23 Oct 2022
The deepest problems we encounter as individuals have been the meaning of life and death, the mastery of self, the quest for values and worthwhileness and freedom within, the transcending of loneliness, the longing for love and a sense of significance and for peace.
The answer we need to hear is precisely the Christ of the New Testament and of historic Christan teaching – the incarnate Son of God, who lives, reigns, judges and saves; the Christ who prompts the confession, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).
Our problems are deep but Jesus Christ the God-man, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, still ministers to these problems in the only way that finally resolves them “Him we proclaim”, said Paul, “warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Col. 128).
“The instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man’s self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred – like the moon seen through a dirty telescope” (C.S. Lewis).That is why horrible people with horrible principles of life have been looking at God through a dirty lens.
We must realise that God is separate from the world and some of the things we see in the world are contrary to His will. Believers think God made the world – that space and time, heat and cold, and all the colours and tastes. and all the animals and vegetables are things that God made; but believers also think that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly and definitely on putting them right again.