CHRISTIAN PARADOXES
Webster's defines a paradox as: "A statement contrary to common belief. A statement that seems contradictory, unbelievable, or absurd, but that may actually be true." A paradox is something that's not necessarily a contradiction; just a contradiction in terms.
There are some paradoxes when it comes to Christianity. In fact, Christianity is largely built on paradoxes. It makes sense that it would be since it's realities need to seem impossible in order to see the miraculous nature in it. Let's look at some of the paradoxes of Christianity.
1) You have to be brought low in order to be lifted up.
Jesus said in Matt. 23:12, "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
It doesn't make sense to think that in order to go up we must go down. It seems counterproductive. And in some senses you'd be right. However, in regards to spirituality, it's the only way.
"Ten years after finishing law school, Chuck Colson found himself working in the White House, appointed as Special Counsel to President Nixon in 1969, responsible for inviting influential private special interest groups into the White House policy-making process and winning their support on specific issues. For four glorious years he was known as Nixon’s hatchet man. He dispensed favors and issued orders in the name of the President. Colson confessed he was “valuable to the President because I was willing to be ruthless in getting things done.”
Then came Watergate and he was implicated along with other Nixon aides. In 1974, Colson pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. He was given a one-to-three year sentence, fined $5,000 and disbarred. In prison, a dramatic thing happened. A proud man, he accepted Jesus Christ into his life. After he was released, he went back into prison. This time, to start a ministry called Prison Fellowship to reach out to other prison inmates.
Colson has received fifteen honorary doctorates, but he said: “All my achievements meant nothing in God’s economy. My greatest humiliation - being sent to prison-was the beginning of God’s greatest use of my life. Now I could see, after I lost everything I thought made Chuck Colson a great guy, what God intended for me to be and the true purpose of my life. God does not want our success. He wants us.”
Chuck had to be brought low so he could be brought high. He had to lose what was of human importance so he could gain what was of spiritual importance. Some people would say Chuck lost everything. But Chuck wouldn't see it that way; he would say he gained everything. Paul said in Phil. 3:8 that he considered everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus.
But in order for Paul to be brought to that understanding he needed to be knocked to the ground and blinded. It's not that we'll necessarily have to go through what Paul and Chuck did in order to be humbled and lifted up but if we are in the category of exalting ourselves we will be humbled. And if we respond in humility we put ourselves in the position to be lifted up by God.
Luke 18:9-14, "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
There are plenty of people who are confident of their own righteousness. And probably in many people's eyes they would think the person was righteous. There are a lot of "good" people out there. Religious people; people who do good things. And then there are the tax collectors; people who society would consider to be unrighteous. Here in this case we see Jesus explaining that it is backwards.
For all appearances the one who would be considered holy, blameless and righteous would be the Pharisee and the one who would be deemed as the opposite would be the tax collector. But Jesus tells his audience that it's actually the other way around. Why? Surely the tax collector isn't doing the religious things the Pharisee was doing. Surely he didn't fit the standard of a good person. It all came down to humility; which one recognized his own sinfulness and his need for forgiveness.
I can think my goodness puts me in God's good favor. Perhaps even to the point where I'm doing God a favor; he's lucky to have someone like me. But my pride and delusion will be my undoing. I will not be exalted; I will be humbled. But if I recognize that I am not a good person and I don't deserve God's grace then I am in a position to be lifted up and placed in good standing with God. I need to be brought low if I am going to be lifted up.
2) You have to die in order to live.
Rom. 6:1-8, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him."
When we got baptized we went through the process of death, burial and resurrection. We died to our old, self-directed and self-willed life and we were resurrected to live a new life; a God-directed life. And since we were willing to die we are now made alive in Christ. But that doesn't mean that after our baptism we're done dying.
Paul went on to say in Rom. 8:13-14, "For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God."
We need to walk in newness of life. That means we need to be about change. We need to continue to put sin to death. We need to do this on a daily basis.
Jesus said in Luke 9:23-25, "Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?"
When Jesus said, 'take up his cross' he means what the cross was used for-death. In denying ourselves we are putting our will to death and embracing Jesus'. In taking up our cross we are putting to death the misdeeds of the body-we are dying to sin. In this passage Jesus illustrates another paradox-that in losing our life we save it.
