Illustrated Summary of The Chosen: Season 2, Episode 6: Unlawful

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This episode begins with a flashback to Nob, Israel in 1008 B.C. Ahimelech the priest is talking with his wife, who is worried about their eldest son's illness. He asks her to send their son Abiathar so he can teach him how to prepare the Bread of Presence for the Tabernacle. As Abiathar helps his father with the 12 big loaves they freshly baked, he asks why God did not eat the old loaves. Ahimelech explains, "God doesn't need food. It's called the Bread of the Presence because it's a reminder of His presence in our lives, a symbol that He sits at our table and dwells in our midst." Abiathar wants to know what happens to the old bread. His father says, "In the Law of Moses it is written that Aaron and his sons shall eat it in a holy place, since for him it is the most holy portion out of Adonai's food offerings, a perpetual due." Now Abiathar knows what his older relatives have been eating after the new bread is put out.

Father and son count off the new loaves according to the 12 tribes of Israel. When they get to Judah, the tribe from whom the Messiah was prophesied to come, in walks the future King David, a descendant of Judah. Ahimelech sends Abiathar away and speaks to David alone. David, at this point in his life, is on the run from wicked King Saul. He and his men are in desperate need of food, and the old Bread of Presence is handy. It is not lawful for them to eat, but Ahimelech decides to apply the principle of pikuach nefesh to preserve life in an emergency. He correctly realizes this decision will jeopardize his own life. So does appreciative David, but Ahimelech says, "I'm not sorry. Something is going to come through you." At the end of this episode, we will hear David's descendant, the Messiah Jesus, describe David's need here to teach life-giving truth.

Moving forward to Jesus and His disciples, Simon and Matthew begin their morning in Jericho so they can look for Mary Magdalene. Matthew is studying a map, certain she is there since she is more comfortable in cities. He already checked with the synagogue if a distraught woman fitting her description stopped by, but none did. Simon notices a Roman soldier staggering after climbing up stairs from an all-nighter at the bar below. The stairs remind Matthew of the passage Jesus said to keep in mind: "If I descend to the depths, You are there" (Psalm 139:8).

Matthew with his map.

The scene changes to Mother Mary and Ramah, who are looking for edible plants. Mary finds joy in the situation, saying that "Jesus is doing what He was born to do, and maybe sometimes that means we will be hungry for a few days. At least His time has come." Ramah wonders out loud why then Jesus doesn't just bring Mary Magdalene back. Mother Mary says, "It doesn't work that way. We lived in Egypt when Jesus was a boy. One of their gods was called Thoth, whom they believed they could compel to grant their wishes if they performed the rituals. It's not like that with our God; why would it be with Jesus?" Ramah can't see any good coming from Mary disappearing and Simon and Matthew, who do not like each other, working together to find Mary. "Do you know that?" asks Mother Mary, gently. Ramah cries out, "She could be dead or lying in a ditch somewhere! Why would Jesus use her pain to unite two men annoyed by each other?" Mary responds, "Ramah, some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the name of Adonai, our God." Ramah, understanding quickly, joins her in completing that quote from Psalm 20. She confides that she wants to be a teacher someday, but fears she won't if Mary doesn't come back. Mother Mary says, "We can't fix anything by worrying about it." She then spots wildflowers they can gather for everyone to eat.

Mother Mary and Ramah discuss theology while searching for food.

Mary Magdalene is around that time in a bar with rough men at a gaming table with a pile of coins and a steady stream of drinks coming her way. As she makes a fool of herself, she is jolted by the memory of her father teaching her as a girl to "fear not" from Isaiah 43. She runs from the table, leaving the money behind.

Thomas, meanwhile, is at the disciples' camp, counting out the last of the food they have left. He grumbles to Andrew that Jesus "can make people walk. He can heal lepers. Why can't He make food out of thin air?" (He is forgetting how Jesus turned water into wine, and will later see Jesus multiply bread and fish.) Andrew tells Thomas that when he was ministering with John the Baptizer, sometimes they would go for days without food. Big James and his brother John are chopping wood nearby. They stop to observe Simon the former Zealot's physical training routine, commenting that adding practices like that to the 613 commandments of Mosaic law seems like overkill to them, but they also realize decades of training don't go away overnight. They then humbly recall their own problems, and James admits, "I actually don't understand most of this, just pieces here and there when good things happen, but the rest? I'm just following." John says, "I have a sinking feeling it's going to take a long time to understand. For everyone."

Matthew and Simon stare down the steps to The Nomad bar in Jericho. Matthew bravely takes the first step, but Simon stops him and walks ahead, saying, "I know places like this." Matthew quickly follows, reciting, "When I make my bed deep in the depths, You are there." Simon quietly observes the bar inside, but Matthew inquires loudly about a distraught woman with long, dark hair. A man speaks up who lost money gambling with a woman fitting that description. Simon is convinced that was Mary and asks the man if he knows where she is.

Next we see Matthew and Simon back up the stairs. Matthew is sure Mary can't be far and suggests splitting up to cover more ground. Simon doesn't want to do that because he thinks Mary can obviously take care of herself, but Matthew cannot. Matthew counters, "What if you were cut off from Jesus because of something in your past? Wouldn't you want help getting back as soon as possible?" Simon admits the sense of that, but before they split up, someone overhearing them nearby says, "Boys?" It's Mary! She says she thought she was dreaming. Simon asks if she can walk. Mary says, "I'm not going anywhere." Matthew says, "We have to go back." Simon tells her that Jesus sent them to get her. Mary responds, "No. He already fixed me once, and I broke again. I can't face Him." Matthew approaches her and says, "I'm a bad person, Mary. My whole life, all for me. No faith." That gets Mary thinking and she says, "I do have faith in Him, but not in me." Matthew says, "I'm learning more about Torah and God because of you." He gestures with his eyes for Simon to speak up, who does, reminding Mary of how she helped people meet Jesus because of her care for them and good ideas. Matthew mentions her helping Ramah to read and write, saying, "He saved you to do all these things." Mary is encouraged enough to smile and laugh a bit, but then the alcohol works its way out of her system. Matthew at once sets aside his fastidious tendencies and helps clean her up, instructing Simon to find water.

Gently helping.

In Jerusalem, Shmuel and Yanni walk with an official named Dunash who remarks, "So all you're telling me is about someone who told someone to carry his mat on Shabbat?" Shmuel adds, "He invoked the title Son of Man from the prophet Daniel," speaking of the healing of the paralyzed man lowered from the roof in Capernaum. Dunash is the secretary of Shimon, the official who represents the liberal wing of the Pharisees. He thinks their complaint is thin because of a lack of corroborating witnesses, and tells them it is not worthy of Shimon's attention. Yanni asks sarcastically, "Which violations of God's immutable Law does President Shimon deem worthy of his attention?" Dunash belittles Yanni, but Shmuel draws him out to state, "Of the 613 commandments, when laws are pitted against each other under certain circumstances, it creates pain for our people, who are already suffering." He returns to the matter of witnesses for an example, stating that two or three witnesses are required in the Law "to judicially establish a fact," but fails to observe that the fact the Law is talking about is a crime brought before a court. Some Pharisees went so far as to consider the wife of a man who died with her as the only witness as an agunah, literally a woman chained to her marriage and unable to remarry. Dunash states that Shimon and Shimon's father, Hillel, care about vulnerable people caught in situations like that (without, however, caring to clarify God's Law). He rightly criticizes Yanni and Shmuel for caring more about people carrying mats on Shabbat.

Yanni and Shmuel with dismissive Dunash.

Later, Yanni and Shmuel complain about Dunash disregarding what they think is blasphemy. Shmuel believes their case is hopeless, but Yanni says, "No. It's just getting started. Now we go to the other side: the rigid one, Shammai. I was hoping to create more chaos by working through Shimon, but perhaps Shammai will respond to our stories with such fury, this will work better anyway. Shimon will have no explanation why he did not take this seriously." Shmuel shakes his head sadly and says, "Why does it take all this?"

