Imagine if you robbed your neighbor and then asked me to forgive your theft. Imagine if you were unfaithful to your wife and then asked me to forgive your adultery. Imagine if you assaulted a stranger and then asked me to forgive your violence. In each of these cases, you coming to ask me would be absurd, but it would be even more absurd of me to forgive you.
I can’t forgive you because you did not wrong me. And it would be supremely offensive for me to tell your neighbor or your wife or the stranger that everything was fine because I had forgiven you. Now it’s true at some level that violating any member of a community violates us all, but until the primary victim has been restored and they have forgiven the offender, the rest of us are in no position to presume to do so. Understanding this puts us in a position to grasp something very important about Jesus. The only way He could have been anything other than a complete fool for forgiving sins is if He was God.
And, in forgiving them, He was teaching us something else as well. All sins are offenses against the King, and the only reason offenses against other people are sins is because those people are stamped with the mark of the King.
TOD 12.07.07
A caller recently tried to persuade me that corporal punishment of children is wrong because you must always reconnect with the child after it is administered. The discipline causes a rupture in the relationship which must be healed. There are two mistakes here. The first is in thinking that the rupture was caused by the discipline when it was actually caused by the disobedience. Spanking is simply the other half of the equation the child has already imbalanced.
The second error is failing to see the wonderful theology symbolized here. Sin separates us from God, and though God very much wants to reconnect with us, making that relationship with Him right again requires a sacrifice. To declare that punishment does nothing to heal the relationship is to imply that Christ didn’t need to die to redeem us.
People think that corporal punishment is a kind of deterrence, and it may be. But it’s real value is that it prepares children to understand the nature of and need for their own salvation in Christ. Unspanked children are understandably baffled by the Cross.
TOD 12.06.07
“Andrew, I have a dilemma. I know the Bible says we’re supposed to wait until marriage, but my fiancé says that since we’re going to get married eventually anyway we might as well go ahead.” Ah, yes. The very picture of a Christlike fiancé, sacrificing his own needs and desires for the good of his beloved out of devotion to God.
But let’s get our terms straight. You have a temptation, not a dilemma. A temptation is when you know what’s right, but you want to do wrong. The conflict is between principle and desire. A dilemma occurs when the principles are in conflict with each other, and it’s unclear which one to follow. But why do people describe their temptations as dilemmas? Because to say, “I have a temptation,” is so insignificant. Of course you do, dear. If your desires were in line with morality, you wouldn’t need morality.
Calling it a dilemma makes it seem like both alternatives are legitimate. Thus, even phrasing it this way is a subtle declaration that you’ve already decided to put desire first, since you’re giving it more credit than it deserves.
But let’s get our terms straight. You have a temptation, not a dilemma. A temptation is when you know what’s right, but you want to do wrong. The conflict is between principle and desire. A dilemma occurs when the principles are in conflict with each other, and it’s unclear which one to follow. But why do people describe their temptations as dilemmas? Because to say, “I have a temptation,” is so insignificant. Of course you do, dear. If your desires were in line with morality, you wouldn’t need morality.
Calling it a dilemma makes it seem like both alternatives are legitimate. Thus, even phrasing it this way is a subtle declaration that you’ve already decided to put desire first, since you’re giving it more credit than it deserves.
TOD 12.05.07
Sometimes on my radio show I mention examples from the Middle East that help illustrate the perspective of radical Islam. I usually follow up such accounts by saying something like, “Us and them, us and them, you have to understand the difference between us and them.” To some, I suspect this sounds ridiculously unchristian and even warlike, but that’s not my purpose.
Of course I realize that all people are the enemies of God until He draws them to Him and that the ideal would be to redeem those poor lost souls who think that Mohammed-bears and irreverent cartoons deserve death. But what I really want people to know is that the Judeo-Christian worldview, which holds concepts like freedom, tolerance, and human rights in such high regard, is completely incompatible with radical Islam.
The differences between us and them are unbridgeable. We simply cannot coexist because everything they do is offensive to our core values just as everything we do is offensive to their core values. The only real question is who will triumph, us or them?
Of course I realize that all people are the enemies of God until He draws them to Him and that the ideal would be to redeem those poor lost souls who think that Mohammed-bears and irreverent cartoons deserve death. But what I really want people to know is that the Judeo-Christian worldview, which holds concepts like freedom, tolerance, and human rights in such high regard, is completely incompatible with radical Islam.
The differences between us and them are unbridgeable. We simply cannot coexist because everything they do is offensive to our core values just as everything we do is offensive to their core values. The only real question is who will triumph, us or them?
TOD 12.04.07
Have you ever heard someone complain that Christmas is all about money and materialism? Although this can be true of some people, the person saying this probably doesn’t properly understand why we give Christmas gifts. At the first Christmas, the Magi gave Jesus gifts of incomparable worth, but it’s easy to miss what they were really saying to God in the process. “These are the most valuable things the world has to offer, and we eagerly part with them to honor the one Gift from You the world cannot match.”
Rather than being materialists, the Magi were actually declaring the worthlessness of material goods compared with God. They were thanking God for what He had given us all. In much the same way, every year we thank the people who show us love by giving them valuables which are but cheap thank you trinkets compared with the real worth they contribute to our lives.
People matter more than things, and the best use of things is to bless such people. If that’s materialism, then I am very confused about what the term means.
Rather than being materialists, the Magi were actually declaring the worthlessness of material goods compared with God. They were thanking God for what He had given us all. In much the same way, every year we thank the people who show us love by giving them valuables which are but cheap thank you trinkets compared with the real worth they contribute to our lives.
People matter more than things, and the best use of things is to bless such people. If that’s materialism, then I am very confused about what the term means.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
