Why Does Ice Cream Melt

Why does ice cream melt

The law of entropy

Acts 2:24 says it. “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” I love that language. We tend to think of dying and coming back to life as being impossible. Peter says the exact opposite. It was impossible for death to keep its grip on The Way, The Truth, and The Life.

Let me give you a crash course in thermodynamics.

Thermodynamics is the study of energy in all of its different forms. The first and second laws of thermodynamics describe the way the process works. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy is conserved. In other words, energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be exchanged for a different kind of energy. For example, if you push a boulder off a cliff you convert gravitational energy into kinetic energy.

But there is another law at work and it’s the reason why ice cream melts on a summer day and coffee cools on a winter day. The second law of thermodynamics introduces something called entropy into the equation.

It basically states that if left to its own devices, everything moves towards randomness and disorder. Cars rust. Toys break. And food rots. And for the readers who are parents, kid’s rooms get real messy real fast.

Entropy

Now let me give you one of my definitions of sin: sin is entropy. Sin is moving toward disorder. For what it’s worth, the word “holiness” means set apart sacred taken up with .” the opposite of that is untaken up with. It is becoming more and more fragmented. It is moving toward disorder. And the end result is a meaningless existence because there is no center of gravity.

Proverbs 29:18 says, “Without a vision [dream revelation] the people perish.” [loosen dismiss go back] The word “perish” comes from the Hebrew word para which could be translated entropy. It refers to the process of decay. More specifically, it is used of perishable food that is past its prime. In other words, food that is rotten.

Negentropy

Now let me frame vision in terms of physics. There is a cool concept that is the counterpart of entropy. It’s called negentropy. Negentropy is the increase of information [ a vision revelation] that results in the decrease of disorder. If sin is entropy then vision is negentropy!

The only way to prevent entropy is to introduce some outside energy source that counteracts it. A refrigerator for example. You plug it into an electrical outlet and it produces cold air that keeps food from rotting and ice cream from melting. But if you disconnect that refrigerator from its energy source, entropy will take over again.

That is what happens to us spiritually when we are disconnected from God. Entropy takes over. The only way to overcome entropy is to plug into God.

Reverse the Curse

Now let me zoom out and look at Scripture through a wide-angled lens. If you go all the way back to the beginning you can see the introduction of entropy at a place called Eden. Genesis 2:16 says, “And God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will certainly die.”

This is the first time the word “die” appears in Scripture. It comes from the Hebrew word muwth which means “to die prematurely.”

Here’s the deal: God intended Adam and Eve to live forever, but sin introduced the process of decay also known as entropy. Let me be even more specific.

So sin introduced entropy—the process of decay and disorder and disharmony. Romans 8:21 says we are “in bondage to decay.” In other words, entropy is inescapable. But Jesus came to “set the captives free.” I think redemption and sanctification and glorification are all about reversing the curse. It’s about reversing the effects of spiritual and relational and emotional and intellectual and physical entropy. Jesus described his mission this way in John 10:10: “The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy.” The thief is simply another name for the ancient serpent and he’s still doing now what he was doing then: introducing entropy into our lives. But Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” That’s negentropy!

Now let me take you to the end of the book. God reverses the curse in Revelation 21.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’