From Apologetics to Faith: Embracing the Reality of Christ

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Years ago, a friend told me what I was. Most of us have had that experience at one time or another in our life. If not what we are, where we should go. My friend told me that I was an apologist. I would have been flattered if I had known what that meant at the time. It was somewhat later that I encountered one of the greatest of Christian apologists, a man named C.S. Lewis, a name probably familiar to many of you, Then recently I came across a quotation from C.S. Lewis that for me explained a vague disquiet that follows me around and sits on my shoulder and whispers in my ear from time to time, but I’ve never really quite known what it was or why it was. Apologists, he concluded, can be saved only by falling back continually from the web of their own arguments into the reality. from Christian apologetics into Christ himself. It came through, at first, I had to ask myself, what is he saying? But the more I thought about it, the clearer it became to me personally because of the way I live my life, of what I do, of what I’ve been called to do, and what I’ve been gifted to do, which in a way, I am a Christian apologist. Lewis was remarkable in this regard. He was intelligent, well-read, highly educated, who also had the good sense to doubt himself, to examine himself, which one cannot do without self-doubt. I don’t know if that thought ever crossed your mind, but the scriptures tell us that each of us is to examine ourselves, especially coming into the Passover, and you cannot examine yourself if you have no doubt of yourself. He understood the dangers of vanity, And he also understood what a thin web is woven by a very good argument. He said, and I quote, No argument is dimmer to the eye of faith than that which a man has just successfully defended. No argument is dimmer to the eye of faith than that which a man has just successfully defended. Doctrine and apologetics are essential. Otherwise, you would never know where you are and you would not know what you should do next. We would not know the basis, even in some cases of our fellowship, if we didn’t have some framework into which our beliefs and our practices work. Now, what we should also know about this is that while they are essential, they are also a temptation to vanity, to pride. This was never more clear to me than when I read that question from the dean of Christian apologists, C.S. Lewis. Apologists can’t be saved only by falling back continually from the web of our own arguments into their reality, from apologetics into Christ himself. Now, there’s a fairly well-known denomination, I think particularly across the South, that believes no one is going to be saved except the members of their own church. I remember once when Allie and I were making the transition from a Baptist church, we were visiting with some friends of ours who were members of this other church, and because they thought we were kind of in limbo, they were very urgent to take us to their church that night and baptize us that night because if we weren’t baptized by that church improperly, we would go to hell when we died, and they were very anxious for our soul. Now, I expect that these people would be profoundly surprised when they find that they’re on the sea of glass in front of God the Father after the resurrection from the dead and eternity about to begin, they would be totally surprised to see Allie and I standing there right next to them. You may be just as surprised as they are about other people and for much the same reason. Think about this for just a moment. Imagine that you have made it. You are standing there before him. You can see him as he is, which something in the back of your mind vaguely tells you that I must be like him. And there, standing right alongside of you, are two figures you recognize immediately. Billy Graham and Pope John II. Men on broadly different poles of the religious spectrum, not to mention the pole you may find yourself on. Now, how on earth can that be possible? I think I finally understand. They will not hold their presence there, these gentlemen will not, due to the fact that they keep this or that law. Nor will they be there because their doctrines were all correct. But then you won’t be there for that reason either. What makes it possible for you or anyone else to stand before God is the grace of God. Without it, It’s just not possible. What makes that grace possible? It’s Christ himself. The one that C.S. Lewis said, you’ve got to fall back off the web of your own arguments into Christ. One night, a man came to see Jesus, a ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus. And they launched into a discussion which… seems to me to be abbreviated or something because there’s something missing in that conversation that I would like to know what led up to the important things, but the important things are there. In John 3 and verse 13, Jesus said this, No man has ascended up into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now I take that expression of Jesus to basically mean and refer to those people on planet Earth, those human beings who have lived, who have committed themselves to him. Who have said, I believe in you. I trust you. I commit to you. Because that’s what it means. To just say you believe in Jesus, to merely say I believe he existed, is pathetically little. More than that is required. A belief that involves trust, the kind that you can step out on, even if what appears to be beneath your feet is space. You’re going there because you trust him and you’re committed to him. He then has this famous verse right immediately following this. And whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That is a profound statement. