Why is there something, rather than nothing?
Why is there a world, why are there people, why do we exist, when it seems far more likely that non-existence is the more statistically sensible outcome. If you have an airtight, vacuum sealed, sterile, box of nothing, even if you leave it alone for millions of years, I guarantee you that nothing will come from that nothing. So why is it we find that there is something, rather than nothing?
Have you ever tried asking that question to someone, why is there something rather than nothing? Seems to me, the response you will get from most people, is something along the lines of, it's about the big bang, it's about evolution, it is -- well it's the vibe.
Most people will make some vague appeal to science, that somehow it provides the answers to the question “why”. Maybe they will bandy around some names like Darwin or even more likely today Dawkins to substantiate their view.
And generally I think, Christians aren't much better at times in interacting with this issue. We often cower in fear at the sight of someone with a PhD from Oxford, for the fear of looking silly.
But the reality is, that to trying to answer the question “why” with scientific investigation, (while it is extremely useful in itself), is a profound category miss classification. Science does not attempt to answer the question “why”, that is not the goal of science. The goal of scientific investigation is to answer the question “how”. It is to seek an answer for “how” is there something, “how” did our world come to look like it does. But that is not answering the question “why”.
Scientific investigation may be entirely true in its explanation of the existence of the world coming into being through an event called the big bang. Smarter minds than mine still argue over all that, but it doesn't seem an unreasonable idea. That is science doing, what science is supposed to do, explaining “how”. But to then jump in logic from the event of the big bang, to assign a motive (if you like) to the event, is well an act of faith in a sense.
To be able to describe the event of the beginning is sciences job, but then to claim this as a grounds for the motive, (or the “why” of the event), is outside the scope, and the field of expertise, outside the area of diagnostics for the scientific method. Science may give helpful data to instruct our understanding of “how” the world is, and it may even at times infer or point to a meaning, but it does not in itself try to explain “why” the world is.
Scientifically I can tell you how someone has a baby without meeting the parents, but scientifically I cannot really tell you why they had a baby.
That area but knowledge is just not open to investigation by scientific method without meeting them and speaking to them. And so it is with the creation itself, science only has access to the “how”, it does not have access to the “why”. But most Athiests today confidently extrapolate from the perceived “how” to assign the “why”.
But more than answering the question “why”, in terms of “why” is there a world, we need to actually go further than that question to be able to explain reality that we live in. We don't just need to be able to answer the question “why is there a world”, but we also need to be able to answer the question “why is the world as it is”?
Why is the world like this?
If the big bang did explain the “why”, then how do you explain that the world is as it is, and not like some other world. To Ask this in practical terms, why is the world so stuffed? Why are there so many broken bits, why do things go wrong, why isn't this world perfect? why doesn't it fit together better?
Why does my body let me down, my brain forgets things, my knees fall apart, and some days my emotions get the better of me. Why am I like this, why aren't I better than I am?
How does this scientifically confident, God denier, give an account of why the world is like it is? Other than a shrug of the shoulders, and a bumper sticker answer of "stuff happens". A pragmatic, “it is what it is”. Which is all fine and good, until you're the one that "stuff happens" to.
Why is there deep within everyone's soul a longing for a better world?
Why aren't we content with the world we have?
Why do we all know things are wrong with this life, with creation, with our relationships, and with ourselves. How is it that we all know the personal experience of the weight of alienation, if this is exactly how the world is meant to be?
The scientifically confident, God denier, may be able to explain the “how” of life and even the “how” of death, but they cannot really give an account, a meaningful and purposeful account of the “why of life and death”. The idea of most of society that, "It just is", quite frankly is not enough. If you have a life, then we have an onus upon us, to work out why we were given in the first place.
The God denier looks at the world and sees how things are, and makes decisions of how to make things better. But the Christian understands not only how things are, but “why” things are, because God himself, the true and living God has made himself known and told us the truth about ourselves.
