The 4th of July is a great time to think about what it means to be an American. Every culture is flawed and incomplete because each person who makes up the sum of its parts is flawed and incomplete. Every culture has made their declaration of independence against God, but each culture does it in a little bit different a way than all the others. My intention is not to bash America, nor to say I could correct our Country myself if given the chance, only to provide a clear cultural case study for truths in the bible that could apply in any cultural context; America just happens to be ours.

After watching the documentary series running on the History Channel entitled America, the Story of US, I have been led to ask the question, who is America’s God? The Judeo-Christian values that our Country’s laws were built on tell us something about who our God might be, but that is only half the story. Based on a brief survey of U.S. history, it is quite clear that an evolution of our Country’s collective theology has taken place and we do not view God in the way our original fathers intended.

When we think of America we have been taught to think above all things, of her progress and independence. Consider for one moment what America looked like 400, even 150 years ago, and what it looks like today. Someone had to build our roads, skyscrapers, and the infrastructure we enjoy. This is a simple thought that Americans take for granted and don’t often consider. Watching the documentary it was amazing to see the resolve it must have taken with no earth-moving equipment or even trucks, to dig a canal over 350 miles long with a pick axe and some TNT, or what it would have been like to see bare hands lay the track for the 220 mile long LA Aqueduct. From the construction of the Erie Canal that took 1,000 American lives, to the Continental Railroad that took almost 2,000 lives, and to the building of our U.S. sky skyscrapers at the turn of the 20th Century that left 2 out of every 5 men either dead or handicapped, where did we get the motivation?

I found it very interesting that according to the narrator of the documentary the one unifying belief all the generations of our Country’s history has been the “desire to sacrifice a great deal to have more than what we already have.” We will sacrifice any of the life’s simple pleasures in nature, in family, or even our own immediate well-being, to make something of ourselves. When asked to compare the work ethic of the characters on his British television show the Office with the American version, with a smile Ricky Gervais said, “Americans are taught when they are growing up they will all be President, in Britain we are told as kids that [becoming Prime Minister] is not possible.” In America we seem to be able to convert any career whether it be business, acting, professional sports, the arts, or even ministry from being job to being a means of achieving our own personal sense of destiny. Through all the trouble it causes us, the true result of our efforts is usually very different than our first intentions would’ve seemed to promise. All to make 100K instead of 60K, and to die in a similar suburban home to what we would have had anyway? What are we actually gaining? When we have so much already, where does the drive to get more come from?

Even those who rise to the top of their field express a sense of letdown on what they expected their success to provide. The right word here might be disillusionment, and to be disillusioned means you had to first be illusion or build something very average to mythical or god-like proportions. The implications of this process of “illusion” to my first question, who is America’s God are obvious, but for greater insight into specifically what that illusion or god looks like we must begin with another question: what is the true object of America’s freedom seeking?

Our history books have told us that the same independent spirit was embodied first by the pilgrims, then the founding fathers, to the pioneers, the industrialists, all leading to our current day CEO and entrepreneur. That the same inspiration for the freedom to live our collective full potential motivated them all. I might disagree.

For example, the puritans sought to be a “city on a hill,” that is, they sought freedom from external oppressive government only as a means to exemplify their pursuit of the internal freedom of life with God. The Founding Fathers benefited from this commitment and built our Country on the just and faithful principles of God. Contrast that with the the wealthy landowners in the mid-19th Century (we call pioneers) who were the only ones who could afford the trek out west. They sacrificed life and children’s limb for more than what they already had. Both were seeking greater freedom, but the objects of their freedom were very different. And which one is closer to the 21st Century motivation to sacrifice our children to make something of ourselves in our career? Like an echo, the initial intentions of the Puritans to be a city on a hill was heard a bit more softly by the Founding Fathers, and continued to fade through the generations until external freedom for its own sake was the highest moral truth for us to set our compasses. Just the “pursuit of happiness” but with no indication of where to find it. Until today where we have been left by our fathers to be drifters, left only to consume the material world around us as our primarily means of happiness. Thankfully God is bigger than our material prison and the ascendancy of His freedom reigns beyond our material world.

