Sin brings death, but its debt was paid with Christ in his death. We can be sure that our death has been overcome because Christ overcame death, as attested by his resurrection. Are we barred from participation in that victory without faith? That is a question only faith can ask, and faith will not need to ask the question.
The message of life that Jesus preached is inextricably tied to his death and resurrection. He prophesied that he would be killed, and that in three days he would return to life. His death has metaphysical significance in stamping out sin, but his resurrection acts as proof that his word is true.
The problem of faith is difficult enough to handle when the object is only the incarnation. It gets a lot harder when we have to talk about a central article of that faith being the way our sin somehow was overcome by an act occurring outside our knowledge or comprehension. Our task in this journey (or perhaps only a step) from untruth to truth is to learn truth from the god’s descent. To do so, the god must give us the condition. The urge to question how is not important, at least to this discussion. One doesn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
The paradox of Christ is not the only paradox. In fact, there is no other reason to believe this paradox than any other: they are all absurd and abhorrent to reason. To come to believe this paradox, one must have a condition called faith, which itself is paradoxical. Faith’s willingness to suspend the understanding for the paradox of Christ does not seem, to the betrayed and miffed understanding, any more worthwhile than to do so for any other paradox. The only difference is that Christ is truth; yet the understanding does not validate this claim any more than it does the truth of the earth resting on the turtles’ backs.
The message of life that Jesus preached is inextricably tied to his death and resurrection. He prophesied that he would be killed, and that in three days he would return to life. His death has metaphysical significance in stamping out sin, but his resurrection acts as proof that his word is true.
The problem of faith is difficult enough to handle when the object is only the incarnation. It gets a lot harder when we have to talk about a central article of that faith being the way our sin somehow was overcome by an act occurring outside our knowledge or comprehension. Our task in this journey (or perhaps only a step) from untruth to truth is to learn truth from the god’s descent. To do so, the god must give us the condition. The urge to question how is not important, at least to this discussion. One doesn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
The paradox of Christ is not the only paradox. In fact, there is no other reason to believe this paradox than any other: they are all absurd and abhorrent to reason. To come to believe this paradox, one must have a condition called faith, which itself is paradoxical. Faith’s willingness to suspend the understanding for the paradox of Christ does not seem, to the betrayed and miffed understanding, any more worthwhile than to do so for any other paradox. The only difference is that Christ is truth; yet the understanding does not validate this claim any more than it does the truth of the earth resting on the turtles’ backs.
excerpt from Vincent Tavani's Senior Paper NO ONE POURS NEW WINE
presented at St. John's College on February 24
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