Christian Philosophy: The Way, the Truth and the Life
Many Christians like myself were raised knowing the Truth about God, life
and the world. We even studied different
views like evolution and mythology and how they fall short of the Biblical
account of the world around us. Despite
all this, one only has to stick a toe out into the world and -BAM! - one is hit
on all sides by conflicting world views and philosophies and it can be
difficult to sort one from the other.
The important thing to remember when confronted with different worldviews
is the Truth. People often say that
Christianity is just a religion and has nothing to do with the philosophies of
the world or anything outside the box marked 'religion'. On the contrary, we find that in Jesus, all
of Philosophy is complete and perfected.
Philosophy strives to answer at least three basic questions: who am I?
Why am I here? Where am I going? Please
note that these questions don't apply on just the personal level: they apply to
everything around us as well. (For
example, we could ask "What is the world? Why is it here? What will happen
to it?") In John 14:6, Jesus said,
"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." In less than ten words, all of the
philosophical questions are answered in one word: Jesus.
The Way - Where am I going?
This statement of Jesus' is just half the verse. The other half says, "No-one comes to
the Father except through me." It
is part of human nature to stop and ask oneself at some point in life,
"Where am I going?" and
although some people don't realize it, it is not a physical destination they
are referring to. Within us is the
instinct of eternity and our spirits know that there is something to come after
these shells of ours die and disintegrate.
But where are we going? Well, we
have options - two options: 1) Heaven and
eternal life, or 2) Hell and eternal suffering and death. While it doesn't seem that there could be
much of a deliberation over the two, many people just don't know how to get to
where they want to go. Jesus told us
that He is the Way. Romans 6:23 says,
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Christ Jesus our Lord."
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have
everlasting life." How is this
possible? How can believing on Jesus
save us from hell? Before Jesus came to
earth, people had no hope. They were
under the Law of Moses which only served to show where we fall short of God's
holiness. People made animal sacrifices
for their sins, but being only animals, their blood could do nothing more than
appease the wrath of God until they sinned again. Every day, people fell short of God's glory,
and every day, people died. That wasn't
what God wanted, but there was no one perfect who could die for sins that were
not his own. That's what Jesus did. Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, so
He is equal with God: indeed, He is God.
He became human and took all of our sins on Himself and died. That in itself is amazing, but it didn't fix
our problem. It wasn't until three days
later when Jesus rose again that death was defeated and we could have access to
everlasting life. All we have to do is
repent of our sins, ask humbly for His forgiveness, and He gives it to us
freely as a precious gift. That
righteousness and forgiveness given us is our token into Heaven to live forever
with our Lord.
The Truth – Who am I?
One only has to take a brief glance around our culture to see that people
suffer from lack of identity. Some call
it humility, but identity is not pride.
God says of himself, “I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s
Creator, your King.” (Isaiah 43:15) That
one sentence is full of identity: it reveals to us Who God is and it
establishes Who He is so that all of creation can have no doubt – He is Holy,
Creator and King. But there is no pride
in that identity either. God is
incapable of pride: it goes against His very nature.
The other problem with our culture today is that
when someone lacks identity, they often try to find it by copying someone else,
which if one thinks about I doesn’t make sense at all. That isn’t identity. Actually it is quite the opposite. Dressing like Elvis Presley, or maintaining
your body to look like Michelle Bridges reminds people of the original person
and gives the glory back to them. Do
people think of you when they see Elvis Presley’s suit? Or do they think of the rock-star himself?
Identity given by the world is fickle because
the world is fickle and the fads that the world promotes are also fickle. None of it lasts and even the most celebrated
celebrity has his or her moments of doubts.
In fact, it is not uncommon to hear of actors, singers, models, sports
personalities and so on who battle with drug addictions, alcohol issues, anorexia
nervosa, etc. and of the celebrities who actually die from these issues because
they have depression or they have to have the image of someone they are not.
What a terribly sad way to live! If that is the best that the world can give
us, is it really worth it? What if the
Holy Creator King gave us our identity and told us who we are to Him? 1 John 3:1 says “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And
that is what we are!” The son of a king is
a prince, and the daughter of a king is a princess: how much more when we are
the sons and daughters of the King of Kings!
Romans 8:17 continues on that picture. “Now if we are children, then we
are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…” What a wonderful promise to us!
In Mark 12, we read the story of how Jesus is
challenged concerning whether or not taxes should be payed to Caesar. When Jesus asks for a coin, He notes that
Caesar’s image is on the coin and then concludes the object lesson with, “Give
to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.” When we are God’s children and carry His
image in and on us, and strive to imitate Him in all we do, people around us
will see the difference in us and, just as people think of Elvis Presley when
they see his suit, people will know that we are God’s and the glory will go
back to God. The chances are they might
even want to know how to get that for themselves.
The Life: Why am I here?
This question is twofold: Biologically, why am I
here? and for what purpose am I here?
As Christians, we know that on the sixth day of
history, humans were created in the very image of God. What does that mean? It means that, although we have physical
bodies and God does not (John 4:24), we have natures that resemble the nature
of God. Of course, this was blemished
when Adam and Eve sinned, but we have a nature of justice. We love and long to be loved. We are relational and rational. We can communicate, and express hope, joy and
disappointment. We feel when we are hurt
or encouraged. We have a sense of
humour. We can imagine and create. Compare this to everything else in creation,
and you will find nothing that quite compares to us humans. He created us and breathed into us the very
breath of Him who is Life and we became alive.
It is hard for us to comprehend this, because we live in an age where
everything ought to be explained scientifically, and science just can’t explain
life. We know it involves DNA, but DNA
on its own doesn’t equate to life. There
is an extra boost of something that makes us alive. That something must be the incredible,
creative power of God – we just can’t explain it any other way.
The next question is
one that many people spend their entire lives trying to figure out: For what purpose
am I here? This does not refer to your
individual gifts or talents or callings, but rather to the vocation of mankind
in general. Part of our nature as human
beings is to have a purpose to fulfill, and God knew this. He very graciously provided us with a book
that addresses this very issue: the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is the recordings of a man
(presumably Solomon) who went out into the world to discover the meaning of
life. First, he tried wisdom. Then he tried pleasure, then wisdom again,
then work. Next he tried solitude, achievement,
success and lastly riches. He came up
with the same conclusion for each. “This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” Finally at the end of the book, the writer
states what man’s purpose in life is. “Now
all has been heard; here
is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the duty of all mankind.” God created us to have relationship with
Him. Yes, he had angels, but the angels
were created for service and worship, not intimate relationship and
communication. Hebrews 1:14 says “Are not all angels
ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” Angels cannot inherit salvation – they are
the servants of those who do: us! No,
God wanted people he could love and communicate with in a close
friendship. That is the purpose of
mankind: to be in communion with God and to keep His commands and fear and
glorify Him forever.