Before we can confront what I believe to be America’s version of rebellion against God, I would like to answer a couple concerns you may have at this point. I can hear someone arguing, easy for you to say, you who enjoy the fruits of progress won by the sacrifice of this land’s ancestors, how dare you assume the worst of their motivation? And to that valid response, I must clarify, I do not mean to insinuate either that I am above any of these social values, that our nation is in need of more fixing than any others, or that I could be the one to do the fixing. On the contrary, I believe imperialism is as real from one person to another as it from one nation to another, and without remedy on the personal level we cannot expect any lasting solution as a nation. My address is to the individual as part of the whole, not the whole made up of individuals. And in response to those who might misunderstand what I am saying as some form of contempt held over America’s progress, I do believe in a “way” that progress could have been achieved without using our self-sovereignty as the motivator. That there is another motivator that inspires men to do as much good for as many people as possible that could have propelled our progress. This other motivator would have added limits to the exercise of dominion, and more specifically limits to acknowledge the equal rights of ALL men. Limits we as Americans by our greed have proven unable to keep. We say we are committed to them as ideal, but have betrayed them time and time again. Our progress has come at the expense of so many throughout history (for evidence google the well-known Howard Zinn).

In fact, you will see I have no intention of imploring you to change this social Darwinism in yourself. As Americans we are viewed around the globe as the world’s chief idealists (to put it kindly). If anything, we have proven we can be both completely committed to our own belief in certain ideals and still fall short of maintaining the rights of all men at the same time. Instead, I hope to get to the heart of the issue and provide its Solution. A Solution that as American citizens we need to not become hypocrites to our oaths we say we believe in. I am blessed to be an American, but realize I need help to carry the weight of all that title has been built up to signify.

I also do not mean to insinuate that all men in our history were fully motivated by this sense of imperialism, or that the whole of the man was committed to the cause of their own achievement exclusively. Of course there are very just ambitions that came along side of this devil, including the desire to provide a better world for their children. These just intentions are also a gift of God commonly given to man, as I hope my words will show. I feel the need to make these qualifications because our great nation means so much to so many, and I am thinking of veterans in my own life as I write this. With those footnotes in mind at the get go, let us take a look at how our mindset as Americans are in need of the grace of God.

We are creatures who depend on God for everything in a way it is truly hard for us to fully imagine, whether we believe it or not. God is the Giver, on whom we depend on for even our very existence. Why is it so hard for us as Americans to grasp that the breath in our lungs is in no way earned? That there is nothing we have done to earn the happiness in our world? It’s simply because 1) we are sinful and 2) we have been taught from our youth that “life is what YOU make of it.”

You may think it is strange that the term “manifest destiny,” which is usually attributed to our distant history, is actually affecting the way we think today. I would challenge you to look again at its “staying power,” especially in how the generations of our nation interact. The core belief in Americans that life is what we make it, or better put that we must be the controllers of our own destiny, has been reinforced generation to generation because of its successful ability to motivate. Ironically we feel superior to the tribal ritual of children inheriting the beliefs of their parents in “less civilized cultures,” but just like the religions of cultures in the non-western/modern world are passed down from parents to children, our mothers and fathers have taught us this lesson as the one that is supreme above all the others. Pop culture has only reinforced the worldview that we are the heroes in our own story that is destined for a happy ending. And although parents who have reached a level of actualization from this meta-narrative (through success in their career or otherwise) will want to propagate this belief to their children, it is actually the parents who were not able to achieve any sense of their destiny manifesting itself that are even more motivated to hold their children to its standards. This idealism is linked to our inherent human nature found in the first human, when he ate an apple with his own self-sufficient happiness in mind; but has been articulated and propagated theologically in the modern world by the likes of Finney and others in the Second Great Awakening.