Yanni gleefully plots chaos.

Shmuel: Why does it take all this?

As Simon and Matthew arrive back to the disciples’ camp with Mary Magdalene, Simon notices his brother, Andrew, looking distressed in a concerned circle of other disciples. Ramah gasps with relief when she sees Mary, running over to her. Mother Mary follows and drapes Mary's uncovered head with a dignified covering appropriate in their culture as a gesture of respect and love. Simon walks over to the men and asks what happened. He learns that John the Baptizer was roughly arrested and taken to Herod's most heavily blockaded prison. 

Ramah asks if Mary needs anything. Mary asks where Jesus is. Upon learning He is in His tent, she asks if she should wait. Mother Mary answers no and says she will take her to Him. The two walk in and see Jesus mourning. He says, "It's not you. There's quite a lot going on right now." He sniffles and turns to face them, saying, "It's good to have you back." Mary looks down and replies, "I don't know what to say." He says kindly, "I don't require much." Mary says, "I'm so ashamed. You redeemed me and I just threw it all away." He says, "It's not much of a redemption if it can be lost in a day, is it?" Mary says, "I owe You everything, but I just don't think I can do it." Jesus wants her to tell Him what she means. She's thinking in terms of living up to all He has done for her. He tells her, "I just want your heart. The Father just wants your heart. Give Us that, which you already have, and the rest will come in time. Did you really think you'd never struggle or sin again?" "I shouldn't," says Mary. Jesus says, "Someday, but not here." Mary says how sorry she is and begins weeping, eyes downcast. Jesus asks her to look up at Him, which she does slowly. He says, "I forgive you. It's over." As Jesus steps closer, she reaches to embrace Him. He smiles and comforts Mary like a father would a beloved daughter. Mother Mary looks on with joy and Matthew, seen listening outside the tent, smiles.

Jesus is patient and tender with the humble and repentant.

Simon comforts Andrew, who is weeping because he fears they will never see John the Baptizer again. Philip told them John was sentenced with lifetime imprisonment. Simon the Zealot says, "We could break him out. I know some people." Philip says, "The Zealots against Herod's army? Now that's a fight I'd pay to see. It's maximum security up there." Simon replies, "That would make it more fun." Philip reconsiders and says, "No. You're not a part of that Order anymore. You're a part of this one." Thomas speaks up: "I'm afraid the situation is worse than you know." He is led to Jesus, whom he tells with embarrassment their immediate problem of lack of food after that night's simple Shabbat meal. Jesus sighs and says simply, "Seems like something we should seek My Father about." "Pray?" asks Thomas. "Well, it is almost Shabbat, after all," says Jesus. He tells Thomas to inform the others that they will head out to a nearby synagogue in the morning.

That morning we see the remote Wadi Qelt synagogue near Jericho getting ready to receive worshipers. Jesus and His disciples pass by grain fields on their way there. The disciples ask why He wants to go to this particular synagogue. Jesus says, "Have you noticed that no matter where we go recently, more and more we are misunderstood?" Some answer in unison, "Definitely!" Jesus continues, "It is a very complicated time." He is grieved to know Mary knew she would not be welcome at the synagogue in Jericho when she arrived there distraught because of their low view of women. They all soon discover that the small-town synagogue in Wadi Qelt is no better. The rabbi there sternly recites from Deuteronomy 23, "No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation. No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord." He goes on in a harsh tone without any explanation. Jesus adds much-needed compassion to this congregation by greeting a man with a withered hand. The rabbi interrupts, asks if Jesus is a healer, and tells Him healing is not allowed on the Sabbath anyway. Jesus sighs and says, "Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath will not lift it out? Of how much more value is this man than a sheep! Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" Despite protests from the synagogue officials, Jesus heals the man's hand. "It's good, huh?" says Jesus to the man. "If God meant for that man to be healed, He would have done it Himself!" shouts one of the officials. "Interesting point," says Jesus. He is ordered out, gladly complying. "Blasphemer! What is wrong with you?" says the rabbi. "Apparently everything," responds Jesus in an even tone.

Jesus heals a man with a withered hand in a synagogue on Shabbat.

Walking past the grain fields again, Jesus's disciples talk excitedly about what just happened. One of them, after laughing, absentmindedly grabs a handful of grain and munches on the sun-roasted nuggets. The others stare at him. He spits them out and apologizes, knowing that although the law generously makes provision for hungry travelers, Rabbinic rules of the day regard such innocent activities as Sabbath violations. Jesus, knowing His disciples are hungry, looks at them all and says, "You may." They all take Him at His word and eat with gratitude.

Running up to them are the two synagogue officials, the elder Madai and Rabbi Lamech, who demand to know Jesus's name and lineage to report Him for "making a mockery of Torah." Lamech then notices what the disciples are doing, accusing them of following Jesus's example in violating the Sabbath. Jesus says, "Have you not read what David did when he was in need and was hungry? He entered the house of God in the time of Ahimelech the priest and ate the Bread of the Presence, which was not lawful for him to eat, but only for the priests." Madai says, "You would dare to compare yourself with David?" Jesus continues, "Or have you not read in the law that on Shabbat the priests in the Temple 'profane' the Sabbath (by working) but are guiltless? Listen carefully: something greater than the temple is here, and if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." Jesus leads His disciples away as Madai and Lamech, stunned, contemplate Jesus's use of the Messianic title Son of Man.

Jesus is stern with the proud and merciless.

Sadly, the Wadi Qelt officials don't allow what Jesus said to challenge their thinking. They feel they must warn the Sanhedrin and others about Jesus, adding to their complaints that He has women following Him, but they rightly realize the Son of Man and Lord of the Sabbath claims are the main issues. They hope their little synagogue gains fame, but are afraid they will be disregarded. Rabbi Lamech says, "Who knows? All we can do is fulfill our duty to report the facts. And pray." "For what?" asks Madai. "For justice," answers Lamech.

Illustrated Summaries of All The Chosen TV Series Episodes (Quotes, Links, and Photos)

Related posts emphasizing that Christianity is Jewish:

• Illustrated Summary of Christianity Is Jewish by Edith Schaeffer

• Illustrated Summary of Twelve Ordinary Men (the Apostles) by John MacArthur
  
• The Gospel According to God (Isaiah 53) by John MacArthur

• DANIEL+—An Illustrated Summary of Life Applications from Every Chapter of the Bible by G. Campbell Morgan

• Illustrated Summary of Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis

• Trusting the Bible: Illustrated Summary of Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell and Dr. Sean McDowell

#TheChosen #BingeJesus #SeeHimAsTheyDid #QuotesfromTheChosen

Theology Central in Clear English: An Eternal Example and Three Resources

The Westminster and London Baptist Confessions are central expressions of Christian theology that emerge from the Bible, arranged topically by scholars with astonishing depth and brevity. Those scholars finished their work hundreds of years ago, with other scholars adding relatively minor refining details through the years. The English text of 34 brief chapters of compact theological statements has been rendered into clear, contemporary English with shorter sentences, subjects linked closely with their verbs, simple punctuation, and common yet accurate words. This post is called Theology Central in Clear English because it is an attempt by a book editor to call attention to that fact by providing the following links and giving an example of how that information may be used to compose one's own notes for teaching or research.

The links are these:

Plain English Westminster 

Side-by Side Comparison of the Westminster and London Baptist Confessions 

The New City Catechism, online and mobile versions; Amazon link 

Here is an overview of the 34 theology chapters. The example provided is of Chapter 3: God's Eternal Decrees. Directly after each clarifying statement (8 total), the official Westminster or London Baptist statement is quoted word for word, along with its most important supporting Scriptures written out clearly in modern English, to help the reader evaluate and gain a rich theological understanding point by point.

