Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Part 2

Yesterday I was talking about a big question that comes up due to John 1:1-5. Why, if we must die to ourselves to enter Christ, would anyone want to enter Christ? If everyone in the world were to become Christ, that would be the end of individuality, right?

Well, not really. The question is somewhat flawed, as I will explain. First of all, let's be consistent. Let's continue to refer to Jesus as the light, and us as the darkness. When He illuminates us, we cease to exist. This is how the question came up in first place, but I have to admit that the premise is all because of a mistake.

I said that we are the darkness. This isn't quite true. We are in the darkness. For my initial purpose, this didn't matter. However, because this question came about, I must correct myself. Regardless, the question still remains from other sources. When God looks at us, for example, what He sees is Jesus.

To explain why th question is flawed, I will use a simile. Imagine that there is a world with an atmosphere so thick with clouds that only the tiniest amount of light can enter. The people on this world can only barely see, and so of course no one can clearly see what other people look like. They have never seen a bright light, however, and so they don't know how poorly they can see.

Then, one day, a hole breaks through the clouds, and full sunlight shines down. One curious darkness-dweller steps into this beam of brightness. Several others follow behind him. When they look at each other, they are shocked to find that they all look nearly identical. They quickly return to the darkness, where they have their own faces again. The light, they decide, just makes everyone look the same.

They thought they all looked the same, but this is because their eyes had not adjusted to the light. If they had stayed for a little longer, they would have discovered that the light clarified their features. Jesus, in the same way, clarifies our lives. When I entered into Christ, I became more myself than I was before.

But we have been living in the darkness of the world. We believe that individuality is acting unlike other people, and Christianity seems to destroy that by forcing everyone to live by a single code of laws. What we don't realize is that it gives us boundaries in which to create ourselves. God's laws are like the structure of a building. We have a sturdy, well-tested frame, but beyond that, the architecture is up to us.

That's all I have to say.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell