Thursday, April 10, 2014
Dreadful Deformity
John Piper writes on "The Failure of Christless Tenderness":
An understanding of sin leads us quite naturally to faith - faith that allows us to see the good, the God-image, in all, even the deformed. As Piper says, "A gain in sensibility may be a loss of vision, and without that vision, the gain may be ghastly."
We simply must grasp our horrific nature - our sinfulness. Failure to do so will result in only more horror.
righteousness sin
The grotesque is part of what this fallen age is. Seeing it and seeing God with clear, uncompromising eyes of faith keeps us from making gulags or gas chambers.He goes on to quote quite effectively Flannery O'Conner. I think we can readily see the Nazi model, but I wonder if we can see the same in own modern desire not to admit to our sinful state? Do we note that efforts to be egalitarian destroy more excellence than they elevate the lesser? Piper puts it this way, "If you try to cut down the grotesque, you may sacrifice the trees on which much good grows."
When sentimentalism separates the grotesque from the sovereign goodness of God, we are on our way to Auschwitz. It is a great irony that in rejecting God, in defense of a less grotesque humanity, we become hideous as we cleanse the world of imperfections.
The tender-hearted souls who cannot bear to look on the deformed, and thus impute their distaste to God, so as to discredit him, sever the only sure root that can keep them from the “final solution” of mercifully ridding the world of the grotesque.
An understanding of sin leads us quite naturally to faith - faith that allows us to see the good, the God-image, in all, even the deformed. As Piper says, "A gain in sensibility may be a loss of vision, and without that vision, the gain may be ghastly."
We simply must grasp our horrific nature - our sinfulness. Failure to do so will result in only more horror.
righteousness sin
