Pretension Busters--

Adversity

www.despair.com --"Increasing success by lowering expectations" (so much like the Old Adam and the Old Eve)

Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present

unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work

--Martin Luther

(Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 11)

In times of prosperity be joyful, but in times of adversity consider this:

God has made one as well as the other, so that no one can discover what the future holds.

Ecclesiastes 7:14

"What does not kill me, makes me stronger." Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, 1888. German philosopher (1844 - 1900) The son of a Lutheran pastor, Nietzsche was able to "sniff out" the hypocrisy of religion but, having no faith in Christ and thrust upon his own powers, he was made mad and lived out the end of his days in an asylum.

The great paradox at the center of faith in Christ is the one where reason ends; it is the place where religion is afraid to look and falters; it is the place where atheism begins. Yet, when we are held in the faith of Christ, this paradox terminates free will and births faith.

You may remember that a paradox is when you must declare two contradictory statements in order to speak the truth. Both of these statements must be held in tension; neither can stand alone and the tension must not be resolved; the truth resides in the way each statement counters the "absolutism" of the other.

The great paradox at the center of faith in Christ is this:

The absolute necessity of God;

and

The total responsibility of humanity.

What does this mean? In the first place it means that--for God to be God--God must absolutely and necessarily will all things: God wills, works, demands, and brings about everything that is; nothing that is is without God. In the second place it means that--for us to be human--each and every one of us (each human being) bears the total and entire responsibility for what they do, say, think, and feel; every person will be held accountable under that awesome and terrible responsibility; nothing human is without that accountability--there's no one but ourselves to blame.

So...

God, in order to make saints, does not amend the lives of sinners; he does not "help" them to be stronger, smarter, or more sincere. God doesn't use "adversity" to make the sinner stronger and more boastful in the self. No, God puts the sinner on a cross (just like Jesus'--Matthew 10:38) so that the sinner will die--no "postponing the inevitable." Out of that death on account of sin, God raises up a saint to walk in newness of life.

Therefore, so that I would not become arrogant, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to trouble me – so that I would not become arrogant. I asked the Lord three times about this, that it would depart from me. But he said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, with insults, with troubles, with persecutions and difficulties for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10