There are few things quite so satisfying as a guns blazing action thriller where the hero, whether rough diamond Bruce Willis of the Die Hard years or the timelessly suave Bond, wins out in the face of ever lengthening odds. The against-all-odds victory speaks to something deep within the human psyche. The bible teaches that despite the ruinous effect of generations of sin, beneath our warped and wounded exterior there is still visible the discernible image of God, just as the weathered foundation stones on the hillside testify to an ancient royal residence. For this reason, the deepest truths of eternity echo through culture, and the motif of victory snatched from the jaws of defeat is no exception.
As more than one villain has said to the hero, "why won't you die?". The imminent "death" of God has been foreseen in every generation. And yet billions persist in following Jesus. I have written before about the rational basis for belief in God, and specifically for personal faith in Jesus Christ. The objective truth and subjective reality of Christian faith is one thing I will stake my life upon.
But the issue takes on a different feel when viewed from the perspective of God himself. We who love Jesus, knowing the tangible reality of the love of God, can panic when those who wield soft and hard power in our culture seem hell-bent on the eradication of God. But what the Lord has been reminding me of insistently recently is the doctrine of His sovereignty.
God, no matter what odds He fights against, like every great hero, refuses to die. No matter what stands in His way, no matter how it looks to the bystander, He will reach his goal and satisfy His purpose in human history.
When in the garden mankind fell, breaking their connection with God to the ruin of themselves and the world over which they had been given authority, the game was up. By all accounts, it seemed God had failed. And yet, He found a way through: re establishing relationship, partially at first, with the promise of fuller and freer connection to come.
His purpose becomes clearer with Abraham. God promised that He would father the nation of Israel, who would be a missional beacon of light to the entire world. Fine promises, but they rang a discordant note for the elderly barren couple to whom they were given. The audience again thinks the game is up: why box yourself in to a corner like that, God? Why set up the impossible as your chosen way forward? It can't happen! And yet we find that God is the master of life, and if He chooses to bring it forth nothing, not even a barren womb, can prevent it.
When Moses stood, a stuttering old man without reputation and without the trust of his own people, and addressed the God-king of the global superpower of the day, and Pharaoh said no... There was no way Israel would escape. Gods chosen people would remain captive to a foreign power as a sign of the subservient weakness of Israel and her God. But God's purposes will not be frustrated. In a building crescendo of defiance, power and ultimately lethal force, the warrior of heaven proved that He alone was God, and the people were freed.
Years later God's purposes again appear to hang by a thread. The royal line of David, through whom would come the messiah, the saviour, has been subject to familial genocide so thorough that one young boy, Joash, is the only descendant who remains. All that stands between the powers of darkness and a final, fatal victory for evil, is a toddler. And yet God conspires to save his life, to anoint him as King, and to carry on a line of descendants leading directly to Christ Jesus.
Again and again we find God backed in to a corner, the armies of evil raised against him, He having deliberately chosen to manifest His plan and purpose in weak, vulnerable people with no human hope of success... Only for victory to be His once more.
In our more recent history we see the same pattern.
How could authentic faith survive the oppressive hypocrisy and abuse of the politically powerful medieval church? How could anything real or good make it out of an institution so tainted and defiled? The church was dead. But suddenly, out of no where, again and again, God brings revival. Luther and Calvin, Methodism, Quakerism, the Salvation Army, the Charismatic Movement. New life, budding from what so many had thought was a dead branch. God's purposes cannot be held back.
Upon detecting every societal and philosophical shifting wind people have rushed to read the church her last rites. From the violence and senseless destruction of the Great War, to the rejection of overarching or objective truth as post-modernism set in. The hubristic conceit of man in the idolatry of the scientific process is the latest thing to be cast as the ecclesiological grim reaper. Nobody, goes the argument, can still believe this medieval nonsense beneath the microscope of secular humanism and new atheism. Or more accurately, anyone who retains faith despite those conditions is stupid, incapable of rational analysis, and even dangerous (e.g. Mr Dawkins thoughts on equating the teaching of faith to ones children with child abuse).
And yet God refuses to die.
Except once.
'No one takes my life, but I willingly lay it down'.
Lest we see God as a puppeteer, or as a manipulative gamer orchestrating a drama of pawns and pieces, He makes His own grand entrance on to the scene in the form of Jesus. Hanging, nailed to a piece of wood, bleeding and bruised, suffocating under his own weight, the God who created the cosmos submitted Himself to die the shameful death of an ancient near-eastern criminal.
As the disciples gathered around the smouldering embers of all that they had hoped and planned for, they saw no sign of the glory behind the story. God was dead.
Suddenly it all changes. Even death itself can't defeat God. His greatest defeat becomes His eternal victory. All through town the whispers are heard: is it true what they are saying? I saw him, I saw him! But it can't be - dead men don't rise again! But I saw him - I spoke with him. I held his hands, looked into his eyes, and ate a meal with him. Me too! I saw him! I would never have believed it but I saw him!
