Held by Majesty and Mystery
From our very first fall in Eden, every sin and every misstep has sprouted from the same seed. Praise God, it also has the same solution.
Think back to the beginning of the story for a moment. Adam and Eve stood in a lush paradise. They enjoyed uninhibited intimacy with one another, as Adam rejoiced in the “formed from my bones, and her flesh from my flesh!” (Genesis 2:23 TPT). They delighted in meaningful work, laden with purpose. And they walked face to face with God. Can you imagine?
We know the story. A serpent appeared, questioning the trustworthiness of God’s character and convincing us that something else was required for us to walk in fullness. And we bit. Ever since then, the fruit of “the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9 TPT) has found itself central in every human wandering.
Here’s how it works:
- We think we know things we don’t know.
- We feel the need for control and certainty, because there are places we aren’t really sure God is good.
- We lean on our own understanding and then attempt to fit God into our box, re- writing orthodoxy and convincing ourselves that he is just as we are.
This isn’t the way it is for some people or some sins. This is the very seedling that sprouts every wayward attitude and action. In today’s hyper-polarized world, I see the fruit of the “knowledge of good and evil” hiding in plain sight in two very opposite arenas. They are called “legalism” and “tolerance.”
The Lure of Legalism:
I’ve never met a follower of Jesus who proudly asserted, “I’m living and loving like a legalist!” We all equally detest the term. Nonetheless, the casual and gradual way this mindset sneaks into the seats of our souls and our churches demands our attention. “Legalism is defined as a “strict, literal, or excessive conformity to the law or to a religious or moral code,”1 but in actual practice, a more accurate definition would be “a strict reliance upon one’s interpretation of God’s law, coupled with the demand that others conform to it.” It is linked closely with synonyms, “narrow,” “argumentative,” “contentious,” “judgmental,” and “prideful.”
Legalism: “The strict reliance upon one’s interpretation of God’s law, coupled with the demand that others conform to it.”
Legalism happens every place we forget that God’s Word is inspired…and rely on our interpretation of it, which is certainly not inspired. We presently see God dimly and are called to messy, childlike faith that is maturing and does not possess all of the answers.
“For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face. My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me has been fully understood.”
1 Corinthians 13:12 TPT
Here’s the problem. We think we know things we don’t know. We desire certainty and control, because there are places we aren’t yet sure God is good. And in legalism, we lean on our own understanding in an attempt to rob God of his mystery. We search the scriptures for rigid boundaries and finalized judgments of who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out,’ seeking to assure ourselves of our own acceptability and to protect ourselves from any outside threat. In so doing, we weaponize the written Word of God, barricading ourselves from the very people the Living Word of God ran to — the lost, the last, the least, the lonely, and the lepers. Legalism makes our walls high and our borders small, as we slowly reject anyone who doesn’t look, love, or sin just like us. Meanwhile, God stands with mysterious mercy that confounds and offends our reason:
“For my thoughts about mercy are not like your thoughts, and my ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so my ways and my thoughts are higher than yours.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 TPT
Here’s the mystery that placed Jesus on a cross: the love of God is higher, wider, and deeper than we’ve imagined. Legalism trades the wonder of his delight for the weight of demands too heavy for us or others to carry (Matthew 23:4). It is a bitter fruit, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of everyone we encounter.
The Tree Called Tolerance
On the other side of the aisle, there is an equally dangerous offer of the same fruit. “Tolerance” has been defined as, “the decision to allow, permit, or accept an action, idea, object, or person that one dislikes or disagrees with.”2 But once again, when we see how it is actually taught and lived out around us, it would be truer to say that tolerance is “the affirmation, celebration, and validation of actions, ideas, and beliefs with which one disagrees, as legitimate and honorable.”
Tolerance: “The affirmation, celebration, and validation of actions, ideas, and beliefs with which one disagrees, as legitimate and honorable.”
Where legalism attempts to remove God’s mystery, tolerance tries to reduce his majesty, or his right to rule as King over Creation. How does it happen? We hear a standard for holiness in God’s Word that doesn’t seem fair or just to us, and we think we know things we don’t know. We desire certainty and control because we aren’t yet sure God is actually good. And so, we attempt to reduce God down into the box of our own understanding concerning compassion, morality, goodness, or holiness. We rewrite him into our image. What’s more, we convince ourselves that anyone who has the audacity to challenge our thinking is ‘bigoted’ or ‘intolerant.’ All the while, we miss that we’ve become a clay pot arguing with the Potter:
“Listen to what Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, the One who shaped him, has to say: ‘Why do you question me about the destiny of my children or tell me what to do with my children and what I have made? I created the earth and populated it with people. With my own hands, I spread out the cosmos and then commanded the starry host to shine! I am the one who raised him up in righteousness! I will make all his paths straight and level. He will build my city and release my exiled people.'”
Isaiah 45:11-13 TPT
Our God isn’t merely ‘good;’ He is Goodness itself. He isn’t simply ‘loving.’ God IS love. He cannot do evil. He will not falter or faint. He alone possesses the right to define sin, and He alone came to rescue all of humanity from it.
The Way Out: Humility
We return to where we started: Every sin and every misstep sprouts from the same seed. And it has the same solution.
Do you remember what happened immediately after Adam and Eve fell? The Father appeared, and within mere seconds, he made a promise. One day, “the seed of a woman” would come and, at great cost to himself, crush the enemy and bring humanity back with him to dance in the Garden, forever. He’s the one who will build the city and release every eye who looks to him from their exile.
He is the God of mystery, revealing himself as One who lavishes scandalous grace in ways that confound and offend our religious legalism.
He is the God of majesty, holy, just, and jealous for our complete hearts to bow before his throne so that we would find life.
And he says that the only way we can know him without weaponizing or minimizing his glory is to come humbly, like a child:
“Learn this well: Unless you dramatically change your way of thinking and become teachable like a little child, you will never be able to enter in.”
Matthew 18:3 TPT
By the way, I don’t believe that verse simply applies to eternity. I believe it also defines the path into both intimacy and holiness. Until we dramatically change our tired narratives of legalism and tolerance for the humble wonder and grateful delight of being his kids, we won’t enter in to see him as he truly is.
The way to the Father’s heart is called ‘humility.’
May we be a people who embrace God in the radical mercy he pours out to those we find undeserving, and may we be those who obey God without seeking to sanitize or silence his call for all of our hearts. As we do, we will find that we are being held securely by the wraparound presence of the God of mystery and majesty. Praying for you, friend! Let’s go!
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