Chapter 1: Holy Scripture

Chapter 2: God and the Holy Trinity

Chapter 3: God's Eternal Decrees

Chapter 4: Creation

Chapter 5: Providence

Chapter 6: Fall of Man, Sin and Punishment

Chapter 7: God's Covenants with Man

Chapter 8: Christ the Mediator

Chapter 9: Free Will

Chapter 10: Sovereignty of God

Chapter 11: Justification (Judicial Righteousness)

Chapter 12: Spiritual Adoption

Chapter 13: Sanctification (Practical Righteousness)

Chapter 14: Saving Faith

Chapter 15: Repentance

Chapter 16: Good Works

Chapter 17: Perseverance

Chapter 18: Assurance of Grace and Salvation

Chapter 19: The Law of God

Chapter 20: The Gospel and the Extent of Grace

Chapter 21: Freedom and Conscience

Chapter 22: Worship and the Lord's Day

Chapter 23: Oaths and Vows

Chapter 24: Civil Government

Chapter 25: Marriage and Divorce

Chapter 26: The Church

Chapter 27: The Fellowship

Chapter 28: The Ordinances

Chapter 29: Baptism

Chapter 30: The Lord's Supper

Chapter 31: Church Discipline

Chapter 32: Church Councils
Chapter 33: The State of Men after Death
Chapter 34: The Final Judgment

Chapter 3: God’s Eternal Decrees

3.1 Before time began, God freely determined everything that would happen in time from His perfectly holy and wise perspective, yet He did not create evil. He does not violate the will of His creatures, but works with their free choices to accomplish His predetermined purposes. 

Direct Quote of Westminster Confession 3.1: God, from all eternity, did by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.

Principal Scriptures for 3.1: “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation” (Psalm 33:11). "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him ... predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will" (Ephesians 1:4, 11). "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust" (James 1:13-14). Jesus was "delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, [but] nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put to death" (Acts 2:23). Joseph said to his brothers, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good ... to preserve many people alive" (Genesis 50:20).

3.2 Although God knows exactly what would happen under any circumstance, He does not base His eternal decrees on what He foresees His creatures choosing in the future. 

Direct Quote of Westminster Confession 3.2: Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions, yet hath He not decreed anything because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions. 

Principal Scriptures for 3.2: King David asked God, "Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?" The Lord answered, "They will surrender you" (1 Samuel 23:12). David and his men therefore left Keilah to prevent that betrayal from happening. Jesus said, "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago" (Matthew 11:21). Regarding Jacob and Esau in Genesis: "Though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said ... 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated' [Malachi 1:2]. What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion' [Exodus 33:19]. So then it does not depend on the man who wills ... but on God who has mercy" (Romans 9:11-16).

3.3  In a display of His divine character, God decided to appoint some men and angels to eternal life and others to eternal death.

Direct Quote of Westminster Confession 3.3: By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestined unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death.
  
Principal Scriptures for 3.3: God "predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace" (Ephesians 1:5-6). "What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory" (Romans 9:22-23). When Jesus returns in His glory, "He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another" (Matthew 25:31). To the wicked He will say, "Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels" (verse 41).

3.4  God elected or appointed these specific angels and men by His design. Their numbers are certain and cannot change.

Direct Quote of Westminster Confession 3.4: These angels and men, thus predestined and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished.
  
Principal Scriptures for 3.4: "The firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, 'The Lord knows those who are His'" (2 Timothy 2:19). Jesus prayed, "Father ... glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority ... that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life" (John 17:3). "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His elect angels" (1 Timothy 5:21). We are told that after the apostle Paul preached, "As many as had been appointed to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48). A few chapters later we read this about a wealthy merchant named Lydia: "The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul" (Acts 16:14).

3.5 God chose those appointed to eternal life in Christ before He created the world. His choice was based on His own good and unchanging intentions and virtues, not on His foreseeing any human works or acts of faith. That will bring Him well-deserved praise for all eternity.

Direct Quote of Westminster Confession 3.5: Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, hath chosen, in Christ, unto everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith, or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving Him thereunto; and all to the praise of His glorious grace.
  
Principal Scriptures for 3.5: Those whom God "predestined, He also called ... justified; and ... glorified" (Romans 8:30). "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.... He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention ... having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will" (Ephesians 1:4, 9, 11). God "has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity" (2 Timothy 1:9). "By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). God making the first move is necessary, Paul explains a few verses earlier, because we all were "dead in our trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1).

3.6 God has freely determined who will be blessed throughout eternity in His glorious presence, and exactly how that will happen. All whom He has chosen from Adam's fallen race need redemption, which comes by God's Spirit working in their lives to call them to faith in Christ. By that faith they are justified or made right with God, and adopted into His family. The Spirit progressively makes them more like Christ and preserves them for their complete salvation in Christ's presence. God's Spirit works in all those ways only among those whom the Father has chosen from eternity.

Direct Quote of Westminster Confession 3.6: As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath He, by the eternal and most free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore, they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Christ by His Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by His power, through faith, unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.
  
Principal Scriptures for 3.6: Peter describes Christians as "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:2). "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). "God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,  who died for us, so that ... we will live together with Him" (1 Thessalonians  5:9-10). "You have received a spirit of adoption.... The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:15-16). Those whom God "predestined, He also called ... justified; and ... glorified" (Romans 8:30). Jesus "knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe" and declared, "No one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father" (John 6:64-65). Those who belong to Christ "are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation" (1 Peter 1:5).

3.7 The rest of mankind God has not chosen for His own good reasons that are beyond our full knowledge. They will be punished for their own sins, which displays God's justice, wrath, power, and sovereignty just as surely as salvation displays His mercy and grace.


Direct Quote of Westminster Confession 3.7: The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of His own will, whereby He extendeth or withholdeth mercy, as He pleaseth, for the glory of His sovereign power over His creatures, to pass by; and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of His glorious justice.
  
Principal Scriptures for 3.7: Jesus said, "I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight" (Matthew 11:25-26). "Certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (Jude 1:4). Jesus is precious to those who believe, but to those who disbelieve, He is "'a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense' [Isaiah 8:14] for they stumble because they are disobedient to the Word, and to this doom they were also appointed" (1 Peter 2:7-8). God, "although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction."  He did that "to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory" (Romans 9:22-23).

3.8 The doctrine of predestination, rightly understood, brings great encouragement and assurance of salvation to people characterized by obedience God's will as revealed in His Word. That produces within them humility, increasing diligence, and adoration of God, who is worthy of highest praise.


Direct Quote of Westminster Confession 3.8: The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men, attending the will of God revealed in His Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election. So shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration of God; and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the Gospel.
  
Principal Scriptures for 3.8: "Who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" (Romans 9:20). "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this Law" (Deuteronomy 29:29). "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out!" (Romans 11:33). "Brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things [goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love], you will never stumble" (2 Peter 1:10). "We know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that He has chosen you ... for you welcomed the [Gospel] message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 1:4-6). "They were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear" (Rom 11:20). "Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies" (Romans 8:33).

Illustrated Summary of Your God Is Too Small by J.B. Phillips

Too many of us, says J.B. Phillips, are crippled by a limited idea of God. Resident Policeman, Pale Galilean, and Perennial Grievance are some of the stereotypes he demolishes before suggesting ways we can discover the real God of the Bible for ourselves. J.B. Phillips is the Anglican minister well known for his highly readable New Testament in Modern English, which he began during World War II when ministering to teens and young adults having a hard time understanding older Bible translations. (Click here to read C.S. Lewis's lively, intelligent endorsement of Phillips's Bible translation.) Your God Is too Small emerged from a growing conviction that "if it is true that there is Someone in charge of the whole mystery of life and death, we can hardly escape a sense of futility and frustration until we begin to see what He is like and what His purposes are."

