There is a common misconception concerning the supposed
desire of God to ascribe all glory to himself as Create-or of this awesome universe in which we reside and for the grand
results of his immense sacrifice in bringing the wretched lives of at least a
chosen sampling of his wayward children to a heavenly consummation. Yet it
is this same God we are told who assumes absolutely no responsibility
whatsoever for his unilateral decision to create mankind in the first place or for
the utterly pitiful demise of the un-chosen majority, for it rightfully rests
squarely on the insignificant shoulders of the create-ed alone.
The impetus for this discussion arises simply from a desire to
clear the air around the concept of the true value and consequence of both
human and Godly action. On trial will be what I would deem to be our
mistaken acceptance of a responsibility of cosmic proportions regarding our personal
and collective failure to rise above our baser human instincts all the while wallowing
in a self deprecating humility in refusing the acceptance of even a pittance of
credit for any progress, whether meager or even monumental, in affecting our own
growth and development.
Equally detrimental, but on the other extreme, there are
many who have attempted to please God by following a supposed scriptural
mandate to relegate all
responsibility and control over their lives to Him, fearing perhaps unconsciously
that their own failed efforts to measure up, if taken into account, would damn
them eternally on the Day of Judgment.
Either way I find it unnecessarily demeaning both to our God and to
ourselves that we would accept such substandard views of his nature and of the
purpose of our existence.
This discussion has nothing to do with gaining recognition
for good works and thereby earning our salvation, for our ‘salvation’ should rightly
be accepted as a promised “blessing for all mankind through Abraham’s seed,
Jesus Christ”. Of course there are no good deeds you must do or even can do to achieve a place in God’s
eternal family. A child is not required
to earn the steadfast love of his father.
Contrary to what most have gleaned from the message of the ‘gospel’,
you’re in from the start and there’s “nothing in the universe, neither
height nor depth nor angels nor demons, in the present nor in the future, that
can separate you from the love and purposes of God”. (Romans 3:38-39 NIV)
So I’m not talking here about ultimate salvation, that being
accepted a priori, and neither am I promoting a mindset that seeks to keep
tally on performance. As Jesus said,
“when you do these things (good works) you must not let the right hand know
what the left hand is doing”. If it is
gold stars on your heavenly transcripts you are looking for then your
motivation for doing good is detestable and your only reward rests solely in
the meager amounts of notoriety you may extract from your human peers.
What I am talking
about is simply the proper acknowledgement of the role of human effort in the
development of the human soul. When a baby
chick pecks its way out of the egg or a butterfly struggles to escape its
cocoon it is well understood that the inherent battle must be fought alone in
order to properly stimulate the growth of the organism. When the eaglet is nudged from the safety of
the nest and somehow in the ensuing freefall learns to spread its fragile wings
we do not credit the mother eagle with the accomplishment. Likewise when a human being puts blood sweat
and tears (and prayer) into overcoming life’s many challenges why is it
considered presumptuous to assign a little credit where due? Is it reticence on the part of the Creator of
the Universe or is it our own misdirected modesty which would be threatened by an
appropriate metering of commendation?
On the other hand when it comes to accepting responsibility, God naturally assumes by far the lion’s share of it in regards to the successful
upbringing of his earthly children, having brought them to life solely at his own discretion. And he receives a commensurate
level of glory for this unprecedented miraculous merging of spirit with flesh. Mankind being cub-like by comparison is rightly held to a much attenuated level
of both liability and acclamation.
Now, if we turn to the Bible for guidance on this subject it may unfortunately fail to provide needed clarity when read apart from a
true Gospel perspective. (see blog entry: “The Book of the Volcano God: Book
Worship vs God Worship”). In fact it is
primarily the Scriptures themselves which have been used to bolster a wide
range of divergent viewpoints on the matter at hand.
As an illustration of its misapplication in affecting much confusion in
the minds of many Christians we will now take a look at just one of Jesus’ parables.
The following narrative is a very loose retelling of the
Parable of the Talents exercising full artistic license in order to more fully
represent the depth and breadth of the resulting misunderstanding.
Imagine that you have been involuntarily conscripted to set
sail on a perilous ocean adventure, a journey destined for an island paradise. Although it seems a bit unfair having not
been given a choice in the matter, the Captain has nonetheless guaranteed safe
passage for all aboard and solicits no help whatsoever from any of the
passengers. In fact you are prohibited
from lifting a finger to affect your ultimate safe arrival. Your part alone is to trust, as a child would
his father, in the worthy Captain’s ability to successfully navigate the stormy
waters ahead. And why shouldn’t you, aside
from a nasty rumor of having lost his best mate and a third of his original
crew to mutiny, he’s got a perfect record.
