Title: Where Then is Boasting?
Subtitle: Rethinking the concept of “faith” in terms of boasting and reliance upon a specific object for a specific purpose
Author: Christopher Travis Haun for Rethinker.net
Categories: Philosophy of Religion; Soteriology
Draft Date: April 2007 (very rough draft)
Imagine that you’re minding your own
business and living your life as you usually do when unexpectedly your heart
muscle stops pumping blood. It’s not a
heart attack; it’s just that the electrical impulse which triggers the
contractions simply ceases to fire for some inexplicable reason. It’s one of those things that happen all the
time and the doctor who pronounces you dead just categorizes as “due to natural
causes.” You can’t even utter a word of
explanation to those around you as you slump to the floor. Darkness closes in around you and you pass
painlessly into unconsciousness.
What seems like might be only a
moment later consciousness returns and you quickly perceive that you’re no
longer in quite the same dimensions of space-time reality that you had grown
used to in your previous life. There is
still height, width, length, and a sense of time. Reality is now not less than this. But, then again, it now is somehow more than
this and it’s hard to describe since neither of us have ever experienced
hyperspaces before. Indeed things look
and feel somewhat the same as before but also quite different.
In what might be described as “in the
distance” (for lack of an applicable preposition in our language) you perceive
what you intuitively recognize as the paradise many myths on earth were shadowy
descriptions of. Able to see in ways
you couldn’t before, you can tell from a distance that the world you came from
is by comparison broken. You’re drawn
towards it.
As you float towards this Paradise, a
Being you recognize instinctively as “God” abruptly intercepts your
trajectory. Your attention is
seized. You cannot identify this “God” as
Brahman, Allah, Yahweh, Zeus/Jupiter, Yeshua,
Odin/Wotan, Ahura Mazda, etc. Indeed you’re so awed by the encounter that
you don’t even think to ask such a sensible question. At this moment for you somehow names don’t
seem important anyway. All you know is
this thing we always wondered about--the thing some of us dared to hope might
exist and the thing others dared to hope didn’t exist—exists. Not just exists but IS Existence its
self. This is the I-WAS|I-AM|I-WILL-BE
Being of such magnitude that our entire cosmos of fourteen-billion-light-years
radius rests easily in the palm of his hand (if he had a hand) like a hen’s egg
and yet so complex and invasive that he adjusts the interplay between gravity,
electromagnetism, weak force, and the strong force inside the egg.
The mere angels which flutter around
God are themselves of intimidating stature and glory. But somehow you cannot keep your eye on them
for the gravity of the radiance of the Infinite Being. This God-Being however seems to transcend all
these new dimensions of space-time into the realm of infinite. And yet there is something imminent about
this Being which somehow pierces into your finite planes of existence. He addresses you by name in a voice which is
somehow both piercingly loud but also very quiet, terrifying and yet also
somehow peaceful:
“Why should I let you
into my perfect paradise?”
Why should a perfect infinite being
allow an imperfect and finite human being to enter into a realm of perfection?
The dilemma is simple. We know that even within the limitations of
our finitude we are not morally perfect, spiritually pure, beyond
reproach. But somehow imagine (never
mind its degree of ludicrousness) that this extremely impressive Being
seems sincerely interested in giving you a chance to try to impress him.
What can you say to impress him?
What can you—and imperfect
being—possibly offer as a reason for God to either overlook your imperfections
or to fix your imperfection and admit you into his realm of perfect paradise?
To put it another way, what can you
boast in?
What can you brag about?
Such is the topic of this
rethink: What can we
finite and imperfect mortals boast about when attempting to get God to smile
upon us favorably?
Before reading further, perhaps take
a break now and type your reflex answer(s) out.
And then perhaps after rethink it and type out your seasoned answer(s)
out.
I’d enjoy it if you’d email your answers to me!
Email address: pherwxristos[at-symbol]rethinker.net
I enjoy posing this hypothetical
scenario to various people to hear their various answers. I suppose between 1990 and 2007 I’ve asked
thirty or forty people this question.
And sometimes the answers are rather colorful! One fellow answered the hypothetical God
saying,
“You should let me into Heaven because I quit smoking
cigarettes.”
As silly as that answer may seem at
face value, it does clue us into what tends to be the natural inclination of many
(most?) when posed with the dilemma. Many people pull out the scales and start
piling up their good deeds on one side and their bad deeds on the other side to
see which side is more massive. This
does seem natural because the most frequent answer I have heard over the years
by far goes a lot like this:
“I’d say to God that he should let me in because I’ve
really tried to live a good life.”
The second most common answer I’ve
received is:
“Awww, I’d just turn around
and walk away. I know I can’t impress
him.”
Almost every answer I’ve ever heard
tends to fall into one of those two categories:
either the “I’m worthy” category or the “I’m not worthy” category.
Once however I heard a ex-Mormon
friend answer,
“I really don’t want to go there anyway. I’d prefer you just leave me alone, God.”
I’d like eventually to probe several
religious traditions for their various answers to this hypothetical
scenario. Hopefully in time I’ll be
able to expand this rethink to include other input. (Email them to me if you’re familiar with
them please!) But for now my familiarity
is only with the Jewish and Jewish-Christian scriptures. Regardless of whether the reader doubts or
believes that these scriptures are or are not indirectly authored by the God
who could possibly ask us such a question, I’d like to at commend this
tradition of scriptures as at least being rich in their answer to the dilemma
and worthy of consideration.
