PERPLEXING PARADOXES

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

Christianity is a faith filled with perplexing paradoxes. God is sovereign, yet He allows man to have his own free will. God’s perfect Word originates from our Heavenly Father, yet it is written down and communicated by imperfect men. Jesus Christ was both fully God and fully man. Each of these paradoxes have stimulated books, lectures, sermons, discussions, studies and yes, even arguments. G.K. Chesterton once said, “Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites by keeping them both and keeping them both furious.” Living a faith full of paradoxes is difficult for us. It makes us uncomfortable and uneasy for many reasons.

 

We want our faith to make sense to us on our terms. A paradox does not always make immediate sense. It pushes us to trust God for answers that may rest in the far future. When we read just a few words of the following verse from the Bible it presents us with the fact that we all have limitations in comprehending fully who God is. Corinthians 13:12 says, “Now I know in part…” These five words are very, very accurate. Our condition of knowing partially often complicates our understanding the paradoxes of God as well as how God accomplishes His purposes. Our limited perspective often causes us to question why God does the things He does or why He allows certain events to take place. Even our attempt to comprehend who God is causes us to form Him in our own image.

 

When we crave to understand God we often try to place our Heavenly Father in a well-defined box where we can study Him. But God refuses to have limitations placed on Him. What we must understand is that God is also a paradox. There is only one God, but He exists in triune form; Father, Son and Spirit. I wonder if the numerous examples of paradoxes in the Christian faith illustrate God’s determination to demonstrate and communicate that He can never be understood completely from man’s limited perspective. Who can fathom the intricacies and complexities of an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient Creator? Only through a relationship with Jesus Christ do we ever have a chance at knowing, in an intimate way, our Heavenly Father.

 

Godly paradoxes violate our curious desires to know completely. They upset the applecart of expectations we have of both our faith and our Lord. When we examine other examples of Biblical paradoxes we find numerous examples.

 

The first shall be last: Matthew 20:16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” 

 

Find your life by losing it: Matthew 10:39 “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

 

Work out your salvation, but God works in you to bring this salvation to pass: Philippians 2:12‑13 “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

 

Where sin abounds, grace abounds more: Romans 5:20‑21 “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.”

 

We are saved by grace alone, but faith without works is dead: Ephesians 2:8‑9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith‑and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast.” James 2:26 “So faith without deeds is dead.”

 

He who serves is the greatest: Luke 22:26 “The greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.”

 

Very likely God patterned His truth after Himself, a perfect paradox. God designed our faith purposely in this fashion to cause us to ponder, to reflect and to depend on Him. A paradox causes us to stop, sit down and use our mind and heart to listen to God our Creator. We must often meditate on a spiritual paradox to even come close to understanding it. Even then, when we believe we grasp its significance, there is always an element of faith required to accept it. This causes our faith to grow as well as develop and pumps up our “spiritual muscle” you might say.  Spiritual growth can be uncomfortable and the “paradox of puzzles” that God gives us stimulates growth in our faith, as well as trust and commitment to our Lord. Like young students in school, we growl and gripe about the assignments in faith we are given to live by. What causes us to grumble and stumble over the paradoxes in Christianity?

 

I believe our problem is that we desire to walk by our sight rather than by our faith. We would like to have life organized and planned out so we can gain security for the future in our own knowledge rather than faith in our God. When we strive to walk by sight we often gravitate to one aspect of a paradox over another and fall into heresy. Philip Yancey commented on this when he said, “Most heresies come from espousing one opposite over the expense of another.” Balancing Biblical beliefs means living in the flux of perplexing paradoxes. Living by sight allows us to depend on our own knowledge and understanding when approaching issues. Living by faith requires us to trust in our Maker no matter what may happen. Grappling with a paradox of scripture makes us deny ourselves and accept the guidance of God’s Spirit. It causes us to seek our Savior, to pray to our Father and fellowship with our brothers and sisters as we seek their counsel.

 

Servants of the Lord must accept the mystery and uncertainty of the paradoxes of the Christian faith. We must listen to scripture when it tells us to “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5) and that “We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7‑8).

 

As you face paradoxes in your life do the following:

 

1. Become very familiar with your Bible.

 

2. Stay in fellowship with other Disciples of Christ who can help you grow in your faith, understand Holy Scripture, hold you accountable in your spiritual walk and who can sustain you in their prayers for you.

 

3. Make daily prayer a priority in your life sometime during the day.

 

4. Seek to minister to others you live with, work with and those you come in contact with who have questions about the Christian faith.

 

5. Remember you are a child of the King, a Follower of Christ and you have a great treasure to share with others about how to know the Father, Son and Spirit in a most intimate way!