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. This Christ, this reality, this man, it was, at this time, his only begotten. And I always, when I read this, hearken back to Abraham, who was told to take his son, his only son, Isaac, to a place where God would tell him and to offer him there for a burnt offering. that he had to be called upon, had to be willing to make the same sacrifice that God was going to make generations later of his own sons. This sacrifice is real. It is painful. It hurts. That became so clear to me. I never really thought of it this way until I watched George C. Scott’s portrayal of Abraham in the movie The Bible. To come to realize what a devastating thing it is to have to give up your own son. I don’t think we can even begin to understand that we can sympathize, we can feel for, but until you have actually come to the place to where you do it, you can never know. God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. It’s a profound statement as well. And this is a reality we need to fall back on. God did not send his son into this world to condemn it. He sent his son into this world to save it. This is the man. He that believes on him is not condemned. He that does not believe is condemned already because he hasn’t believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation. Here’s what it is. Light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Why on earth would anyone prefer darkness over light unless there is something to hide? The truth of the matter is that the way we live, the things we do are not good, and therefore we would just as soon keep them out of sight. Everyone that does evil, he said, hates the light. They don’t come to the light lest their deeds should be reproved. But he that does truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifest that they are wrought of God. What makes the difference? It’s the deeds. things that men actually do. You can tell whether men believe or not by the way their belief alters their life. Otherwise, how would you know? And you might ask the same thing about yourself. How has my belief altered my life and the things that I have done? Their arguments are mere spider’s webs. And you know what you can do. You go out on your porch, you see a spider’s web up in the corner, you can take a broom, you can reach up there and sweep through it, and the spider’s web is gone. And that’s what our arguments are. And that’s why C.S. Lewis said that an apologist, while we have a job to do, must, if we’re going to be saved, fall back from the web that we draw with our arguments into the reality. from Christian apologetics, into Christ himself. Now, what is this reality? What does it mean to fall back continually from this web of arguments into Christ himself? There was a young Jewish girl in Nazareth one day. At her prayers, she was believing in God. She was following the way that she had done. She was engaged to a man named Joseph. Her name was Mary. We all know her. Well, it tells us in Luke 1, verse 26, that in the sixth month of the pregnancy of her sister, not her sister, I believe her cousin, Elizabeth, Now, this is real. You know, this is not mythology. There was a real woman here, a very young woman. Perhaps you might even call her a girl. I certainly would. When you reach my age, lots of women are girls. But the truth is that she was just a girl. The angel came and said, Hail, you that are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled and she cast around in her mind, What in the world does he mean, blessed am I among women? And he said, Don’t be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. Behold, you shall conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great. He shall be the son of the highest. The Lord God shall give him the throne of his father, David. And right there, a light would have gone on in Mary’s mind, I’m sure. For she realized that reference was a reference to the Messiah. It could be none other. Then said Mary to the angel, well, how shall this be, seeing I have not known a man? And the angel answered and said, The Holy Spirit shall come upon you. The power of the highest shall overshadow you. And therefore that Holy One which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God. And very shortly thereafter, the signs of pregnancy would begin to show in this young woman. A real pregnancy with a real babe growing in her womb And of course, we’re all familiar by endless repetition about the crisis that this presented for Joseph, the kind of man he was and how an angel was sent from him to tell him, don’t worry about this. This is of God. You take her and make her your wife. Well, later in Luke 2, verse 4, Joseph went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. And I always, there’s something about that scripture that I just love. To consider Mary, as I have seen so many women who are in that eighth or ninth month of pregnancy, who are obviously becoming weary of this thing they have to carry around with them, very large in abdomen, and with oftentimes the hand on the back because of the discomfort that it’s creating there, the weight she has to carry. And here’s poor Mary carrying this child, great with this child, waiting for the moment when she is to be delivered. This is reality. You know, this is not arguments. This isn’t some feathery gauze of theology. This is a real young woman, really pregnant, going to give birth to a child in very short order. Well, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, for there was no room for him in the inn. Now, I could develop for you the apologetics of why this was important from a standpoint of a coming king, a Messiah, who would not come to be born in a palace, but would be born in the most humble of origins. I could weave all that for you. But for those of us who are of a generation who know what a barn is like, the reality of this birth comes just singing through. I know what that barn smelled like. I know the smell of hay. I know the smell of animals. You know, when you have a group of cows in a barn, you have the smell of manure, of course, that’s there, which is, you know, it’s not that offensive. It’s just a part of nature. And the smell