The Christian understands reality in a way that God denier cannot, because we understand the big and integrative “why” of life and not just some fragmented and compartmentalized understanding of the “how”.
Just by mankind applying our minds to the reality we see around us, we will never penetrate the depths of the problem we have. In fact to only observe the problems we face each day of the brokenness of this world is to only focus on the symptoms and not the heart of the problem. The problem is far worse than we thought. The problem is not so much these things we experience, but the problem we have is with God. A problem to which all our experiences point.
The Bible tells us that at the heart of reality is the triune Creator God, who made creation good, but has laid a curse upon the creation, because mankind chose to reject him, to reject God as God, to usurp his authority and as a result bore the just judgement of the holy God.
And now we experience this judgement of God in every aspect of our lives, the created order, our relationships, even in our own bodies and minds.
All mankind has put themselves out of right relationship with God, which we learnt in the last talk, "no one is righteous not even one".
But Because the Christian understand deeply the reality of why the world is like it is, we are the ones who know what the real problem is our real problem is our relationship with God, and so we're the ones who are going to see what the right solution is as well.
The reality of life without God in this existence, is bleak, in fact it is a profound darkness, but into this darkness has shone a great light, the light of God in his son Jesus Christ, and the good news, the Gospel he brings to all people is of salvation from judgement, and reconciliation with God our creator whom we have alienate, Salvation and reconciliation that has come to the world through Jesus death on a cross & his resurrection from the dead, a reconciliation and salvation which comes to us through belief in the son and what he has done, through belief in his word of good news, through belief in his gospel.
And this is the challenge, do you think the Christian Gospel, the message of the crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus is a real solution to the world's problems? Is it a real solution for our world, is it the foundational solution for our world?
Which to put it in a more personal way, is a real solution for your problems? Or is it just some useful fiction?
God puts forth in the Bible, that the real solution to the problems of the alienation experienced in this world, is a solution to the problem of our alienation from him. The real solution for the world, and its problems of alienation, is a reconciliation with God our creator, which only comes through belief in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord who came to die and deal with our sin, and was raised to life and declared Lord of all. This Lord is Lord of creation who will return to make all things new.
In this section of our talks we are going to look at three important ways that the Gospel of Christ, and in particular the cross of Christ provides real solutions for our world.
The question for us will be if the gospel is a real solution to the world's problems, how must it shape the way we live now?
Rom 3:22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
1. The judicial and relational Power of the cross
In this section of Romans chapter 3, Paul reiterates for us the problem, the main problem, the big problem, Man’s problem, in fact all mankind’s problem, is that, "there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Just as we saw it in more detail and talk one, every person fails to honour God as God as they should. We do not love God with all our heart and with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. Instead, infact, We actively turn from God’s rule, and fail to worship him, (to honour and serve him) as we should.
And then apostle Paul goes on to paint in the most marvellous imagery, the reality that God our creator, has not consigned us to the scrapheap, but has been patient with us, in order that he may show mercy upon us, and it was an extremely costly mercy for him. God shows us the nature of himself, he exhibits true grace, just as we are reminded in chapter 5 of Romans, that "God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were sinners, Christ died for us".
God is gracious towards us, but it is a costly grace. We are a people who have fallen out the right standing before God, we have sin in our lives, which means that we have fallen short of God’s standard, we are not righteous (in right standing) we are in fact Unrighteous, we have criminal convictions against us because we have done wrong against God. All wrong against God, is to usurp God's authority as God and the penalty is death, the Bible tells us "no other gods before me", "I am God and there is no other".
But in chapter 3 of Romans Paul tells us that God offers to us Righteousness as a gift, Righteousness by Grace, Righteousness by grace that comes through faith. God in Christ paid the penalty that you and I deserved. God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement through his blood we learn in verse 25. This is picking up the old Testament imagery of the sacrifice made the temple. Christ poured out his own perfect life upon the cross to pay the penalty of our Sin towards God. Christ died the death that we should have died, to pay the penalty that we couldn't pay.
