At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
Matthew 11:25
I have heard it recently said that the gospel is simply amazing yet amazingly simple. In its simplest terms I believe the gospel can be summed up by saying that Jesus gave His life for us in order that He might give His life to us in order that He might live His life through us. As indicated by the above scripture, God has no interest in muddying the waters, but we do have an enemy who is interested in just exactly that.
As I said in the previous post, I do love George MacDonald and I do realize that I quoted him in my last post. I will impose upon myself a two quote limit per month, but I just can't help but share his thoughts on the subject. Besides, its my blog so I can do as I please. :) Again, this is from Discovering the Character of God, as edited and compiled by Michael Phillips.
"Theological Explainers Hide the GospelI would just like to declare that the content of the gospel is a living person and His name is Jesus Christ. We run to Him as we come to the daily conclusion that "we are not as we ought to be" and find out that He wants to live His life in us and be what we cannot be. We trade the pending heartache and futility of our own self effort for a child like faith that just lets Him do it. That's the good news and that's the truth....plain and simple.
There is a wonderful thing in the parables, not readily grasped, but indicated by the Lord Himself--their unintelligiblity to the mere intellect. They are addressed to the conscience and not to the intellect, to the will and not to the imagination. The parables are strong and direct, but not definite. They are not meant to explain anything, but to rouse a man to the feeling, "I am not what I ought to be."
Many maundering interpretations may be given by the wise, with plentiful loss of labor, while the child who uses them for the necessity of walking in the one path will constantly receive light from them. The greatest obscuration of the words of the Lord comes from those who give themselves to interpret rather than do them. Theologians have done more to hide the Gospel of Christ than any of its adversaries. It was not for our understanding, but our will, that Christ came. He who does that which he sees, shall understand. He who is set upon understanding rather than doing, shall go on stumbling and mistaking and speaking foolishness. The Gospel itself, and in it the parables of the truth, are to be understood only by those who walk by what they find. It is not intended by the speaker of the parables that any other should know intellectually what, known but intellectually, would be for his injury. When the pilgrim of the truth comes on his journey to the region of the parable, he finds its interpretation. It is not a fruit or a jewel to be stored, but a well springing by the wayside.
Does the Light Blind or Illuminate?
The parables are plainly for the teaching of the truth, and yet the Lord speaks of them as for the concealing of it. This difficulty may be removed by realizing that they are for the understanding of the man only who is practical--who does the thing he knows, who seeks to understand it practically. They reveal to the live conscience, otherwise not to the keenest intellect--thought at the same time they may help to rouse the conscience with glimpses, of the truth, where the man is on the borders of waking.
Ignorance may be at once a punishment and a kindness. "Because you will not do, you shall not see; but it would be worse for you if you did see, not being of the disposition to do." Such are punished in having the way closed before them. They punish themselves, their own actions (their non-doing of what they ought to see and ought to do) results--as it cannot but result on them--in the keeping of their eyes closed. To say to them certain things so that they could understand them would but harden them more, because they would still not do them. They should have only parables--lanterns of the truth, clear to those who will walk in their light, dark to those who will not. The former are content to have the light cast upon their way; the latter will have it in their eyes, and thus are unable to use the light properly. For them to have the light would only blind them. For them to know would be their worse condemnation. They are not fit to know more. Thus more shall not be given them yet.
They choose the dark. And they shall stay in the dark until they choose to come out of it. God is visible all around us, but only to the man or woman who would see Him. Either there is a God and that God is perfect truth and loveliness, or else all poetry and art is but an unsown, unplanted, rootless flower crowning a somewhat symmetrical heap of stones. The light is there, but not all use it to see with. "
2 comments:
Chris - all you have to do is post George MacDonald quotes and I'll keep reading :)
A thought/question/consideration:
I have thought about the simplicity of the gospel. I really do want to believe it's simple. And I think, I think it is (if that makes any sense). But when I read the gospels I wonder why Jesus didn't make it more simple. A lot of times he seemed to be intentionally making it unclear and difficult to understand. Oftentimes he doesn't come out and say what he really means. Why do you think this is? If I were God (maybe that's not a good way to start a sentence), and I wanted to communicate with people, I would have done it much differently. I would have clearly said what you wrote above (about what the gospel is) over and over again.
Anyways, don't take this as a critique but as honest questions. This is something I have thought about and wondered about quite a bit. I'm interested in what you think about it.
Adam,
This is great! Thanks for engaging. First, these scriptures come to mind:
2 Peter 1
20Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
John 5
39You diligently study[c] the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
Simply put, I think Jesus wants us to come to Him (again, presuming that He is alive) and ask Him to reveal Himself to us in the scriptures. The scriptures are of God, and in some way, I care not to understand them unless they bring me face to face with Him.
I think George says it well when He talks about the purpose of some scripture is not to be understood at all, but is simply meant to bring us face to face with the fact that we are utterly and hopelessly bankrupt leading us to run to Him and exclaim, "My God, I have no hope, unless you somehow reproduce yourself in me." In such case, the scripture leads not to a mental understanding of the truth, but leads the reader to actually take part in the truth.
Two other points. First, I think that the Lord Jesus does speak over and over again of the gospel as I summarized it in the post, especially in the book of John, and in the letters of His resurrected body members called Paul and Peter.
Finally, as to anything else that is written in the book that may seem difficult for me to reconcile to the Lord I know inside and outside the book, I simply chalk it up to the fact that He is God, and I am not. It's His business to reveal these things to me when and how He sees fit.
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