To comprehend God “is altogether impossible”

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are stuck in space. When they arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) last June, they were supposed to return home in eight to ten days. However, the vessel that transported them developed so many problems that it returned to our planet unmanned, leaving them marooned. Now NASA is reporting that the capsule that will bring the stranded astronauts home won’t launch until late March 2025 at the earliest.

All this to transport two humans 250 miles from the ISS to our planet. That’s the distance from Dallas to Houston.

Now imagine traveling from heaven to earth. If you were Jesus, how would you have done it?

How I would have come at Christmas

Before time began, it was the Father’s plan to send his Son into the world to die for our sins (Revelation 13:8 NIV). But to fulfill this purpose, Jesus could presumably have come in any way he wished and died in any way he chose and inspired the prophets to predict his incarnation accordingly.

I know what I would have done if I were Jesus.

I would have come as an adult, bypassing the helplessness of infancy and the frustrations of adolescence. I would have come as royalty, or at least as a person of means and reputation. I would have died in the least painful and most dignified manner possible, perhaps by beheading as a Roman citizen. I would have risen from the dead so publicly and spectacularly that those who executed me would be stunned and my divinity would be obvious to all.

Jesus did none of these things. He chose the exact opposite, in fact.

He entered humanity as a tiny fetus and was born to peasant parents in a cow stall and laid in a feed trough. He grew up in obscurity and lived as an adult in relative poverty. He arranged to die in the cruelest, most demeaning and tortured manner ever devised. He rose from the dead to appear only to his devoted followers.

“The information’s unavailable to the mortal man”

As surprising as was his Incarnation, those who know the Bible should not be surprised.

God chose a herdsman to leave his home, “not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8), travel seven hundred miles to the west, and become the patriarch of the Jewish people. He chose to wait until this man and his wife were elderly to bless them with the son that would continue their line. He chose a man whose name meant “deceiver” to father twelve sons who would become the twelve tribes of Israel.

He chose a teenager enslaved in Egypt to save his people from starvation and a fugitive criminal to lead them from Egyptian slavery to the Promised Land. He chose to lead them into that land through a flooded river and by marching around a fortified city until it fell. He chose a shepherd to slay a giant and become the forebear of the Messiah. He chose a locust-eating desert dweller to prepare the way for that Messiah.

And so it goes today:

God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are (1 Corinthians 1:27–28).

As Paul Simon sang,

God only knows
God makes his plan
The information’s unavailable
To the mortal man.

For what purpose? “So that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (v. 29).

What I told my Muslim tour guide

We worship a God who is three and yet one. We place our faith in One who is fully God and yet became fully man. We trust a book that is divinely inspired and yet humanly written. We believe God is sovereign and yet we are free.

In one of his sermons, St. Augustine (354–430) famously noted: “To reach to God in any measure by the mind, is a great blessedness; but to comprehend him, is altogether impossible.” He explained:

Do you think that you can comprehend a body by the eye? You cannot at all. For whatever you look at, you do not see the whole. If you see a man’s face, you do not see his back at the time you see the face; and when you see the back, you do not at that time see the face.

How much less can we understand the Almighty God of the universe? As Augustine said, “If you can comprehend, he is not God.”

I once spent several weeks in Turkey doing research for a book I wrote on the seven churches of Revelation. My driver and guide was completing a graduate degree in history and archaeology at the time. While not devout in his Muslim faith, he was closed to mine. The reason was that, to his academic mind, Christianity is illogical. He wanted a faith he could understand.

I responded with Augustine’s suggestion that if our finite, fallen minds can truly comprehend an infinite, perfect God, by definition he is not God. If he is who he is and we are who we are, there must be mystery to our understanding of him. This is “a feature, not a bug,” as a software engineer would say.

“The immortal One for those who are mortal”

You may not be able to understand why God seems to be working in your life and world as he is. But could you choose to believe that the incomprehensibility of God’s nature is reason to trust him more and not less? That his ways, because they are “higher than your ways” (Isaiah 55:9), are better? That his love revealed in his suffering Son, because it is nearly beyond imagining, is the gift you need most today?

In the second-century Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, we read in chapter 9 that the Father “gave his own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for those who are mortal.”

Why did he act in such a surprising, seemingly contradictory way? His purpose was “to lead us to trust in his kindness, to esteem him our Nourisher, Father, Teacher, Counselor, Healer, our Wisdom, Light, Honor, Glory, Power, and Life, so that we should not be anxious.”

Why do you need to “trust in his kindness” today?

Friday news to know:

• US government shutdown looms after House rejects Donald Trump-backed funding bill
• With guilty verdicts, rape victim’s ordeal in France becomes a message of hope
• Appeals court disqualifies Fani Willis from prosecuting Georgia Trump case
• US files murder charge against Mangione that could bring death penalty
• On this day in 1963: Berlin Wall opened for first time

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“God’s love is like an ocean. You can see its beginning, but not its end.” —Rick Warren

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Why we need more than a divine avatar

A church in Switzerland has created a computer-generated AI Jesus. St. Peter’s Chapel in Lucerne, ironically the nation’s oldest church, now has cutting-edge technology that enables people to talk with an AI version of God’s Son. When you enter a confessional booth, a lifelike avatar on a computer screen offers advice based on the Bible and is available in more than one hundred languages. Around nine hundred conversations between people and the machine have been registered so far.

