Why did God become a man?

Why did God become a man? I often ask myself this question and it never ceases to amaze me. Our God – the creator of all space, time, and matter – actually became a real human being, born of the virgin Mary. But why? I will discuss 3 answers:

The Church Father’s Answer: 

God became a man so that we could become God.

Contextually the Church Fathers always maintain the distinction between God as Creator and humanity as Creation. They are NOT saying that humans become God in the sense of becoming Creators and celestial God’s over others. They wanted to emphasize the fact that we would join the Triune God in an everlasting and eternal dance of love. And it was a catchy synonymous parallelism: God became a man so that man could become God.

Bonhoeffer’s Response to the Church Fathers:

God became a man so that we could become fully human.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer reframed the theosis (becoming one with God) by focusing more on Christ. The Church Father view is possibly more Trinitarian because the emphasis is on the relationship with the Triune God. Bonhoeffer’s emphasis is on Christ, God becoming a man, so that we could become as Christ – the perfect man. There is a lot to be said about this, and I think it is crucial to understand that Jesus is the perfect man. I think we have it wrong when we say things like, “To err is human.” To err is not human! Jesus was the perfect man and he did not err. Rather, we ought to say something along the lines of, “To live perfectly like Christ is human.”

My Response:

God became a baby, so that we could have a childlike faith.

I completely affirm both the Church Fathers and Bonhoeffer’s positions, but I also would like to add something this Christmas Season. God became a baby, so that we could have a childlike faith. Can you picture the birth of Jesus? He was 9 months in the womb, born in a cold barn, wrapped in burial clothes, destined to die so that man could become fully human and fully participate in the life of the Trinity. We can only enter into the Kingdom of God if we are born again as well, and we can only be born again by having childlike faith in the God who became a baby.

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me” (Matthew 18:3-5).

Poem About Sandy Hook by a High School Student

Guest Post by my high school student Alina Z.

Elementary Shooting

All you have heard about the terror
Inside the building of a school
Where twenty bodies of little children
Lay still where none will make a single move

Many questions may start rising:
For what?
How come?
How could this be?
How could a human
become so crazy?
Just leaves my mind a bit hazy

Just think that just a day before
All of these children on the floor
Some doing homework, others their chore
Not knowing what they will be accounting for

All innocents of little angels
Taken out in just a glimpse
These poor scared children
Sitting in terror
Not knowing whether they’ll seek life or death

We little knew that this morning
Would be a day God would call all your names
In life we loved you dearly
In death we do the same
May you be rocked in heavens cradle
and never ever shed a single tear

Life goes by in just a moment
You can lose everything in just a day
My friend make sure that you are ready
For no one knows who’s deaths next prey

I know that this isn’t sweet talk
It’s not something we like to hear
But if the time comes
When we stand in heaven
Will we be ready to perceive

I do not understand the reason
Of this shooting or the one before
All I know is that we need to open our eyes
And see what we’ve been living for

Lord Have Mercy on the Victims at Sandy Hook:

Charlotte Bacon, 2/22/06, female
Daniel Barden, 9/25/05, male
Rachel Davino, 7/17/83, female
Olivia Engel, 7/18/06, female
Josephine Gay, 12/11/05, female
Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 04/04/06, female
Dylan Hockley, 3/8/06, male
Dawn Hochsprung, 06/28/65, female
Madeleine F. Hsu, 7/10/06, female
Catherine V. Hubbard, 6/08/06, female
Chase Kowalski, 10/31/05, male
Jesse Lewis, 6/30/06, male
James Mattioli , 3/22/06, male
Grace McDonnell, 12/04/05, female
Anne Marie Murphy, 07/25/60, female
Emilie Parker, 5/12/06, female
Jack Pinto, 5/06/06, male
Noah Pozner, 11/20/06, male
Caroline Previdi, 9/07/06, female
Jessica Rekos, 5/10/06, female
Avielle Richman, 10/17/06, female
Lauren Rousseau, 06/1982, female
Mary Sherlach, 2/11/56, female
Victoria Soto, 11/04/85, female
Benjamin Wheeler, 9/12/06, male
Allison N. Wyatt, 7/03/06, female

Clackamas Town Center Shooting

Today, three of my students were at the Clackamas Mall during the shootings. They had gone to the mall to pick up a few supplies for a Christmas concert we were performing this evening. The Mall went into lockdown and was surrounded by dozens of safety vehicles. One of the boys was forced to stay inside for several hours while the other two boys made it outside to the safety of their car. Yes, they did see a woman bleeding to death and they were unable to help. My heart bleeds for those who were killed and for the families of these victims. I am so incredibly grateful that my boys were not physically injured by the shooter. And I was overjoyed every time I spoke with them on the phone or received a text message from them.

As school staff, we decided to continue on with the concert. For the first 15 minutes, I simply asked everyone – parents, students, and staff – to pray about the incident. I was able to pray with the parents of the boys and encourage them. I had asked the boys to drive to the school as soon as the police were done questioning them about what they witnessed, and I was beyond happy when I finally saw them. All I could do was give each of them a giant hug and tell them how much I was glad to see them. I did not want to stop hugging them; my heart was bursting with love.

Amazingly, the boys were able to compose themselves, sing, and play their instruments along with the rest of the school. I know that they would have preferred to have simply gone home to sleep away their sorrows, but I am so glad that they were able to celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus in the midst of such trauma. Jesus has defeated death by death and this was only possible because the Son of God became a man born of the virgin Mary. How great a love that the King of kings would humble himself? How great a love that He would lay down His life for ours? How great a love that He would die on behalf of us, so that we to may die with Him and be resurrected from the dead with Him.

I truly mourn the death of those who died this evening, but I also praise God that He is able to draw us closer to Him through difficult times such as these. This evening could have been one which my students quickly forgot; however, because of the events that transpired I doubt that any of them will forget this evening. How precious it was when the 3 boys walked onto the stage in the middle of a song and received applause from the entire crowd in the middle of the performance. We are not able to fabricate these kinds of things on our own. The Holy Spirit will often interrupt our plans to bring us so much more grace than we could ever imagine. Please continue to pray for the victims and their families.

“Christ is risen from the dead, trampling over death by death”

What is the Church? And what ought the Church exist for?

What is the church? And what ought the church exist for?

The ‘being’ question and the ‘ethical’ question…I have been asking myself these questions for my entire life. Before I became a Christian, I was in agreement with Marx and Nietzsche – they essentially said that Christians have no true reality, and thus the church is simply an opiate to dull pain and the ethical ought of the church is the suppression of others. I now disagree with Marx and Nietzsche; I truly believe that there is a reality to the church that is beyond reason. It defies science. Truly, it can only be experienced or realized by those who are members of the church; the reality of the church is a form of God’s revelation to his people.

If we consider that the church is the body of Christ, then we can say in agreement with Bonhoeffer that the church is ‘Christ existing as church-community’. This is revolutionary! We, the church, are Christ on earth!? The church is a divine reality; however, the church is also a human reality. Likewise with Christ, he is fully divine and fully human. We are his body. We are one. Yet we are individual. We are only individual because we have community. We only have community because we gather as individuals. God became a man so that man could become fully human; and God became man so that man could be one with God.

If this is what the church is, what ought the church to do? The church, as the body of Christ, is a continuation of Christ living on earth. We are his body. We are to live in the world, but not of the world. We are to spread the good news of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ so that people may both die and live with him. We are to proclaim the good news from the roof tops. We are to practice true religion of helping widows and orphans. We are to go to the broken hearted. We are to live in the present moment. We are to offer forgiveness to those who repent. We are to preach the word of truth. We are, because He is. We do, because He does. We are the body of Christ. Don’t be afraid to stand as He does.