Yes, we Americans have called it manifest destiny and our Country was built upon its dividends. “A theology of glory” as Luther called it (later to be contrasted with Luther’s theology of the Cross). Namely, that everything we do, was or will be destined by God to happen for the higher purpose of our own dominion. In the very first interaction between God and man, God did in fact tell Adam to take dominion over the earth. However, this “mandate to dominate” explicitly included the world and everything it it before there were any human beings in addition to Adam present. A minor detail some of our Country’s theologians (Footnote 1) may have conveniently left out. Since Eden, the human race has confused God’s initial mandate by lumping other humans into their sense of dominion. Such an error corrupts the bible’s theology right out of the gates, and turns it to theology of devils all the way to the finish line.

A theology of glory expects total success, finding all the answers, winning all the battles, and living happily ever after. The theology of glory is all about my strength, my power, and my works. A theologian of glory expects his church to be perfect and always to grow. If a theologian of glory gets sick, he expects God to heal him.

And if he experiences failure and weakness, if his church has problems and if he is not healed, then he is often utterly confused, questioning the sufficiency of his faith and sometimes questioning the very existence of God.
- Gene Veith

Though this excerpt is addressing how a minister can be affected by a theology of glory, try to apply what it would look like in your context. Pushing this theology of glory off on exclusively health and wealth preachers would be the easy way out. The basic point is that this theology of glory comes from the worst in all of us, which would look at other human beings created in the image of God as mere players in the stage production of our lives.

Think about the confidence to move forward on a life built on such a supposition, the arrogance, the ego. God as a means to the ends of mere human beings. There is literally no thought that could occur in a person’s mind that could be more backward. And yet, there is no doubt that a person could be made very happy thinking of God as a means to their own ends, but only for a short time. It is a common thing in Christiandom, and I am afraid to say in my own heart, for the theology of the bible to be distorted into making God’s approval as the ultimate power play. In this way Christianity becomes little more than a narcotic, to quote British rapper the Streets in his song “I never went to Church.” This narcotic provides the ultimate high for one’s self-esteem. It can motivate people to do things which otherwise would not have be possible to them, but at what cost to love? At what cost to others? This is what makes religion so dangerous. But luckily as we will see the good news about Jesus is something fundamentally different.

There are moments where we are completely drunk with the narcotic of religion, but most often we live with a cool buzz… I might even go as far to say that our society is driven (and highly motivated) to earn for ourselves the sense that we have achieved by merit our destiny made manifested. However, even on religion’s high, it is not long before disillusionment sets in. Before our idols lose their luster and shine one by one failing to bring us to our own personal promised land “of rest” where we have earned some distance from our work (Hebrew 4). Our individual destiny can appear bright for a time being reinforced by success in our career, or in a relationship, contentment in our families and our children (anything can become your religion, or didn’t you know that we all have a functional god?) However these gods and not truly gods at all, soon they will prove than manifest destiny’s only true destiny is disillusionment. A realization that our idealism has let us down. Depending on how high we were, we will feel this failure at the most profound of levels. That our idols have not delivered on the sense of meaning our hearts sick with self-sufficiency have promised. That basketball player’s knees will one day grow old, our kids will grow up and must be let go, somedays that wife will feel like she doesn’t love you.

What does this mean for the Christian? In every Christian, there is a battle waging. JI Packer said when a Christian sins they are in essence in an identity crisis. This identity crisis is a war waged between two contrary natures. (Galatians 5:16-18). The values personified by manifest destiny and the American dream are a perfect cultural case study to examine what the Apostle Paul calls the war between these natures “the flesh” and “the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16-18). This war is a theme throughout the New Testament and stand alone references to the flesh and the Spirit are made in most of it’s books. This theme is so important because understanding what is being contrasted between these two terms tells us a lot about what our spiritual existence looks like.

The “flesh” is fully convinced of its own sense of manifest destiny; that is, the ego as the center of its own universe. A universe that at its deepest level is egos in competition with other egos for limited resources of happiness, and in need of working harder. A universe where everything is earned exclusively by merit and by right only. Let’s remember how manifest destiny worked out for the American Indians, great for us, bad for them. And this sense of imperialism still works that way today in our lives, if we let it. The bible calls this nature the flesh or in the NIV translation the sinful nature.

