Two Pressing Questions

I have treated these issues previously, but someone brought them to my attention recently, so I wrote this summary of my answers.

First question: Why did Jesus have to die?

It is a part of a mystery, as Paul says several times (eg. 1 Tim. 3:16 and Eph. 3:1-11). Even now, few people fully understand what is involved in salvation. (See “It’s Not All About You”) When God created humans, He gave them a special place in creation. They were to be His “imagers” – representatives – on the earth. They refused to follow the rules and were kicked out of the perfect place God made for them and forced to fend for themselves. The condition they found themselves in was called death both literally and metaphorically. Their bodies began to literally die, and they were dead to God metaphorically as far as a relationship was concerned.

 He still loved His creation, so God made a long-term plan to bring them back into relationship. Ultimately, someone had to pay for Adam’s rebellion. Since everyone born after Adam bore Adam’s sin nature and thus deserved the penalty, God had to arrange for someone not in Adam’s line to pay the redemption price – the buy-back that earned the right to be in relationship with God again. The only way that would work is for a human without sin to take the penalty for the sin of everyone else. That’s why Jesus had to be both human and divine; human so He could stand in for Adam’s race and divine so He could live a sinless life. Human – born of a woman, and divine – conceived by the Holy Spirit (virgin birth).

The Cross can also be seen as a ransom payment to God’s arch enemy, Satan, because it was his deception of Adam and Eve that brought sin into the perfect world God had made. It’s like the enemy kidnapped the human race and demanded payment to set them free. Because a death-for-life payment was the requirement, God provided the ultimate death: His one and only Son. The surprise to Satan was that God planned to resurrect His Son after the payment was made.

So, justice was served; the penalty for human sin was paid, but God did it Himself out of pure love: John 3:16: “God so loved the world…” God is not some big meanie sending people to hell out of spite. Rather, Paul says that God, “wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” God wants people who trust Him – who rely on His provision for their sin: “… that whoever believes (trusts) Him will have eternal life.”

Second question: why do bad things happen to good people?

First, there are no “good” people. As I said in answer one, everyone is born under the curse of Adam’s sin. Paul said it: “There is no one who is righteous – not one” and Isaiah wrote that even human attempts at righteousness fall so far short that they are like filthy rags (literally menstrual cloths) in God’s sight. It is hard for most people to swallow, but every human ever born is headed for eternity apart from God because of what Adam did. Because of God’s goodness, He provides good things for all people: “The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Rain here is obviously a metaphor for a positive thing: it makes it possible to grow crops.

In any case, when “bad things” happen, they are simply the result of the conditions Adam brought on the whole earth. Floods, hurricanes, wild fires, disease all are results of Adam’s fall from grace. The fall didn’t just wreck Adam’s relationship with God; it damaged his relationships with everything: God, nature, other people, and even with himself. “Bad things” are actually the natural state of affairs in a fallen world.

The better question to ask is why anything “good” ever happens to anyone. God does not shy away from the fact that everything is not all sunshine and roses with His creation. In fact, He takes responsibility for even the “bad things” as proof that He alone is God. (See “Ask the Right Question”) I take comfort in the fact that nothing happens that is outside of God’s sovereign control. If anything could happen that God did not have a hand in, then nothing He ever promised could be trusted. Think of Job’s measure of what was happening to him: “Even if he kills me, I will hope in him.” (Also see “Don’t Ask Why”)

Another reason God allows “bad things” in believers’ lives is to test them. Faith either grows in trials or else it is proved to be false. True faith realizes that God has promised, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned…. For I am Yahweh, your God, the holy one of Israel, your savior.” We are not promised deliverance from bad stuff; we are promised God’s care and comfort in the bad stuff. (See “The Goodness of God in the Bad Times”) That’s life!

Next question?

Despising the Down Payment

What person in his right mind would collect a down payment for something, and then put it away, forgetting he even has it? I think I know of some who have. After he listed the awesome benefits of their salvation by grace, the Apostle Paul told the Ephesians the Holy Spirit was the down payment on their inheritance. A down payment is the guarantee that a promised transaction will be completed. On the Cross of Calvary, Jesus bought our eternal home with his sacrificial blood. On the night before He was crucified, He had told His disciples that it was actually better for them if He went away, because He would send the Holy Spirit in His place (as a down payment.) This was difficult for them to fathom, and all these years later, people still have trouble figuring out what to do with the promised Spirit. After all my years in the Church, I believe the misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit’s work is perhaps the most detrimental to our life and witness.

