The Gospel Message and Paradox

Works do not save us, but works are a fruit of salvation.

Jesus died for our sins, but He still lives.

The God Who created the universe somehow lives in my heart.

I think God is so big and powerful that we finite beings just can't wrap our minds around Him. What we see as paradox, He probably sees as an outgrowth of being an eternal, omnipotent being.

These are not contradictions, they are complexities.

What you call paradox is really an argument against divine authorship of the Bible. Shouldn't we use our reason to explain these contradictions?

Actually work is a gift from God that was established in the garden prior to the fall. So as a person of faith in Christ, we are called to follow God's will.

Genesis 2:15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it.

Work is not a result of the curse, however after the fall, work was made more difficult.

Genesis 3:17 But to Adam5he said, “Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 3:18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grain of the field. 3:19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”

I will be trying to expand on this on my blog this weekend (later Sun). Thanx to Crown Financial Ministries for the information on how to deal with the blessings that God has bestowed on us.

With all due respect, my reason has NOT been left on the doorstep of my faith. However, I would caution against thinking that God is just a great big human being Whom you can or should be able to understand. There will always be mysteries with regard to Him because His nature is so very different from ours and compared to Him, we're just not that bright.

I do try to understand faith paradoxes. So do minds far wiser than mine. Check out CS Lewis' Suprised by Joy, for example. But I recognize that it is not God Who fails when I cannot resolve what appears to be a paradox to me. It is my own human nature that gets in the way. God is too complex for finite human beings to fully grasp.

To me, as well as to the great theological minds of the past and present, this is PROOF of divine authorship of the Bible, not an argument against it. No mere human could ever think with such complexity.

So your God is too complicated to explain himself? Is that your answer for the faith contradiction?

I try to be the best person I can be. I even follow the golden rule, and I know many others who do the same. How does reason or faith reconcile your God offering salvation to Israel in the old book and through the church now, but condemning all who never hear the offer?

This is Valiant's blog and we're venturing into a subject where my Christian brother and I disagree, so I hope he'll be okay with my reply. If he isn't, you can come to my blog to continue the discussion.

Actually, Worldly, I think you misunderstand the Bible. Jews were always supposed to come by faith to God. Abraham did hundreds of years before the Law was given. When Jesus died on the cross, it was a once-for-all payment available to all mankind. Romans 3:21-24 says all are sinners come to God through faith in Jesus Christ, that there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles. In reality, if you look at Ruth who was the great-grandmother of King David, you see there was no division even during the Jewish period.


Romans 2:14-16, while not precisely answering your question, indicates that those who have not had the opportunity to hear the gospel might well be saved by faith in something they don't fully understand. "So, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, instinctively do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. The code of conduct required by the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences testify in support of this, and their competing thoughts either accuse or excuse them on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to the gospel through Christ Jesus."

There's much to be found in the Bible, but you won't come to understand it by snarking at it or Christians from a "safe" distance. You have to roll up your sleeves and actually study it.

I pray you choose to do so.

Thanks for addressing Mr. WWMan. He appears to be one of such morality that he has no need of the gospel. The cross is an offence to him. He is wise in his own eyes and able to glean from the Bible the things of his own liking. He has confused many on their way to celestial city.

He would try to cause doubt in the minds of true believers by focusing on things in the Bible that mix human responsibility with divine sovereignty. He does not see the importance of Genesis 3, that is the Fall and the promise of grace, nor that the rest of the Bible is a record of the History of Redemption.

What you see as a faith contradiction is not a contradiction. An example, by all known science (common sense) a bumblebee should not be able to fly yet it does. So is this a contradiction or are we missing some item of information? What will a child understand if you present Einstein's theory of relativity? Would they understand it? Wouldn't much of it appear to be a paradox? So too with God. We are incapable of knowing everything about God however we are given some knowledge about God.

We are all condemned, everyone! What I find amazing is the idea that God HAS to offer anyone his grace. Talk about the height of arrogance. We should be thankful that we are offered anything at all much less being offered God's grace. Instead of whining about it, perhaps you should look and see why it is being offered in the first place. Perhaps you should read what is written in context instead of with your 21st century hubris.

I agree with your thinking here. We have the tendency as men to forget how the Scripture views us. We all think more highly of ourselves than we ought. For example in Isaiah…


Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, “ He did not make me”? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, “ He has no understanding”? [Isaiah 29:16]

But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand. [Isaiah 64:8]

This is not in anyway to denigrate Worldly, who is probably a very intelligence person. It's just that we human beings think of ourselves as so bright, but when we compare ourselves to God, we obviously aren't. I can't create a planet. I can have a baby, but I can't make the systems that make it possible to create that baby. My cousin who is a highly respected doctor in his research field cannot explain a lot of stuff in the human body. Thirty years of studying his particular field and he still can't explain a lot of stuff in that field. No human being can. Maybe eventually ....

But, God created the human beings my cousin studies. He created the systems that a whole team of research doctors spend their lives researching. He does understand them -- all of it. God created the entire universe.

What we are studying to learn a little bit about, He created. No, compared to God, we're just not all that bright. Our human wisdom is limited. His Godly wisdom is not.

All the difference in the world.

I had a professor that was one of the world's top vulcanologists. Great teacher and very knowledgeable. Funny thing was he couldn't dim the lights in the classroom nor could he make the VCR work. We laughed together about his 10 y/o daughter setting the VCR at home to record programs for him.

Intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, etc. are all fine and dandy yet they are all worldly in nature, it is when we learn to listen to the Holy Spirit that we become able to use those gifts to the honor of God.