Biblical Balance

Christianity is a very tough faith to live. One of the reasons this is so is because Scripture stresses realities that seem intractably at odds with each other. The God of the Bible is a God of love. But he is also a God of wrath and judgment. Human beings are depicted is both depraved and dignified. God is portrayed as supremely sovereign over all things big and small, yet, the choices and decisions of human beings are real and seem to matter a great deal. What are we to do with such polarities, and can a proper balance be struck that can inform how we live? The answer is 'yes', but perhaps not in the way we might think.

It is very tempting to look at the love of God and the judgment of God and try to find balance by watering both realities down and settling on what I call a 'mushy middle'. This mushy middle is possible because both concepts have been sufficiently defanged to the point where the polarity that once prevailed no longer exists. By watering down both concepts, we hope to be able to forge some reconciliation between them and achieve balance. But this is not biblical balance at all.

Biblical balance is a much harder notion than the idea of achieving balance through domesticating robust concepts. Biblical balance involves radically stressing both polarities, and living in the tension that this creates. Put simply, finding balance is the much harder exercise of allowing the robust nature of each polarity to juxtapose and augment the other. As I blogged about this past Easter, the crucifixion in particular is wondrous and excrutiating all at once precisely because so many seemingly polar opposites intersect at the Cross - good and evil, love and judgment, mercy and justice, belief and unbelief, etc. The challenge not only of the Cross but all of Christian living is taking Scripture's emphasis on the polar realities seriously and not watering them down where Scripture does not.

This concept of Biblical balance is extremely difficult. We must understand that it's much more comfortable and easy for us to water down or deemphasize certain realities so that we can arrive at an approach to life and doctrine that is clean and neat and doesn't challenge us in any ongoing way. Take any example you want, and we'll see that this is true. The perennial divine sovereignty vs human responsibility debate is a classic example. Rather than radically stressing both realities and living in the tension that this creates, most of us tend to exalt one in part by watering down the other. Neo-Calvinists who so stress the sovereignty of God too often arrive at a paper-thin doctrine of human responsibility. Likewise, those who insist that authentic human responsibility is only possible if human choices are free from interference too often arrive at a paper-thin doctrine of divine sovereignty. This is not biblical balance - it's a cheap way out of being radically challenged by the WHOLE counsel of God. And I would argue that a great majority of the church today is taking this easy way out on a whole host of critical issues. Is it any wonder that we often have trouble seeing Kingdom power in our midst?

Human beings are not only creatures of habit, they also seem to long for a certain simplicity. Now let me be clear, as one who has read many commentaries and theological treatises over the years, I don't contend that people's elaborate attempts to sacrifice certain realities for the sake of exalting other realities is simple. But I do contend that it is a far simpler and more comfortable road to take than to be faithful to the whole counsel of God and affirm all of what it says with the same vigor that it itself does. People don't like living in the tension. It's inherently uncomfortable, it is often unnerving, and it's not nearly as self-affirming as the watered down approach in making us think we pretty much have a grasp of Christianity, what it teaches, and what it demands.

I'm not saying there aren't aspects of Christianity that are simple - there are, that's part of the beauty of it. But I am asking whether the quest for a comfortable simplicity is really the highest goal we should be shooting for? To me, a vigorous pursuit of the truth is the highest goal, and I have discovered that truth is sometimes very complex and decidedly beyond our ability to easily grasp. A quest for simplicity will inevitably compromise our quest for truth, and for those of us who claim to be faithful to all the Bible teaches, this is simply not an option. As difficult as it is, we have to be willing to be challenged by ALL of what Scripture teaches, and not appoint ourselves as arbiters of what can and cannot be watered down when it comes to handling God's Word. We have to be willing to stress what Scripture stresses, even if the result is that we have to live in the tension that comes with not totally understanding how Scripture's polarities meld together. It's better to do this and stay faithful to Scriptural teachings and achieve biblical balance, than to compromise the inspired words of God in order to avoid being challenged by them and risk upsetting doctrinal schemes that don't insist on hard veridical examination.