The Christian Is an Enigma

"Man is an enigma, whose only solution can be found in God." So wrote Herman Bavinck, the great Dutch theologian. What Bavinck wrote is immediately applicable to fallen men and women. Science cannot explain who we are and what we are. Science cannot tell us what will ultimately become of us. It cannot explain the mystery that is man. For we are a mystery. When "science" seeks to explain us in purely humanistic, evolutionary terms, we rebel. We know that we are more than a chance amalgam of sub-atomic particles. We know, even when we do not want to acknowledge it, that there is more to us than meets the eye. Man is an enigma whose only solution can be found in God.

What is less obvious to many Christians, however, is that what Bavinck writes is no less applicable to believers. There is, even in the most blessed of Christians, a perplexity that can at times be overwhelming. We get a glimpse of this perplexity in Paul's confession in Romans 7:15ff:

"For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate...For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me...Wretched man that I am!"

Paul is an enigma to himself. He is deeply perplexed by the inconsistency of his life.

Paul is not some abnormal, un-spiritual, Spirit-deficient Christian. He is acknowledging the inescapable tension that lies within the heart and life of every true believer. He is a child of God, but yet marked by frail, fallen flesh. He is an heir of God's glory, but yet encompassed with weakness. He is united to Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, but living in an environment defaced by the devil. He is a sanctified Christian, but is troubled, and at times all but overwhelmed, by indwelling sin. The Christian is an enigma whose only solution can be found in God. This is Paul's conclusion in Romans 7:24-25:

"Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

The enigma and inconsistency will not last forever. Our union with the glorified God-man, is the guarantee that we will all, one coming day, share in his "perfect resolution." Now we "groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons" (Romans 8:23). The day has not yet arrived when our lowly bodies will be transformed to be like his glorious body—but that day is coming for God has ordained it.

Now we live in the intersection of two worlds—this fallen world that is passing away, and the world to come, which has already come in the Persons of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, both sent from the Father. There is therefore an inescapable ache in every truly Christian heart: _we are not yet home._That ache is at times heightened by the aggravations of indwelling sin and the assaults of the devil. So much so, that we can think that because we do not do what we long to do, but do what we hate to do, we can hardly be Christians. If we are not grieved and humbled by this indwelling enigma, we should seriously ask ourselves whether indeed we can possibly be Christians. But if you are perplexed and humbled by your inconsistencies and grieve over them in your lives, I would suggest you evidence one of the marks of authentic saving faith.

I write these lines not to excuse our inconsistencies, but to cheer, hopefully, the heart of any saint who is burdened by them. One day the Lord will finally deliver all his people from their "body of death." Then we will cease to be wretched men and women (who are at the same time sons and daughters of the living God), but be glorified saints, with all our enigmas and inconsistencies forever expunged from our lives, conformed perfectly to the likeness of our Savior Jesus Christ.

This undeniable fact must mark and even permeate the preaching of Christ's ambassadors. The Christian life is a life of "joy unspeakable and full of glory," but it is also, at the same time, a life of struggle and inconsistency. There are no shortcuts to escape this tension, except the shortcut of death or the Savior's return. Until either of these comes to pass, we go on, looking to Jesus the Author and Perfecter of faith.