DESTRUCTIVE—Unreal Gods:

1. Resident Policeman

"To many people conscience is almost all that they have by way of knowledge of God. This still small voice which makes them feel guilty and unhappy before, during, or after wrongdoing...controls their conduct. It is this which impels them to shoulder the irksome duty and choose the harder path. Now no serious advocate of a real adult religion would deny the function of conscience, or deny that its voice may at least give some inkling of the moral order that lies behind the obvious world in which we live. Yet to make conscience into God is a highly dangerous thing to do. For one thing...conscience is by no means an infallible guide; and for another it is extremely unlikely that we shall ever be moved to worship, love, and serve a nagging inner voice that at worst spoils our pleasure and at best keeps us rather negatively on the path of virtue. Conscience can be so easily perverted or morbidly developed in the sensitive person, and so easily ignored and silenced by the insensitive, that it makes  a very unsatisfactory god.... Unless there is a God by whom 'right' and 'wrong' can be reliably assessed, moral judgements can be no more than opinion, influenced by upbringing, training, and propaganda."

2. Parental Hangover

"Quite a lot of ordinary people...have an abnormal fear of authority, or of a dominating personality of either sex, which could without much difficulty be traced to the tyranny of a parent. Conversely there are many who...are imperfectly adjusted to life, and whose inner sense of superiority makes them difficult to work or live with. It would again not be difficult to trace in their history a childhood of spoiling and indulgence, in which the child's natural self-love was never checked or directed outward into interest in other people.... But what has this to do with an inadequate conception of God?... Christ Himself taught us to regard God as a Father. Are we to reject His own analogy? Of course not, so long as we remember that it is an analogy. When Christ taught His disciples to regard God as their Father in Heaven He did not mean that their idea of God must necessarily be based upon their ideas of their own fathers.... There may have been many of His hearers whose fathers were unjust, tyrannical, stupid, conceited, [irresponsible], or indulgent. It is the relationship that Christ is stressing. The intimate love for, and interest in, his son possessed by a good earthly father represents to men a relationship that they can understand, even if they themselves are fatherless! The same sort of relationship, Christ is saying, can be reliably reckoned upon by man in his dealings with God.... It is only when we limit the mind's stirrings after its Maker by imposing upon it half-forgotten images of our own earthly parents, that we grow frustrated in spirit and wonder why for us the springs of worship and love do not flow. We must leave behind 'parental hangover' if we are to find a 'big enough' God."

3. Grand Old Man

"The 'Grand Old Man' is treated with reverence and respect—look what a help He was to our forefathers!—but He can hardly be expected to cope with the complexities and problems of life today! If the absurdity of this 'split' makes us laugh, so much the better. There is much in our Churches and religious teaching generally that tends to encourage the 'old-fashioned' concept. The Bible is read in beautiful but old-fashioned language, as a rule.... At baptism, matrimony, and burial, we continue to use language which ordinary people can hardly understand, but which they feel vaguely is old-fashioned and out of touch with their actual lives.... People often scathingly criticize the youth of today for having no 'historic sense.' But surely that is hardly to be wondered at. So great and far-reaching have been the changes in modern life that the young man of today cannot see any but the slenderest connection between what appears to him the slow simple and secure life of a bygone generation and the highly-complex fast-moving life of the world today.... It will be necessary...to look back into human history at the actual events which are the foundation of the Christian view of God. But it will be just as necessary to return, armed with the essential historical facts, to the modern world. No figure in history, however splendid and memorable, can possibly satisfy the mind which is seeking the living contemporary God."

4. Meek and Mild

"Of all the epithets that could be applied to Christ, this seems one of the least appropriate. For what does 'mild,' as applied to a person, conjure up to our minds?... Someone who would let sleeping dogs lie and avoid trouble wherever possible; someone of a placid temperament...someone who is a bit of a nonentity, both uninspired and uninspiring. This...to describe a Man who did not hesitate to challenge and expose the hypocrisies of the religious people of His day: a man who had such 'personality' that He walked unscathed through a murderous crowd; a man so far from being a nonentity that He was regarded by the authorities as a public danger; a man who could be moved to violent anger by shameless exploitation or by smug complacent orthodoxy; a man of such courage that He deliberately walked to what He knew would mean death, despite the earnest pleas of well-meaning friends!... Jesus Christ might well be called 'meek,' in the sense of being...humble and utterly devoted to what He considered right, whatever the personal cost; but 'mild,' never!... The danger of the 'meek-and-mild' idea is two-fold. First, since Christians believe that the character of Christ is an accurate depiction in time and space of the character of the Eternal Deity, it is apt to lead to a conception of God that is wooly and sentimental.... The second danger is that since it is axiomatic with Christians that God is love, this most terrible and beautiful of all the virtues becomes debased and cheapened.... To speak the truth was obviously to [Jesus] more important than to make His hearers comfortable: though, equally obviously, His genuine love for men gave Him tact, wisdom, and sympathy. He was Love in action, but He was not...mild."

5. Absolute Perfection

"It can be so easily be argued that since God is Perfection, and since He asks the complete loyalty of His creatures, then the best way of serving, pleasing, and worshiping Him is to set up absolute 100 percent standards and see to it that we obey them. After all, did not Christ say, 'Be ye perfect'?... But the conscientious, sensitive, imaginative person who is somewhat lacking in self-confidence and inclined to introspection, will find 100 percent perfection truly terrifying.... The tragedy is often that the 100 percent god is introduced into the life of the sensitive by the comparatively insensitive, who literally cannot imagine the harm they are doing. What is the way out? The words of Christ, 'Learn of Me,' provide the best clue.... Christianity...is...a way of living... To 'learn' implies growth; implies the making and correcting of mistakes; implies a steady upward progress toward an ideal. The 'perfection' to which Christ commands men to progress is this ideal. The modern high-pressure Christian of certain circles would like to impose perfection of 100 percent as a set of rules to be immediately enforced, instead of as a shining ideal to be faithfully pursued.... Such a distortion of Christian truth could not possible originate from the One who said His 'yoke is easy' and His 'burden light' [Matthew 11:30], nor by His follower St. Paul, who declared after many years' experience that he pressed toward the mark—not that he had already attained it or was already perfect [Philippians 3:13]. The true ideal...stimulates, encourages, and produces likeness to itself.... Who would deny the father's interest in the prodigal son when his Spiritual Index was at a very low figure indeed? God is truly Perfection, but He is no Perfectionist, and 100 percent is not God." 

6. Heavenly Bosom

"The Jesus of the Gospels...would have discouraged any sentimental flying to His bosom and often told men to go out and do most difficult and arduous things. His understanding and sympathy were always at the disposal of those who needed Him, yet the general impression of His personality in the Gospels is of One who was leading men on to fuller understanding and maturity. So far from encouraging them to escape life, He came to bring...'life more abundant' [John 10], and in the end He left His followers to carry out a task that might have daunted the stoutest heart. Original Christianity had certainly no taint of escapism. A gibe...leveled at the early Church was that Christians were nearly all drawn from the criminal or...slave classes. The answer to the amount of truth contained in that thrust is that those who knew they were sinners, and those who knew how hard life could be, were naturally more likely to respond to a Gospel offering a solution to the sinful and oppressed, than those who thought they were 'good' and were comfortably protected against many of life's cruelties. But the Christians did not remain criminals after their conversion, and many of the slaves...became capable and responsible.... Today the gibe is that the message of Christianity attracts only the psychologically immature. Even if that charge were true, the answer to it would be that those who know that they are at [odds] with themselves are more likely to respond to a Gospel offering psychological integration (among other things), than those who feel perfectly competent and well-adjusted. Nevertheless the true Christian does not long remain either immature or in internal conflict."