However, visitors are warned against sharing personal details and informed that their interactions with the avatar are at their own risk.

Of course, the real Son of God already knows every detail of our lives (cf. Luke 5:22; Hebrews 4:13). Interactions with him are not a risk but a blessing beyond compare (Hebrews 4:16).

And there’s the fact that we need a God who will not only give us advice but actually act in our lives and our broken world on our behalf.

“They know how to play dead for a shooter”

Billionaires are building nuclear bunkers in preparation for the destruction of mankind. One is surrounded by a lake that can be transformed into a ring of fire to protect its occupants. At a time when global nuclear weapons spending has surged to $91.4 billion, you can understand the concern.

But bunkers can’t protect us from the global mental health crisis “engulfing the world’s workplaces,” or sinking high-rise condos and luxury hotels, or Vladimir Putin’s desire to “usher in a new international system that affords Russia the status and influence Putin believes it deserves,” or the proliferation of school shootings.

At the beginning of the school year, one teacher found a seven-year-old boy lying in the hallway as another student showed him what to do if a shooter entered their classroom. “When do we practice playing dead?” the boy asked.

“They can’t even tie their shoes,” the teacher said. “But they know how to play dead for a shooter.”

“We never saw anything like this!”

In Mark 2, we find Jesus “at home” in Capernaum (v. 1). Here four men brought a paralytic, but the crowd gathered to hear Jesus was so large they could not get near him. So they went up on the roof, made an opening, and lowered the man on his bed to Jesus (vv. 1–4).

When he saw their faith, he forgave the paralyzed man’s sins (v. 5) and then said to him, “Rise, pick up your bed, and go home” (v. 11). With this result: “He rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all” (v. 12a). In response, “They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We never saw anything like this!’” (v. 12b).

Let’s recount what Jesus did in this remarkable episode:

• He welcomed the man brought to him.
• He forgave his sins (this is the only time he did this with regard to physical healing, so we must not think that all illness is the result of sin).
• He healed the man so completely that his paralysis was gone and his atrophied legs were immediately able to walk.
• His miracle brought glory to God.

What Jesus did for this man, he can do for any of us (cf. Hebrews 13:8). Our problem is that many of us relate to him more as an avatar who gives advice than as a King worthy of our complete trust and obedient service.

“The mystery of new birth shone upon us”

Consider what Jesus gave up when he left his glory in heaven to take on our fallen flesh. Remember the abject humility of his birth and the horrific suffering of his death.

He had already given us his authoritative word, containing his guidance for every dimension of our lives. As Pope St. Leo the Great (c. 400—461) noted, he could then have taught humanity “by appearing to them in a semblance of human form as he did to the patriarchs and prophets.” However,

Unless the new man, by being made “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” had taken on himself the nature of our first parents, unless he had stooped to be one in substance with his mother while sharing the Father’s substance and, being alone free from sin, united our nature to his, the whole human race would still be held captive under the dominion of Satan. The Conqueror’s victory would have profited us nothing if the battle had been fought outside our human condition.

But through this wonderful blending, the mystery of new birth shone upon us so that through the same Spirit by whom Christ was conceived and brought forth we too might be born again in a spiritual birth; and in consequence the evangelist declares the faithful to have been “born not of blood, nor of the desire of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12).

People who “turned the world upside down”

Now we have a choice to make.

• We can ignore the Christ of Christmas, as many are doing in our secularized society.
• We can treat his birth as a tradition to be remembered and then returned to the attic for another year.
• We can ask him to forgive our sins and save us from hell, then fulfill occasional religious duties but otherwise live as we wish.
• We can seek his advice for our problems, then do what seems best to us.
• Or we can submit every day to him as Lord, then obey his word in the power of his Spirit, whatever the apparent cost to us personally.

Here’s my point:

“Part-time Christianity” is a contradiction in terms because “part-time lordship” is a contradiction in terms.

When people see Christians sold out to Christ, believers who follow their Lord whatever the cost, whatever he asks, whatever it takes, our world cannot remain the same.

Such people “turned the world upside down” in their day (Acts 17:6). Such people will do the same again in ours.

When last did it cost you something significant to follow Jesus?

Thursday news to know:

• Fed signals plan to slow rate cuts, sending stocks lower
• House Ethics Committee secretly voted to release Matt Gaetz ethics report, source says
• Court records point to troubled home life for Wisconsin school shooter
• Honda and Nissan say they are exploring merger
• On this day in 1998: President Clinton impeached

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Nothing is impossible for the people of God who trust in the power of God to accomplish the will of God.” —David Platt

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Canada recently released its updated statistics for how many people died last year from physician-assisted suicide, and the numbers continue an alarming trend. The country’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program was used by roughly 15,300 people to end their own lives. That makes it the fifth leading cause of death in 2023 and represents a 16 percent increase over the previous year. However, considering that 2022 saw an increase of 31 percent, I suppose you could say it’s an improvement in some respects.