Anyway you’re already on board and so you might as well kick
back and enjoy the ride. You’ve really
little to lose and potentially everything to gain.
However, no sooner have you left port than the true ground
rules are revealed. And just as your gut
had warned you, the ‘guaranteed’ trip to paradise turns out to be too good to
be true. Far from remaining a mere passive
bystander, your ultimate destination is completely dependent on both the
quality and quantity of your active participation along the way. We’re not talking here about just some kind of
minimal token effort but rather consistent productive activity yielding
measurable benefit to the Captain’s personal estate. For you see, while the Captain is indeed a
kind and capable mariner, he is first and foremost a shrewd businessman determined
to increase his already abundant cache of treasure.
You quickly come to realize that there will be no tolerance
for poor performance on the part of the crew, even as there will be lavish
rewards awaiting those who contribute significantly to a successful voyage. To
that end each of you has been given charge of certain valuables, ‘gifts’ as he calls
them, from the Captain’s storehouse. And
upon your obligatory acceptance of the same you are thereafter expected to
invest them wisely at the various ports of call along the way. Failure to do so will have some rather, shall
we say “undesirable” consequences for you – far beyond mere mortal destruction;
... so much for relying solely on the Captain’s benevolence in fulfillment of
his lofty promise.
Time passes quickly as you busy yourself in fulfillment of
the Captain’s mandate and before you know it you’ve come within sight of the Island
of Paradise. The ominous day of
reckoning has finally arrived and upon dropping anchor the Captain frowns
gravely as the financial records of the passengers are laid bare. Glaring into the fearful eyes of his motley
crew (the vast majority of whom with trembling knees had long before hand hid
their allotments under their bunks for fear of sparking the stern Captain’s
wrath over their poor business acumen) he roars with anger as he orders all
stagnant treasures be seized and redistributed among those with notable
increase. Then in fierce retribution for
their mishandling of his generous ‘gifts’ he condemns those found wanting to be
locked in the rat infested hold of the ship where they will forever remain,
manning the oars with weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Finally beaming proudly he turns toward the remnant still left
on deck and wastes no time in welcoming ashore that rugged brigade of
consummately capable entrepreneurs who had rightly perceived the true purpose
of the nautical quest from the beginning to be that of proving oneself worthy
of living in the ‘promised’ land of bliss.
It was indeed their exemplary performance rather than their simple trust
which had earned them the right of passage.
“Let the eternal celebration of the righteous begin” he bellows as they commence
the singing of eternal praises to their benevolent Captain all the while oblivious
to the condemned masses gazing longingly through the port holes below … end of
story.
Okay, so what do we have here? The Captain assumes no responsibility for single
handedly initiating the journey and furthermore lays the blame for poor
performance solely at the doorstep of the weak-kneed failures. On the other hand he accepts eternal praise
for the delivery of the chosen ones to a life of bliss even though they had clearly
earned the right to be there. Initially
he suggests that they trust solely in him as would a child and then turns
right around and proclaims that it is only through their own productive performance
that their destiny in paradise may be assured.
Here and in two other parables (The Fig Tree and the Ten
Virgins) Jesus himself seems to
undermine his former invitation of “come unto me and I will give you rest” by substituting
an unequivocal demand to “come unto me and deliver the goods or else!”. Apparently only those demonstrating proper
exercise of God’s gifts will be counted worthy of that rest he had so
graciously offered. Suddenly his gifts have become nothing more than unsolicited
short term loans requiring payment in
full with interest.
Let it be known therefore, he seems to imply, that simple
childlike faith is really not sufficient. As James further admonishes: “faith without works
is dead” (James 2:26 KJV). And reinforced
elsewhere, the message comes through repeatedly that the failure to return a
good value on God’s investment will ultimately result in one’s well deserved
eternal damnation – perhaps with a front row porthole view of paradise from across
an impassable gulf, as explained in the story of “The Rich Man and Lazarus”.
