Transcription
The biggest misconception about Christianity is the biggest misconception about Christianity. Um, I think Christianity is probably more simple and more complex than a lot of people realize. Okay, I think it's more simple in the sense that scripture is clear on what it's meant to be clear on: that we are sinners, that we need a savior, that we cannot save ourselves, and that God himself steps out of Eternity and into Humanity, into depravity, in the second person of the Trinity in Jesus, and takes the penalty for our wrongdoing, for the evil that exists here. We're very concerned with the evil out there, but there's a lot of evil in here, and Jesus takes that upon himself on the cross.
And I think when I study world religions, what I find interesting is that all world religions amount to either an aspect of Mercy or Justice. So I would say, if you look at something like a lot of the Eastern philosophies that uh have Karma incorporated within them, it is holy just. Buddhists are trying to break the cycle of samsara; they're trying—sam—so samsara is the cycle of uh birth, life, death, and rebirth. Okay, so the purpose of Buddhism is to seek Enlightenment in things like the seven noble truths, the eightfold path, in realizing that it's your attachment to desire in the physical world, world, that is that is rooting you in that system; and that when you realize that you can release desire, then you can become one with the universe, right? So they're they're seeking to destroy the self in that sense; that's—but the system that operates on that in karma is just. Same thing in in terms of uh it's iteration within Hinduism; it's just you do get your just punishment. What you do in this life, either good good or bad, reflects in the next life.
Whereas I would look at Islam as one that is merciful in the sense that every chapter of the Quran, except for one, starts off with this phrase: "Bismillah," God the most benevolent, the most merciful. However, I think when you study world religions, one thing you see is that the justice of karma is at the expense of mercy, and the mercy of Islam is at the expense of Justice. Wait, wait—the justice of karma is at the expense of mercy. So Mercy is not getting what you do deserve; so karma doesn't allow for Mercy. You will always get what you deserve. Ah, Islam—the god of Islam forgives, but I would argue that he forgives arbitrarily in that his law is not accounted for; there is no Justice for when the law is broken; he just forgives it. But what about the Justice in that situation? What about the person who's been wronged?
What about un-Christianity though? You have an all-forgiving God; that's what I'm getting at. So I think this is one of the things that people don't often realize about Christianity: Mercy and Justice are perfectly are perfectly measured in that when Christ takes the penalty that we deserve, the full wrath of God is put on Jesus on the cross. So it's not just the physical that Jesus experiences with the crucifixion, which is pretty terrible, but he actually experiences all of the sin that we commit on himself; and in that sense, God's law is fulfilled in its Justice. And because it's fulfilled now, because Christ gets the punishment we deserve, now we get what we don't deserve in Mercy. But God's law is not broken; he doesn't just forgive it, right? Because God is a holy God, and he cannot just forgive at random, because forgiveness is costly. But forgiveness is not costly for the god of Islam; he can just do it. But if I, you know, knock over all these cameras and break them, and you say, "Ah, Wes, that sucks, but you know what, it's okay, you didn't mean to do it," no, I'm going to go beat the—out of you, yeah, right. But but for this hypothetical situation, there's still a cost; it's just not on me, it's on you, right? But you have been merciful to me, but that that forgiveness is very costly to you.
And so what we see in Christianity is that the cost of the punishment of sin is fulfilled; Christ takes that upon himself, knowing that we cannot do it, and then mercy is given out, and not just Mercy, but Grace. So Mercy is not getting what you do deserve; Grace is getting what you don't deserve. So Mercy is: you deserve sin and hell; you don't get it any longer. But now, not only are you forgiven, but God then adopts you as a child; you don't deserve that. So you're not just forgiven; you are adopted into his family and given eternal life. Maybe it's getting late, and I'm getting twisted in my head now. Sure, but like the concept of Grace in Christianity, doesn't that tie back to the early concept you were talking there about the just forgiving God in in the Quran in Islam? No, because Grace is a gift; so inherently to what it is is because God's law has been fulfilled, and it doesn't just go unjustly punished, right? So if you committed a heinous crime and you stood at the seat of the judge, and the judge said, "Julian, you're a good guy; you got no priors; I'm just gonna let you go," right, that would be merciful, but everybody would be like, "Dude, like what what about the what about Justice," right? Or if he said, "I know you have no priors, but you're a pretty terrible PR; I'm gonna throw the book at you," right, life in prison; we're going to—there's no death penalty, but we're going to try to reform the system in order to get the death penalty, right? That would be Justice to the extreme, but it would not be merciful. I for an eye. So now if the judge not only says, "Okay, you're forgiven," but "I'm going to pay the penalty; I'm going to pay the fine; I'm going to go to prison for whatever the the um conviction is, and then you're going to be able to stay in my house as one of my own children," right? That's Grace. You're not just being let off the hook; you're being given something; you're being given something you don't deserve.
And so within Christianity, I I you have something that's inherently unique in that in all other systems of religiosity, it's some form of survival of the fittest, right? It's some form of "do this and you're accepted," "feel this and you're accepted," or "think this and you're accepted," right? Intellectualism, emotionalism, and um what was the third one I had? Experientialism, right? It's one of those three things. However, Christianity says you can't feel, do, or think enough; it's not going to work; you're not going to live up to the standard of a holy God. And so it's not survival of the fittest; it's not the most intelligent or the most spiritual or the most the people who have the the greatest Revelations. Instead, the fittest steps down and sacrifices himself for the survival of the weakest; that's what we call the gospel.