Gospel Episodes

I remember a study done several years ago using a super computer on a University campus. If the universe does not reflect a design and a Designer, everything that exists has come into being as a result of time plus chance. The super computer was programmed to calculate how long it would take for the complexity we see in the universe to evolve. The result: It was not possible to calculate the amount of time required. Even the complexity of a single human cell would take longer than the many billions of years the universe has supposedly existed - without a Designer. To be clear, it is not possible, using the scientific method, to prove the existence of God. On the other hand, it is not possible, using the scientific method, to prove that God does not exist. Either conclusion is an assumption, a faith choice. Everyone has to choose to believe, either that God exists or that God does not exist, based on the most logical explanation for the evidence at hand. As for me, I settled the issue as a young university student. The existence of God provides the best explanation for all we observe in the universe. There is an origin and an Originator. There is a design and a Designer.

In my experience, it's not enough to just believe in God. The idea of "God" needs careful definition. To be clear, I don't just believe in the "god of the philosophers" (the First Principle) or even the "god of the scientists" (the Unmoved Mover). For the life of faith and of the spirit to grow and expand it's important to see something more than a "Higher Power." As the letter to the Hebrews says, we must believe that God exists and we must believe that God is a certain kind of God with a certain kind of character. Francis Schaeffer used to define God as an "Infinite Personal God." The apostle John wrote that "God is love." In fact, in Christian thought, the "triune" nature of God is a picture of God as a relational God, a God of community and interpersonal connections, a God of intimacy and joyful connections. For that reason, the original work of creation was not just an expression of power and creativity but an expression of Love. Since the nature of God's love is a moving out in self-giving, creating as an expression of love and ultimately, creating for the sake of love, makes a certain kind of sense.

I've been thinking about the heart of our Father-Creator God, a heart of love and self-giving. In the beginning, God brought everything into existence as an expression of God's nature and a reflection of God's glory. Everything that is good, beautiful and true, has its basis in a Good God. As James said in his epistle, "every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father." Ultimately, for Love to be fulfilled, a being needed to be created with the ability to both receive and return love, a being with the ability to make real choices, a being made in the image of God. That creature would then have the ability to share in God's work and most importantly, the ability to have a real, personal, intimate relationship with Father/Son/Holy Spirit. "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness." And so, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." What a beautiful picture of our Father-Creator, and an amazing picture of God's good creation and of God's purpose for human beings. Anything else would fall short of the glory of God.

The idea of "Paradise" had taken on new meaning for me. Paradise was what God had in mind for human beings from the beginning. God planted a Garden and then put humans in it, making them responsible to care for it. They were even given the authority to "name" the animals. My favorite description of this early Paradise was the report of the sound of the Lord God walking with those human beings in the "cool" of the day, a reference to the refreshing breezes of God's Spirit. It was a place of unbroken communion with the Father-Creator. The first humans had an intimate relationship with God, with each other, and with the rest of God's good creation. No sorrow. No pain. No fear. Perfect peace, Perfect love. Fullness of joy. And somehow that is still the purpose of God for his human image-bearers.

In Paradise, God's image-bearers had been given the ability to make free choices. A risky decision on the Creator's part, but without that ability, a real, authentic personal relationship would not be possible. Eventually, these humans would need to be faced with a real choice. So, God simply put a tree in Paradise with the command to not eat its fruit. It was a simple, one-question test, and God told them the answer to the question in advance. Who couldn't pass that test? Would human beings use their ability to choose to continue walking in a relationship of loving obedience with their Creator or not? Some would have preferred that the Creator not give these humans a test at all, or to just let them live independently from their Creator, doing their own thing instead of thinking about the need to live in loving obedience to God. It seems to me that because God was the Designer and Originator of all things in creation, there was a vital, relational connection between the Creator and all things. The decision to sever that connection would have serious consequences.

I'm thinking about the need to make our choices thoughtfully and carefully. Unfortunately, our choices tend to be skewed. However, such was not the case with those first humans in the Garden. Their choice was completely free, made by their unspoiled wills, living in Paradise in open, unbroken intimacy, with their Creator, with each other, and with the rest of God's good creation. Their decision-making process is worth of it's own article (or book). Suffice it to say that they knew what they were choosing. They were promised by The Serpent that if they declared their independence from the Creator, if they chose to disobey the single restriction that had been placed on them, "you will be like God." They chose to believe The Lie that if they separated themselves from God, they would become gods themselves. And so they did! But the result was not what they had expected. Pain, sorrow, hostility and death entered into God's creation. God had not created those realities, nor had God willed them. They were simply the outworking of the choice to live independently from the Father-Creator. In fact, the biblical definition of "death" is "separation from God." The core enemy, the last enemy, is death. As a result of their fatal choice, human beings became alienated from God, alienated from each other, and alienated from God's creation. Nothing has been as it was originally designed ever since. Now, every human being tries to find meaning in life, a life separated from God, by living with self at the center. Every human being, by nature, seeks to find ways to successfully live independently from God - the source of all life, of beauty, truth and goodness. Put simply, that explains everything we see around us, everything we hear on the nightly news, and there is no way we can fix it on our own. In fact, an attempt to cure self-centeredness (the essence of sin) through self-effort just exasperates the problem. The image of God can still be seen in humanity, but it dwells in shadow. Humanity is broken.

