Ultimate Things

"The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says “Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.


The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call ‘ourselves’, to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be ‘good’. We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way—centred on money or pleasure or ambition—and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do. As He said, a thistle cannot produce figs. If I am a field that contains nothing but grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short: but I shall still produce grass and no wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and re-sown.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, emphasis added)


I've been reading Tim Keller's The Reason for God over the past couple of weeks (basketball season really slows down my reading pace, I guess).  The book is ultimately addressed to skeptics, but I enjoy Keller and always am down for reaffirming what I believe and why.  Tonight's chapter dealt with the area of sin.  Borrowing from Kirkegaard's definition of sin, Keller argues that sin can be properly defined (at least in its deepest form) as anything that human beings put in the place where God should rightly be.  He explains that most skeptics think about sin as a cosmic list of dos and don'ts when in fact sin is more rightly addressed as pride---looking to fill ourselves with our own work, relationships, abilities, etc instead of God.  We deify ourselves, others, activities and accomplishments when we look to fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts with anything but Him.  Think back to the the Ten Commandments, the ultimate list of "religious rules."  What's the first?  "You shall have no other gods before me."  This was the first law God gave to man.  Sin is wrapped up wholly in that first commandment.  


This thinking about sin is not new to me, but too often I get caught up in the dos and don'ts like everyone else.  It's easy to spot lust or greed or dishonesty.  It's not quite as simple when we try to figure out what we are idolizing.  If we knew we were idolators, we might be inclined to re-prioritize.  This is subtle sin.  It's a sin that creeps in without us fully recognizing its presence.  Sure, we may have the nagging feeling that we are spending too much time on something or that we may not be as closely connected to God as we should be.  These feelings tug at us; the more recognizable sins slap us in the face.  Before we know it, as Keller writes, we have turned "good things" into "ultimate things."  Yet, as a Christian, there can only be one Ultimate thing; He will accept no less.  Lewis was right.  We can try to hold onto "ourselves" (if we can really convince ourselves that we are really fully "us" without Christ completely in control) and our desires, but then we certainly cannot turn ourselves over to Him as He demands.  We're either all in or we're all out.  That is not popular theology---at least not with me, it isn't.  I don't like it, but Jesus makes it abundantly clear that I can't serve myself and Him.  I can't put life in any order that doesn't have Him first and rightly belief I'm walking in truth.  


I'm glad I'm reading this book.  It reminds me of the bigger picture of Christ's call on my life, particularly in terms of the sin of idolatry.  Between my family, the adoption, work and basketball, I'm in constant danger of putting many other things on the throne that only Christ should rightfully sit upon.  I need to renew my mind when it comes to thinking about sin and understand that sin begins with putting any other gods before Him; those "good things" can very quickly become "ultimate things."