7. God-in-a-Box

"The man who is outside all organized Christianity may have...a certain reverence for God, and a certain genuine respect for Jesus Christ (though he has probably rarely considered Him and His claims with his adult mind). But what sticks in his throat about the Christianity of the Churches is...they seem to him to have captured and tamed and trained to their own liking Something that is really far too big ever to be forced into little man-made boxes with neat labels upon them.... Of course, it is easy to leap to the defense of the Churches, and point out that every cause must be organized if it is to be effective, that every society must have its rules, that Christ Himself [is building the] Church [Matthew 16].... No denomination has a monopoly of God's grace, and none has an exclusive recipe for producing Christian character. It is quite plain to the disinterested observer that the real God takes no notice whatever of the boxes; the Spirit, like the wind, 'blows where it wishes' [John 3] and is subject to no regulation of man. Moreover, our thoughtful observer...has done a good deal of thinking on his own. The discoveries of modern physical and biological science, of astronomy, and of psychology, have profoundly influenced his conception of the 'size' of God. If there be a Mind behind the immense complexities of the phenomena that man can observe, then it is...of a Being tremendous in His power and wisdom: it is emphatically not that of a little god. It is perfectly conceivable that such a Being has a moral purpose which is being worked out on the stage of this small planet. It is even possible to believe that such a God deliberately reduced Himself to the stature of humanity...to visit the earth in Person, as all Christians affirm.... The 'outsider' who knows nothing of the mixture of tradition, conviction, honest difference, and hidden resentment that lies behind the division of the Christian Churches sees clearly the advantage of a united Christian front.... There are many honest differences held with equal sincerity, but... [some people within] different denominations are (possibly unconsciously) imagining God to be Roman or Anglican or Baptist...or what have you. If they could see beyond their little inadequate god, and glimpse the reality of God...the result would be a unity that actually does transcend differences."

8. Managing Director

"There is a conception of God which seems at the first sight to be very lofty and splendid, but which proves paradoxically enough on examination to be yet another of the 'too small' ideas.... We may feel, since God is so huge...that we cannot conceive His taking...detailed interest in a single human life...: 'I cannot imagine such a tremendous God being interested in me,' and so on. He 'cannot imagine'...means simply that his mind is incapable of retaining the ideas of terrifying vastness and of minute attention to microscopic detail at the same time. But it in no way proves that God is incapable of fulfilling both ideas (and a great many more).... Man may be made in the image of God; but it is not sufficient to conceive God as nothing more than an infinitely magnified man. There are, for example, those who are considerably worried by the thought of God simultaneously hearing and answering the prayers...of people all over the world. That may be because their mental picture is of a harassed telephone operator.... It is really better to say frankly, 'I can't imagine how it can be done' (which is the literal truth) than to confuse the mind with the picture of an enlarged man performing the impossible.... To hold a conception of God as a mere magnified human being is to run the risk of thinking of Him simply as the Commander-in-Chief who cannot possibly spare the time to attend to the details of His subordinates' lives.... We need a God with the capacity to hold...both Big and Small in His Mind at the same time. This, the Christian religion holds, is the true and satisfying conception of God revealed by Jesus Christ."

9. Second-hand god

Treat Second-Hand Information with Caution

"Probably most of us would be greatly shocked if it could suddenly be revealed to us how small a proportion of our accumulated 'knowledge of the world' is due to first-hand observation. The significance of this second-hand knowledge of life to the subject we are considering is this: ...if...our knowledge of life is...faulty or biased or sentimental, we are quite likely to find ourselves with a second-hand god who is quite different from the real one. There are three main ways in which...books, films, and plays [etc.] can mislead us, and in consequence profoundly affect the idea we unconsciously hold of God and His operation in human life: 1. The tacit ignoring of God and all 'religious' issues, 2. The willful misrepresentation of religion, 3. The manipulation of providence.... It would be a profound mistake to confuse the organized disasters of even the greatest writer of tragedy with the complex circumstances and factors which attend the sufferings of real life.... One tiny slice of real life, observed at first hand, provides better grounds for our conclusions than the whole fairy world of fiction."

10. Perennial Grievance

"To some people the mental image of God is a kind of blur of disappointment.... They have set up in their minds what they think God ought or ought not to do, and when He apparently fails to toe their particular line they feel a sense of grievance.... God will inevitably...disappoint the man who is attempting to use Him as a convenience, a prop, or a comfort for his own plans.... The cumulative effect over the centuries of millions of individuals choosing to please themselves rather than the Designer of 'the whole show' has infected the whole planet.... Once we admit the possibilities of free-will we can see that injustices and grievances are inevitable. As Christ once said: 'It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come' [Matthew 18:7].... We may not agree with the risk that God took in giving Man the power to choose—we might even have preferred God to make a race of robots who were unfailingly good and cheerful and kind. But...we have to accept the Scheme of Things as it is, and if we must blame someone it is surely fairer to blame Man who has chosen wrongly and produced a world awry. The people who feel that God is a Disappointment have not understood the terms on which we inhabit this planet. They are wanting a world in which good is rewarded and evil is punished—as in a well-run kindergarten.... There is, of course, nothing wrong with their sense of justice. But God...withholds His hand...to allow room for His plan of free-will to work itself out. Justice will be fully vindicated.... We can...postulate an imaginary God with less good sense, love and justice than we have ourselves...but that road leads nowhere. You cannot worship a Disappointment."

11. Pale Galilean

Representing a Pagan, not Christian, View

"If they were completely honest, many people would have to admit that God is to them an almost entirely negative force in their lives.... They are living endorsements of Swinburne's bitter lines: 'Thou has conquered, O pale Galilean, the world has grown grey from Thy breath'.... Their god surrounds them with prohibitions but he does not supply them with vitality and courage.... They do not get the chance to admire and love and worship in wordless longing One who is overwhelmingly splendid and beautiful and lovable.... Their lives are cramped and narrow and joyless because their god is the same.... The New Testament [is] a book full of freedom and joy, courage and vitality.... If ever a book taught men to...stand and do battle, to be far more full of joy and daring and life than they ever were without God—that book is the New Testament!... The question for [dour religious people] is: dare they defy and break away from this imaginary god with the perpetual frown and find the One who is the great Positive, who gives life, courage and joy, and wants His sons and daughters to stand on their own feet?"

12. Projected Image

"A harsh and puritanical society will project its dominant qualities and probably postulate a hard and puritanical god. A lax and easy-going society will probably produce a god with about as much moral authority as Father Christmas. The same tendency is observable in individual cases.... The god whom we imagine may have his face set against drunkenness (an evil which, though it does not tempt us, fills us with horror and indignation), may turn a blind eye to our business methods because he feels, as we do, that 'business is business'! Obviously, unless the conception of God is something higher than a Magnification of our own Good Qualities, our service and worship will be no more and no less than the service and worship of ourselves. Such a god may be a prop to our self-esteem but is, naturally, incapable of assisting us to win a moral victory and will be found in time of serious need to fade disconcertingly away.... If we are to be moved to real worship and stirred to give ourselves, it must be by Something not merely infinitely higher but Something 'other' than ourselves."

13.God in a Hurry

"If there is one thing which should be quite plain to those who accept the revelation of God in Nature and the Bible it is that He is never in a hurry. Long preparation, careful planning, and slow growth would seem to be leading characteristics of spiritual life. Yet there are many people whose religious tempo is feverish. With a fine disregard for its context they flourish like a banner the text, 'The king's business requires haste' [1 Samuel 21:8], and proceed to drive themselves and their followers nearly mad with tension and anxiety!... It is refreshing...to  study the poise and quietness of Christ. His task and responsibility might well have driven a man out of his mind. But He was never in a hurry, never impressed by numbers, never a slave of the clock. He was acting, He said, as He observed God to act—never in a hurry."

14. God for the Elite

"It is characteristic of human beings to create and revere a 'privileged class,' and some modern Christians regard the mystic as being somehow spiritually a cut above his fellows.... The New Testament does not subscribe to this flattering view of those with a gift for mystic vision. It is always downright and practical. It is by their fruits that men shall be known: God is no respecter of persons—true religion is expressed by such humdrum things as visiting those in trouble and steadfastly maintaining faith despite exterior circumstances. It is not, of course, that the New Testament considers it a bad thing for a man to have a vision of God, but there is a wholesome insistence on such a vision  being worked out in love and service.... There is...no provision for a 'privileged class' in genuine Christianity. 'It shall not be so among you,' said Christ to His early followers, 'all you are brothers' [Matthew 20:26; 23:8]."

