Argument:
For my topic I have probably chosen the most controversial
argument there is, that being concerning (as some would say) religion. I beg to
differ. I much rather prefer the preference being “relationship”. I come to
with hopefully not only a profound topic but convicting. I begin with making an
argument out Romans 8:31b, “If God is for
us, who can be against us.” My argument is one in which somebody can
construct of themselves when they take statements (I say scripture) out of
context. But as you’ll soon see, I’ll use their unsound argument and flip it to
my own advantage. It is as follows:
P1) If God is for us, then
nothing is against us.
P2) If nothing is against us, then we can do
anything.
P3) We cannot do anything.
C) God is not for us.
P1)If God is not for us, then we must be unloved.
P2) If we are unloved then Jesus died for nothing.
P3) Jesus did not die for nothing.
C2) We are loved, but that does not constitute us
the freedom to do anything.
We have this error of making everything so logical
that we leave out the simple necessity of faith. What is faith? “…faith is confidence in what we hope for
and assurance about what we do not see.” –Hebrews 11: 1. We could not have
logic without having some faith. For logic is not something tangible, it is not
something within it self we can test. Is logic, the term, even logical? Now we
are looking at the syntax.
This
is the same issue when we run into the word “God”. We all have these
preconceptions or should I say misconceptions
in our heads on what or who God is. I am here to tell you that you are loved
beyond your wildest imaginations, but because of our inward brokenness we are
limited on what we can or cannot do. I
pray the same prayer as found in Eph. 3: “And
I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together
with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep
is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you
may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Many
“logical Christians” or religious persons mistake our brokenness for evil.
Their argument goes as follows:
“We are either good or we are evil. We are not
good. Therefore we are evil.”
The problem with this statement is that it is grounded
on a base rate fallacy. If we are not 100% good (good meaning here the noun
form: “morally right or righteous” according to Oxford Dictionary) but even if
the best of us are 99.9% good, according to this [logical] definition, we are
STILL not good. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”-Romans
3:23
“…all our
righteous acts are like filthy rags”-Is 64:6
If
logically even 99.9% of goodness is not good enough, why do we say that we can
do anything? Why do we say “If I am a good person, if I am kind enough and try
my best at living at good life, I will go to heaven”? America’s top religion is
apparently Christianity; yet, less than half believe God plays a significant
part in their lives and not even a quarter of that half read the Bible. So of
course if we are not studying about what God says about Himself and us, we will
then use our “logic” to say whatever we want about Him and us-and one of those
being presented in my argument. Here is what God says however, “For my foolishness is wiser than human wisdom,
and my weakness is stronger than human strength.” -1 Cor. 1:25 and
“See to it
that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which
depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world
rather than on Christ.”-Col. 2:8
So
far we have established three things: One) God loves you. Two) We are broken
not evil. That explanation being-we are broken because we have missed the mark
or standard God has set. Even if you don’t believe in God, you cannot dismiss
the fact that at one point in your life you have done something wrong. (Let me
clarify what is “wrong” before we get into an argument about vagueness or
ambiguity. Wrong here means breaking on the Ten Commandments; yes, for even if
you break one commandment you are guilty of breaking all of them. For those who
do not know what the Ten Commandments are, I briefly list a couple of them now-Do
not steal, do not lie, do not covet or lust, do not use the Lord God’s name in
vain. Who’s guilty? I am!) Finally Three) God’s love is like that of a good
parent. God’s love is liberating, intoxicating, unconditional, never ending, purposeful
and so many more adjectives that I do not have time to list…but this freedom
came with a cost. The cost was God laying down His life for us. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in
this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”-Romans 5:8
“For the
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.”-Romans 6:23
The
greatest gift we could ever receive is someone laying down their lives for our
sake. That someone was Jesus. When we return back to my originating argument’s
conclusion #2 you may find yourself asking: “Did she contradict herself in
saying that God’s love liberating but yet we cannot do everything?” The answer
is no, I have not. For the Bible says this:
“What shall
we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!
We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” -Romans
6
“I have the
right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the
right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive”-1 Cor. 10:23
If
this still doesn’t make sense, let me ask you this-Does your parent or guardian
let you do ANYTHING?! No, they do not. Why?-because they love you; and so does
God. With that I finish with Jesus's words in Matthew 19:26: “With man this (this
goodness, this righteousness, this wisdom, this true freedom & true love) is impossible,
but with God
all things are possible.”
And the rest of Paul’s in Romans 8:
“What, then,
shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against
us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he
not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any
charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is
the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was
raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your
sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be
slaughtered.”
No, in all
these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am
convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the
present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything
else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is
in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