Or, as he stated it a little differently in Matthew 10:39, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
How do I find my life by losing it? If I want to hold on to my old life; if I want to conclude that this is the only life worth living I will lose it. In holding onto this life I will forfeit not only eternal life but the fullness of this life too. I will not have joy, peace, love and fulfillment if I'm not willing to let go of my pursuit of worldly pleasures. However, if I am willing to put my life in God's hands and choose to live my life for his will, it is then that I will find not only eternal life but the fulfillment of life in the here and now.
If I want to find life I have to lose it first. This involves another paradox. You have to become a slave in order to be free. Rom. 6:20-22, "When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life."
In reality I already was a slave-to sin; although I didn't realize it. Paul is saying in order to become free you have to switch your master. So it's not that if I come to Christ I am no longer a slave; it's that I am no longer a slave to sin. But in order to find eternal life I need to give Jesus the control of my life-I need to become his slave.
Although being a slave sounds negative, being a slave to Jesus is a good thing. The paradox is that in becoming a slave to Jesus I am free. Free from the control of sin. Free from the bondage of spiritual death. Free to become like Jesus. Paul said as a slave to sin I was free from the control of righteousness; meaning I was not able to become righteous nor was I able to live a righteous life. But now, as a slave to Christ I have the Spirit of Christ inside of me enabling me to become like him in heart, mind and character. I didn't have that ability under the constriction of sin.
Paul said in 2nd Cor. 3:17-18 that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. Since the Spirit of the Lord is in us we have the freedom to be transformed into his likeness. Being a slave of Christ is a blessing; not a curse. In order to live I need to die. In order to find I need to lose. In order to be free I need to become a slave. In order to be victorious I need to surrender. The paradoxes we live by.
3) Foolishly wise.
It might seem like an oxymoron but in essence that's what we are. The world would look at the principles of Christianity and call them backwards and foolish. But if they really gave it some considerable, unbiased thought, they would probably come to the better conclusion.
"An atheist was sitting under a tree one day thinking. “God,” he said, “you know I don’t believe in you, but if you exist, you must be stupid. Look at this huge oak tree. It has little teeny acorns on it. And look at this huge pumpkin growing on this weak, puny little vine. Now, if I had been you, I would have put the acorn on the little vine, and the pumpkin on the huge, strong oak tree.”
While the man was reflecting on his great wisdom and wishing that he had a mirror to see how wise he looked, an acorn fell on his head. It must've knocked some sense into his for at that moment he was pretty thankful it wasn't a pumpkin."
Foolishness to the world but it makes sense to us. 1st Cor. 1:18-25, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength."
What appears foolish is actually wise. It's interesting: Jews demand a miraculous sign and they got plenty of them but still refused to believe. The Greeks (or gentiles) looked for wisdom although wisdom was slapping them in the face but they didn't believe. But to those of us who are "simple" enough to understand and accept, we have seen the miracles and have found wisdom.
Vs. 26-29, "Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him."
This is a paradox as well. That God would choose the simple to shame the wise. That God would use the weak to shame the strong. One would not think that was possible to do; which is why God does it. No one would think somebody who is unschooled would be able to teach the schooled. But that's what God does. He did it with Peter and John.
Acts 4:1-13, "The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.
The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is “ ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone'. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."
One of the main reasons these religious leaders were disturbed was because of the success these fisherman were having in proclaiming the gospel. So they bring Peter and John in and talk with them. And at the end of it they sit back astonished at what these two 'unschooled' men know and the courage and passion by which they proclaimed it.
It doesn't make any sense that Jesus would choose the Apostles he did. It seems foolish to entrust the most precious and important message to these types of individuals. But this was done in order to show the awesome ability of God. Turning unschooled, ordinary men into spiritual dynamos.
I don't consider myself to be a spiritual dynamo but I do fit into the category of unschooled and ordinary. [explain]. How? Because of God. Why? So that I would have no reason to boast except for what Christ has done in and through me. So that I would give God all the credit and glory for my abilities and accomplishments. So that everyone would recognize the power of God. Foolishly wise.
The idea of Christianity being filled with paradoxes is important for us to understand so we can see that much of who we are is in direct contrast to what makes sense. So we can see that the way we think and act is going to be contrary to how the rest of the world thinks and acts. So we can be prepared for the perplexed or negative responses from the people who don't get it. So that we would not be swayed by their way of thinking and start to question what we believe. God knows what he's doing. It may look foolish to some but it is pure but wisdom to those who understand. Absurd to the world but reasonable to us.