But there is another contrary and higher nature. Notice, though you might have assumed it, I did not begin by saying the two natures that battle within us both belong to us. In fact, one is completely ours and the other completely alien. This alien nature is God’s very person, and is sent to reside within each true Christian. It is a nature <span style=”font-weight:bold;”>Who</span> is rooted in the same love that would motivate a God - in whom, through whom, and for whom all things exist - to give his life for ungrateful takers like us. It is a nature we are given that takes no thought to cost to self because He finds source in a God who is unlimited in wellspring of cheerful love-giving resources, constantly giving himself first to us. This contrary nature is what the bible calls “the Spirit. God breath of life into us, which is his very person and nature we are given to share in. The Spirit is God himself dwelling within us.

In the following quote from Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation, he expresses the fundamental difference between God’s love (or way of relating to others) and man’s love(or way of relating to others) each found in these contrary natures. “The love of God does not find, but creates that which is pleasing to it. The love of man comes info being through that which is pleasing to it. ” In this simple sentence Luther sums up the infinite difference between God and man (What a feat!). Man’s love is a possessive love which seeks its own good in those it loves, in contrast God’s love “rather than seeking its own good flows forth to bestow good on others.” That is, since the love of God comes from his eternal objective nature, it has never had to be initiated or elicited by its object, and therefore is unidirectional and unconditional. This love creates the good in the beloved it desires, rather than requiring it, and is holy divine in orientation. Therefore we as people can only be witness to it through its climax in God’s sending of His Son to die on the cross. Or, what’s even more, can even be filled with it by the presence of His very Spirit. (Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, 38)

The bible speaks of this love in many ways. Among many others, first as the “most excellent way” of relating to others in 1 Cor. 13, and as “unfailing love” over and over again throughout the Old Testament. This unfailing love is a character trait that is named as Yahweh’s unique identifier. Unfailing love in these instances would perhaps be better translated as the love for which all other “loves” should depend to be true love at all. In Deuteronomy when God gave Moses his reason for choosing the nation of Israel above all others he said, “I love you because I love you (But why do you love me? Because I love you Why? because I love you”). And on and on it goes for all eternity. It was not our action or ability to muster up faith (if that were even possible)that solicited God’s grace for us, He loved us because he loved us. It is Who he is. This is God’s unfailing love. The one true love without condition, it stands alone and everything good leans upon it. Just its presence alone leaves no more competition for limited resources of ego, only the ever giving gift of God himself to us. This is the power that the Spirit of God has over our fleshly nature. Our nature is convinced of God’s (or a god’s) existence for the means of its own control over others. This control over others can even manifest itself as good things done with the intention of earning its object’s love or approval in return. But this is too is an illusion, because true love is never deserved. And life itself is a gift from God we do not deserve. (Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, 38).

The reason for my contrasting the flesh and the Spirit is so much detail is two fold. 1) As you have been reading, I hope you have become increasingly aware that the God of manifest destiny is no God at all. That is, if my God fits within my small life and exists for it only, in reality I know no God. I am just a person left to my own devices, now albeit with an ideal to play with. And, 2) If you have rightly acknowledged the presence of a nature inside you that places you at the center of its own world and would use God (or your god) to control others in your career for power, or in your relationships for love; there is a remedy for you and all Americans.

Did you think it is a coincidence that books on Christianity have found their way to the “inspiration” section in your local Barnes and Noble? We believe the bible is a self-help book assisting us to get where we are going. Our theology has become smoke and mirrors. The basic point in all this is that power based Christianity is not Christianity at all. This realization is on one hand good news for people to hear, because what they thought to be Christianity which has caused so much oppression over others is really a distortion. And yet, it is also horrific news to hear our Country as a collective is so dramatically off base on how they believe God interacts with mankind.

The flesh and its sense of manifest destiny is a great darkness, in such a state we are unable to see the latent harm our belief in self-sovereignty has on others. But any belief in the glorious provision of God’s own loving nature will shine like a light in this darkness and help us see what limits we must place on our progress, personal and otherwise. Practically, this would mean in business the bottom-line of profit is not all that exists. Or in acting, if the message of our film would lead a young girl astray, the part is not worth the creditability in the industry it would provide. Or a lawyer, to fight for true justice and not stretch the truth to win a case. Or finally a Minister, who will not distort the word of God or adopt compromising marketing tactics just to get the seats in his Church filled, but by the power of the Spirit remain faithful to the Gospel. By God’s strength alone we would be serving in our vocations as not only citizens of the Kingdom of God but also as more faithful citizens of America.

