Speech Project/Nothing I Haven't Said Before

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.”