The Divine Dilemma

Sitting on the floor beside my bed is a stack of about twenty-five books by great Christian authors such as John Piper, C. H. Spurgeon, and others. My goal is to read through as many of these as I can before I leave for college this fall. Right now I'm going through C. J.Mahaney's book "Christ Our Mediator".

The latest chapter I read was called "The Divine Dilemma" and I'm just going to give some excerpts from this chapter. First C. J. describes God:

"Paul conveys this dilemma in the opening chapters of his first letter to Timothy. God is 'the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God,' Paul says. As King of kings, He's the absolute Sovereign one who transcends time...And He's invisible-living in unapproachable light, so that sinful beings cannot see Him and live. Furthermore, He's the only God, with no rivals."

Then describes man:

"In utter contrast to this is the portrait of humanity Paul paints for Timothy: 'lawless and disobedient...ungodly and sinners...unholy and profane...those who strike their fathers and mothers...murders, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.'"

Now C. J. compares the two and shows the dilemma:

"For God, the divine dilemma comes about because He isn't indifferent to any of this sinfulness on mankind's part. He is, in fact, righteously and furiously opposed to every bit of it. He cannot simply overlook or excuse it. In light of His holiness and justice, He has no alternative but to punish sin and punish the sinner."

Man and God are in complete opposition to each other, yet God wanted to save man. But God had to punish man for their sin. So this is the biggest dilemma that has ever existed and no man can do anything to resolve the issue. Next week C. J. will tell us about the Divine Rescue.