What do you think the church is and what do you think it ought to do?

Universal Salvation?

Colossians 1.20: “and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Today my students read this passage and I told them that this meant that there was universal salvation, namely, that no one is going to hell and all will be saved…I wanted to see their reaction 🙂 They all knew I was joking, but it was still an interesting conversation. I was hoping for more of a defensive response from them though. They are very intelligent, but this problem seemed to have stumped them in their tracks. It was as if they knew what they believed, but they could not defend their position. How would you defend it?

They kept asking me, well “what do you mean by reconcile to himself all things?” And I would respond, hey I am just reading the text, it says that he made peace through his blood and he reconciles to himself all things, this must mean there is not a hell…

How would you respond to someone that defended the position of universal salvation?

Disclaimer: I do believe that there is a hell; a place where there will be eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth for those who reject Jesus Christ as Lord. In the next few weeks I will have a few more blogs describing my personal beliefs, but I would love to hear comments and feedback.

What is more important?

What is more important: the spiritual, mental, or physical state of the human person?

My students probably know the answer I am looking for… I often ask my students questions meant to trip them up. I give them a few options and ask, which is more important? For instance, you have faith and you have works, which is more important? They are beginning to notice that these questions are asking the wrong thing, because these things actually rely upon one another. You have no faith if there are no works, and you have no works if there is no faith. Or put another way: Your works flow out of your faith and you faith flows out of your works.

I return to the question I asked at the outset of this post. What is more important: the spiritual, mental, or physical state of the human person?

We often become univocal (= one voice) and only allow one of these things to shine through. This is why we see so much specialization; some people are spiritual mystics, others are physical phenoms, and some are academic encyclopedias. I believe that the human person requires all three, and that all three of these things are reliant upon one another. Our spiritual state is nothing if we do not make rational decisions and live physically in this world. Our physical conditioning is nothing if we do it unintelligibly and cease to thank our creator. Our mental state is nothing if we ignore our physical body and spirituality.

My wiring is drawn towards the mental state; thus, I am inclined to sit and study for 14 hours strait. This is simply how my brain is wired. However, I truly understand that I need the spiritual and physical states to help complete me as a person. In fact, I would be so inclined to say that my mental state is dramatically increased when I exercise the spiritual and physical states. During the past few years as an academic I have attempted something new: I have decided to take breaks from my studies, namely, I take breaks to worship, pray, and run. Amazingly, my productivity has actually increased because of this, even though I now spend less time studying. My mental state is fully actuated when I use it in accord with the spiritual and mental.

Are you more inclined toward the mental, physical, or spiritual state of being? Do you agree that you are more whole as a person when all three of these work together?

Stop Lying to Yourself

I cannot count the times that I have heard Christians say, “I hate it when I do _______! I hate myself!” You can fill in the blank with just about anything: overeating, smoking,

Stop Lying to Yourself…You Don’t Hate Yourself or Your Sin

drinking, having sex, porn addiction, meth addiction, gambling, yelling, and the list could keep going… I am tired of hearing people say they hate doing these things. They are lying to themselves, to each other, and to God. In fullness of truth, I love doing these things, you love these things, I love myself, and you love yourself! You and I would not do these things unless we loved them and the thrill we get when we do them. I may hate the consequences, but I love the activity…

If I cannot confess to loving these things, then I am in denial. If a person stays in denial, there can be no healing. With addicted individuals, they often go through the DARVO process: “Deny the abuse, then Attack the victim for attempting to make them accountable for their offense, thereby Reversing Victim and Offender.” This is perfectly seen in examples of sexual abuse: the rapist blames the victim and says that it was their fault, thereby making the victim feel guilty and thus afraid to tell anyone, because they are now the “abuser” and not the victim. This also extends into smaller matters and is very unfortunate.

Okay, now back to ‘loving our sin.’ We need to accept the fact that we ‘love our sin.’ Jesus can bring us healing, but he can only bring healing to the broken hearted. He did not come to heal the healthy, but those who are sick. All of us are sick, but not all of us are willing to admit it.