of the cattle. There is a particular… combination of smells in a place like that in all generations, in all nations, and that is where our Savior was born. And sometimes in your life, maybe you’ve had a chance to lie down on straw. Maybe at some time you have, like me and my cousins, we get up in the loft of the barn and jump out of it into a pile of hay. Maybe you’ve gone through some of these experiences, which will help you to understand the reality of Christ, the reality of his birth, of the place of his birth. It’s real. It really happened. And these shepherds who were in the field that night, keeping watch over their sheep, heard one of the most staggering pieces of music ever heard by the ear of man. When a group of angels came to them saying glory to God in the highest and peace on earth toward men of goodwill, with a music that would make Handel blush. It was something to behold, I have no doubt. The reality, that child born in that stable that night was as real as I am. Every bit as real as I am. And the reality of Jesus’ statement to Nicodemus comes home as well. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now the world waited 30 years for this child to become a man. It’s a long time. Where were you 30 years ago today? That’s how long the world had to wait for him to begin. And then three more years after that, they had to wait for him to accomplish all that he came to do. But on that night before his death, Knowing full well what waited for him the next day, he rose up from supper, laid aside his garment, girded himself with a towel, took a basin, and began to wash his disciples’ feet. Can you imagine being there like Peter or James or John and having Jesus’ hands on your feet? having him hold your foot in a basin of water and massage your foot, rinse your foot, maybe be sure that everything was clean between the toes, taking his towel, drying your foot very carefully. This is Christ, the real Christ, a real man. He said after he washed their feet and took back his clothes and sat down again, he said, do you know what I’ve done to you? You call me master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. You’re right. Now, if I, your Lord and master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet, for I have given you an example that you should do what I have done to you. The servant is not better than his Lord. Neither is he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. Once again, every year at the Passover, when we come together, we fall back into the reality of Christ. We fall back out of the webs that we create and the arguments that we have about Passover timing, three days and three nights, all of the Old Testament Passover, the New Testament Passover, the Hebrew words, and all of that. We fall out of that into the reality of sitting in a chair and having someone carry for us the role of Jesus. Wash our feet. The reality of it is brought back to us. Then after supper, Jesus said that Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 23 said, I received from the Lord what I passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. This do in remembrance of me. In the same way after supper, he took the cup and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. Now, it’s utterly impossible for me. To imagine how any Christian folk could read that scripture, sit at Passover service, partake of that wine, and not believe that they are now in covenant with Jesus Christ. Whatever you think this particular new covenant was, you are in it. That is, I hope you are, because that’s what that is all supposed to be about. I made this point some months ago, so I hope you’ll forgive me for reminding you once again. It’s not that long until Passover will be here, so you’ll have time to think about it. I think a lot of us partake of the symbols of the Passover, the bread and the wine, as mere recipients of God’s grace, which indeed we are. But we don’t seem to realize that what the Passover is about is the entering into of a new relationship. Now, all of us should know because we have done this. men and women, we have left our father’s house, we’ve left our father and our mothers, we have cleaved to our wives, and we and our new wives have become one flesh and we have now entered into a new relationship. Okay? So we know what that means. Do you understand that when you repent of your sins and you go under the waters of baptism and you come up washed clean of your sins, you are justified? That it is at the Passover time that you take that next step of entering into a relationship which did not exist before. That’s what the covenant is. We have a family that we didn’t have before. We have a brother that we never had. And we have all the obligations that fall upon us of family. Now, it is absolutely true that we can do nothing to justify ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. There’s nothing we can do whatsoever. Just as Israel standing outside the tabernacle on the Day of Atonement, what did they do on that day? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You say, well, they fasted. Don’t you understand? Fasting is nothing. It’s as far as nothing can go. Our reconciliation is accomplished by our high priest with no help at all from us. All Israel was expected to do was fast, but that’s not doing something. It’s not doing anything. That does not, however, mean that there is nothing for us to do when we walk away from the moment of reconciliation with God. Mind you, I’m talking about reality here. Once you are reconciled, once you are forgiven, this does not mean that there is nothing for you to do as you leave Day of Atonement or as you leave Passover services. The entry into the new covenant is not a passive event for us. Much as it may seem like it is, it’s not. We partake of Christ’s body and Christ’s blood having engaged in self-doubt. having acknowledged that we cannot save ourselves. We examine ourselves to see where we are before God, and we enter into covenant with Jesus