15. God Without Personality

"This conception is one of the most 'enlightened' and 'modern.' God is completely de-personalized and becomes the Ultimate Bundle of Highest Values.... It is manifestly impossible for any except the most intellectual to hold in his mind (let alone worship and serve) a god who is no more than what we think to be the highest values raised to the nth degree."

16. Gods by Any Other Name

"Man has rightly been defined as a 'worshiping animal.' If for some reason he has no God he will unquestionably worship something. Common modern substitutes are...the State, success, efficiency, money, glamor, power, even security. Nobody, of course, calls them 'God'; but they have the influence and command the devotion which should belong to the real God. It is only when a man finds God that he is able to see how his worshiping instinct has been distorted and misdirected."

CONSTRUCTIVE—An Adequate God:

Letting in the Light

"It is not our intention to build up merely a bigger and better god, who may be just as much an artificiality as any of the unattractive galaxy we have discarded. What we are going to try to do is to open the windows of the mind and spirit...to enlarge the aperture through which the light of the true God may shine. If a man lives in a light-proof room the sun may shine in dazzling splendor and the man himself will know nothing of it. He may light himself a candle... What we are going to do, then, is not to light fresh candles but to take down the shutters."

1. God Unfocused

"Let us fling wide the doors and windows of our minds and make some attempt to appreciate the 'size' of God. He must not be limited to religious matters or...to one particular section of time.... It is not, of course, physical size that we are trying to establish in our minds. (Physical size is not important. By any reasonable scheme of values a human being is of vastly greater worth than a mountain ten million times his physical size.)  It is rather to see the immensely broad sweep of the Creator's activity, the astonishing complexity of His mental processes which science  laboriously uncovers.... To meditate on this broadness and vastness will do much to expose the inadequate little gods, but if we stop there we may get no farther than sensing a vague 'unfocused' God, a de-personalized 'Something' which is after a while peculiarly unsatisfying."

2. Clues to Reality

"The discovery of the enormous energy released by nuclear fission and the unforgettable demonstration of the destructive power of the 'atom bomb' have done us a service in our quest for Reality.... They have demonstrated...that what we call 'matter' is in fact destructible. Those things that we formerly regarded as almost imperishable, such as armourplate and concrete, could...be dissipated into vapour.... This can hardly do other than set our minds to value far more highly than ever before the 'spiritual' values. By these we mean the qualities of spirit, of personality, which are recognizable and assessable, but are incapable either of scientific weighing and measuring—and incapable of physical destruction.... Men...used to talk of the 'spiritual' values as shadowy and unsubstantial, and the physical as solid and 'real' and reliable. They are beginning to see that the opposite may well be true.... In all probability everyone is sensitive to beauty, although obviously some are far more so than others. Yet experience shows that even those who are apparently most prosaic are touched, even to their own surprise, by certain forms of beauty.... It is a pointer to something...beyond the present limitations of time and space.... Our feeling for goodness is [another] clue to ultimate Reality.... Both beauty and goodness...exert an effect upon man which cannot be explained in terms of the world that we know, and to this we may add his search for truth.... Why does he, in all ages and in all countries, reach out to find Something—something which will harmonize and explain and complete life's bewildering phenomena?... As food is the answer to hunger, this universal hunger for Truth is unlikely to be without its answer and fulfillment, however hard to find it may be."

3. Is There a Focused God?

"Although everyone knows what is meant by Beauty, Goodness, and Truth, it is impossible to visualize them as absolute values. We can visualize a beautiful thing, but not beauty; a good man, but not goodness; a true fact, but not truth. Yet once we have a beautiful thing held in our minds it is comparatively easy to fill the mind with other beauties; once we consider a truly good man we can expand and develop his qualities until we begin to get some idea of goodness; while if we are once convinced of a certain fact (particularly if we have discovered it ourselves), we can at once think of a world of truths—we begin to visualize the absolute quality of Truth.... Let us now make a further step.... Consider how the Eternal Being—wishing to show men His own Character focused, His own Thought expressed, and His own Purpose demonstrated—could introduce Himself into the stream of human history.... If it is to be done at all God must be man. There could be no convincing focusing of real God in some strange semi-divine creature who enjoys supernatural advantages.... Suppose, then, that God does slip into the steam of history and is born as Baby A. A will...grow up as God 'focused' in humanity, speaking a language, expressing thoughts, and demonstrating life in terms that men can understand....

"If A, then, does enter the life of this planet...it is unlikely that A will be recognized as God...for some time. Men would...probably expect some definitely numinous quality to be invariably present. They would expect to feel frightened or to see an aura of divinity, or witness supernormal powers.... That might impress, but it would leave a man where he was before: he would be no nearer understanding or knowing God. He might be dazzled, but he would remain unilluminated.... If A then is revealed as a perfectly adjusted, wholesome, sane, and non-fanatical man, his claim to be God...will be looked upon as fantastic and blasphemous.... Yet there will be, naturally, something about A in addition to a well-balanced and wholesome personality. There will, for instance, be a certain tone of authority—the quiet assurance of the expert speaking on his own subject—when he speaks of the basic facts of life, of man, and of God. Unless their inklings and intuitions are all wrong, men will find, probably not without emotion, that in A's teaching is the quiet logical assembly of all the isolated flashes of insight that they have ever experienced. 'What this man is saying,' some of them...are bound to feel, 'is true. This is reality. This is what we have always hoped God would be like, and this is what we have always felt that life should be like'....

"Quite a number of people in all parts of the world have come to the conclusion that the hypothetical A has appeared in history—that A in fact equals the man Jesus, who was born in Palestine some nineteen centuries ago.... It is, of course, a very big step intellectually (and emotionally and morally) to accept this famous figure of history as the designed focusing of God in human life.... It can only mean that here is Truth, here is the Character of God, the true Design for life, the authentic Yardstick of values, the reliable confirming or correcting of all gropings and inklings about Beauty, Truth, and Goodness about this world and the next. Although an honest adult study of the available records is essential, to decide that Jesus really was the embodiment of God in a human being is not merely an intellectual decision.... Such a unique Fact cannot but affect the whole of our life.... Jesus Christ gave three remarkable indications by which men could know...that His claim and His revelation are true: 1. 'If any man will do God's will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself' (John 7:17). 2. 'He who has seen Me has seen the Father' (John 14:9). 3. 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me' (John 14:6).... Let us consider their significance....

Regarding Indicator 1, "Jesus says...there will be no inward endorsement of the truth...He puts forward...until a man is prepared to...co-operate with the purpose of God. This at once rules out arm-chair critics of Christianity and any dilettante appraisal of its merits.... It is plain from the Gospels that Christ regarded the self-loving, self-regarding, self-seeking spirit as the direct antithesis of real living.... 'If any man will come after Me,' He said, 'let him deny himself (...deny his tendency to love himself) and take up his cross (...bear the painful cost of that denial) and follow Me' (...live positively according to the principles that I teach and demonstrate). Now the moment a man does this, even temporarily and tentatively, he finds himself in touch with something more real than he has known before.... This...may baffle and infuriate the detached critic, but it is a pragmatic, universal test whose validity cannot fairly be denied." Regarding Indicator 2, "Christ unquestionably claims to present accurately and authentically the Character of God.... He is the aperture through which the immensity and magnificence of God can be begun to be seen.... Those who reject the claim of Jesus have to manufacture, and strenuously uphold by continual mental effort, a nebulous God of ultimate values; those who accept the claim find...that...God becomes real and knowable." Regarding Indicator 3, "If Jesus Christ was God He must say that He is the way, the truth and the life...and...He adds as a matter of unalterable fact that no one comes into contact with God except through Him.... The detached intellectual who will not commit himself knows in his secret heart that he does not know God...yet the man who has accepted the claim of the 'focused God' finds God a living reality.... To accept the claim of Christ after proper and careful thought...will...carry with it an incontrovertible inner endorsement that is worth any amount of argument."

