Dear blog readers,
Nearly a year ago someone posted a comment on my “Everything Happens for a Reason” post. I have struggled with how to respond to this and have decided it is finally time to stop trying to come up with the “perfect” response simply reply trying to articulate the truth of the Gospel as best as I know how. You can read the original comment here.
Dear Anonymous, first of all I want to thank you for posting so openly and candidly on my blog. I hope you find this reply even though it took me too long to write it.
Your understanding of how things are between us and God reminds me very much of myself a number of years ago (and I am really not just saying that). And you are absolutely very right when you said that it is “very depressing”. In fact that view was is so depressing it very nearly drove me to despair in my early twenties. I came to a point where I very seriously considered just how much un-burdened I would be if I simply gave up bothering to consider myself a “Christian”.
When you said that God “intended for this fallen world to come about […] because he wanted to use it to show how good He was at fixing it” that got me thinking... you see I have a little girl. She is just two years old. Now if I sneak up behind her and push her down just so I can show her how good I am at bandaging her knees then am I being a loving father? Or a cruel, manipulative tyrant?
This view of God leaves you trying to love a god who (when you’re totally honest with yourself) is a manipulative cruel tyrant. But that isn’t what God is like at all. Scripture tells us in plain language what God is like. Here are just a few passages:
Psalm 103:13, 2 Corinthians 1:3, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8, Psalms 145:13, 1 John 3:1, 1 John 4:8-10, 1 John 4:16
You see there is a huge difference between God knowing that the fall into sin would happen and Him intending for it to happen. God does not cause both good and evil. In the Belgic Confession we say that He is the overflowing fountain of all good. He is not some fountain flowing with equal parts good and bad.
In Luke 6 Jesus says that we shouldn't expect to “pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers” and that “no good tree bears bad fruit”. In James 3:11 the apostle James says that fresh water and “brackish” cannot come from the same spring. In James 1:17 we hear that every good thing comes from God and in 1 John 1:5 we hear that God is pure light without a so much as a hint of darkness in Him. God is GOOD! He really is.
You also wrote that the fall into sin and our subsequent inability to cope with a sinful world is what makes Jesus and the Holy Spirit “necessary” and that this thus brings glory to God. The problem with this view it that it is (ironically) actually very man-centered.
You see it means that God’s glory depends not only on man’s existence but also on man's sinfulness. Is God’s glory really dependent on man??!?! Did God not have perfect glory from eternity before the creation of the world? Before the creation of man? and before the fall into sin? God will be glorified despite of the wickedness of man – not because of it.
You also wrote: “everything circles around Him and His glory”. Now I think you are right in that statement although I think you are horribly misunderstanding that it means to bring glory to God. I get the sense that you view us as pawns on God’s chessboard... that God is arbitrarily moving the pieces around in some egotistical cosmic chess game designed to bring himself glory.
God did not create man because He was lonely or because He needed man to bring Himself glory. After all God had perfect glory from eternity before he created man. God does not need anything from man. God didn't create pawns on a chessboard - he created friends! Sons, daughers... He created the objects of his love. He created us to enjoy him because he is the greatest gift he could give us.
God created man so that WE (mankind) might have fellowship with Him (God). He created us to be the objects of His love and to even *share* in His glory (2 Thessalonians 2:14). God created mankind that we might live before Him and enjoy Him. Think about how you enjoy the sun on the beach… basking in it. Glorifying God is literally basking in His presence, enjoying who He is, reveling in His love – a love so vast we can scarcely begin to understand it.
Even though we broke that fellowship with the fall into sin, despite that God resorted it through the cross of Jesus Christ. In Christ we may now again enjoy free unfettered sweet fellowship with God, live plainly and openly before His face living unfettered lives of thankfulness day in and day out.
So go, glorify God with your entire life and love every moment of it!
I hope this makes sense and I hope it is helpful. Please let me know if you find this and if you comment again I will be quicker to respond.