So if the Spirit is who we need not to serve without self-interest, how do we receive him? In the filth of our self interest it is not a natural fit for the “Holy” Spirit to dwell within us, of course. In fact, its should be obvious to us that the purity of God’s loving presence can never come into contact with our selfishness. For God to fill us, we need someone to save us. We are in need of God’s intervention so that we might appropriate his intervention (what a dependence indeed!). The intervention needed for heaven’s intervention was provided by the Mediator between God and men, which is Jesus the Messiah. In contrast to a theology of glory, which we said parallels our sense of manifest destiny, Luther also spoke about a remedy “theology of the Cross” to build our life’s hope.

But, Luther pointed out, when God chose to save us, He did not follow the way of glory. He did not come as a great hero-king, defeating his enemies and establishing a mighty kingdom on earth. Rather, He came as a baby laid in an animal trough, a man of sorrows with no place to lay His head. And He saved us by the weakness and shame of dying on a cross. Those who follow Him will have crosses of their own: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24).
- Gene Veith

The needed limits to our progress found in the ability to truly seek the greatest good for the greatest number of people is found inherently in that One person and Him alone. Who at the beginning of his ministry when tempted by Satan in the wilderness to receive the instant gratification of all earthly dominion that was promised to come to Him in God’s time anyway, Jesus opted to give his destiny back to the Father and put his progress into God’s control. This surrender found its apex in the Cross where Jesus, who in one sense was already experiencing his destiny of perfect union with the Father, chose to lay it down for his ultimate destiny of bringing sinners back to himself. We too can have a vision of this greater destiny of union with God. In fact, a sight of this destiny is the only power we have to no longer feel the needed to press the limits of exploitation for our own progress. We still have the desire to pursue our personal and therefore collective progress, just with an open hand. You see, not only did Jesus show what the ultimate surrender of one’s destiny looks like through his life, but his surrender itself also made provision to overcome our own lust for the ability to actualize our own destines. For the first time we are free to do our jobs for the jobs own sake in service to others and the Lord. To contribute the ideas “we hold to be self evident” to our generation’s version of America rather than impede them.

Who is America’s God? Too often the answer to that question would be as simple as getting up and looking at our reflection in the mirror. So often we have chosen to believe ourselves to be the the Sovereigns, that everything exists for the means of our own gain, or in biblical terms that both the means and gains of our existence are limited to our own “flesh.” But with such an unique spiritual heritage given to us first by the pilgrims and then by our founding fathers, we have so much to return to. At the sight of Jesus, and him crucified, we have the ability for the first time to see the one true Sovereign God over all that exists. It is in him that we see God as the architect of our collective destiny. We are small parts of a greater plan, and Christ is the true Sovereign Ruler of the universe. Let us be humbled under the hand of the one true Giver of life to all men and see that his Rule is one of self-denying love. Instead of vain national pride and dogma, then and only then our consummating citizenship in heaven will provide us with the connection to all men to live out what our creeds say we believe as citizens of America. So come American, come let us return to the Lord.

Footnote 1 - Especially around the early 19th Century with the Second Great Awakening, echoed by the prosperity gospel and more subtly by Moralist-therapeutic deism passing as Christianity in our own day.

“What is the Gospel?” ——- At 20 years old I had been a Christian for 5 years and for the first time realized I was not sure I knew the answer. I made the commitment to spend my life’s efforts to read, to pray, to philosophize, to discuss, and to better understand what the phrase elevated in the bible to first importance “good news” actually meant. Referred to as “the power of God unto salvation to all who believe” and the one thing all people would be wise to place their confidence, but what is it? And more specifically, how do I experience it?

These questions lead me into a seeking process that has lasted until now (currently 25 years old) and I expect will not end anytime soon. I have my answers in the gospel as a belief system, a lifestyle, a theology, a worldview and in some ways the Church would be better off to fully embrace the gospel as such things. However, in all these paradigms that resulted from my attempt to bottle the gospel in order to fully live it out, what I have found is that in one sense the Gospel is completely transcendent. That even the most holy of philosophies cannot contain what it is in its essence because of their limitations. Not even my beloved Reformed Theology fits when seen through the lens of mere philosophical or disciplinary grids. Why? Because the Gospel is not only an intellectual or philosophical message, it is an effectual Message, a living and breathing Message. It is not just a worldview or a lifestyle, the Gospel is more. It is a Person, it is his name. Its Jesus, its who he is, constantly giving himself for sinners.

We’ve all either read or seen it by now, at the conclusion of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe following the defeat of White Witch, Aslan departs from the height of celebration just as his friends are beginning to enjoy the fruits of victory. None shared so close a bond with the savior Lion than Lucy who witnessed first hand the his loving sacrifice. Noticeably grieved by Aslan’s absence, Mr. Tumnas reminds Lucy he is not a tame Lion, to which she replies, “but he is good.” In the same way, our Aslan, not to be controlled by our philosophizing breathes the life giving breath of God into our belief system, our lifestyle, our theology, our worldview.

Is it God’s ego that will not allow us to be in relationship with Him on our own terms? No, it is simply because he is God and we by nature are his dependents. He is infinitely simple and undivided in his love. Imagine for a moment if we could potentially solve the puzzle of God, or produce behavior formula to appropriate his love. Not only would such love be boring and mechanical, but it would not be love at all. God would be our own personal cosmic mechanism to be called upon as we need. No, though our sinful hearts continue to try, there is no set of ideals or disciplines of thought that can assure us of the presence of God, for our God is not a tame Lion. So if not by theology or discipline only, how does an individual come to experience God?

In Numbers 21, Israel found themselves in a similar place to Lucy and I. Led out of slavery in Egypt by God’s presence shown as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (how awesome must that have been to witness!), Israel had every reason to remember God’s miraculous and gracious providence for their needs. As they cried out for food, God provided “manna” from heaven to sustain them. Even with such miraculous provisions Israel found reason to complain. And yet, it was not only their complaints that offended God, it was the rotten intentions behind them. Israel complained because they would rather have control over their limited sense of well-being as slaves in Egypt (the irony!), than receive miraculous provision from God but admit their dependence on Him for it. And what followed?

5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” 6 Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. - Numbers 21:8-9

In the bible snakes or serpents often symbolize sin. In his justice God was giving Israel externally, what they proved they wanted to harbor in their hearts internally. Like Lucy’s desire to keep the goodness of God has her own possession, and Israel’s contempt over God’s provision of manna, we too can so often misuse the the blessing of theology and deceive ourselves into believing we have control over the One who controls everything.

The prevalence of how often theology is misused as a means to control God turns many Christians off of the value of seeking to firm up the understanding of the richness of our Faith. But Jesus is somewhere past the prideful mess we have made of theology, and our lives with him will benefit from the process of working out some of the deeper questions and tensions. 

Yes, there is an opposite error to the attempting to control God with theology, and that is, by thinking we need not address “questions of theology” we render ourselves dumbed to the fact we already have a theology, it is just wilted and dying from neglect. Even if we would say yes to belief in a specific doctrine if asked, without realizing our “basic life assumptions” are built on heresy (Keller). We all have very large bindspots, just some have larger blindspots than others. There are bible verses that we just do not know what to do with. Either because we read them and they do not tell us what that Spirit or human author would have intended, or worse we have to skip over them because they cannot fit within what we think we know of God, ourselves, and the world around us. Our blindspots are also revealed when questions come from someone outside the Faith. Their are places we cannot go without getting irritated, questions that we feel just should not be asked. Lets take a closer look at what theology is before see how the bible says we experience God.

