For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God
to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also
for the Greek. (Romans 01:16, NKJV).
Even
as a Materialist immersed in so-called Scientific Naturalism, I knew
– I just knew
– that there was Something or Someone that had some kind of power
beyond what I could see, hear, feel, or measure. It was a conviction
based on suspicion rather than desire, for I certainly did not want
such a thing to be.
It
was also a conclusion reached solely by logic, that is, that there
had to be at least a Divine Finger that knocked over the first Domino
and then sat back and watched the rest fall in succession. I could
not conceive (and still can't) of Something coming from Nothing,
which is what the purely Naturalist viewpoint required as an
explanation for All That Is.
Of
course, I fought against this suspicion “tooth and nail”, for I
did not want it to be true.
When
I finally became a disciple of Jesus Christ (for, by definition, that
is what all true Christians must be if the label “Christian” has
any meaning), I realized that even my sneaking suspicion of a Deity
behind the whole works was woefully simplistic.
How
could the Finger of God just initiate the first Event (the falling
Domino), without having created the successive Events waiting to
happen? In the word picture of my example, Who or What created all
the Dominos, lined them up just so, and then formulated the Law of
Cause and Effect so that things proceeded along some inevitable
course from that Initial Action forward?
It
couldn't have been that Deity got the ball rolling and then sat back
and watched. It first had to create the playing field and the rules.
And if It could do that, then what couldn't It do?
You
see, Atheism, the willful denial of the existence of God, is too
childish a concept to hold any water. From first to last, all its
premises are far too weak to explain anything. They waft away in the
wind of rational thought.
There
MUST BE a First Cause, and given the intricate complexity of
subsequent events, that First Cause must have, at minimum, Eternality
(existence outside of time in order to start the clock ticking, so to
speak), Intelligence (the ability to design and plan ahead), and
Power (the means to create and cause action).
To
say it another way, God must exist. He is the Inescapable Conclusion.
And
since He must exist as God, He must have Power, and the Apostle Paul
in the verse above begins to detail perhaps the most important aspect
of that power to all of Creation: the power to save.
Think
of it this way: even beyond our own existence (also the result of the
power of God), salvation is the
most important event
in the Universe. Without the possibility of escape from the
inevitable destiny of eternal punishment through whatever means the
Creator has ordained, it would be, as Jesus Himself said, better to
have never been born (Mark 14:21).
Now,
some think it strange that we need to be saved at all. I know I
thought as much before I came to believe in the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. But once I understood that my existence was not a matter of
random chance over time, but was due to an act of power by Deity,
then it was no great leap to consider that the same creative Deity
had the authority to determine my destiny according to His rules.
I
knew I was far from perfect, that over the course of my life I had
committed evil, and that I fell far short of the standards of right
and wrong that, even in my most God-hating years, I had to admit
existed in my and the world's consciousness. (As can readily be
observed, the concept of Justice, is an inherent component of every
thinking person – be he a mass murderer, a thief, a philanthropist,
or an every day, run of the mill liar.) Given that, the inevitable
question is: where did the universal idea of “fairness” come
from, the primordial goo from which we are all supposed to have
emerged?
The
need for salvation then, is only a ridiculous notion if you willfully
ignore the facts of life. And not only does it apply to each
individual, but to the whole creation which, Paul will tell us later,
was corrupted when Adam fell into sin. All That Is groans and labors
until now awaiting the restoration that comes when sin is finally
eliminated.
Following
the same line of reasoning, while some may admit to the need of
redemption, they chafe at the means outlined in the Bible. Many of
the objections can be expressed as these questions:
How
can mere belief or faith in Christ wipe away my sin? It seems too
easy.
How
could His death make me righteous? It seems barbaric and cruel to
make someone else pay my penalty?
How
can God, being God, die?
How
can someone in a grave for days be made alive again?
In
one sense, the unspoken aspect of all these inquires is the implied
statement, “Well, I certainly wouldn't do it that way.”
