In the Enigma of Man – God is the Solution.
In his book Our Reasonable Faith, Herman Bavinck wrote that “Man is an enigma, whose only solution can be found in God.” Bavinck’s comment is cited in Ian Hamilton’s The Faith-Shaped Life.
Bavinck also noted Darwin’s position that, “unmarried women, if they were educated under the same conditions as honey bees are, would think it a sacred duty to kill their brothers even as the working bees do…” In The Wonderful Works of God he further observed,
According to Darwin, therefore, the whole of the moral law is a product of circumstances, and consequently it changes as the circumstances change. Good and evil, even as truth and falsehood, are therefore relative terms, and their meaning and worth are, like fashions, subject to the changes of time and place.
This observation about Darwin is surely the case in today’s post-modern world where truth is fluid. In fact what is touted to be truth this year will inevitably morph into something else the next.
Yet God’s Word tells us that man knows the truth and suppresses it. The Apostle Paul wrote:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Rom 1:18-23
The apostle didn’t suppress the truth, yet Ian Hamilton observes that he was still an enigma to himself. Paul lamented:
For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. Rom 7:15
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. Rom 7:18-19
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Rom 7:24
Have you ever felt that way? I certainly have, and still do!
Hamilton notes:
We live at the intersection of two worlds – this fallen world which is passing away, and the world to come which has already come in the Persons of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, both of whom were sent from the Father. There is therefore an inescapable ache in every truly Christian heart: we are not yet home. And that is at times heightened by the aggravations of indwelling sin and the assaults of the devil. So much so, that we can think that because we do not do what we long to do, we cannot be possible be Christians. If we are not grieved by this indwelling enigma, we should seriously ask ourselves whether indeed we can possibly be Christians.
So Hamilton is saying that if we don’t care about sin in our lives – if it doesn’t bother us – then we ought to carefully assess ourselves. On the other hand he concludes that the fact we are perplexed and humbled by these inconsistencies and contradictions suggests we have the mark of authentic faith.
Don’t forget that in Romans Chapter 8 Paul reminds us of our ultimate redemption, provided by the Triune God. This is the other side of the enigmatic coin. One day all these enigmas and contradictions (as Hamilton writes) will be expunged from our lives and we will be conformed to the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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