Then again there is Paul’s assessment of our human condition
to the contrary. He says that we are all
“dead in sin” such that what we really need do is simply acknowledge our
wretched state of being and then allow Christ to live through us as though we
were passive “lumps of clay in the hands of the Potter” -- our participation in
the character building process being thereby completely precluded. He goes on to say that our salvation “does
not therefore depend on human desire or effort but on God’s mercy”. (Romans
9:16 NIV) And Christ himself regularly heaped
voluminous condemnation upon the Pharisees for their proud reliance on their imagined
ability to please the Lord in the doing of good works to uphold the law.
So which is it? Is
life to be lived as an impotent bystander or are we expected to actively
participate? Is it safe to trust our
eternal destiny to our Father in Heaven as if we really were his children or has
he recklessly let go of the reins entirely, allowing us to wander off to Hell
if we so choose? (see blog post: "Our Freedom is Absolute-ly limited") Does he abrogate all
responsibility for his creation or does he fully embrace it? Does he really want all glory assigned exclusively
to himself or would he have us to share in it?
Away with the confusion I say! Rather than assigning equal weight to each
opposing verse we must step back and view the whole book from an eagle’s
perspective through the lens of the overarching emphatic declaration that God IS Love. (I John 4:8,16 NIV) As we do so the Gospel message becomes apparent
throughout and the preeminence of the unconditional over the conditional brings
clarity to otherwise seemingly contradictory or mutually exclusive ideas,
including those just cited ascribing varying degrees of responsibility to both
God and man.
As far as performance for God’s acceptance goes, it is
certainly true that our works fall flat as hot tar under a steamroller. But then performance for acceptance misses
the point entirely! When acceptability
is properly regarded as a given (he
calls them his people, even those in rebellion who had been called not his
people) then there becomes apparent a natural process of creatively expressing
who we are, taking what we have been given and building upon it as only each
individually creative soul can do. Performance
is intrinsic to a healthy life. And
within the context of his unconditional love for us, the bearing of good fruit
is rightly to be expected as a natural response to it, not a prerequisite for it.
In fact from a Gospel perspective (What Would Love Do?)
the harsh insistence by the Captain may be seen for what it certainly must be,
simply that God gives each of us talents and then refuses to allow them to
remain undeveloped due to some kind of paralyzing fear of failure. We will not be permitted to skip out on our
own part in dealing with life’s uncertainties, as such are the seedbed of faith
and of growth and greatness. A return on
his investment in us is ‘required’ precisely
because he cares so much for our ultimate
happiness. He promises to give us the
desires of our heart as we submit to his will, but knows that the full
appreciation of those desires awaits our responsive participation.
Has not the Potter breathed into His human lumps of clay
something more than what a passive medium could effuse? Didn’t he give
(not loan) to each of us a unique piece of his Spirit which has now become our essence, distinct from him and no
longer just an extension of him? Is
it not much more gratifying for an all powerful Creator to enjoy the presence
of an-other from whom he has ever so skillfully designed in and subsequently drawn out
the highest attributes of his own nature even as we increasingly contribute willingly
of ourselves to the consequent building of his heavenly kingdom?
Yes it certainly must be so and furthermore he has chosen to delegate
to us a mission critical role in the creation process itself– that of presenting to the
world the face and love of God through the actions of our daily lives. Having directly communicated his love for
humanity only once in history through his Son to the few who had been ‘chosen’ for
that experience, they were (we have been) subsequently dispatched as
ambassadors of reconciliation to the rest of the world on his behalf. Within the context of Grace, we therefore
play an active role in the redemption of all creation. In this endeavor there is no thought of
compensation or credit for this service for we are simply passing on that which
we have so freely received.
Lastly a
decision to create life, especially life with self consciousness, must be inseparably
linked both to an active provision for the created soul’s well being as well as
ultimate responsibility for the consequences of its nascent rebellion. With God’s single handed decision to
unleash the Pandora’s box of free wills on earth with its immense potential for
immeasurable suffering, he could in no way expect to walk away with clean hands
completely unscathed, bearing none of the responsibility for the resulting
squalor.
So of course when all is said and done, God does in fact
take overall responsibility for the consummation of his creative plan and along
with it will receive overall glory. For
our part, as we experience his unconditionally loving presence in our lives we take
on an increasing level of responsibility for that life commensurate with our
maturity. And while it is intrinsically
glory-ous to be reckoned sons and daughters of the Most High, glory for its own
sake is not to be sought after. Rather
our reward is to be found in the deep satisfaction of doing what is right and what
is loving for its own sake even as the Master demonstrated while here on earth,
simply because it’s the most LOVE-ly thing
to do.