Nearly a year ago someone posted a comment on my “Everything Happens for a Reason” post. I have struggled with how to respond to this and have decided it is finally time to stop trying to come up with the “perfect” response simply reply trying to articulate the truth of the Gospel as best as I know how. You can read the original comment here.
Dear Anonymous, first of all I want to thank you for posting so openly and candidly on my blog. I hope you find this reply even though it took me too long to write it.
Your understanding of how things are between us and God reminds me very much of myself a number of years ago (and I am really not just saying that). And you are absolutely very right when you said that it is “very depressing”. In fact that view was is so depressing it very nearly drove me to despair in my early twenties. I came to a point where I very seriously considered just how much un-burdened I would be if I simply gave up bothering to consider myself a “Christian”.
When you said that God “intended for this fallen world to come about […] because he wanted to use it to show how good He was at fixing it” that got me thinking... you see I have a little girl. She is just two years old. Now if I sneak up behind her and push her down just so I can show her how good I am at bandaging her knees then am I being a loving father? Or a cruel, manipulative tyrant?
This view of God leaves you trying to love a god who (when you’re totally honest with yourself) is a manipulative cruel tyrant. But that isn’t what God is like at all. Scripture tells us in plain language what God is like. Here are just a few passages:
Psalm 103:13, 2 Corinthians 1:3, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8, Psalms 145:13, 1 John 3:1, 1 John 4:8-10, 1 John 4:16
You see there is a huge difference between God knowing that the fall into sin would happen and Him intending for it to happen. God does not cause both good and evil. In the Belgic Confession we say that He is the overflowing fountain of all good. He is not some fountain flowing with equal parts good and bad.
In Luke 6 Jesus says that we shouldn't expect to “pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers” and that “no good tree bears bad fruit”. In James 3:11 the apostle James says that fresh water and “brackish” cannot come from the same spring. In James 1:17 we hear that every good thing comes from God and in 1 John 1:5 we hear that God is pure light without a so much as a hint of darkness in Him. God is GOOD! He really is.
You also wrote that the fall into sin and our subsequent inability to cope with a sinful world is what makes Jesus and the Holy Spirit “necessary” and that this thus brings glory to God. The problem with this view it that it is (ironically) actually very man-centered.
You see it means that God’s glory depends not only on man’s existence but also on man's sinfulness. Is God’s glory really dependent on man??!?! Did God not have perfect glory from eternity before the creation of the world? Before the creation of man? and before the fall into sin? God will be glorified despite of the wickedness of man – not because of it.
You also wrote: “everything circles around Him and His glory”. Now I think you are right in that statement although I think you are horribly misunderstanding that it means to bring glory to God. I get the sense that you view us as pawns on God’s chessboard... that God is arbitrarily moving the pieces around in some egotistical cosmic chess game designed to bring himself glory.
God did not create man because He was lonely or because He needed man to bring Himself glory. After all God had perfect glory from eternity before he created man. God does not need anything from man. God didn't create pawns on a chessboard - he created friends! Sons, daughers... He created the objects of his love. He created us to enjoy him because he is the greatest gift he could give us.
God created man so that WE (mankind) might have fellowship with Him (God). He created us to be the objects of His love and to even *share* in His glory (2 Thessalonians 2:14). God created mankind that we might live before Him and enjoy Him. Think about how you enjoy the sun on the beach… basking in it. Glorifying God is literally basking in His presence, enjoying who He is, reveling in His love – a love so vast we can scarcely begin to understand it.
Even though we broke that fellowship with the fall into sin, despite that God resorted it through the cross of Jesus Christ. In Christ we may now again enjoy free unfettered sweet fellowship with God, live plainly and openly before His face living unfettered lives of thankfulness day in and day out.
So go, glorify God with your entire life and love every moment of it!
I hope this makes sense and I hope it is helpful. Please let me know if you find this and if you comment again I will be quicker to respond.
