The Wall

There once was a certain ocean. This ocean was like any other ocean, except for one thing. Its seas were so rough everywhere that no man could possibly sail upon it or swim in it.

There once was a certain island in this ocean. Among other ordinary islandish things that made this island an island, this island contained three things that make it worth telling a story about an island.

First, on the west side of the island, a massive volcano made its home. When I say massive, you may not know how that relates to the island, so if you want to replace massive with would-destroy-the-entire-west-side-of-the-island-if-it-erupted, you can. To make things clear, we can now say: On the west side of the island, a would-destroy-the-entire-west-side-of-the-island-if-it-erupted volcano made its home (the hyphen is a beautiful thing).

The second thing on this island was an indigenous tribe of people. This tribe flourished on this island. They knew how to cultivate crops, build huts, and utilize the island’s resources for their benefit. All of this sounds encouraging, but unfortunately this tribe had one major problem: they lived on the west side of the island! The volcano would surely destroy them if it erupted.

So now you’re asking, “The volcano only destroys the west side of the island, so why can’t they just move to the east side?” Good question. This brings us to the third thing. Unfortunately, an unfathomably large wall divided this island into its east and west sides. It seemed to rise as high as the sky. Let’s hope the volcano never erupted!

Done hoping? Good, because of course, the volcano began erupting on a certain day. Since they could not swim or sail, the tribe did the only thing they could do: head east! They eventually reached the wall and were met with despair. The only way they could survive this disaster was to be on the other side of that wall. What should they do?

After loads of bickering and panicking, a few men from the tribe emerged with some ideas.

The first man said, “We will build a giant ladder to get over the wall! Go, cut down as many trees as we can and we will start building!” So the tribe began cutting and sawing and building and constructing until they had the largest ladder you could imagine. Confident that they had solved their problem, they leaned the ladder up against the wall. Short. Way short. The wall was entirely too high.

So the tribe regrouped and a second man came forward saying, “We will break down the wall! Let’s get all that wood we used for the ladder and build a battering ram!” So the tribe again began cutting and sawing and building and constructing until they had the largest battering ram you could imagine. Again confident that their worries were over, they smacked the ram against the wall. They smacked the wall again. And again. And again. And again…until SMASH! Some tribesman began cheering because they thought they had broken through, but to their dismay, the wall destroyed the battering ram.

Once again, the tribe regrouped. A third man said, “Enough of this! I know of a beautiful garden southwest of here. We will go there and enjoy ourselves. If we die, we die.” So he took some (but not all) of the tribe to the garden. They relaxed, had fun, and enjoyed themselves until the lava consumed them.

Going back to the remaining people in the tribe, a fourth man said, “I know a shortcut around the wall. We can go all the way to the north and swim around it! All those stories about the ocean being too dangerous are hogwash.” So he took some (but not all) of the tribe north, and they tried to swim around the wall. And sure enough, they all drowned in the sea.

Going back once again to the tribe, a fifth man said, “I know what we can do! We will go back to the volcano and plug up the hole at the top! Then we will never have to worry about this volcano or this wall anymore!” So he took some (but not all) of the tribe back to the volcano. They deftly avoided much of the lava and reached the top of the volcano. They began plugging the hole and they even began to see results! It seemed that they were going to succeed. Suddenly, the volcano began to shake and roar and spew like never before. In a spectacular display, it destroyed all of the tribesmen on the volcano and their progress towards plugging the hole.

Now, only a fraction of the tribe remained at the wall. They had run out of ideas and hope. They knew they were finished. Then something remarkable happened. One man in the tribe heard something above them. He looked up to the top of the wall and saw something. It was a man! He was shouting something to them. The tribesman told the rest of the tribe to quiet down and listen. He looked up and heard the man on the wall yell, “Can you hear me?”

The tribesman responded, “Yes! I can! Who are you?”

The man replied, “I can get you over this wall. Have you not heard me? I’ve been shouting at your tribe the whole time! Just stand at the base of the wall and I will lower a bucket. All of you get inside the bucket and I will raise you over this wall.”

So the tribe got in the bucket, the man raised them over the wall, and they were finally safe from the volcano.

Now that the story is finally over, we can hopefully learn a few things. What is this volcano? Who is the tribe? What is that wall? Why did the five men fail? And who is that man on the wall?

As always, it’s metaphor time.

The island is our time here on earth, and the tribe is us. What about the volcano and the wall? And why are we stuck on the wrong side of the wall?

We’ve discussed this before, but we need to take a look at Eden to understand this. When Adam and Eve ate the apple, they directly rejected their Creator. As a completely perfect, holy, and righteous God, He must punish any act of disobedience (including a seemingly insignificant act like eating from a tree). The way He punished us was condemning us to death and eternal separation from Him (eek!).

Going back to the island world, the wall creates that separation. The east side of the island is where we are right with God. There we can have community and intimacy with Him. Unfortunately, we have disobeyed Him, so we are stuck on the west side. The impenetrable wall keeps us from God and the volcano is our punishment. We used to be able to walk the whole island with Him (and no volcano), but our sin brought the wall and the punishment of the volcano.

