The Meaning of Life

Issues, Etc. Buttongreat free widgetsWidgetbox

Member's Blogs

Confessional Lutheran Blogs
Our thanks to Orycteropus Afer, of Aardvark Alley. He does the tedious work of maintaining the following Confessional Lutheran Blogroll, and makes the results available to other bloggers.

Other Blogs

CyberStones--A Lutheran Blog

	Highlight posts younger than:
	Blog Home \| RSS 2.0

Currently browsing thread: The Meaning of Life Petersen Dec 01, 2007 08:34:08

The Meaning of Life
Petersen email Posted on: Dec 01, 2007 08:34:08	What has happened to us that we are afraid to ask or to attempt to answer the most basic and significant question of man? Phillip Johnson gets at this a bit in the latest Touchstone. Quoting Yale Law Professor Anthony Kronman he speculates that our universities cannot ask the basic question or teach men to think about it because they "have embraced a research-driven ideal that has squeezed the question of life's meaning from the college curriculum, limiting the rage of questions teachers feel they have the right and authority to teach." I suspect it is a bit worse than that. It is not merely that the teachers are afraid of overstepping their bounds, or of hurting someone's feelings, which they are, but they themselves have no ability to address these questions and lack the faculties to even ask the questions or think about them. They are themselves products of a system that has abandoned its history and heritage. It is not simply that they think it is morally wrong to make value judgments, they do have the ability to do so. Mostly unknowingly, they have embraced the philosophy that life is meaningless, that every is opinion and subjective and that there is no truth. Certainly this is not a new analysis of modern education, even though it is a bit surprising and refreshing to hear it from a liberal Yale professor. But I think it goes beyond a problem in the secular world. I think it has also infected the Church. I think very few Lutheran Theologians would be prepared to the question about the meaning of life. Most of them would devolve immediately into the promise of the afterlife and the benefits that man receives from God in the forgiveness of sins. I would find it utterly stupid but would not be surprised if a handful of Lutheran pastors answered the question: "What is the meaning or purpose of life?" by saying: "to be forgiven." That sounds like Gospel doesn't it? But it is not. Man's purpose is not to be forgiven. If that were the case than we were created to fall and to sin in order that we might be rescued. So also it would imply that God needed someone to love or needed someone to forgive rather than being perfect and complete in Himself and Love and without need. It is not man's purpose or meaning to be forgiven. It is his purpose or meaning to live in and for God, not as something that God needs but simply as that which pleases Him. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. It consists in God. Man was created to worship and live in grace. Shocking as it may sound, there is more to Christ, more to grace than forgiveness. There is also sanctification. There is grace that God gives for good works and for the strength of faith. There is joy that comes from being within His will. His death does more than make us even, forgiving the debt. It is not as though He gave just enough to get us out and left us there with a blank slate. He did not merely forgive our sins. He also declared us righteous. He fills us with HImself and His Spirit. He places His Name upon us. He makes us sons of God, His Brother, and His Bride. Thus does He says "I am the Resurrection and the Life. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I am the Light and the Life of men." So also does He say that He will abide with and for us and in Him our life will be abundant and full, not just then, in the afterlife, but so already now. For now, here, in this world, we live by and for Him and there we find satisfaction and fulfillment, there we find the peace that passes all understanding, for there, in Christ, we find grace. The meaning of life is found in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God gives us life, makes us alive, because He loves us. The purpose of life is to worship and praise Him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Apart from that purpose there is no meaning. Consider this: the meaning of the Lord of the Rings is that small persons should do the right thing even though they are small, even though it seems as though it won't do any good, and even it seems impossible and painful. They do the right thing because it is right and trust in God to bless it. But the purpose of the Lord of the Rings is to be read. If it is not read the meaning is lost. So the purpose of man is to worship the Lord. He worships the Lord by faith. Faith is worship. Faith receives the forgiveness of sins and confesses and praises Christ. In heaven we will still have faith and we still worship the Lord. Apart from that purpose, apart from faith, life's meaning, that God loves us, is lost.

The Meaning of Life

Petersen
email
Posted on:
Dec 01, 2007 08:34:08

What has happened to us that we are afraid to ask or to attempt to answer the most basic and significant question of man? Phillip Johnson gets at this a bit in the latest Touchstone. Quoting Yale Law Professor Anthony Kronman he speculates that our universities cannot ask the basic question or teach men to think about it because they "have embraced a research-driven ideal that has squeezed the question of life's meaning from the college curriculum, limiting the rage of questions teachers feel they have the right and authority to teach." I suspect it is a bit worse than that. It is not merely that the teachers are afraid of overstepping their bounds, or of hurting someone's feelings, which they are, but they themselves have no ability to address these questions and lack the faculties to even ask the questions or think about them. They are themselves products of a system that has abandoned its history and heritage. It is not simply that they think it is morally wrong to make value judgments, they do have the ability to do so. Mostly unknowingly, they have embraced the philosophy that life is meaningless, that every is opinion and subjective and that there is no truth.

Certainly this is not a new analysis of modern education, even though it is a bit surprising and refreshing to hear it from a liberal Yale professor. But I think it goes beyond a problem in the secular world. I think it has also infected the Church. I think very few Lutheran Theologians would be prepared to the question about the meaning of life. Most of them would devolve immediately into the promise of the afterlife and the benefits that man receives from God in the forgiveness of sins. I would find it utterly stupid but would not be surprised if a handful of Lutheran pastors answered the question: "What is the meaning or purpose of life?" by saying: "to be forgiven."

