By definition, paradoxes appear self-contradictory and untrue at first, but in the end can been seen to maintain a logical and practical truth. The Christian faith contains a number of paradoxes. This has prompted some theologians to go to extremes in revelling in paradoxes. For example, Kierkegaard and Bonhoeffer could overdo them at times, while in full flight Karl Barth seemed unable to distinguish between paradox and nonsense. However, unless one has a head for paradox, so much of the Christian message will remain incomprehensible.
The person of Christ Himself is paradoxical. Time and again I have had people argue that because Jesus did something that was obviously human, He could not be God. I even listened to a woman once, who tried to reverse that, and argued that because Jesus is God, she would no longer regard him as man. Jesus Himself takes on this issue when He asked the Pharisees, ‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?’ (Matt.22:41-42) Such an approach was unusual because He was in the habit of responding to questions rather than initiating them. Here, He goes onto the attack. The Pharisees know their Scriptures in a straightforward way, and answer, ‘The son of David’. Jesus then pounces: ‘How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls Him Lord, saying, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put Your enemies under Your feet?”’ (Matt.22:43-44) This is a quotation from Psalm 110:1 where it is clear that David, the author, can speak of two Lords. Jesus’ next question traps the Pharisees: ‘If then David call Him Lord, how is He his son?’ (Matt.22:45) Apart from anything else, the Pharisees had no concept of paradoxes, and could not answer Jesus’ question.
Jesus is both shepherd (John 10:11; Matt.26:31) and lamb (John 1:29); Lord (John 13:13) and servant (Mark 10:45); great high priest (Heb.5-9) and sacrifice (Heb.10:10); and the Immortal One (John 10:17-18; Acts 2:24; 3:15) who dies (Acts 2:23). No wonder Charles Wesley wrote: ‘Tis mystery all! the Immortal dies;/ Who can explore His strange design?’ Christ is true God and true man in the one person. That is why so many paradoxical things can be said about Him. The person who cannot handle two truths together cannot know faith in Christ.
The Christian life too is a paradox. Jesus tells us ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it’ (Luke 9:23-24). The way up is to go down. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; whoever humbles himself will be exalted (see Luke 14:11; 18:14). That is not the way of the world, which is the way of self-esteem, self-confidence, living to self, and looking after self first. Bonhoeffer put it in a startling – indeed, paradoxical – way that is nevertheless true: ‘The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.’ Some other Bonhoeffer insights are not so helpful, as when he said that ‘The God who lets us live in the world without the working hypothesis of God is the God before whom we stand continually. Before God and with God we live without God.’ Presumably that means something, but it is difficult to say exactly what.
We are to keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude 21), knowing too that God is able to keep us from stumbling (Jude 1, 24). Thomas Manton understands verse 21 to refer to our love for God, and adds that of all graces, love is most decaying. This might remind us of the famous juxtaposition in Philippians where we are encouraged to work out our own salvation for God works in us (Phil.2:12-13). It is indeed paradoxical, and Jonathan Edwards had good reason to say that God does everything and we do everything
The work of evangelism may reveal many paradoxes. Bonhoeffer made the suggestion that in lawless times, good people find Christ, while in law-abiding times the harlots and tax-collectors do so. Such, in any case, was his experience during the dark days of Nazi Germany. What is true is that God moves in mysterious ways, as Cowper said, and people who we may think are close to becoming Christians never move while those who seem far from the kingdom and utterly indifferent or hostile are brought to know Christ. We are told to be good and to love goodness, but a Pharisaic understanding of goodness may lead us further from grace than outright and obvious sin.
Life is not a series of breath-taking paradoxes, but what seems obviously untrue in terms of common sense may in fact prove to be true. Truth is not just paradoxical, but there is a paradoxical element to it.
With warmest regards in Christ,
– Peter Barnes