Sounds pretty bleak doesn’t it? Well, if we look at the five men and their efforts, it doesn’t get much better.

MAN 1

The first man suggested building a ladder to get over the wall. This suggestion represents our effort to earn our way to be right with our Creator. In this mindset, we have to follow a set of X rules, pray X times per day, give X% of our income, help X people out, do X good deeds, go to church every Sunday, or anything of that sort. God will accept us if we please Him enough. If we build a ladder high enough, we can overcome the separation between us and Him.

Just like the tribe, it turns out that we can’t build a ladder high enough. We can’t measure up to God because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and “there is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). We could cut down every tree on the island to build a ladder, but it still wouldn’t be high enough.

MAN 2

The second man suggested building a battering ram to break through the wall. This represents when we get angry at God. We blame Him for our sufferings, our pain, and our sorrow, so we try to fight back. We want nothing to do with Christians or Christianity, or even religion at all because we can’t accept an island where we are on the wrong side of a giant wall. We can’t accept that we can’t measure up to God. We call Him unfair, uncompassionate, and unmerciful.

So we fight. We turn to atheism or freethinking or agnosticism or whatever you want to call it. We look at the heavens and shake our fist at God. We blame religion for the world’s problems. We hate anything and everything that has to do with Him. We even try to evangelize people to stop thinking about Him. We belittle and condemn those who are stupid enough to believe that there is a God. We disobey His commands for no other reason than to disobey. We build a battering ram and start attacking God.

There is a very, very big problem when we try this. We are trying to fight against the One who gave us the ability to fight. We are trying to logically destroy the One who gave us logic. God has the perfect response to this:

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!”Job 38:4-5

Just like Job, it’s completely futile for us to fight against God. All we will do is end up destroying our battering ram. And the wall will still stand. And the volcano will still erupt.

MAN 3

The third man brought some tribe members to the garden so they could enjoy themselves. We do this all the time. We chase after a successful career. We party all the time. We go for the “time of our life”. We go after New Age thinking that makes us feel good. After all, we only live once! The volcano’s coming, so let’s enjoy all this while we can!

This garden is incredibly dangerous. It makes us forget that there was a wall in the first place. We become so content with the garden that the lava comes and takes us by surprise. As CS Lewis says, “we are content to go on making mud pies in the slums because we cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.” We trade the diamond of everlasting life with God for the coal of a temporary thrill.

As expected, the volcano erupted, and the thrills of the garden were over.

MAN 4

The fourth man tried to swim around the wall. He understood that we needed to be on the other side of the wall, but he decided to do it his own way. We do this a lot too. We know how to get right with God, and even say we are. We say we love Him, but then we act like we don’t. We are lukewarm. We want to experience all the rewards of overcoming the wall without obeying the One who made it. We try to take a shortcut to the east side of the island even though we know we will drown swimming.

Jesus says, “because you are lukewarm—neither hot or cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16). He would rather have us follow Him wholeheartedly or reject Him wholeheartedly than hang out in the middle ground.

MAN 5

The fifth man tried the brave endeavor to plug the volcano’s hole. He knew if he did this, he could go back to life without the volcano or the wall. We do this when we try to deny our rebellious nature. We say, “all people are inherently good”, or “I can’t accept that God would punish us”, or “there is no such thing as good and evil”. We marginalize the severity of our broken condition. We try to deny that a volcano is about to overcome us even though it is about to overcome us.

Believing this is just like trying to plug up a volcano. We will not succeed if we try to gloss over what we have done to the God of the universe. We are “by nature objects of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). The volcano is going to erupt. And worse, we deserve it.

Wow. If you’re not feeling horrendous after reading all of that, I sure am. It’s terrifying. Just like the remaining tribesmen, it seems that there is no hope. We can’t earn our way back, we can’t fight against God, we can’t enjoy pleasures on our own forever, we can’t take a shortcut, and we can’t deny that we’re broken. It seems that a life with God, a life that we were made to live, is impossible. How the heck do we get over that wall?

It is true that left on our own, living an abundant life forever with God really is impossible. We cannot get over that wall with our own efforts. It would require outside help…

And that is exactly what the tribe got. The man on top of the wall lowered the basket and lifted them over it. He saved them! The volcano would no longer harm them! They could live on the east side!

In the same manner, God amazingly gave us help. He gave us Jesus. Jesus is different than what the other five guys thought. They all talked about how to get over the wall, but Jesus gave us the who to get over the wall. Jesus did not teach the tribe a method to get over the wall. Jesus lifted them over the wall. We do not receive life by doing stuff. We receive life by following someone.

Imagine now that Jesus went farther than the man on the wall. Imagine if Jesus had to jump down and take the volcano's destruction so that the tribe could go free. He achieved this in the cross. God would not let sin go unpunished, so He still erupted the volcano. But instead of erupting it on us, He placed it on someone who didn't deserve it. He placed it on His Son.

Remember what we said earlier? We deserve the volcano. But Jesus took the volcano for us! We can try to earn our way back, but He’s earned it for us! We can try to fight Him, but instead He willingly gave Himself to us! We can go for temporary pleasures, but He is forever satisfying! We can take shortcuts, but He is the only road! We can deny we need to be punished, but He already took the punishment! The victory is won!