4. Life's Basic Principles

"If we accept Christ's claim to be God we have a right to expect that certain basic facts will be told us on His authority, so..it becomes possible for us to be intelligent and willing co-operators with that whole Scheme of Things...we call Life. Here then are our basic requirements, put into the form of simple questions."

What Sort of Person Is God?

"Christ's answer is...unequivocal. He is 'the Father'.... Once we accept it as true that the whole Power behind this astonishing Universe is of that kind of character that Christ could only describe as 'Father,' the whole of life is transfigured. If we are really seeing in human relationships fragmentary and faulty but real reflections of the Nature of God, a flood of light is immediately released upon all the life that we can see. People, and our relationships with them, at once become of tremendous importance. Much of life...the business of it is in the realm of personality: it is people not things that matter."

What Is the Purpose of Life?

Christ said "there were really two main principles of living on which all true morality and wisdom...depend. The first was to love God with the whole of a man's personality, and the second to love his fellow men as much and in the same way as he naturally loved himself.... One...deals with the Invisible and Unchanging, the other with the visible and variable.... A man could not be 'friends with' God on any other terms than complete obedience to Him, and that included being 'friends with' his fellow men.... The purpose of Life would seem to be the gradual winning of men to a willing loyalty to these two principles.... Christ labeled the first one 'primary and most important,' probably because unless principles and values are first established by loving the true God there will not be 'enough love to go round.' The world would go on loving its own selected circle, despising, exploiting or hating those outside it unless their hearts were first attuned to 'the Father.' Those who have exalted the second principle to the neglect of the first have again and again proved the wisdom of Christ's choice of their order."

What Is Really Wrong with the World?

"It is 'out of the heart' [Mark 7:21], according to Christ, that...proceed all those things which spoil relationships whether between individuals or between groups of people. It is obvious, if we accept Christ's two great principles, that 'sin' will lie in the refusal to follow them...the deliberate refusal to allow [love] to flow out either to God or to other people. This accounts for...His surprising reversals of conventional moral judgement. It was pride and self-righteousness and the exploitation of others which called forth His greatest anger. Self-love...He saw as the arch-enemy.... Christ's time...was short and He wasted none of it in dealing with mere symptoms. It was with the motive and attitude of the heart...that He was concerned.... Once the inner affections are aligned with God the outward expression of the life will look after itself."

What Sort of People Does God Intend Us to Be?

To this question Christ gave an explicit answer that is a complete reversal of conventional values and ambitions. Most people think:

* Happy are the pushers: for they get on in the world.

* Happy are the hard-boiled: for they never let life hurt them.

* Happy are they who complain: for they get their own way in the end.

* Happy are the nonchalant: for they never worry over their sins.

* Happy are the slave-drivers: for they get results.

* Happy are the knowledgeable men of the world: for they know their way around.

* Happy are the trouble-makers: for people have to take notice of them.

Jesus Christ said:

* Happy are those who realize their spiritual poverty: they have already entered the kingdom of Reality.

* Happy are those who bear their share of the world's pain: in the long run they will know more happiness than those who avoid it.

* Happy are those who accept life and their own limitations: they will find more in life than anybody.

* Happy are those who long to be truly 'good': they will fully realize their ambition.

* Happy are those who are ready to make allowances and to forgive: they will know the love of God.

* Happy are those who are real in their thoughts and feelings: in the end they will see the ultimate Reality, God.

* Happy are those who help others to live together: they will be known to be doing God's work.

"Christ is...outlining...human characteristics which [co-operate] with the purpose of Life, and...exposing the conventional mode of living which is at heart based on self-love and leads to all kinds of unhappiness.... Once more we find Christ placing His finger not upon the externals, but upon the vital internal attitude."

What Are We to Make of Pain, Disease, Injustice, and Evil?

"Christ coped with them personally by restoring, wherever possible, the true order of health, sanity, and constructive goodness. He made no promise that those who followed Him...would enjoy special immunity from pain and sorrow—nor did He Himself experience such immunity. He did, however, promise enough joy and courage, enough love and confidence in God to enable those who went His way to do far more than survive.... They would be able to take the initiative and destroy evil with good. Although Christ gave no explicit explanation of the existence of pain and evil in the world, He gave certain implied facts.... 1. The 'breaking of the rules' means suffering. The operation of self-love on a huge scale, which means a wholesale breaking of His two fundamental rules for human life, cannot but mean a highly complex and widespread 'infection' of suffering.... 2. Christ spoke, and acted, on the assumption that there is a power of evil operating in the world... [that is] the unremitting enemy of those who want to follow the new, true order.... Christ, God-become-Man, did not give men a full explanation of the origin and operation of the evil forces in the world. (It is perfectly possible that in our present space-time existence we could not comprehend it, anyway.) But He did recognize evil as evil...and He did talk of the positive resources" that will inevitably bring its defeat, which "we must consider a little later."

5. Christ and the Question of Sin

"Where the sense of God becomes something like a reality there springs up, sooner or later, a sense of guilt and failure.... And where there is this sense of sin there is a deeply rooted conviction that 'something ought to be done about it'.... When a man sees not merely that his life is out of harmony with God's purpose, but realizes that disharmony has injured and infected the lives of other people, he begins to feel a 'sinner' in earnest.... There are...several other genuine ways in which a man feels a moral failure before God... He will, sooner or later, realize what may be described as the bankruptcy of his position.... If his sense of sin is more than superficial he will feel two things, First that some rapprochement must be made between his sinful self and the moral perfection of God.... Second, he will need some assuring that he can be, and is, accepted into fellowship with God.... Observe how [Christ] dealt with the question of sin and man's reconciliation with God... 1. Christ very rarely called men 'sinners' and as far as we know never attempted deliberately to make them feel sinners, except in the case of the entrenched self-righteous.... This is not, of course, to say that the life and words of Christ did not produce that genuine sense of guilt and failure...outlined above. 2. We find Christ unequivocally claiming the right 'to forgive sins'.... 3. Suppose now that God...deliberately exposes Himself to the consequences of the world's self-love and sin.... We view the Character of God in an entirely different light if we see Him not abrogating justice, not issuing a mandate of reversal of natural law and order, but overcoming a repugnance which we cannot begin to imagine by letting Himself be Representative Man and suffering in His own Person the logical and inevitable suffering and death which the world has earned.... We cannot imagine what this would involve, but even to begin to think that it might be true takes the breath away."

6. Satisfactory Reconciliation

"When a man sees that God took the initiative in establishing a rapprochement between Himself and Man and underwent the (for Him) indescribable ignominy of death, his attitude toward God is from then on profoundly changed. The inarticulate but incurable sense that 'something ought to be done about it'...is almost miraculously set at rest. Though it may defeat his reason to define exactly what has been done, a man knows that the 'something' has been done. The idea of God, which was almost certainly a discomfort and possibly a threat...is entirely changed. The former inevitable Judge is seen to be Lover and Rescuer.... To assent mentally to the suggestion that 'Jesus died for me' is unhappily only too easy for certain types of mind. But really to believe that God Himself cut the knot of man's entanglement by a personal and unbelievably costly act is a much deeper affair. The bigger the concept of God the more the mind staggers at the thought, but once it is accepted as true it is not too much to say that the whole personality is reoriented.... To realize that the effort to justify oneself...can safely be abandoned is an unspeakable relief.... It is a blow to the face of pride and a wrench to the habits of the mind to transfer...confidence to the One Real Perfect Man, who was, and is, also God.... This is what the New Testament means by being saved by faith in Christ.... People in all ages, of all nations, and of widely differing temperaments have [personally applied] Christ's Act of Reconciliation...'The Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me,' wrote St. Paul [Galatians 2:20], as though for the moment the Act affected him alone; but the words have been echoed unprompted by an imposing number since his day."