Fortunately for us, God is always faithful, even when we are unfaithful. When human beings made (and continue to make) a decision to branch out into the world on their own, independently from God, all of creation was "cursed" as a result. Pain, sorrow, hostility and death - evil - entered into creation. But God did not give up on God's original purpose for creation. Since it was impossible for human beings to fix the problem they had created, it was necessary for God to take the initiative in providing for a restoration of relationship that would ultimately result in a restoration of all things in a way that would once again reflect God's glory. I've often wondered, "How serious was God about restoring relationships broken by humanity's rebellion? How far was God willing to God to build a bridge back to his heart and home? What was God willing to do, and what would it cost?" In one word, Jesus. Divinity poured itself into humanity on the first Christmas morning. Jesus of Nazareth, the God-Man from heaven, the King of God's Kingdom, visited earth as a first century Jewish peasant Rabbi, announcing Good News. And finally, to defeat sin and death, Jesus poured out his life for us as the Way back to God, the Truth about God, and the Life that only God can give. The way has been made. It's now possible to return to a heart-connection, a personal relationship with our Father-Creator, through Jesus Christ. And that really is Good News!

One of the most common and most significant expressions of worship in Scripture is, "the Lord is good, his mercy endures forever." I'm struck by the word "mercy." It literally refers to God's covenant-keeping love, God's loyalty to covenant promises, God's commitment to a covenant relationship with those who desire to know God. "Grace" is the word we know from the New Testament. Grace means that God has done everything that is needed to go forward in life connected to God heart-to-heart. God has made the way, God has made it all possible, God has taken the initiative. Paul goes to great lengths in his letter to the Romans to point out that because every human being is equally in need of salvation - needs to be rescued from the human dilemma - the work of Jesus provides that salvation equally for every person. It's not possible to achieve our own salvation. It's all grace, a free, undeserved gift. We can't earn "brownie points" with God, we cannot earn any aspect of our salvation. Our role is really very simple, and it is summarized in the word "faith." Faith is simply our sincere response to God's initiative. It is our "Yes" to God's offer. Our willingness to admit that we need God to save us and our acknowledgement that Jesus has made the Way, our acceptance and embrace of that way. And even our faith, our ability to respond to God's initiative, can be given and energized by God. Somehow we just have to be willing to be willing. As we read in Revelation 3:20, Jesus is standing outside our door, wanting to come into our life. All we have to do is open the door and invite him in. God will take care of the rest.

Lynda's favorite author was Jan Karon. She loved Karon's depiction of a small southern town, Mitford, NC (based on Blowing Rock, NC).  Jan Karon's books are not classified as "Christian fiction," meaning they are not "preachy." But she has a wonderful way of including the Good News into the normal flow of the story. Her main character, Father Tim, is an Episcopal priest who has a wonderful, pastoral relationship with his small town. In the series of books there are times when Father Tim prays with someone with the goal of establishing a personal relationship with God through Christ. I love the simple words of his simple prayer. They are not magical words, but if prayed sincerely, from the heart, they lead to a heart connection with God. After all, it was Paul who wrote, "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved" (Romans 10:9-10). So, here are the words of this simple but wonderful prayer: "Thank you, God, for loving me, and for sending Your Son to die for my sins. I sincerely repent of my sins, and receive Christ as my personal savior. Now, as Your child, I turn my entire life over to You. Amen."

The nature of our faith depends to a great degree on the way we understand God, how we define God. For me, one of the most important ideas about God is that "God is a God of restoration." Among other things, that means that God has never given up on God's original plan - God's plan for our lives and, in the big picture, God's plan for humanity and the rest of creation. It's certainly true that our current experience is not all there is. In fact, we are barely dipping our toes into the reality of God's heart, God's mind, God's glory. All of life, indeed the entire created order, has been twisted by the human decision to live independently from God - the very definition of "death." But God has not given up on us. A Way forward has been sacrificially provided for us, a way that leads to eternal life and even now in this life, a beautiful fellowship with God resulting in peace, hope and joy. But in the end, God will remove all sin and all the consequences of sin, from humanity and from the created order. While we look forward to a wonderful experience of heaven, the place of God's throne, Paradise will finally be the New Heavens and the New Earth, where God's original plan for all God had made will be fulfilled. And what a day that will be! Until then, we seek to draw near, to submit, to trust and obey, to be faithful every day God assigns to us in this life. After all, what else is there?