Taking
these one by one, then – there is nothing “mere” about faith,
especially in regard to the fallen and corrupt human heart. True and
sincere faith in Someone else is antithetical (directly opposed or
contrasted) to the natural human mind. Suspicion and doubt is the
norm, particularly when it comes to life and death. To believe in
Christ is, in itself, a supernatural work of God. While we are all
“dealt a measure of faith”, placing that faith in the Person and
work of Christ alone is a miracle. It flies against our desire to “do
something” ourselves, or to have some personal control over our
destiny. Trusting in Jesus exclusively to avoid Hell is not easy
because it requires a regenerated spirit and a recreated human heart.
On
the other hand, if it weren't “mere faith” that saves, but rather
attaining godly perfection ourselves, there would be no hope. We
would all fail before we took the first step. If God did not choose
to make belief in His Son the prerequisite for entrance into eternal
life, no son of Adam or daughter of Eve would escape eternal death.
But
Jesus's death, in itself, does not make anyone righteous. His death
wipes clean the debt of sin, and is the necessary first step that
allows the Holy Spirit to work in us towards sanctification, which is
our gradual transformation into the image of Christ. And while it may
seem “barbaric and cruel” to us, the Father did not compel His
Son to die, but His Son did so out of love and obedience voluntarily.
He willingly went to the Cross so we might live. The fact that He had
to demonstrates the horrific nature of sin, and the depths of His
love.
Next,
because it was our forefather Adam, a man, who began the long, bloody
road of rebellious human history, it had to be a perfect Man who
ended that journey. Sin kills. To kill sin necessitates a death.
There was no other way in the brilliance of God's plan of redemption.
It is the ultimate outworking of the ancient equation of justice: an
eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life.
And
that Man had also to be of infinite value, and sinless, so that His
death would take away sin for all humanity who believes. So He had
also to be God. Therefore, it was the second Person of the Divine
Trinity who emptied Himself to become one of us so that as a Man, His
death would satisfy God's decree that the “wages of sin is death”,
and “the soul that sins must die”. Is it possible to know all the
magnificent details of how this was accomplished, how Deity became
humanity, how immortality became mortality, how God could separate
from God, and of what it means for God to become one of His
creatures?
I
don't think so, at least not for this father in this life. But I
recognize this – for the whole thing to work out as it has,
literally took the “power of God”. Nothing else would do.
And
the final objection, how can Someone be raised from the dead, can
only be answered by again pointing to the gospel. One the one hand,
it makes perfect sense that death could not hold Jesus, because death
is the result of sin, and Jesus was sinless. But on the other hand,
once truly and utterly dead, life itself is not possible. There is no
way to conceive of death being undone; like unscrambling an egg, or
transporting into another Reality.
Yet,
that is precisely what happened. Jesus rose from the dead after three
days in the tomb. He was made alive again. Interestingly, the Bible
credits all three persons of the Trinity in His resurrection; Romans
says He was brought to life by the Father, John says Jesus Himself
had the power, and 1st
Peter tells us He was resurrected by the Holy Spirit.
And
this fact of the Resurrection is perhaps the greatest tribute to the
power of God.
Of
course, to us who believe that God created the Heavens and the earth,
that He built All That Is, it may not seem that bringing the dead to
life again is all that much different, but I submit otherwise.
In
a way difficult to describe, I suspect that creation ex
nihilo, Latin
for making something out of nothing, is somehow “easier” than
restoring specific, immensely complicated, and measurelessly profound
life to a conscious being made in the image of God. How much more of
an accomplishment to do the same with the life of God Himself?
That
last bit is just me, thinking out loud, but one thing is certain -
Paul's statement that the gospel of Jesus Christ IS the power of God
to salvation is something not to be overlooked. Again, I suspect that
we will have all eternity to explore and marvel and what all that
really is.
Love,
Dad
