paradoxum

My conversations with my teenage sons have been so thought provoking and challenging lately.  I was discussing the issue of sin and atonement with my oldest son the other night, and he had so many great questions.  Our conversation began with the topic of sin...but...wow...I had no idea where this one was going to end!  I think I do my best "theology" talking to my teenage sons...it's admittedly an occasionally theology...in other words, I don't think about a lot of the things they talk to me about...until they talk to me about them!  I'm not making up my theology "on the fly", but I do think best in dialogue.  Anyway, here's the first part of our conversation...

We began with a simple question, "what is sin?" (NO, I didn't tell him his brothers definition).  Most people think that sin is breaking one of God's commands or laws, and few of us would argue w/ that definition.  However, the question quickly arises..."so why are those things sins?"  Of course you could just say, "because the Bible says so", but that would do nothing but push your child down the moralistic/legalistic path that will rob his/her soul of any real joy.  That's a heart crushing answer...so I would encourage us to do better, and grapple with this "childish" question.

Clearly, this is a more difficult question to answer, but one that I think is very important.  The only way I know to answer that question is to begin with another question...and so I posed this question to my son..."why did God make us?"  Of course, he started saying things like, "so we could make disciples" and stuff like that, but eventually, he worked his way back to Genesis 1...always a good place to go. 

Genesis 1 tells us that God created us "in his image and likeness".  In other words, God created us to "image" Himself...we were made to "reflect" who He is...or we could say, we were made to reflect His glory in such a way that He is glorified.  Now, think with me about this...and I think I'll end this part of my post here. 

What if I were to tell you that I was going to create a being who was above EVERY other being ever created...in fact, this being would be made "a little lower than God" and would be made in the very "image" and "likeness" of GOD.  This being would reflect God's glory to ALL of creation.  Would you want to see that being...and can you imagine how glorious that being would be?!?!?! 

Well, guess what...that being is YOU.  Hard to believe isn't it?  Mind boggling...

So what does this have to do with the question that started this conversation ("what is sin?").  I bet you already know, but we'll blog about that on Mondayish.