2,000 years on, the resurrection of Jesus stands as evidence that nothing will hold back the purposes of God. Every one of us will pass away, empires political and philosophical will rise and fall, but God and His gospel will remain.
God remains at work, On the throne, Eternity in his hands, furious love in his heart.
As more than one villain has said to the hero, "why won't you die?". The imminent "death" of God has been foreseen in every generation. And yet billions persist in following Jesus. I have written before about the rational basis for belief in God, and specifically for personal faith in Jesus Christ. The objective truth and subjective reality of Christian faith is one thing I will stake my life upon.
But the issue takes on a different feel when viewed from the perspective of God himself. We who love Jesus, knowing the tangible reality of the love of God, can panic when those who wield soft and hard power in our culture seem hell-bent on the eradication of God. But what the Lord has been reminding me of insistently recently is the doctrine of His sovereignty.
God, no matter what odds He fights against, like every great hero, refuses to die. No matter what stands in His way, no matter how it looks to the bystander, He will reach his goal and satisfy His purpose in human history.
When in the garden mankind fell, breaking their connection with God to the ruin of themselves and the world over which they had been given authority, the game was up. By all accounts, it seemed God had failed. And yet, He found a way through: re establishing relationship, partially at first, with the promise of fuller and freer connection to come.
His purpose becomes clearer with Abraham. God promised that He would father the nation of Israel, who would be a missional beacon of light to the entire world. Fine promises, but they rang a discordant note for the elderly barren couple to whom they were given. The audience again thinks the game is up: why box yourself in to a corner like that, God? Why set up the impossible as your chosen way forward? It can't happen! And yet we find that God is the master of life, and if He chooses to bring it forth nothing, not even a barren womb, can prevent it.
When Moses stood, a stuttering old man without reputation and without the trust of his own people, and addressed the God-king of the global superpower of the day, and Pharaoh said no... There was no way Israel would escape. Gods chosen people would remain captive to a foreign power as a sign of the subservient weakness of Israel and her God. But God's purposes will not be frustrated. In a building crescendo of defiance, power and ultimately lethal force, the warrior of heaven proved that He alone was God, and the people were freed.
Years later God's purposes again appear to hang by a thread. The royal line of David, through whom would come the messiah, the saviour, has been subject to familial genocide so thorough that one young boy, Joash, is the only descendant who remains. All that stands between the powers of darkness and a final, fatal victory for evil, is a toddler. And yet God conspires to save his life, to anoint him as King, and to carry on a line of descendants leading directly to Christ Jesus.
Again and again we find God backed in to a corner, the armies of evil raised against him, He having deliberately chosen to manifest His plan and purpose in weak, vulnerable people with no human hope of success... Only for victory to be His once more.
In our more recent history we see the same pattern.
How could authentic faith survive the oppressive hypocrisy and abuse of the politically powerful medieval church? How could anything real or good make it out of an institution so tainted and defiled? The church was dead. But suddenly, out of no where, again and again, God brings revival. Luther and Calvin, Methodism, Quakerism, the Salvation Army, the Charismatic Movement. New life, budding from what so many had thought was a dead branch. God's purposes cannot be held back.
Upon detecting every societal and philosophical shifting wind people have rushed to read the church her last rites. From the violence and senseless destruction of the Great War, to the rejection of overarching or objective truth as post-modernism set in. The hubristic conceit of man in the idolatry of the scientific process is the latest thing to be cast as the ecclesiological grim reaper. Nobody, goes the argument, can still believe this medieval nonsense beneath the microscope of secular humanism and new atheism. Or more accurately, anyone who retains faith despite those conditions is stupid, incapable of rational analysis, and even dangerous (e.g. Mr Dawkins thoughts on equating the teaching of faith to ones children with child abuse).
And yet God refuses to die.
Except once.
'No one takes my life, but I willingly lay it down'.
Lest we see God as a puppeteer, or as a manipulative gamer orchestrating a drama of pawns and pieces, He makes His own grand entrance on to the scene in the form of Jesus. Hanging, nailed to a piece of wood, bleeding and bruised, suffocating under his own weight, the God who created the cosmos submitted Himself to die the shameful death of an ancient near-eastern criminal.
As the disciples gathered around the smouldering embers of all that they had hoped and planned for, they saw no sign of the glory behind the story. God was dead.
Suddenly it all changes. Even death itself can't defeat God. His greatest defeat becomes His eternal victory. All through town the whispers are heard: is it true what they are saying? I saw him, I saw him! But it can't be - dead men don't rise again! But I saw him - I spoke with him. I held his hands, looked into his eyes, and ate a meal with him. Me too! I saw him! I would never have believed it but I saw him!
2,000 years on, the resurrection of Jesus stands as evidence that nothing will hold back the purposes of God. Every one of us will pass away, empires political and philosophical will rise and fall, but God and His gospel will remain.
God remains at work, On the throne, Eternity in his hands, furious love in his heart.
In a world full of empty claims and broken promises, I will stake my life on the one who the bible tells us will return and be called "faithful and true". I will stake my life on the victorious hero. I will stake my life on Jesus Christ.
