Ideas and Consequences
Viktor
Frankl, a Jewish neurologist and psychiatrist, survived the Nazi concentration
camps of Aushwitz and Dachau during World War 2. He became famous later for his
book Man’s Search for Meaning which
he wrote many years after his nightmarish confinement. In 1995, around his 90th
birthday, Frankl was interviewed in First
Things. He made this very interesting observation: “I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz,
Treblinka, and Majdanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other
in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic
scientists and philosophers.” Here is where I’m going with this: Ideas have consequences. People act,
make decisions, and do things—good, evil, or otherwise—and those actions don’t
just drop out of thin air. Those actions, our actions, come from ideas of right
and wrong, good and bad. That’s why it’s important to have teachers, ministers,
pastors and professors who teach truth, and not the reigning sensitivities and systems.
Ideas do have consequences.
God is
very clear that his ideas are intended to give birth to wholesome consequences.
One of the ways you can see the “Ideas have consequences” motif in Scripture is
through the “Therefore” passages, where God’s spokesmen will say “These things
are the true ideas…Therefore here
are the good consequences.” There are several examples of this, but an
important one is in the big passage on Christ’s resurrection in 1 Corinthians
15, where the Apostle concludes with these words (look for the “therefore” –
consequences statement that flows out of the big idea):
[51] Behold! I
tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, [52]
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet
will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
[53] For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal
body must put on immortality. [54] When the perishable puts on the
imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the
saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” [55] “O death,
where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” [56] The sting of death
is sin, and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God, who gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. [58] Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the
work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:51-58).
In 15:51-57 Paul is
making his case that because of Christ’s body-blood-bones-toenails-and-hair
resurrection from the grave we who are Christ’s people (1) will be raised from
the dead; (2) will be transformed into deathless beauty, undying joy, and
ceaseless hearty health; (3) are finding that death has no sting or
condemnation because our guilt and shame have been removed; (4) and lastly, are
rejoicing that God has given us victory, and this victory is through the
once-slaughtered-but-now-marvelously-raised-from-the-dead Jesus!
And then
comes the powerful “Therefore” of Christ’s resurrection
(15:58)! A new life now; a new beginning; a new worth; a new hope; a new value;
new prospects; a new destiny; a new solidity; a new you! Once upon a time we
had to sing with Kansas, “Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless
sea, all we do crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see. Dust in the wind,
all we are is dust in the wind.” But now, for those who belong to Christ Jesus
resurrected, we can look up knowing that “in the Lord our labor is not in
vain”! And because our labor is not in vain, we can be steadfast,
immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work!
And now, because Christ is risen, never to be subject to mortality or misery, you who are his can say with the Apostle Paul, “it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:20-21). The big idea (Christ’s resurrection and our coming resurrection) has a day-by-day, living consequence – in the Lord our labor is not in vain! It may be exhausting. It may feel like we’re only plodding along, but there is value to our labor because we’re united to the Lord resurrected.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us live a life of thanksgiving to God “who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Pastor Mike
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