Outside of Time

Over the summer, I read Mere Christianity. One of the things Lewis talks about in it is how God is outside of time, and as a result, our timeline is always his present. He used it to explain why God knows what the future will be and therefore knows what is best for us. The question that it brought to my mind, however, was one dealing with Christ on the Cross. If our past, present and future are all present for God, then that means that right now, Christ, being bound to the limits of time while He was a man, is still on the Cross, He is still dead, and He is resurrected. It also means that in God's frame of reference, Adam and Eve have not yet sinned, but at the same time, Cain has already killed Abel. This also means that each of us has already died. We have already made every single decision we will ever make.

This sort of leads to a greater question about free will. In that case, we really do have free will, God just has the foreknowledge of what our choices will be. That being the case, could our lives turn out any differently than they do? If we have already made our decisions before we are ever even born, then it seems unlikely that our path could be anything but what it is. We don't know what it will be, but God does, and has planned accordingly.

Kind of cool to think about, but also sort of saddening. While I know that Christ is in heaven, it's hard to think of God looking down and seeing His son on the cross. That doesn't change. It also Sort of brings new meaning to the idea that we put Christ on the cross every time we sin. It's true. God knew every choice we would make in advance, which is why Christ could die for our sins in advance, but it still makes me sad to think about. It also makes me want to live a more godly life. Kind of like a challenge. :)

Devotional thoughts

I just started going through the book "Praying the Names of God" with my mom this morning, and one of the things that came up as we were talking about it this morning was this. When Jesus cried out to God on the cross, he used the name Eloi, which is a form of the word Elohim, meaning God of gods. This particular name denotes God's power and authority. He did not use Abba or any other name that would appeal to God's love and compassion, instead he appealed to his power and authority. Doing show shows us that he was acknowledging God's ability to change the situation if he so chose. He had the power to take Jesus down off the cross, yet he chose to turn his back on him for the moment that Jesus was carrying the sins of the world. Jesus wasn't asking God to take pity on him, he wasn't asking for compassion. He was asking why God, who had the power to do otherwise, continued to allow Jesus to experience the excruciating pain of the cross. The reason is this: God really could not do anything different because of his justice. In his power and authority he knew that if he wanted to spend eternity with us one day, Jesus must endure this. God chose us over his son. That to me is the most powerful form of love you can imagine.