Some churches do focus on the Spirit, but not necessarily in the right way. Charismatics who demand proof of Spirit by speaking in tongues totally miss the point of a spirit-filled life. Talk of signs and wonders abounds, but little is said about the most important sign: the fruit of righteousness in the believer’s life. I know I am generalizing; some charismatics get it. I have family wrapped up in the charismatic movement, and their faith is worn as daily clothing. They are putting into practice the one sign Jesus authorized: to love one another. He didn’t say speaking in tongues or doing miracles would set them apart; He said love was the sine qua non of true believers.

 There are many Christians who run scared from the charismatic’s excesses, virtually ignoring the Spirit, often calling it “emotionalism.” There are two things wrong with that position. First, it would do some churches good to add a little “emotionalism” to their life and worship. The dry-as-dust, asleep in the pew Christians I have seen do little to advance the Kingdom of Heaven. Statistics prove that churches like that are losing members at an alarming rate, especially among younger folks. The so-called “traditional” worship services are pandering to a generation that is fast dying out, and there is little of relevance to keep the next generation interested.

The second thing wrong with ignoring the Holy Spirit is that it denies or at best glosses over a fundamental aspect of the Christian life. Paul told the Romans that without the Spirit, it is impossible to please God. It is one thing to repeat the Apostles’ Creed every week attesting to the existence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” It is quite another thing to know what it means to recognize and utilize the entire trinity every moment of every day. All good Christians pray to the Father in Jesus’ name; they trust the finished work of Christ on the cross. But many have no clue what it means to live in the Spirit, or in the spirit. (More on the capitalization later.)

Beginning with Jesus and continuing throughout the New Testament, the essential purpose of the Holy Spirit is plainly stated. Live, walk, pray, sing, be led by the Spirit. I already mentioned Paul’s exclusionary statement in Romans eight saying without the Spirit it is impossible to please God. He explained to the Corinthians why that must be true. In the second chapter of his first letter to them, Paul made a startling claim. He said that a “soulish” person – contrasted to a spiritual person – could not receive anything from God because God’s things are spiritually judged. He goes on in the next chapter to say that works done in the flesh – soulish works – would not make the cut on judgment day; only works done in the spirit would pass muster.

One might ask why the focus on spiritual things is so important. Paul told the Ephesians, “Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against… spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason, he counselled them to put on spiritual armor and to, “Stand… with the sword of the Spirit – which is the Word of God. And pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request.” Considering most of the battles I have witnessed in churches and in the culture, this admonition by Paul seems to have been ignored. These “religious” battles are fought with all the characteristics of the worldly wisdom James shuns: bitter jealousy, selfish ambition, and telling lies. James’ estimate of this kind of wisdom should shock a believer; he calls it earthly, soulish, and demonic. What better way for the chief of demons to undermine the church’s witness than to cause petty squabbles?

Also in Ephesians, Paul prayed that those believers would be, “Strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner person.” A few verses later he explains that divine power is what enables us to do, “Beyond all measure more than what we ask or think.” Exactly what Paul meant by “inner person” is debated by some. I believe he recognized two separate aspects of the human immaterial essence, one he calls variously soul or flesh or mind, and another aspect he always refers to as spirit. I believe in Ephesians three he is talking about God’s Spirit interacting with our spirit. The Greek language of the New Testament does not use capital letters the way English does. Sometimes it is hard to know whether Paul is talking about the Holy Spirit (capital “S”) or the human spirit (lower case “s”). This passage makes the distinction unmistakable. Believers’ power to do the work of God is a spiritual power coming from the indwelling Spirit of God.

I fear many Christians are ignoring another command Paul gave the Ephesians: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (There’s that down payment idea again.) We must all follow Paul’s admonition to, “Be renewed in the spirit of our mind,” and access wisdom from above (spiritual wisdom) as James suggests. That kind of wisdom will produce behavior that is, “first pure, then peaceful, gentle, obedient, full of mercy and good fruits, nonjudgmental, without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace among those who make peace. After His resurrection, Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Spirit and then to go into all the world with the gospel. I think it’s about time we started using our down payment.