Wednesday, June 14, 2006
What would Jesus do when faced with a choice of two evils
This has been something that's been left unanswered in my mind for a few months.
The problem:
Christ can relate to us, and can redeem us from our mess, because he became in all things like us except sin (Hebrews 4:15). He took on the form of a servant (Phillipians 2:7), taking upon Himself the curse placed upon humanity (Galatians 3:12).
But there comes times all too often when we are faced with situations where there seems to be no right thing to do..
In a complicated pregnancy where at least one person, the child or the mother, will die, the parents are faced with a horrible choice: Action leading to the death of someone, or no action leading to perhaps the death of two. And the horror increases because Scripture is silent on the future state of the unborn. God is under no obligation to save them, and apart from his grace, like everyone else, they are lost, seperated from God, and without eternal life. We can hope God will save, but we cannot know for sure.
When a man faces the choice of whether to go to war or to be a conscientious objector, what is the right thing to do? Should he take up arms because it would be more evil to do nothing? Or should he refuse to kill his fellow man who has friends and family as real as his own, and who is made in the image of God and for whom Christ died and desires to be saved through faith in Him? Who is right, the soldier who wishes he didn't have to fight but does out of necessity, or the conscientious objector?
There are countless other scenarios that are encountered in human life. My first question is: What is the Right thing to do when there seems to be no truly and wholly right thing to do? Secondly, what did Jesus do when faced with such a dilemma? (This is not just an issue for discipleship, but can be seen as a challenge to the sinlessness of Christ... how could He choose the lesser of two evils, yet commit no evil?)
In every one of these dilemmas it seems that someone has to suffer and die. That is just the way things happen in this fallen world.
I didn't really get an answer to my first question. And the second, well, I got more than an answer.
A truly holy God cannot allow sin to go unpunished. There is always someone who must suffer. Man's rebellion against God has resulted in God's curse against man, both in life and after death. And it doesn't even manifest itself in a one-to-one relationship for sin-to-punishment. Often those that suffer have nothing to do with the individual sin.
When someone must suffer, Christ became the One who suffered.
He took the curse of God upon Himself and died for it. He rose again, extinguishing that curse. By his Ascention and His Intercession at the right hand of God the Father, He lifts human nature out of it's corruption and into a perfection beyond which any human ever knew. And even now, when a believer faces the most meaningless, empty, pointless suffering, Christ makes it His own and it becomes for us a means of knowing Him in His suffering.
The same dilemmas still face us in life and they are for those concerned to work out. There are situations when there truly is no right thing to do. But then, that is the declaration that God has made over not only the worst, but all of our best efforts of doing the right thing (Isaiah 64:6). There is great blessedness from knowing that neither I nor the things I do are right, despite my best efforts: I will be counted right before God the only way anyone ever will be: solely on account of Christ's righteousness not earned by me, but freely given to me.
The problem:
Christ can relate to us, and can redeem us from our mess, because he became in all things like us except sin (Hebrews 4:15). He took on the form of a servant (Phillipians 2:7), taking upon Himself the curse placed upon humanity (Galatians 3:12).
But there comes times all too often when we are faced with situations where there seems to be no right thing to do..
In a complicated pregnancy where at least one person, the child or the mother, will die, the parents are faced with a horrible choice: Action leading to the death of someone, or no action leading to perhaps the death of two. And the horror increases because Scripture is silent on the future state of the unborn. God is under no obligation to save them, and apart from his grace, like everyone else, they are lost, seperated from God, and without eternal life. We can hope God will save, but we cannot know for sure.
When a man faces the choice of whether to go to war or to be a conscientious objector, what is the right thing to do? Should he take up arms because it would be more evil to do nothing? Or should he refuse to kill his fellow man who has friends and family as real as his own, and who is made in the image of God and for whom Christ died and desires to be saved through faith in Him? Who is right, the soldier who wishes he didn't have to fight but does out of necessity, or the conscientious objector?
There are countless other scenarios that are encountered in human life. My first question is: What is the Right thing to do when there seems to be no truly and wholly right thing to do? Secondly, what did Jesus do when faced with such a dilemma? (This is not just an issue for discipleship, but can be seen as a challenge to the sinlessness of Christ... how could He choose the lesser of two evils, yet commit no evil?)
In every one of these dilemmas it seems that someone has to suffer and die. That is just the way things happen in this fallen world.
I didn't really get an answer to my first question. And the second, well, I got more than an answer.
A truly holy God cannot allow sin to go unpunished. There is always someone who must suffer. Man's rebellion against God has resulted in God's curse against man, both in life and after death. And it doesn't even manifest itself in a one-to-one relationship for sin-to-punishment. Often those that suffer have nothing to do with the individual sin.
When someone must suffer, Christ became the One who suffered.
He took the curse of God upon Himself and died for it. He rose again, extinguishing that curse. By his Ascention and His Intercession at the right hand of God the Father, He lifts human nature out of it's corruption and into a perfection beyond which any human ever knew. And even now, when a believer faces the most meaningless, empty, pointless suffering, Christ makes it His own and it becomes for us a means of knowing Him in His suffering.
The same dilemmas still face us in life and they are for those concerned to work out. There are situations when there truly is no right thing to do. But then, that is the declaration that God has made over not only the worst, but all of our best efforts of doing the right thing (Isaiah 64:6). There is great blessedness from knowing that neither I nor the things I do are right, despite my best efforts: I will be counted right before God the only way anyone ever will be: solely on account of Christ's righteousness not earned by me, but freely given to me.