The first passage in the Hebrew scriptures I’m offering for examination is from Rabbi Yeshua of Bethlehem and Nazareth:
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax
Collector (Luke 18:9-14)
To some who were confident of their own righteousness
and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
Two men went up to the
temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about
himself:
'God, I thank you that I am
not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax
collector.
I fast twice a week and
give a tenth of all I get.'
But the tax collector
stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast
and said,
'God, have mercy on me, a
sinner.'
I tell you that this man,
rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts
his self will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
In the world of the hearers, the
stereotypes of the Pharisee and tax collector probably formed two extreme poles
in the spectrum of most peoples’ minds about what was righteous and
unrighteous. The Pharisees were a group
consisting of non-priestly Jews who attempted to live up to the standards of
purity set forth in the Mosaic Law for the Priests. The tax collectors were a cross between
traitors and thieves. The Pharisees
probably commanded considerable respect in their day. The tax collectors were objects of common
disdain. As he often did, here Rabbi Yeshua turns the common conceptions upside down in the
attempt to shed light on whom God deems righteous.
In this parable the purpose is made
clear by the writer who indicates in the preface that Jesus spoke this parable
specifically to men who “were confident of their own righteousness.” Another way of saying the same thing is that
these men had their faith invested in their own goodness.
The Pharisee in the parable was
clearly a proud man--proud of who he was, proud of the
good he had done, and very proud of the things he had not done. The tax collector was, in stark contrast,
not proud of himself. He was rather
ashamed, in fact. But instead of letting
the shame lead to hopelessness he instead invested his hope (and as a corollary
his confidence or faith) into the possibility of God being of the merciful
sort. If we can ask what the Pharisee
was boasting in the answer is obvious:
He was boasting in himself. And
what was the tax collector boasting in?
Nothing.
He had no boast before God. He
only had hope in God being merciful to him.
And which one of the two did Yeshua say God
deemed truly righteous? Turning things
upside down, Yeshua said the humble sinner was the
justified one—the one declared righteous by God.
One aspect of the unfolding thesis of
this rethink is that one of the primary facets or synonyms of “faith” (at least
as the ancient Hebrew and New Testament usage goes) is that of boasting or
bragging. To ask what a man has faith in
is the same as asking what he would boast in, what he would take pride in, what
he would try to raise up to commend himself to God with.
Now ‘faith’ is a debated concept in
the philosophical arena. And it is either misunderstood or not understood in
the realm of the non-philosopher. So I think
it worthwhile to begin to define ‘faith’ before I go much further into
explaining why I think faith and boasting are practically synonymous. Two insights I have found helpful when trying
to understand the concept of “faith” is that faith—just like boasting—is best
understood as having an object into which it is invested and a purpose for
which it is exercised. If we ask what
the Pharisee was investing his faith into for the purpose of impressing God, it
would be answered easily by saying, “His faith is invested in his own
righteousness.” And if we ask what the
tax collector was investing his faith into, it is easy to see that the tax
collector was not investing any faith in his own self. He was not boasting about
who he was by birth or by membership. He
was not boasting about the many good things he had done. He was not boasting about the purity he had
maintained by avoiding certain behaviors.
He was in a low class of “sinners” and he knew it just like everyone
else. He recognized it, he admitted it,
and he was ashamed of what he had become.
So again what was he was investing his faith into? Simply this: the mercy of God.
We don’t know how many Pharisees
really listened to Rabbi Yeshua. But we do know of at least one Rabbi who was
a Pharisee who did listen to Rabbi Yeshua. His Hebrew name was Sha’ul
(or ‘Saul’ if you prefer the anglicized form) and his legal Roman name was Paullos (or ‘Paul’ for those who prefer the anglicized
version). Sha’ul
probably received a classical Greek education in his home city Tarsus in tandem
with a Hebraic culture and education through the synagogues. In time he chose
to go to the Seminary in Jerusalem for his PhD in Pharisaic Rabbinic studies
rather than a PhD in Greek Sophia in Alexandria or Athens. From the excerpt of his letter to friends in
Philippi, it is clear that Sha’ul had gone through a
struggle about where to place his faith and emerged from the struggle with a
position that he was very pleased with.
Philippians 3
It is no trouble for me to write the
same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those
dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we .
. . put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself
have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh,
I have more: circumcised on
the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of
Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as
for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
But whatever was to my
profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What
is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider
them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my
own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes
from God and is by faith.
Rabbi Sha’ul
here warns against investing faith into circumcision in particular. Circumcision was the physical sign of the
covenant Yahweh had made with Avraham and his
physical descendents through Yitzac and Yacob.
1st Corinthians 1
Brothers, think of what you were when
you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were
influential; not many were of noble birth.
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God
chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and
the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,
so that no one may boast
before him. It is because of him
that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is,
our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
Galatians 6
Not even those who are circumcised
obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about
your flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to
the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new
creation.
Romans 3 & 4
But now apart from the Law the
righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the
Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all
those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the
redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a
propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His
righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins
previously committed; for the
demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might
be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By
what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of
faith. . .What then shall we say that Abraham, our
forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was
justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before
God. What does the Scripture say?
“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now when a man works, his wages are not
credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who
justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. . . . Therefore,
the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to
all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those
who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have
made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of
God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things
that are not as though they were.
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of
many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring
be.” Without weakening in his faith, he
faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred
years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but
was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that
God had power to do what he had promised.
This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were
written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit
righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the
dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for
our justification.
Ephesians 2
As for you, you were dead in your
transgressions and sins,
One in Christ
(To be continued….)