About the Paradox of Our Savior

Christianity is a religion of Paradox. I think C. S. Lewis wrote extensively on that subject. Jesus’s life was imbedded in paradoxes from its beginning to the end. With Christmas approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about his birth and the reason he came.

Yesterday morning Sarah forwarded me a “Purpose Driven Life Devotional” by John Fischer that talked about three wise men and their understanding of Christ’s roll on this earth. It was titled “Obedient Unto Death”:

“Three gifts the wise men brought. The idea that there were three of them comes from the gifts, not the number of kings. They brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Of these gifts, two were fit for royalty, but the third was a bitter omen. In Jesus' day, bodies were wrapped in myrrh for burial. Myrrh's pungent odor neutralized the smell of decomposing flesh. Thus, even the gifts that were brought to the Christ child announced His ultimate purpose. This was not some cruel joke; the wise men understood why this king had come...

...With all of this ahead for the little Christ child, it makes you realize how wise these wise men really were. A lot wiser than we give them credit for. They knew enough to strike out on this mysterious journey that most likely took a number of years to complete. They knew enough to know that the child would be a king. But they also knew that it would be in the stone-cold grip of the grave that this child's greatest work would be accomplished.”

It was cool to read this devotional yesterday morning, because I was just thinking about the paradoxical way God used to bring us salvation through Jesus the night before; how he triumphed over death by dying. And it couldn’t be just an ordinary death, but it had to be a particularly horrible death on the corss.

Then it led me to think about the way God brings redemptions in the lives of alcoholics and drug addicts:

Addiction got to be one of the worst curses the enemy has casted upon humanity. Addictive substances kill addicts’ physical body, as well as their personality and spirituality. People who are involved in addicts’ lives are also profoundly affected. The agonizing thing for those who love addicts is that there is nothing they can do to stop the self-destructive behavior of the addicts: They just have to watch good people turn into monsters, and eventually destroy themselves and those around them. Nonetheless many friends and family members of addicts try everything they can think of to gain control over the demon of addiction. By reacting to a desparately insane situations with desparate actions, they too, become insane.

It is said that the desease of addiction can be arrested but not be cured. There is no drug or therapy that can effectively remedy the desease. The only treatment that has shown a high rate of success is the Twelve Step Program developed by Alcholic Anonymous. And just being in the program doesn’t promise addicts the success of their recovery. They have to work the program willingly, deligently, and for an extended period of time to see the result. Above all, they must accept that they are powerless over their desease of addiciton, and need God (or Higher Power, as they say) to restore them to sanity. Early on in their program, they go through an intensive process to turn their lives and care over to God. GOD IS THEIR ONLY HOPE.

Drug addiction must have come straight from the heart of hell. But I’ve seen God work in the midst of undescribable misery and hopelessness caused by addiction. Through addiction and recovery from it, often people who were walking furthest away from God were brought back to the eterenal life. Paster Ken at Ann Arbor Vineyard Church once said that the Twelve Step Program came straight from the heart of God. I belive that earnestly. Because the effect of addiction is so devastating, the grace of God that provides healing is ever more precious. God’s way of taking the enemy’s worst weapon and turn it around to reveal His love is consistant with the stragegy of the Cross.

Isaiah 53
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.