The innocent son of God died in our place, so that the sinful son of men could be washed from the stains of their sin by his blood and be redeemed and reconciled with God who is their creator and now their father.
God is a holy God, the judge of all creation, & he did not deal with mankind's sin, with a wink and a nod, or say “she’ll be right attitude”. God has dealt justly, but truly and deeply with Mankind’s sin in the death of his son. In this God is both ‘just and the justifier” we read in V26.The Gospel of Christ, which is to say the good news of Christ, comes to us with real power, in chapter one of Romans Paul says "I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes,"
Christ's act upon the cross, is a powerful act that comes to us, that is applied to our real lives and persons, in and through his powerful word of the gospel.
Belief in Christ's death is not some fairy godmother belief, it is not a legal fiction, but it is the power of God found in his son, in the gospel word of his son, applied to our lives through the holy spirit to pay the penalty of sin, and to cleanse us from the guilt of our sin.
The Gospel is the power of God that takes us from the realm of this world, the realm of darkness, the realm of Satan, and redeems us and reconcile us so we are now Gods children by faith in Christ.
Christ and his cross are the power of God that truly and deeply deals with the source of the problem that we experience in the alienation in this life, Christ and his cross deal with our sin, and give us Righteousness. You cannot deal with the alienation experience in this life, unless you go to the heart of the problem first.
The gospel is the real solution to the world problems.
2. The experiential power of the cross
The Cross itself has rescued us from the Dominion of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of God's glorious light. Christ's death and resurrection has declared him lord of all, he has defeated his enemies, which is to say he is defeated out enemies, at the cross.
The cross is not just a cognitive belief that informs our minds, but it is the power of God applied by the spirit that changes our very being. We know in ourselves the power of the cross, because we know within ourselves, deep in our beings, we have been forgiven, we have received the gift of forgiveness. And we are not slaves to this world and sin like we once were. The cross and resurrection of Christ is powerful to change us. As we said before we have changed in status because of our acceptance of the gospel, we were God's enemies, and now we are his children. But not only has it changed our status, it has changed our person. It truly deals with sin within a person and we are now inclined in ourselves to honour God as God, and to live his way.
Not to be hostile to God, like we once were, but receptive of the powerful Grace he offers to us, not just in salvation but also in renewal, to say no to sin and live a God honouring life. A life that bears the marks of "the Obedience of faith", which is to say the life of worship, or the authentic Christian life.
Now we will have a little bit more to say about this topic tomorrow, as we consider the Christian life in light of the Christian Gospel.
3. The power of the cross to deal with the pain of alienation
An important aspect of the nature of Christ's life, death and resurrection, is the way and that it speaks into our world, of our God and his nature. Our God is not a distant God, a God who set the world in motion and cares nothing for it. Our God is not distant to our suffering, he is not distant to the problem of alienation, which is to say he is not distant to the problem of evil in our world.
In fact our God, rather than just dishing out justice as it deserved, (and he would have been entitled to do), he rather showed his grace, his love his care, and his empathy for mankind. God himself in the person of his son Jesus Christ entered into this world.
Jesus the incarnate son of God, entered into this world, and experienced the alienation common to all Mankind for himself. Jesus suffered in himself the reality of human existence in this world, and more than that he suffered it unjustly. All of the humanity has sinned, and at some level endure is the consequences of their actions. But Jesus actions were always right, and yet he died the most profound and unjust death that mankind has ever know.
People will rightly asked the question, "where is God in the midst of the suffering?", and we as Christians can rightly, and truthfully, and humbly answer, by pointing to the cross.
Where was God in the midst of the suffering, God was in the midst of it, seeking to solve solve the problem, by the most expensive and precious means he had available to him, the death of his own son. The Christian God is not distant in the midst of this alienation, but at a deep and personal level he understands the reality of mankind’s condition, and has acted powerfully in the death and resurrection of his son (that is brought to us in the Gospel message) to fix the problem.