That sounds like Gospel doesn't it? But it is not. Man's purpose is not to be forgiven. If that were the case than we were created to fall and to sin in order that we might be rescued. So also it would imply that God needed someone to love or needed someone to forgive rather than being perfect and complete in Himself and Love and without need. It is not man's purpose or meaning to be forgiven. It is his purpose or meaning to live in and for God, not as something that God needs but simply as that which pleases Him.

A man's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. It consists in God. Man was created to worship and live in grace. Shocking as it may sound, there is more to Christ, more to grace than forgiveness. There is also sanctification. There is grace that God gives for good works and for the strength of faith. There is joy that comes from being within His will. His death does more than make us even, forgiving the debt. It is not as though He gave just enough to get us out and left us there with a blank slate. He did not merely forgive our sins. He also declared us righteous. He fills us with HImself and His Spirit. He places His Name upon us. He makes us sons of God, His Brother, and His Bride. Thus does He says "I am the Resurrection and the Life. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I am the Light and the Life of men." So also does He say that He will abide with and for us and in Him our life will be abundant and full, not just then, in the afterlife, but so already now. For now, here, in this world, we live by and for Him and there we find satisfaction and fulfillment, there we find the peace that passes all understanding, for there, in Christ, we find grace.

The meaning of life is found in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God gives us life, makes us alive, because He loves us. The purpose of life is to worship and praise Him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Apart from that purpose there is no meaning. Consider this: the meaning of the Lord of the Rings is that small persons should do the right thing even though they are small, even though it seems as though it won't do any good, and even it seems impossible and painful. They do the right thing because it is right and trust in God to bless it. But the purpose of the Lord of the Rings is to be read. If it is not read the meaning is lost. So the purpose of man is to worship the Lord. He worships the Lord by faith. Faith is worship. Faith receives the forgiveness of sins and confesses and praises Christ. In heaven we will still have faith and we still worship the Lord. Apart from that purpose, apart from faith, life's meaning, that God loves us, is lost.

Comments...

Dec 03, 2007 06:59:14 Re: The Meaning of Life - Lovett
I've been thinking a lot about this "love is the greatest" lately and I'd like to submit my thoughts in hope of agreement or correction.

It seems to me that love is the greatest because it was not in faith or with hope that the Word of God became flesh, but because of love or more pointedly, because He is love. Perhaps also (not over and against) love is the greatest because love fulfills the law, whereas faith and hope do not.

Moreover, it is neither faith nor hope that ransomed us from sin, but love.
Dec 01, 2007 19:15:13 Re: The Meaning of Life - Erich Heidenreich

Quote:

In heaven we will still have faith...
Pr. Petersen,

What do you mean by "faith" in this statement? I ask because I always thought faith assumes that there is something unseen. Will we not see all in Heaven? This is one of the most compelling arguments I've heard as to why love is the greatest of these three - that it is forever - because in heaven there will no longer be a need for "faith" and "hope" because that in which we have had faith will be seen face to face, and that on which our hope has been based will have been received in all its fullness. I suppose it all depends on what you mean by "faith" and "hope."

Thanks,
Erich
- Dec 03, 2007 05:46:31 Re: The Meaning of Life - Petersen
  There will be things in heaven that remain unseen. We will remain finite creatures.
  
  More significantly we will still trust in Christ and believe that He is Our Savior, etc.
  - Dec 03, 2007 07:56:29 Re: The Meaning of Life - Erich Heidenreich
    Thanks, Prs. Lehman and Petersen! I'm going to go back to Chemnitz' Loci and study that word "faith" again. By "finite" here do you mean "not omniscient?" I really enjoyed your sermon on heaven, Pr. Petersen. There is such a cloud in my understanding of what heaven and our heavenly existence will be like. Is there a good book anyone would recommend on this subject? I'd like to study what Scripture has to say about heaven and our life there. I realize that I have some misconceptions, but I also wonder where we are speculating and where Scripture clearly speaks on these issues. My children ask me many questions about heaven, and I feel quite ill-equipped to answer them.
    
    Sorry if this is a tangent.
    - Dec 03, 2007 08:54:11 Re: The Meaning of Life - Erich Heidenreich
      After reviewing Chemnitz' Locus on faith, I am reminded of the definition of faith as a "sure confidence" and absence of doubt. I think of the illustration in Luke 7 of the faithful centurion, of whom Christ said: " I have not found such faith, no, not in Israel." Since faith is the absence of doubt, we will certainly have faith in heaven! This "faith" will certainly be perfected in heaven, where we will have nothing but a firm confidence in God, just as our first parents exhibited in Paradise before they doubted God's Word.
- Dec 02, 2007 18:40:48 Re: The Meaning of Life - Pr. Lehmann
  We need to be careful not to run the definition of faith from Hebrews 11 too far. Faith is spoken of in other ways in the Scriptures. One of those ways is trust.
  
  In heaven we will still trust God to keep His promises to us, and we will still receive His gifts.

All times listed in GMT -7 / EST

Comments no longer accepted for this post.

An Orca Script

Current Project

Donate to Redeemer's General Fund

Support Cyberstones Hosting Costs

Bad Bot Trap: Clicking this link may cause your ip to be banned.

Cyberstones-A Lutheran Blog

CyberStones--A Lutheran Blog

Quote: