Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Did our first parents remain as they were created?

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Question 13Question 13 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks. “Did our first parents remain as they were created?”

The answer is, “Left to the freedom of their own wills, our first parents sinned against God and fell from their original condition.”

Our first parents did what they were commanded not to do. They ate the fruit. But man’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden did not take God by surprise.

It is hard to get our heads around this, but God created us even though he knew we would rebel and Jesus would have to come to fix it.

The author of Hebrews wrote about Jesus, “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.” You and I are that joy. Jesus endured the Cross so that we can be in relationship with him.

Every good story has some tension or a struggle in the plot followed by a happy ending. The story of the people of God is no exception. I will repeat the summary of the Bible that I quoted in my post about Question 12, “God made it, we broke it and Jesus came to fix it.

Our first parents created the tension and the happy ending is possible because Jesus endured the Cross. Jesus came to fix the damage that has been done to us and to fix the damage that we have caused in ourselves.

What did God’s providence do for man whom He created?

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Question 12Question 12 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What did God’s providence specifically do for man whom He created?”

The answer is, “After the creation God made a covenant with man to give him life, if he perfectly obeyed; God told him not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil or he would die.”

I actually prefer the older form of the question which is, “What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the state wherein he was created?”

Way back when, Eve believed two lies about God. Sinclair Ferguson states,

“The lie by which the Serpent deceived Eve was enshrined in the double suggestion that 1) [God] was in fact restrictive, self-absorbed, and selfish since he would not let them eat from any of the trees, and 2) his promise of death if there were disobedient was simply false.”

In short, Adam and Eve did not act as if they believed God was completely loving. They acted on the belief the God was holding something back.

I find that we suffer the lingering effects of that wrong belief. We either try to earn God’s love through conformity to a set of rules, or we shake our fist at the heavens and make our case for self-determination and freedom from a tyrannical god.

Both responses stem from the same root. A lack of belief in the love and goodness of God. Both responses are a refusal to live life with the understanding that we cannot earn God’s love and it is only his Grace (which flows from his love) which puts us in good standing with God. We cannot earn it.

I love the story of the Loving Father in Luke 15 (usually called the story of the Prodigal Son). The prodigal decides to return to the father and work as a slave to get back in his good grace. Upon his return, before the son could even propose the terms of the revised relationship, the Father embraces the son. The Father’s love was not conditioned upon anything that the son had to say. The embrace said everything about the relationship.

Yesterday a friend shared a one line summary of the Bible that he came across. It goes something like this, “God made it, we broke it and Jesus came to fix it.”

Sola gratia

 

What is God’s providence?

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11Question 11 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What is God’s providence?”

The answer is, “God’s providence is His completely holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing every creature and every action.”

A group of fisherman, no strangers to boats, felt overmatched by the storm. They tried every trick they knew to keep the boat on top of the water, but thought they were going to die. Despite the storm, Jesus was sleeping in the back of boat. Because of their fear, the disciples woke Jesus and asked him to do something.

This story is found in Matthew 8:23–27:

“When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”” (NASB)

As I thought about Question 11, this story came to mind. This is one story among many which demonstrate God preserving and governing creation.

God not only powerfully preserves and governs, but he does so in holiness and wisdom. God is big enough to bring about his plan for this world. No Caesar, no king, no dictator, no president or any angelic being can thwart what God will accomplish.

I find this helpful with a national election looming. This is an election where both candidates for the top job are seriously flawed and (for me) seriously unlikable. It is like choosing between getting mumps or getting measles. Either way it is going to be painful.

We can use a good dose of holy and wise right now. And this is what we have in Jesus.

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1–2, NASB)

Hang in there, it gets better . . .

How did God create man?

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Question 10Question 10 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “How did God create man?”

The answer is, “God created man, male and female, in His own image and in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, to rule over the other creatures.”

What really jumps out at me when I read this answer is the second phrase, “in his own image.”

Thankfully, our Western culture is built around the foundational idea of the dignity of man. This thought informs our laws and our practice. We think that murder is wrong. We think that individuals have rights that should not be violated. We think that each person should be able to do or become whatever he wishes to be.

The Bible informs us that man’s dignity is a result from his being created in the image of God. The dignity that we have has been conferred on us by our creator.

I see in my country that there is no longer a consensus regarding the source of man’s dignity or even if there is anything special about man at all. This is not surprising when one starts from a naturalistic presupposition. If life is the result of a chance combination of a few proteins which developed through some chance mutations, then it is hard to see man in a different category from the rest of the universe.

But I have yet to meet anyone who held this position who actually lived consistently with it. While we may deny that man is special, we continue to live as though he is. As a society, we strive to eliminate poverty. We provide help to those who have been made homeless by floods, hurricanes and tornados. We create beauty through the arts. We live as though our lives have purpose.

This question in the catechism reminds me that all of our striving for meaning is a result of our being made in the image of God. Jesus affirmed this when he said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

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