Christ. And we go away from the Passover to walk a different way from the one we walked when we came in. Somehow, that truth gets away from us all too easily. But I want to take us back for a moment to fall into reality, to use C.S. Lewis’ expression. In John 14, verse 34, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. Now, I have no idea how you define that for yourself. I don’t know what that means to you. All I know is this, and this is real. Jesus on this last night says to his disciples, this is how the world is going to know that you are related to me if you love one another. And this has nothing to do with your dogma. It has nothing to do with the apologetics. It has nothing to do with your church’s doctrine. It has to do with the way we treat one another. That’s exactly what it’s about. And it’s the only way that he said that we would really know. In chapter 14, verse 12, he says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on me, the works that I do, shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to my Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Now, you do understand that in a covenant, whenever you enter into a new relationship, that there are obligations on both sides of the relationship. Paul in Ephesians 5 is at some pains to explain this to husbands and wives. He says, husbands, love your wives like Christ loved the church. Wives, see that you reverence your husbands. And the clear implication, as Paul goes through, is that this is mutual submission. You actually have got to both fulfill your part of this covenant, and marriage is a covenant, or else the other side cannot be demanded that they do theirs. It’s a two-way street. All right? Now, if this is like that anyway, exactly how is it like that? What follows is Jesus’ statement of the obligations of this relationship. He said, These are the two sides. In marriage, you repeated vows. Then your spouse repeated vows. You were told you were a man and wife. You kissed and went away on a honeymoon. Okay? Here are the two things that are expected of the two parties in this relationship. One, you come to me and ask anything in my name, I’ll do it for you. But for that to work, you’ve got to keep my commandments. You have to live this way to be in relationship with me. Now, the disciples of Jesus would not understand how real all this was for a few hours yet. They would come to know the meaning of a scripture back in Isaiah that finds beautiful expression and handles Messiah. Isaiah 50, verse 5. The Lord has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face… These are the words of Jesus. And it really happened. He really did give his back to the smiters. He told Pilate, he said, I could call a thousand angels and they would all come to my eyes. You have no power against me. He gave his back to the smiters. He gave his cheeks to those that plucked off his beard. He didn’t hide his face from shame and from spitting. And so on it went. This is what he said. Scriptures, I think they had never understood. The disciples had never. Became as crystal clear to them in a way that George Frederick Handel could not even grasp. Isaiah 53, he was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. And the punishment that brought us peace was upon him. And by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. This transcends any argument I could ever make. I can give you Christian apologetics. I can explain things. I can offer arguments about this, that, or the other. But I must, as C.S. Lewis said, fall back into Christ. The real Christ who did suffer terribly on this long night and who died terribly the next day in my place. It is to him, to Christ, that all my allegiance belongs. You know, if you had been able to embrace Jesus, your arms would have been around a real man. Your hands would have been on the back that was given to the smiters. The whiskers that brushed your cheek would have been those that others would later pluck out of his face. And the real Jesus would cry out from the tree, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Which never was in the past terribly clear to me, but one day it finally did become clear that because we feel so God forsaken at times in our lives for him to be tempted in every way like we are, there had to come a point where he himself felt forsaken by God. The blood that gushed out when the soldier pierced his side was real enough. The disciples after this had three days to to digest what happened to Jesus. And then an even greater reality descended upon them. They came face to face with the risen Christ. And it wasn’t just enough to see him. They touched him. They put their arms around him. One put his hand in his side and stuck his finger in the marks in his hands. He was there. He was real. even though at times it probably seemed to them like it could not be. Then later on they stood and watched him ascend into heaven, which also was another very real event, although it may not have seemed very real at the time. Now know this. This is not a web of arguments about the Lord’s Supper or about Passover. This is not a discussion of three days and three nights. This was the real Son of God suffering death, real pain and death, in our place. And he really died. He didn’t appear to die. He did not swoon. He died, was buried, and stayed in that tomb three days and three nights as a demonstration that he really was dead. I think it may be past time for us to learn to stand in awe of the reality of Christ himself, not our arguments about Christ, not our apologetics, not all of our clever debates and doctrines. Now, I don’t want you to get me wrong. I believe, really believe what I believe and what I teach. But I’ve come to see that what I teach is not reality. It is a web that I can weave. It’s a web of arguments that may be true enough but it’s only a shadow of Christ. I’ll continue to argue for what is right, but I hope that I will increasingly fall back from the web of my own arguments into Christ himself.