7. The Resurrection of Christ

"The complete and satisfactory answer to the question of whether a human being could survive the universal experience of death was given by personal demonstration.... It is...impossible to exaggerate the importance of the historicity of what is commonly known as the Resurrection.... Both Christians and anti-Christians...regard the question of whether the Resurrection really took place as the fundamental issue on which the whole Christian claim really depends.... The fact that the recorded appearances were made only to those who were 'on Jesus' side' is enough for one group to conclude that they are of purely subjective value, while for the other it is plain proof that only those who are at heart reconciled to God can even see the reality of Life once it is detached from the present space-time limitations. We...merely ask three questions which must in fairness be answered if the historical fact of the Resurrection is rejected: 1. What Changed the Early Disciples? 2. If the Resurrection Did Not Happen, Who Was Christ? 3. Why Are So Many Christians Sure That Christ Not Only Rose, But Is Alive Today? 

"All the disciples of Jesus deserted Him...and afterwards, with their Leader dead and their hopes at zero, they were living in considerable personal apprehension. Yet within a very short time we find them...filled with an extraordinary courage and spiritual vitality, defying the power of both pagan and Jewish authorities. They are proclaiming openly that they had themselves seen Jesus alive, not once, but several times, after His public execution, and calling all men to share their belief that this Man was indeed God. Nor was this a short-lived spurt of defiant courage, but a steady flame of conviction which baffled, embarrassed, and infuriated the authorities for years as the movement began to spread throughout the then-known world.... The early Christians quite definitely believed that they had seen, touched, handled, and conversed with Christ after He had been crucified, taken down, and laid in a rock-hewn vault sealed and guarded by Roman soldiers.

"Many people...imagine that they can quite easily detach the 'miraculous' element of the Resurrection and still retain Christ as an Ideal, as the best Moral Teacher the world has ever known...But the Gospels, all four of them, bristle with supernatural claims on the part of Christ.... It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that He believed Himself to be God.... If He did not in fact rise, His claim was false, and He was a very dangerous personality indeed....

"The common experience of Christians of all kinds of temperaments and of a great many nationalities for nineteen centuries cannot be airily dismissed. Men and women...today are convinced that the One whom they serve is not a heroic figure of the past, but a living Personality with spiritual resources upon which they can draw. A man may find difficulty in writing a poem, but if he cries, 'Oh, William Shakespeare, help me!' nothing whatever happens.... But if he is at the end of his moral resources or cannot by effort of will muster up sufficient positive love and goodness and he cries, 'Oh, Christ, help me!' something happens at once.... If Christ revealed the true way of living and offered human beings the possibility of being in harmony with the Life of God (i.e. 'eternal life'), it must follow that anyone living in any other way is...incapable of appreciating the quality of real living unless and until he 'takes the plunge' into it. A man may write and argue and even write poems about human love, but he does not know love until he is in it, and even then his knowledge of it only grows as he discards his self-love and accepts the pains and responsibilities as well as the joys of loving someone else. 'If any man will know whether My teaching is human or divine truth,' said Christ, 'let him do the will of God' [John 7:17]. Those who accept this penetrating challenge are convinced that Christ is alive."

8. The Abolition of Death

"The 'focused' God, Jesus Christ, revealed to man not merely adequate working-instructions for meeting life happily and constructively, but also the means by which he could be linked with the timeless Life of God.... Christ on more than one occasion is reported to have spoken of 'eternal life' as being entered into now, though plainly to extend without limitation.... The man who believes in the authenticity of His message and puts his confidence in it already possesses the quality of 'eternal life' (John 3:36, 5:38, 6:47, etc.)...life of a deeper and more enduring quality (John 10:10, 10:28, 17:3, etc.). If we accept this we shall not be too surprised to find Christ teaching an astonishing thing about physical death...as it affects the man whose basic trust is in Himself: 'If a man keeps My Word He will never see death' (John 8:51); 'Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die' (John 11:26).... 'Christ Jesus...abolished death' [2 Timothy 1:10], wrote Paul many years ago, but there have been...few...who appear to have believed it.... The fact seems to many to be too good to be true.... Once it dawns upon us that God...has actually identified Himself with Man, that He has taken the initiative in effecting the necessary Reconciliation of Man with Himself, and has shown the way...to embark on that immense adventure of Living of which God is the Centre, death—the discarding of a temporary machine adapted only for a temporary stage—may begin to seem negligible.... It is...only 'in' Christ, 'in' the Representative Man who was also God, that death can be safely ignored and 'Heaven' confidently welcomed.... Death is...a disaster to those who have no grip on the timeless Life of God."

9. Theory into Practice 

Life Is NOT a Closed System

"If a man accepts the fact that the Character of God is focused in Christ, if he accepts as true the Act of Reconciliation and the Demonstration with Death; and if he himself is willing to abandon self-centered living and follow the way of real living which Christ both demonstrated and taught, he is still not out of the wood.... Christ...therefore promised [His followers] a new Spirit who should provide them with all the courage, moral reinforcement, love, patience, endurance and other qualities which they would need.... These are...the very qualities which men so easily 'run short of,' and which, taken together, comprise a character corresponding to...Christ Himself. It is this invasion of human life by...Someone from outside which the modern mind finds difficult to accept. We are all conditioned by the modern outlook, which regards the whole of life as a closed system.... If a man honestly wants to follow the way of Christ and...opens his own personality to God, he will without any doubt receive something of the Spirit of God. As his own capacity grows...he will receive more. John goes so far as to call this the receiving of God's own seed (1 John 3:9)...the man's own real self is purified and heightened, and though he will come to bear a strong family likeness to Christ, he will...be more 'himself' than he was before.... The fact of Christ's coming is...a shattering denial of the closed-system idea.... What else is His continual advice to 'have faith in God' but a call to refuse, despite all appearances, to be taken in by the closed-system type of thinking? 'Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you' [Matthew 7:7]—what are these famous words but an invitation to reach out for the Permanent and the Real? If we want to co-operate the Spirit is immediately available."

10. Summary

"We can never have too big a conception of God, and the more scientific knowledge (in whatever field) advances, the greater becomes our idea of His vast and complicated wisdom. Yet, unless we are to remain befogged and bewildered...we have to accept His own planned focusing of Himself in a human being, Jesus Christ. If we accept this as fact, as the Fact of history, it becomes possible to find a satisfactory and comprehensive answer to a great many problems, and, what is equally important, a reasonable 'shelf' on which the unsolved perplexities may be left with every confidence. The 'way in' to this faith is partly intellectual and partly a matter of moral commitment. The diagnosis of the world's sickness (and, therefore, of the individuals who comprise the world) is that the power to love has been wrongly directed. It has either been turned in upon itself or given to the wrong things.... The drastic 'conversion' which God-become-Man called for is the reversal of the wrong attitude, the deliberate giving of the whole power to love, first to God and then to other people.... So far we move intellectually, but...this extra-human solution to the world's impasse only comes alive when it is acted upon.... Critics often complain that if the world is in its present state after nineteen centuries of Christianity, then it cannot be a very good religion. They make two ridiculous mistakes. In the first place Christianity—the real thing—has never been accepted on a large scale and has therefore never been in a position to control 'the state of the world,' though its influence has been far from negligible. And in the second place they misunderstand the nature of Christianity. It is not to be judged by its success or failure to reform the world which rejects it.... The religion of Jesus Christ changes people (if they are willing to pay the price of being changed) so that they naturally and normally live as sons and daughters of God.... It is a revelation of the true way of living, the way to know God, the way to live life of eternal quality."

Enjoy Reading Your God Is too Small for Yourself!