But while Canada is the country where the greatest number of people have chosen to end their lives through some form of physician-assisted suicide, they are far from the only place where a form of the procedure is legal. The United Kingdom, for example, took steps recently to join that list and will be discussed at greater length later in this article. However, Canada’s MAID laws are among the least restrictive you’re likely to find.

What sets Canada apart?

While the premise behind most physician-assisted suicide programs is ostensibly to help facilitate a more peaceful end for those who are already on death’s doorstep, that is not always how it plays out in practice.

The government in Quebec recently began allowing individuals to request euthanasia in advance when diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness. Efforts to extend access to people with mental illness have encountered more resistance than expected, but the rationale is that the country’s healthcare system is “not ready” rather than that their inclusion would be wrong on the merits. And in Alberta, a judge ruled earlier this year that an autistic woman could end her life despite efforts from her family to keep her from doing so.

That last case in particular could be part of why the provincial government in Alberta recently announced that they are looking for citizen input regarding potential changes to the way their MAID program functions. Among the topics under consideration are:

• Creating a new public agency, as well as additional legislation, to provide oversight.
• Creating a way for “families and eligible others” to argue that a family member who has sought MAID should not qualify.
• Implementing new limitations on who qualifies for MAID.

While MAID is technically a national law and some form of the program must be offered throughout the country, each province has a measure of discretion regarding how it is implemented. As such, there is a good bit of room for provincial governments to adjust how the law works in their jurisdiction. The recent trends outlined above have given rise to a growing concern that the law is not serving the purpose for which it was originally created.

That said, it should not come as a surprise that giving people a quick—and final—way to escape from their pain and distress has been abused. Couple that vulnerability with the fact that the legal protections meant to guard against abuse are increasingly ignored—in Ontario, for example, a quarter of MAID providers were found to have been out of compliance last year—and you get a cautionary tale of where such laws can lead.

But, if that’s the case, why do assisted suicide laws seem to be growing in popularity? And what steps, if any, are being taken to guard against those abuses?

A telling answer to both questions is found in the UK’s move to pass similar legislation, though with one key difference.

Who gives the lethal dose?

This past November, the British Parliament voted to continue toward the legalization of assisted suicide. And while many steps remain in what the bill’s sponsor speculated would be at least a two-year process, signs point to the UK eventually joining the list of Western nations and states to allow doctors to help people end their own lives.

The nature of that aid, however, provides a key distinction and points to an important truth on the nature of what many are looking for when they ask for doctors to help them die.

In the proposed bill—as in most places where assisted suicide is legal—doctors would be able to give a patient the necessary drugs to induce death, but the patient would have to be the one to take them. By contrast, in Canada and the Netherlands, doctors are allowed to administer the drugs as well. This distinction appears to have a profound effect on how often people are willing to utilize such laws.

For example, California and Canada have similar populations, yet more than 15,000 people took advantage of the MAID laws to end their lives in 2023. By contrast, only 884 individuals in California did the same. And while the difference in who administers the life-ending drugs is not the only distinction—the health care system in Canada is so poor that the standard of care “makes assisted suicide seem more reasonable”—it’s a crucial part of the story.

Overall, the statistics clearly demonstrate that people are substantially more willing to accept a doctor’s help to end their life when they don’t have to be the one to actually take it themselves.

And that difference speaks to a principle that applies beyond assisted suicide.

Degrees of separation from sin

Much of the debate surrounding euthanasia typically comes down to the idea that, when faced with a situation where imminent death is all but certain, people should be given the opportunity to end their life on their terms. And the appeal of that idea is easy to understand.

If you’ve ever walked with someone through a losing battle with cancer or been around a person whose mind, for all practical purposes, died long before their body, the idea of sparing them from that fate can seem merciful. On some level, maybe it is. But the Bible teaches that—with few exceptions—when a life ends is up to God, not us.

Perhaps many of those who are ready to die but far less willing to take their own life recognize that truth to some extent. If so, gaining a degree of separation from the action by having a doctor facilitate that end could make it easier to accept. And the same is true in other areas of our lives as well.

It is often far easier to reject God’s plans when we can lay the ultimate blame for our sins on someone else. This temptation has existed since the Garden of Eden and is unlikely to go away anytime soon. However, God is not fooled, and just because others may share the blame does not absolve us of our guilt.

So the next time you’re tempted to think that your sins are somehow lessened because someone else shared in them, remember that’s not how it works. We are each responsible for our own choices, regardless of who else plays a part.

Trusting God’s ways, even when his path is more difficult than what we would choose for ourselves, will always be the right choice.

Where do you need that reminder today?

Wednesday news to know:

• CNN helped free an infamous Syrian intelligence officer after mistaking him for a regular prisoner
• Congress puts forward a bill that would fund the government for another three months.
• AI’s next frontier is building world models that some see as a prerequisite for human-level intelligence
• “Supergiant” gold deposit worth approximately $83 billion found in China
• On this day in 1620: The Mayflower arrives at Plymouth Harbor

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote of the day:

“Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days—when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned, when you’re out of options, when the pain is great—and you turn to God alone.” —Rick Warren

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