New Life in Jesus Christ
ed. by D. Gander
About 300 years after Jesus' ascension, a saintly man named Athanasius became the Bishop of Alexandria. He asked, what value could our existence have, if we do not know our Maker? Knowledge of our Creator is "the only happy and blessed life". God's provision for mankind, to know his Maker and live in Him, includes a "share in His own image, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ" so that through Him we might know the Father.
Without Jesus living in us, and without recognizing the image of God within us and our neighbours, man believes we are nothing but accidents of nature and impersonal "evolution", biological blobs shaped by environment and circumstance. Overlooking our true origin and our God-given nature (and the need for our rebirth from above), through ignorance of the Author and Perfecter of our faith and person, we risk "worshipping the creature rather than the Creator".
So man without God reflects upon himself falsely, believing himself to be the master of his own destiny. Idols are embraced and deceptive spirits invoked in man's hunger for control and god-likeness. Economic or political power are often expressions of man-centred control. Some old and new-age religions see nature or some contrived spiritualism like magic or astrology as ultimate. By such earthly cares and god-substitutes of this life, man vainly tries to fill that "God-shaped vacuum" which remains when his true God-image is neglected, when Christ is not taken to heart and the Holy Spirit is ignored or refused.
C.S. Lewis has somewhere written about the over-spicing contained in falsehood designed to allure man away from the more important but less obvious Person and kingdom of God. Imitation bacon (he said in effect) is not made to have less taste than real bacon, but more. The flavour imitates the original appeal of the real thing while changing it with additives (falsehoods) that bring our watering mouths to eventually prefer the artificial substitute. When our strength weakens and throats dry out with the chemicals, we then seek coloured sugar drinks (such as man-centred politics or social activism) to satisfy with flavour-intensity those taste buds we've thus excited; our diet, our hunger for truth degrades with each new sensation presented to our distended belly of over-spiced and undernourished spiritual sensibility.
Athanasius illustrated our inner renewal by comparing us to a portrait on a panel obliterated by accumulated stains and grime. It's as if the artist were to take that same panel and re-draw the person who provides himself again as subject, just as Jesus recreates our divine image obliterated by sin... with our agreement and co-operation. Creation alone and the natural world do not "prevent man from wallowing in error", Athanasius said, nor are they sufficient to lead man to the Father. Our new life is sparked by the Word of God in the hearth of the Church; and that spark is fanned by His Spirit most warmly where the Church provides the bellows. The Word took human flesh and came down to our level, showing us He who could not be known by any other means, the gift of Jesus Christ Himself as Lord, and through Him God the Father.
About 300 years after Jesus' ascension, a saintly man named Athanasius became the Bishop of Alexandria. He asked, what value could our existence have, if we do not know our Maker? Knowledge of our Creator is "the only happy and blessed life". God's provision for mankind, to know his Maker and live in Him, includes a "share in His own image, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ" so that through Him we might know the Father.
Without Jesus living in us, and without recognizing the image of God within us and our neighbours, man believes we are nothing but accidents of nature and impersonal "evolution", biological blobs shaped by environment and circumstance. Overlooking our true origin and our God-given nature (and the need for our rebirth from above), through ignorance of the Author and Perfecter of our faith and person, we risk "worshipping the creature rather than the Creator".
So man without God reflects upon himself falsely, believing himself to be the master of his own destiny. Idols are embraced and deceptive spirits invoked in man's hunger for control and god-likeness. Economic or political power are often expressions of man-centred control. Some old and new-age religions see nature or some contrived spiritualism like magic or astrology as ultimate. By such earthly cares and god-substitutes of this life, man vainly tries to fill that "God-shaped vacuum" which remains when his true God-image is neglected, when Christ is not taken to heart and the Holy Spirit is ignored or refused.
C.S. Lewis has somewhere written about the over-spicing contained in falsehood designed to allure man away from the more important but less obvious Person and kingdom of God. Imitation bacon (he said in effect) is not made to have less taste than real bacon, but more. The flavour imitates the original appeal of the real thing while changing it with additives (falsehoods) that bring our watering mouths to eventually prefer the artificial substitute. When our strength weakens and throats dry out with the chemicals, we then seek coloured sugar drinks (such as man-centred politics or social activism) to satisfy with flavour-intensity those taste buds we've thus excited; our diet, our hunger for truth degrades with each new sensation presented to our distended belly of over-spiced and undernourished spiritual sensibility.
Athanasius illustrated our inner renewal by comparing us to a portrait on a panel obliterated by accumulated stains and grime. It's as if the artist were to take that same panel and re-draw the person who provides himself again as subject, just as Jesus recreates our divine image obliterated by sin... with our agreement and co-operation. Creation alone and the natural world do not "prevent man from wallowing in error", Athanasius said, nor are they sufficient to lead man to the Father. Our new life is sparked by the Word of God in the hearth of the Church; and that spark is fanned by His Spirit most warmly where the Church provides the bellows. The Word took human flesh and came down to our level, showing us He who could not be known by any other means, the gift of Jesus Christ Himself as Lord, and through Him God the Father.