Spiritual Logic: The Wisdom of God

In my previous post (last Saturday), we discussed some of the reasons why God created His plan from Paul’s writings in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. We discussed some of the reasoning behind His plan, but I feel that the topic needs more discussion. There is another way of looking at this all. 

What are some more reasons “why” God chose His plan?

Romans 12:1 is a verse many of us have heard since we were young. “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service/spiritual worship.” Sounds great right?
The thing is, this verse contains a much deeper, more psychological meaning than we often stop to consider.
Allow me to explain.

Humans have long been known to sacrifice ourselves if we feel our cause is justified. For example, many Americans gave their lives in pursuit of freedom from an oppressive government in the revolutionary war. Even now, people say “I would take a bullet for _____.” A degree of sacrificial behavior is natural to all of us. I believe that most people would sacrifice their lives for a “greater good” or for someone they love. These types of sacrifices are reasonable to most people.

However, consider this: it doesn’t come naturally to sacrifice for a goal one can’t physically see. 

It’s not human nature to die for something you didn’t do. We absolutely must have a "just cause" or we can’t justify our own death. Yet, Christ died for something He didn’t do. He died for our sins. He was charged with being a sinner and a blasphemer, but He had no sin. Jesus loved everyone so much that He was willing to preach His message of salvation from sin until they killed Him, without fighting back. Even from the beginning, He knew that He would eventually be killed (John 2:18-25).

Man, on the other hand,  either fights for a selfish reason (i.e. fighting against a perceived personal injustice created by someone else) or for someone he loves (i.e. fighting against job discrimination due to age because your grandpa needs that job to survive).

Even so, one rarely gives his or her actual life for a cause. (Rom. 5:6-10)

My point is this: the few who have willingly died for a cause over the years were killed for 1. Fighting against some form of physical oppression they felt themselves, 2. For fighting for people they cared about, or 3. For fighting for some unseen ideal, such as fighting for “fairness” or “equality.” Even in our modern day, those individuals who fight for groups of people as a whole fall into one of those three categories.

Christ didn’t fight against physical oppression, but He did fight against spiritual oppression by sin. He fought through non-violence. The war He fought was not one of physical weapons, but a spiritual war (Lk. 22:49-51; Mt. 26:51-54; Jn. 18:36).

He was sinless, but He died for the sins of others, fighting for freedom for humankind from sin even though He was already free from sin. Christ was fighting for freedom for all of mankind, even for those who choose not to accept that freedom, against a force that can’t be experienced with our physical senses (you can’t “see,” “smell,” or “hear,” sin as a black smelly aura radiating from something).

He was doing it for everyone in the world because 1. He felt the temptation the same as we do; He experienced it. 2. He truly loved us so much that He was willing to freely give his life to free us without fighting back, knowing we would kill him in the end. 3. He fought for an unseen ideal, that of spiritual perfection.

So, how does this apply to the “why” behind God’s plan? One of the reasons Christ’s death on the cross was chosen is to show us how different we have to be from the rest of mankind. It is not human nature to “do no wrong” but still be punished, especially if we’re punished by losing our lives.

It’s hard for man to remove all self-interests from making a sacrifice unless he trains his mind over time to do so or sacrifices for someone he loves. It takes all three of these at the same time to be a Christian: we must spread the word of God because it benefits us and those we teach, we must train ourselves over time to give ourselves freely for God, and we must learn to love everyone in the world enough that we would “turn the other cheek” even if it means being killed.

We must have a love that encompasses everyone.

I can honestly say that my love doesn’t encompass everyone. I find it hard to care for people as much as I should. Ask yourself the same question I ask myself as I am writing this: when was the last time you went out of your way to actively look for someone to help and then helped him or her? I have no problem helping people if they ask, or if they appear to need it, but I don’t often go out of my way to find people to help.

Christ did, however. He healed them and taught them the truth.

Even though we cannot heal as Christ did, we can spread the truth and look for people to share the good news with. Is that not what it means to be “Christ-like”?

God’s plan shows us what He expects out of us. By looking at His plan for a reference, we not only have written commands from the inspired authors of the Bible, but we also see Jesus fulfilling every single one of them; none can be disregarded. 

            This plan demonstrates our inferiority to God (1 Cor. 1:25). We are not wise enough to understand Him. We are not strong enough to rebel against Him or change His plan and get away with it. We can’t do anything without Him already knowing about it. And you can’t naturally love the entire world enough to sit back and let them kill your only child. Even Jesus, when He was here on Earth “who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” Phil 2:6.

In other words, God’s plan shows our raw humanity – we have no chance of ever comparing to God – but we can live an Earthly life similar to Christ’s Earthly life if we dedicate our lives to that purpose. 

God’s plan shows you that you must be more than just another man or woman. We all do. We can never hope to be as perfect as Christ, but we should aspire to be as spiritually complete as we can. Because we wear the name of Christ (Christian), we should love more than other people love, we should sacrifice more than other people sacrifice, and we should care more for others (even those we don’t know) than anyone else in the world.

After all, that is part of our sacrifice, our “reasonable service.”