As Tim Keller alludes to in the following video, each specific individual’s theology is a result of the questions they come into their reading of the Scriptures asking (For more on this please reflect on this 2 minute video -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xG1XNrDQGM). And all of us come into the Scriptures asking different questions, resulting in different emphasis on what the bible is attempting to teach. Tragically, many do not move past this point. It is even common for some Christians though they are in fact asking their own questions of the bible, to be so absolute in their approach that they deny any “question asking” is going on at all. They believe themselves to have some purely objective knowledge of the truth. We have all done it, how have you? The problem is this tends toward hard-headed, insensitive moralism and nothing could be further than the teaching of the bible or effective for reaching seekers who have great questions. The moment any approaching individual begins to ask questions this Christian person gets either very defensive and quotes a bible verse. Or, in the best case scenario, God gives them the grace to admit they have been “question askers” all along. 

Non-christians are used to being turned away by Christians with little care of the damage our morality hammering has done, we are happy with the bare minimum of being able to check off a “witnessing opportunity” in our heavenly account or good christian checklist. BUT, Jesus is the fulfillment of every person’s deepest desires, everything was created for him, therefore there is quite literally an infinite amount of ways that he is relevant to the most important questions unbelievers have, if we will just have the courage to allow them to be asked. And finally a more basic reason why it is important to realize we are “question askers” is that its leads to a more robust theological framework, which in turn helps us better see Christ and the way he relates to us. This of course is an end in itself, or the end.

In essence, whether it is the illicit use of theology to control our Creator we first discussed or the hard headed unwillingness to ask questions of our theology, both come from the same pride. It is the pride of knowledge, one that assumes I know all that I must, and the other that assumes I know more than you.  Though opposites, they have the same power to blacken our souls and few deceptions could be more grotesque and cancerous. The bible says the Gospel is for fools for a reason.

Perhaps the most important thing for us to realize is that though theology is important, we must never view it out without the context of understanding how our human faculties interact in our experience of God. Otherwise it becomes useless, and therefore dangerous because it is carrying God’s very Name. As we will see, theology is by nature always practical, and if in anyway our view of it changes to other surface level, recreational uses, it becomes a box wrapped with Christmas paper with no gift inside. Even so, because of Christ we are able to have a genuine experience of God. Let us look back to Israel’s experience in the wilderness because is not silent regarding this question of how such an experience has been made possible.

8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze  serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. - Numbers 21:8-9

So again, if not in theology, discipline, worldview or lifestyle, how do we experience God? What does the interaction with the human construct look like? The bible is not silent in answering this question. It is described here as clearly here than anywhere else in the bible in the final words just of the verse. We experience God through faith, and what better description of faith than a look and then live. That’s all we must do. There is no effort put forth by our will or pre-requisite of knowledge required; we are simply shown the grace of Christ, then only fear of the snakes of divine judgment against self-sufficiency biting at their feet needs do the rest! Just one glimpse of what has already been provided in Israel’s place and all the transformation and healing resulting came from the power of God himself.

Similarly today, any journey in theological understanding is bankrupt if it does not flow out of the acknowledgment that Jesus is more than applied behavior or rational workings. We are all in need of a theology of rescue! As if the snakes we’re biting at our very heals! What’s the key to overcoming a dead theology? It is simply to see Christ, faith is birthed out of a vision of Him. It may sound circular to say we must see Christ to worship, as if this is not really saying anything, but the majority of supposed worship misses this point without fully realizing it. Whether for intellectual recreation, disciplinary exercise or even just for entertainment, worship is reduced to something about us. There is no instruction I can offer beyond this point, for Christ reveals himself to those his Spirit wills. It is ours to desire to seek after this revelation of Christ in this personal way, and even that desire comes by dependence on the Spirit of God. Just look and live!

And yet, as rational beings created in the Image of God the mind must have some role to play in our worship. Where many religions view the intellect as the gateway to deeper spiritual experience, Christianity has a much higher view of the mind. In fact, not only is intellect part of our worship, I would argue that it is an integral part.

