Barneyisfat

2 Kings 16:3 “… who sacrificed his own son, which was a disgusting custom of the foreign nations.”

Sometimes God must remind us that we don’t yet have Him figured out. God is a mystery. A beautiful, wonderful mystery.

The Christian faith has trumpeted for 2000 years that you can know this God personally. Recently, however, we have crossed our wires and tried to teach that you can know everything about this God with absolute certainty. Modernism called for an end to anything that could not be quantifiably measured and calculated; this included God. The church caved to pressure and allowed the God of all mystery to be systematized. Suddenly, God was small – small enough that we could comprehend Him. He made sense; and a person need only fall for the ranting of a glib faith-salesman’s rational explanation/trickery to gain personal salvation. If you can’t defend your doubt against the truth of the man with the slicked back hair; surely you just got saved. (Now repeat this prayer after me …)

But it was not this god; the god of rules, regulations, and repetition; but the God of mystery – all-powerful, omnipotent, creator God – who sent His only son to die for the sins of the world. … as was the disgusting custom of the foreign nations? Of all the salvific formulas God could have imaged and placed into motion – he chose the strongest, harshest, most unethical plan imaginable … one that had been condemned when perpetuated by godless nations: the sacrificial slaughter of a son.

It doesn’t even make sense. As if God pulled a number from a hat, He, seemingly, purposelessly chose the most painful option to save the world from sin. He could have chosen any method of propitiatory satiation. Salvation for the world could have come through a mighty warrior, a military ruler, the death of a grizzly murderer, a pink bunny delivering brightly colored eggs, or any other avenue God saw fit to employ.

But the God who will continue to mystify even the most brilliant scholar chose the route of unbelievable pain and suffering – the death of his beloved son – as the means of our salvation. God threw a curveball; created the mystery to end all mysteries, and yet we believe that we can systematically comprehend His motives. Bullshit. (I’m a theologian, primarily!)

Ms. Griffin, a missions prof, once said “Do you realize that the sum of all of your theology is less than God.” It was revolutionary when juxtaposed against our Bible classes; where all Truth may be learned. All the thoughts that I have about God add up to significantly less than who He is. All the thoughts that I will ever have about God will never begin to compare with the vastness of mystery contained in the act of salvation God chose through His son, the Christ.