The late John Stott frequently referred to what he called the “paradox of man” or the “human paradox.” It is the rather simple
observation that humans possess both depravity
and dignity, that each person
possesses the ability to do tremendous good, and commit terrible evil. It is a
paradox that lives within each of us, certainly within myself, and it is a
reality that we face as an entire human race who appears to long for the light
while running towards the dark; people who want the truth but search for it in
lies; a world longing for peace through the declaration of war. The human
paradox.
According to author Anne Rice we have watched Paula Dean this
week being “crucified”
for comments that suggest that racism is alive and well in America today, while
the Supreme Court upheld affirmative
action for higher education.
The state of Texas fought to pass legislation that would greatly
diminish the number of abortions
conducted within their borders while California overturned Proposition 8 and paved
the way for same-sex
marriages to resume.
The New England Patriots signed the outspoken Christian
icon, Tim Tebow, and then released their star tight-end Aaron Hernandez following
his arrest on possible murder charges.
If you are a Taoist you might argue that the presence of all
these paradoxes merely supports the concept of yin and yang, the notion that good and evil
form a whole in which both are constantly dependent on one other in a
constant pursuit of “balance.”
If you are a follower of Buddhism or Hinduism you might
attempt to explain this in terms of Karma whereby the Universe dispenses
justice through the natural order of cause-and-effect. Do good and good will
come to you - do evil, and evil follows.
If you are a nihilist or atheist I would suppose that this
entire blog, and the news it reports on, all points to the irrefutable fact
that there is no god, there is no central meaning to any of this, and that that
all these apparent “paradoxes” only support one conclusion, human history is
random and directionless.
But if you are a Christian might I suggest that the “paradox
of man,” apparent in every sphere of the globe, stands as an
apologetic for the existence of a narrative that hovers over each of our stories
in profound ways. It is the narrative of great good versus grave evil, a
narrative of a cosmic battle for creation that is echoing into human history. I
call it an apologetic because, whether in secret or public, in art, in film or
in literature, we all want good to win. We desire, in the very fiber of our
souls, for truth to triumph, for rescue to come, and for salvation to appear
for the condemned. Indeed, like every good story teaches us, we firmly believe that good ultimately will triumph. It is as if all the paradoxes that swirl around us actually
make increasingly clear the truth of the ultimate paradox, which Stott
explained this way:
“The essence of sin is man substituting
himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for
man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves
to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves
to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties
which belong to man alone."
