Today might be a rare day where I post twice. First, I wish to conclude my thoughts about culture, cultural longing, and the gospel.
In the past couple of posts, I have been looking at an excerpt from an article written by Peggy Noonan concerning the often felt cultural longing. Noonan argues that one of the primary reasons for our cultural "fear" is that we know something is amiss with today's society, and we long to go back to the "good old days."
As a historian, I have get a bit of a chuckle every time I think of the good old days. Honest history shows that these days are a myth composed by individual and corporate consciousness. Each day, each decade, and every generation and age has had its own strengths and weaknesses, its own high points and low points, as well as a continual thirst for the "good old days." I remember reading in Jonathan Edwards' journal about his lament in the late 1740s of the godless and terrible generation that was following his. These young adults were going on "night walks" and engaging in all types of inappropriate behavior. That generation also played a major role in the American revolution, and today we see them as heros!
I believe the gospel offers a way beyond the idealized view of the past. It also offers us hope for the future. How? It gives us a narrative or story that helps us navigate our rapidly changing culture. It gives us our bearings in an often uneven world. The gospel provides us with a platform to understand ourselves, our relationship with each other, our relationship with creation, and most importantly our relationship to God.
As I wrote yesterday, the first two planks for understanding the world include two seemingly opposed propositions: Creation is good and Creation is fallen. While many would like to set these ideas as opposites, the Bible affirms both are true. The created order of things is appropriate and good while the fallenness of creation makes all things subject to decay. These two tendencies constantly work in tension with one another in every area and dimension of creation.
How does this work within ourselves? Have you ever noticed that you have a tendency to do the opposite of what you think you desire? Need an example? Do I even need to mention dieting and how we often eat or drink too much even though we know and desire to be healthy?
No, I will give another example. Let's say you are convicted you have been acting very selfish and controlling with another person. So you decide to love your parents/significant other/spouse better. But they just keep irritating you! You want to love them more, but you find that you snap at them. This causes more pain for them and harms the relationship. Why did you do it? You have a good longing for love, but you have the tension of your sin tendencies/flesh at work within you (Romans 7 played out in your life).
How does this work within our relationships? How about with creation? Well, now we have two sinful beings together. Where two or more are gathered, the ability to do good and evil is increased! The desire to do good is often found within us. At times, despite our internal obstacles, we do great acts of love, charity, and mercy. Unfortunately, we also often have an internal desire to do good, but our external actions might not match our inward desires. This is why humans often harm one another and why we have such a tough time taking care of creation.
Contrary to the current path of our culture, more education does not help this tendency. Furthermore, more laws or regulations do not help this tendency. All these laws do is provoke subterranean disobedience to the law. Just yesterday the crazy state of Massachusetts passed a law forbidding bake sales. Other areas propose condemning the sale of soda within 1/4 mile of a school. Please, do you really think this will work? These crazy, tyrannical laws will only teach the children at a young age how the black market system works! As my son said upon hearing it, someone will "make bank" bringing sugar into the schools!
Please give me another worldview that explains why we as humans have such capacity of love and good deeds mixed with such a depravation and tendency toward evil. Give me another worldview that explains why education and laws are good (of can be if done right!), but they cannot produce obedience.
The good news of the gospel not only explains our world through the creation and fall, but also explains where God fits within our lives and within all creation. First, the reality of God and a relationship with Him explains our "longings" for something better. We were created for something better than what we see and experience each day.
I agree with C.S. Lewis who thought that this world, this life, was a shadow to reminder of the glorious life to come. It also is a constant reminder of the way we were created to be! We were made to be in perfect relationship with God, with creation, with others, with ourselves. This perfect relationship is lost causing us to long for something better. In my mind, this explains Noonan's cultural longing, and the political left's desire for a utopia made by government since we cannot do it on our own. Both expressions from the political right and left are explained by the reality of all culture was created good but it is currently fallen.
Second, the gospel explains how to get out of the mess in which we often find ourselves. We need to repent, which means to confess our sin and to seek to turn to something better. To whom do we repent? To the God who created us as well as to those we hurt. The second major theme of scripture and all of history is the reality that God loves us so much He does not want us to stay where we are. He pursues us. He knows a better future for us. Yet, this is not a weak personal faith that is only concerned with the individual. He seeks the restoration of all creation. He also promises that one day all will be set right when He establishes a new heaven and new earth that will perfectly reflect the way creation should be!
Ultimately, the gospel points us to our need to be in relationship with the living God. This God is concerned with every area of our lives and with all of creation. Why? Because that is the way we were made! Our problem is that our sin, which should be defined as our wandering away from our created good, separates us from this living God. He is holy and perfect. We are not. How can we solve our need to be rid of our sin? Can we get rid of it through our will power? Can we somehow pay for our sins through deeds of righteousness and forsaking all future sin? Can we ignore the problem and hope that God does also?
No, the glory of the gospel is that we need not attempt any of these things! Why? If we are honest, we cannot do any of them. Try as we might, we cannot take care of our sin problem by ourselves. God knows this. That is why He took care of the sin problem Himself. Jesus Christ was born into this world to take the form of sinful man, though He was not sinful. He lived a perfect life. He drove the religious people crazy and the sinners loved Him. Then after a short, but eventful ministry He was wrongly killed. He was beaten, bruised, and then crucified. Why? Because it was part of God's plan from before creation (Eph. 1:4).
Jesus would die the death we deserved to give us the grace and mercy of God that we not deserve. Such grace and mercy is not merely personal: it is personal with outward consequences that should transform all society and its relationships!
This grace and mercy is the beginnings of a restored relationship with God, with ourselves, with others, and with creation. We enter into it by faith, which is trust that Jesus died for us and was raised to life to secure our new life. When we believe, the Holy Spirit enters into our life, and we begin the process of growing back to our created good. We continue to struggle with sin, but when we do we should repent and believe the gospel! By and through the power of the risen Christ, we walk by faith in the process of being restored to the people God made us to be.
There is so much more to say! Thankfully there will be future posts.
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