Bite-Sized: #MindBlown

It took a while to develop the sophisticated theological claims that we take for granted today. One of the most central and also most complicated ones is the affirmation that Jesus Christ is both fully man and fully God. All of us Christians affirm this fact, but have we ever asked why? Or, perhaps even deeper, how?

In the fifth century, this was the main Christological conflict. To somewhat simplify the first 500 years of Christian theological progression, I'll explain it this way. From the New Testament onward, certain facts about the nature of Christ had to be asserted (always based on the testimony of Holy Scripture) to avoid descent into false teaching. It began with a positive affirmation of the divinity of Christ. But that affirmation had to be tempered by an equally positive affirmation of the humanity of Christ. Those two positive affirmations had to be qualified by the fact that his divinity and humanity are, in some way, different, because we have the biblical language of the Word being "made flesh" and taking on a body. But even though the humanity and divinity are different, we still worship and believe in one unified Christ. Do you begin to see the immense amount of work the early church Fathers had to do to reel people in?

The unity of Christ was the main focus of Cyril of Alexandria's work. Some people of his day, most notably Nestorius, made claims about Christ that suggested that there were "two of them", the divine Word of God and some man that the Word decided to "conjoin" himself too. Coming to this conclusion makes sense in a way. Divinity is a pretty big thing. One might say it's an all-consuming thing. If Jesus is truly divine, whatever humanity he has, true or not, must be considered like a drop in the ocean of his divinity...right? I mean, Jesus can't be both completely God and completely human...right?

Wrong. And this is where Cyril gets awesome. He describes Jesus as the burning bush. I'm not even going to add commentary to this one. This interpretation itself is meditation-worthy:

"It was not impossible to God, in his loving-kindness, to make himself capable of bearing the limitations of the manhood. And he foretold this to us in enigmas when he initiated Moses, depicting the manner of the incarnation in types. For he came down in the form of fire onto the bush in the desert, and the fire played upon the shrub but did not consume it. When he saw this, Moses was amazed. Why was there no compatibility here between the wood and the fire? How did this inflammable substance endure the assaults of the flame? Well, as I have already said, this event was a type of a mystery, of how the divine nature of the Word supported the limitations of the manhood; because he chose to. Absolutely nothing is impossible to him (Mk 10:27)." (Cyril of Alexandria, On The Unity of Christ)

Why should you care? Because Christ is "the firstborn among many brothers [and sisters]". Guess who those brothers and sisters are? You. That same fire wants you. And you can shine with His glory. As a matter of fact, that's His will for you. Submit to it. 

Haha, what am I doing, referring to the Creator in the Universe like some kind of irresistible, immense force...He's an irresistibly immense Person. He loves you and He wants you to love Him so that He can be glorified in you.

The Importance of Personal Holiness

It’s been a little while, but I’m back in full force today. I’m going to riff on something that’s serious to me because it’s serious to God. And it’s serious to God because it’s integral to His character. That, dear brothers and sisters, is His (and your) holiness.

He says in Leviticus, “Be holy, for I am holy”(Leviticus 11:44). Jesus says, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48). If you read these verses and truly understand what the Father and Son are saying, you realize that the Christian life is not a game. At all. It is not a peripheral aspect of your identity. If you love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength, you will “keep His commandments” (John 14:15). Who you are is defined by who Christ says you are and who Christ says you should be. So what is that? Well, what He seems to be saying is that you need to be holy like God and perfect in your obedience of God.

“But how?”, you may ask. “How in the world does Jesus expect this from me?” I’ll be the first to say that there’s no scriptural indication that this perfection that we are called to will be manifested in our life on Earth. Rather, sanctification is the process by which we are constantly being pruned so that Christ will "present us blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy" according to Jude. So we will be perfect. Then. But this does not remove the impetus to pursue it now. Don’t think that just because you won’t be perfect before you die, you don’t have the responsibility to obey God right now. You and I do Him an injustice and we spit in the face of the crucified Christ when we live as though He did not call us to a holy and sanctified life. So how do we do it? Quite frankly, we believe, we trust, and we obey.