In his famous work Religious Affections, Johnathan Edwards saw the human internal construct as of mind, will and emotions all seated in one desire factory he called one’s affections. More than the naturalist, view of humans as only physical beings who trace all decisions to a physical urge in modern psychology, and dissimilar to the common evangelical take which draws distinctions between emotions, soul and spirit, Edwards saw the bible’s concept of “the heart” as a combination of all these factors calling them “affections” and believed they were what controlled human decision making and therefore ultimately the individual’s character. And though the decisions we make - for which we will have to provide an account to God - are controlled by our affections; what comes from our self-awareness or mind moves in such concert with the affections that Edwards felt little need to make distinction between the two. His suggestion by making little - - , that thoughts attempting to control thoughts are not the ul. So though we are ultimately at the mercy of the quality of our own affections in our daily decision making, the habits of the mind are still of first importance. To Edwards, it is to be the diligent occupation of the Christan to introduce the revealed will of God found in the pages of the bible to the mind at one level, while at a deeper level it is God’s free choice alone brings sensations of grace to the inner affections of the human heart. The mind and affections working as one in harmony worshiping. As the Spirit leads us, we are brought into the joy of perfect, unbroken adoration of beauty and love God has within himself God in His three persons, the Trinity.

Therefore, for those of us who have tasted this heavenly joy, let us remain challenged to in our minds to better understand Him, while with our hearts looking, living, and adoring. And if we ever forget HOW we might worship our God, may we remember it neither begins in the heart or nor does it begin in the mind, but just upon a sight of a Perfect Substitute who has been lifted up and to become a snake (or became sin) for us on the cross for us.

For a glimpse of what Israel would have seen over 1,000 years before the name Yeshua was ever uttered, look at the bottom of this article and think of whom it could have been pointing. All Israel needed was to look and live in the freedom that has been provided. This was freedom from their mechanical and prideful theology and it can be freedom from ours today. Remember, cursed is the man who has a theology based on himself, and not the grace of God, but also to quote the Old Testament, “cursed is the man who is hung on a tree” (Deut. 21:23) And Jesus became that curse for us, so that we might be free from ourselves and made able to worship him in Spirit and truth (John 4:20-24).

“Without the gospel everything is useless and vain; without the gospel we are not Christians; without the gospel all riches is poverty, all wisdom folly before God; strength is weakness, and all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God. But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made children of God, brothers of Jesus Christ, fellow townsmen with the saints, citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, heirs of God with Jesus Christ, by whom the poor are made rich, the weak strong, the fools wise, the sinner justified, the desolate comforted, the doubting sure, and slaves free. It is the power of God for the salvation of all those who believe.

It follows that every good thing we could think or desire is to be found in this same Jesus Christ alone. For, he was sold, to buy us back; captive, to deliver us; condemned, to absolve us; he was made a curse for our blessing, sin offering for our righteousness; marred that we may be made fair; he died for our life; so that by him fury is made gentle, wrath appeased, darkness turned into light, fear reassured, despisal despised, debt canceled, labor lightened, sadness made merry, misfortune made fortunate, difficulty easy, disorder ordered, division united, ignominy ennobled, rebellion subjected, intimidation intimidated, ambush uncovered, assaults assailed, force forced back, combat combated, war warred against, vengeance avenged, torment tormented, damnation damned, the abyss sunk into the abyss, hell transfixed, death dead, mortality made immortal. In short, mercy has swallowed up all misery, and goodness all misfortune.

For all these things which were to be the weapons of the devil in his battle against us, and the sting of death to pierce us, are turned for us into exercises which we can turn to our profit. If we are able to boast with the apostle, saying, O hell, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? it is because by the Spirit of Christ promised to the elect, we live no longer, but Christ lives in us; and we are by the same Spirit seated among those who are in heaven, so that for us the world is no more, even while our conversation [life] is in it; but we are content in all things, whether country, place, condition, clothing, meat, and all such things. And we are comforted in tribulation, joyful in sorrow, glorying under vituperation [verbal abuse], abounding in poverty, warmed in our nakedness, patient amongst evils, living in death.

This is what we should in short seek in the whole of Scripture: truly to know Jesus Christ, and the infinite riches that are comprised in him and are offered to us by him from God the Father.”

- John Calvin