
And, I would argue, we experience the fullness of our humanity when we have
learned to love as God loves.
Ostensibly, we are but specks in a vast and uncharted universe, and yet the Bible everywhere affirms humanity’s sacred value. There is even a strange dignity to us because God created us to “rule” (Hebrew, radah רָדָה, v. 26). As God’s image bearers, we are called to represent God’s good and loving rule over His world. Lastly, the Imago Dei (image of God) means that we all have a profound sense of morality deeply embedded in our soul. Intuitively, we know that it is evil to violate another human being, and that we all possess intrinsic worth.
This is why the Deist Thomas Jefferson could pen the
following words in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these Truths to be
self-evident, that all Men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” All
of this makes sense in light of the fact that we have been “crowned… with glory
and honor” (Psalm 8:5).
Some time ago, my friend Matt and I were in conversation with a university student who identified herself as an atheist. We’ll call her Madison. [6] We discussed with Madison the evidence for and against God.[7] “If there is no God, then you and I have no more intrinsic worth than a bug, since we are all here by accident,” I pointed out. She shrugged. “I’m okay with being a bug.” Later on, in a moment of transparency, Madison gave one reason for doubting the existence of a good God: such a God had apparently allowed men in her life to mistreat her. I expressed sincere sorrow over what they had done and affirmed her intuition that what these men had done really was evil. I also told her that their sinful actions grieved the heart of God, too (see Genesis 6:5-6; Isaiah 63:10). “Madison, I don’t think you are just a bug. You were made by a God who loves you more than you know. And no one should ever treat you as if you were a bug.”
Modern atheists find themselves in a conundrum. They want to
deny God, but they are also innately aware their lives have value — something only
possible with a sovereign Creator.
The Inner Clue of
Meaning
Genesis also explains why God is our authority: He authored us. We belong to God by His
divine Creator’s rights. When an author writes a book, she owns that book and
thus it bears her name. In the same way, a musician has rights over the song he
composed. We have laws about trademarks, copyrights, and patents because
we recognize that the maker has ownership over what he has made. Because we
belong to God, we are accountable to Him.
When the religious leaders questioned Jesus about paying taxes to Caesar, He asked to see an imperial coin. “Whose image and inscription are on it?” Jesus asked. The men, who were really just seeking grounds to accuse Jesus of insurrection, replied, “Caesar’s.” With a twinkle in His eye, Jesus responded, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:15-22). What was Jesus’ point? That which bears the image of the Creator — a human being — belongs to the Creator.
This is the foundation for what makes you valuable. It is what gives your life infinite purpose. You were made by God… for God. The gospel of Jesus Christ unlocks the mystery of your existence, because it explains you to yourself. Our yearning for something more comes down to this: Having a relationship with God is what life is all about. The ultimate potential you crave for is bound up in knowing Him.
According to the Bible, when our first parents, Adam and Eve, chose to go their own way and defied His authority over them, this broke that priceless intimacy with the God of infinite love. Jesus Christ, the God who came to earth and clothed Himself with human flesh, makes reconciliation possible. Death is the penalty for sin, but God wanted to save us from what we justly deserved (Romans 6:23). Therefore, God resolved to send His own Son to die in our place. In order to do that, the Son of God needed to become human. In coming to save those who bear the image of God, Jesus came as the supreme “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15).
The Bible says that Jesus, the God-man, “bore our sins in His own body on the tree,” because they separated us from our Creator (1 Peter 2:24). “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). When we repent of our sin and trust in Christ’s saving death and death-conquering resurrection, God restores us to the fellowship with Him we were originally created for. Meaning, as it turns out, is not some trick of the mind or useless fiction. It is the inner clue pointing you back to the Source from which you came.
[1] A.
W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (Indo-European
Publishing, 2018), 9.
[2] George
Gaylord Simpson, The Meaning of Evolution,
revised edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), 345.
[3]
James Wood, “Is That All There Is? Secularism and Its Discontents,” New Yorker, August 14, 2011.
[4]
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (New
York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 571.
[5]
More and more fossil and DNA evidence supports this divergence between the
great apes and human beings. See Marvin Lubenow, Bones of Contention (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1992, rev. ed.,
2007); Jon Cohen, “Relative Differences: The Myth of 1%,” Science 316:1836, 2007.; Jeffrey Tomkins and Jerry Bergman,
“Genomic monkey business — estimates of nearly identical human-chimp DNA
similarly re-evaluated using omitted data,” Journal
of Creation 26(1):94-100, 2012, or online at https://creation.com/human-chimp-dna-similarity-re-evaluated.
Lamp and Light 