1^st Step: Faith

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Such are the words of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Obviously this makes a lot of sense. Do I really think that just because I avoided that sexual temptation, God’s smiling down on me, thinking, “Good one, Malcolm! You’ve been so good that I accept you!”? Nope. Not at all. Nothing I can do apart from God can please him. Jesus would go a step further and say that I can’t “bear any fruit” apart from Him, the true vine. So the first step in my journey towards holiness is faith: trust in Christ and submission to Christ. It is only then that I even have the ability to obey Him. I absolutely must believe that Jesus Christ was God made man (to borrow language from Cyril of Alexandria), was crucified, became sin for me, died, was raised from the dead, and ascended into heaven in order to approach the almighty Father with anything. Without the sacrifice of Christ, I have no hope in approaching a holy God. I am otherwise stuck with the ancient people of Israel and I have once again hung the veil, so to speak. But because of Christ, that veil has been torn and I can freely come to the Father and the Father, Son and Holy Ghost have made their dwelling with me! (John 16)  Hallelujah!

2^nd Step: Works or Obedience

Faith and works are a dialectic, not a dichotomy. A conversation, not a contradiction. Only if I truly trust and truly submit to God, will I realize that any other path of walking is woefully inadequate. When I, through meditation on and contemplation of His Word, come into contact with the living God, His majesty, His power, and His love, it is a reminder that I need to get back on track morally. Your faith in who Christ is and what He has done should provide the impetus toward obedience and good works. After all, He died because of your sin. Doesn’t that perhaps make you not want to sin? This isn’t a guilt tactic, but rather it is merely a statement of truth. Our sin is disgustingly offensive to the character of God, but he still loved us in this specific way: that he gave his unique Son so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life. In the words of Paul, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure”(Philippians 2:12).  Please God and work for His glory because for you whom He foreknew, “he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And [you] whom he predestined he also called, and [you] whom he called he also justified, and [you] whom he justified, he also glorified.” You have been called according to HIS purpose. ACT LIKE IT.*

*It is all caps for a reason. This is my admonition to myself and to the rest of Christendom heh heh. If we truly will be saved (in the sense that salvation is a future event) and we are now attached to the vine, we will bear fruit and the Father will prune us so that we bear even more fruit. If we're not bearing fruit, we must re-evaluate our priorities and our lives and bring ourselves back in holy communion with our Eternal Source, the Triune God. So act like it.  

Note: If you try to be perfect, you will fail. That's just a fact. And it seems contradictory to what I've been saying. But the Scripture says that it isn't. We don't trust in our own righteousness but rather we count all that we have "gained" rubbish, so that we may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of our own which comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith - that we may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, we may attain the resurrection of the dead (Philippians 3:8-10). Because I don't know about you, but if this life were all that is, the only proper response would be despair. But that's not the world that God created. And that's not the plan He has for you. 

Bite-Sized: Why Hasn't Jesus Returned?

"But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed." - 2 Peter 3:8-10

Some complain that Jesus is taking too long to come back. Some complain that He took too long to come the first time. But Peter's statement gives us some pretty good perspective on why God has done what He's done and is doing what He's doing.

Jesus has not returned yet because he is "patient toward you". He is patient and longsuffering, delaying His return for our sake and for the sake of the unsaved. The fact that Jesus has not returned is an example of His mercy, not some perceived impotence. We, as Christians, are heralds of the coming Lord and every minute that we breathe is a minute given to us to proclaim His glory. There is still more of your life to devote to Him and there are still people in the world who don't know and have not applied the Great News of Jesus Christ. Let us do as He commanded. Let's make disciples who live a life pleasing to God and who love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Because don't worry. He will come back. And when He does, you and I will be without excuse.