If you recall, the man on the wall said he had been shouting to the tribe the whole time to get their attention. It was only when the tribe listened that they realized there was a way over the wall. Jesus is calling. He wants to save us. We need to stop trying to save ourselves and listen so He can lift us over the wall.

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:6”

Life is a bathtub

It's been a little while, so let's recap the previous post. We learned from Romans 5:8 that Christ died for us while we were enemies of God. Being broken, we deserved death, but He fixed us and brought us life. Therefore, we are no longer sinners, but saints!

So now you're saying, "Hold up. I don't know about you, but all the Christians I know (especially the writer of this blog) sure aren't very saintly! Plus, why should we even try to be good? Doesn't this mean we can do whatever we want and God will forgive us at the end?"

Well, as it is a lot of times, it's story time:

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There once was a certain boy and his family lived on a large plot of land. The land contained fields and forests, so the boy (like most kids his age) loved to explore them and have imaginary adventures about knights, cowboys and indians, and all the things of that sort. One summer day, he was conquering France, but as he was rushing into battle the ground gave out from under him. He fell quite a long way, and after coming to his senses, he realized he had fallen into an old well.

At first, he scratched and clawed at the well's walls to climb out. He tried this for hours and night began to fall, but he did nothing except hurt his hands. Filled with despair, he wailed for help through the night. This pattern of climbing, failing, wailing, and crying continued for several days.

On the fourth day, the boy had become delirious. As he was contemplating how much longer he would live, he saw the light change in the well. He looked up to the well's opening and saw a black spot covering part of it. After staring at it, he gained his focus and noticed it was a man's face! The face's mouth was also moving. The boy began to listen to what the face was saying, "I'm going to lower a basket to you! When it gets down there, get inside of it and I will lift you up!" So, the man lowered a basket, the boy got in, the man lifted him out of the well, and the boy was free!

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Now most stories would end there. Yay, the boy is free! He's going to live happily after! He's out of the well! But we have to take a very important fact into consideration: the boy probably smelled really bad. On top of that, he was probably muddy, sweaty, dirty, and covered with things we probably don't want to think about. He was starving, thirsty, and on on the verge of fainting. The man that saved him from the well could have been having second thoughts about saving him! (Not really, just trying to make a lame joke)

So what would any sensible man saving that boy do after seeing him in that condition? Well, of course, he would wash him and feed him!

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So, the man first gave the boy a warm meal, and then gave him soap and allowed him to take a bath. The boy had a tough time getting some of the grime off, so the man offered a scrub that was pretty uncomfortable. The boy reluctantly used it, but after the grime was off, he was happy he used it. Once all this was done, the man gave the boy a fresh set of clothes.

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Now we can really say the boy lived happily ever after! Ok, so what the heck does this have to do with sin, sainthood, and all those weird Christian terms?

Let's say what you said earlier in the post:

"Hold up. I don't know about you, but all the Christians I know (especially the writer of this blog) sure aren't very saintly! Plus, why should we even try to be good? Doesn't this mean we can do whatever we want and God will forgive us at the end?"

Alright, so imagine that we're the boy, and when we're born, we're in that well. We have no hope, and the only way we're going to survive is if somebody comes and pulls us back to the surface. Who is that somebody? Christ! Like we said in last post, when Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead, He lowered the basket and brought us out of the well!

Before we move any further, we have to realize that at this point on, we are out of the well. We are saved! We are free! We are.....saints! But like the boy, when we get out of the well, we smell pretty bad. We're covered with bad habits like drug addictions, alcoholism, sexual impurity, and even more "normal" things like anger, jealousy, rage, fowl language, insert sin here.

When God saves us from the well through His Son, He's not done with you. In fact, He's really only getting started. He wants to give you a warm meal. He wants to make you smell good. He wants to clean all the grime off of you. He wants to make you......perfect. Jesus even tells us to "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). You may ask, "Why?" But in the context of the story, I'm sure the boy didn't want to be dirty and smell bad. In the same manner, I'm sure we don't want want to suffer the consequences of sinning. God wants to make you perfect because He knows it's the best thing for you. Like the scrub the boy used, it may be uncomfortable as He shapes us, but once we are clean we realize that the discomfort was worth it. God does not make rules for us because that's how we measure up to Him; God makes rules for us because He has already saved us and really wants the best for us.

So, knowing all of this, we can respond to what was said earlier. To answer in reverse order, the reason we don't just keep on sinning to get forgiven again is simple: Once you are out of the well, it doesn't make any sense to get more dirty. Once Christ has saved us from our sin, we really have no option but to follow Him. Following Him involves listening to what He says, so that's why we want to be good.

And last, the reason every Christian you know doesn't seem very saintly is because we are all living somewhere in between getting lifted up out of the well and leaving the man's house. Until the day we die, God is going to keep washing us. He is going to keep molding us into His likeness. He is going to pry, reach, and clean the deepest and darkest places of our lives because He loves us. It may be uncomfortable, but after all, do you really want to smell bad? =D

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1-2