There are serious consequences to addictive behavior, and I don’t simply mean spiritually. I also mean physically. Have you ever seen a CT scan of a normal brain? a sociopath? a meth user? a porn user? It is amazing how similar a brain scan looks for any one person who is addicted to anything. A porn abuser’s brain looks pretty much the same as a serial rapist’s brain. They both love their addiction and get a dopamine fix through performing the action. We could try psychotherapy to help the addict; however, we often exchange one bad behavior for another or encourage the patient to do more physical exercise (become addicted to exercise rather than the other things). But if I do it because it is something that “I” love and something that “I” want, then I have not fixed the problem. “I” am still completely focused on “myself.”

So we need to stop lying to ourselves, admit that we love our personal sins, so that we can experience true healing from the King, allow the love of God to be poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and serve others with that love. It may sound easy, but it is actually very difficult and you will need to deny your own selfishness until the day you die. This is what it means to take up your cross and die to yourself. It does not mean that all followers of Christ will be crucified. But it does mean that along with Christ, we too can be overcomers; we too can be victorious over sin, death, and corruption because we can live by the power of His resurrection.

Coincidence? I think not.

For my high school Bible class I have been teaching through the Letter to the Colossians, and I truly believe that the students have been enjoying the time reading through this book. The format is very unconventional; I have my students read the entire letter (about 2 pages) every day for the entire quarter. Last quarter we did this with the Letter to the Philippians and it was awesome! We all learned so much about joy, suffering, unity, loving others, etc. And now we are going on week two reading Colossians and it is a different vibe. The students quickly realized that Paul is not nearly as “joyful.” I am hoping that this does not translate into less joy for my students 🙂

The reason I have them reading the Word so much is because the Word of God is so much more powerful than anything I could ever tell my students. These are precious love letters and I don’t want my students to let them scatter in the wind. I hope they understand this. I hope they realize that God is madly in love with them, chasing after them and never turning His back on them! I need to be reminded of these things daily as well. I need encouragement from others. And today I received just the encouragement I needed from my pastor, friend, and mentor. When I became a believer he was the man I looked up to, he is the man who encouraged me to go into ministry, and he is the man who speaks blessings upon me even today. Today, I received a letter from him and he told to read Colossians 1.17: “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” He did not need to translate it for me or speak His interpretation of it to me. He simply wanted me to read the Word. And amazingly, it is the Word I needed to hear.

Beauty out of Death

One of my all-time favorite things to do in Portland is to go running on a brisk autumn morning. The chill of the air instantly freezing the sweat pouring out of your pores. The smell of the wet grass and leaves reminding you of the previous cleansing rain. The fog lifting away, nearly transporting you into another dimension. But really, the thing that puts it over the top is the sheer beauty of the trees as they begin changing colors. Have you ever seen trees so spectacular? I had not until we moved here. I grew up surrounded by pine-needles, and they would simply die, fall to the ground, and catch fire.

But back to the colorful leaves, when I ponder it a little more, I realize that the beautiful colors are completely dependent upon immanent death. How can death be so lovely? And if death can be so beautiful, how magnificent is life? I don’t always view life as something so fantastic, probably because my frame of reference is so static. I need to step out of myself, so that I can truly understand life. That is relativity.

What would happen if you had a near death experience? Heck, let us actually pretend that you do die. And then you are given a chance to come back and experience this life again, with full knowledge of what life is about. I think that you would have a much more profound outlook on life, and you would probably appreciate all of the people around you much more because you would want all of them to experience as much of life as possible.

Enjoy this life. God loves you. He created you. He created this earth. I believe he wants you to enjoy life and discover his truths in the world we are in the midst of. “Love God, and do what you will.” (St. Augustine) You will not discover the harmony of this life until you learn to play with it.

Male Dominance

I hate when I do this to my wife.