The Gospel message is the power of God, because of Christ's death and resurrection, to deal with the profound alienation in his world, because it deals foundation by dealing with the heart of the problem of alienation, which is our alienation from God our Creator. The cross really does fix the problem of sin in our relationship with God. It deals with the problem of our unrighteousness before God, it changes our status from enemies to children. It deals with our experience of sin, that we can know within ourselves the power of forgiveness from God, but also the power of God to change us in the depths of our being to be inclined for God and against sin. And finally we know the power of the Gospel of Christ, to appeal to our world, that God truly knows on the inside what it is to face the hardship in this world, and that he has truly dealt with the problem.
That is the truth of the Gospel of Christ, it is the power of God for salvation for all who believe, it offers the gift Righteousness from God bought by Christ's blood to pay for our sin.
So this is the part where the rubber hits the road, to let me ask you a few questions.
Most of you here today are relatively young, well relative to me anyway! And there are two main issues I think for being young Christians.
Firstly, life for you at the moment is full of positive an endless options. What I am trying to say is life is on the up. And it's quite possible you view Christianity at the moment as just one option for life, amongst a number of options. Other options like work or career, where to live, relationships all these sorts of things figure fairly prominently as well.
One of the joys of being young, is that you are usually still getting better at most things, but the news is, time is rapidly approaching, when you to will be like the rest of humanity and discover that you have limits. As you get older, you just stop getting better at lots of things, and in fact usually you just run out of time for things altogether.
Young people get old, just like I did. In fact some of them don’t, and instead they die young, like some of my friends did. Despite what feels like at the moment, life is not about endless options, so learn from the reality of other people lives and make choices about your options now, to prepare for the life ahead, but more importantly for the life to come.
No amount of money, or career, or status, or travel, or family, can stand up to the reality, that without Christ we are without hope in this world, and facing God’s judgement in the next. Christ is the saviour of all who believe, but he is an exclusive saviour. You cannot have Christ amongst the pantheon of your own gods, like money and friends and status and respectability. Christ is an exclusive saviour he demands from you an exclusive faith.
Does Jesus have your exclusive allegiance, or do you try and play with other gods behind his back. I might not notice, your friends might not notice, but he does. Are you exclusively committed to Lord Jesus Christ and the power of his gospel for the good of his world, or deep down are you trying to hedge your bets and just live like everyone else? Is Jesus and his cross, nothing more to you than a get out of jail free card?
Secondly, in being young, many of you have grown up in Christian homes, so going to church, and having Christian friends has almost been a default position.
I can't tell you how or when, but I can tell you for sure, that the time is coming when God will shake the tree to see what falls out. God will send testing on us all to prove our faith true or false. Now, Especially because you are young, you should be preparing for that day now. Resolve in your hearts, minds and spirits to set apart Christ as Lord, to believe in, and to serve the Lord Jesus Christ for yourselves. Not because it's what your parents did. Not because it's what people expect of you. But because it is the truth, and because it is the truth you need, because without him the only thing you stand before God with is your own sin.
Being young, means you have choices to make, and this is the most important choice you will ever make. More important and who you will marry, more important and what you will do for a career, more important than where you will live, and more important that how long you will live.
This is the most important choice you will ever make, so let me ask you, hand on heart, in the sight of the living God, have you wholeheartedly resolved that Christ alone will be your Lord and Saviour, that you will honour serve and love him, all the days of your life, with all that you have, because he died for you, to take away your sin and to reconcile you to God.
You can do nothing more important is your life, than believing in and following Jesus. Will you follow Jesus? Will you share his Gospel message that truly is the power of God to deal with the alienation we experience in this world, the symptoms of our alienation with God.
Will you follow Jesus, and tell of his powerful gospel to a lost world?
Rom 3:22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
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