09.10 | Against Reductionism
John 2:23-3:21
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
James Houston, as a younger man, had been mentored by C.S. Lewis.
In 1955, Houston was about to get married, and Lewis was about to move to Cambridge. Knowing they’d not see as much of each other after this, Houston asked him: “What is the most important message you want to communicate through your writing?” Lewis responded with two words: “Against reductionism.”
Against reductionism.
Lewis’ entire life and work distilled down to this core intention. Every book, every radio broadcast, the lectures and conversations and mentoring and tutoring — all rooted in this framing desire.
Against reductionism.
Lewis knew something that we need to know. Because reductionism is in the heart of so much religion, and it is embedded into our society. Reductionism is what turns a large world into a small world, a large self into a small self, and a large God into a small one. Reductionism turns the adventurous world of faith into the stingy world of religion. It turns the restoration to glory to fiddly efforts at rule-making. It turns the vast horizons of grace-living into the sterile stipulations of fusty theology. Lewis’ entire work — from wardrobe doors opening to Narnian lands to his philosophical work on miracles to his essential articulation of the basics of Christianity — worked relentlessly to invite us to the bigger world of God.
Today’s passage covers what may well be the most famous verse in the Bible. John 3:16 is the subject of fridge magnets and bumper stickers and t shirts and tattoos. For many Christians in the West, this is the only verse they can recite from memory.
And yet, when we reach this remarkable passage — a secret conversation between Jesus and a Jewish rabbi by the light of an oil lamp in Jerusalem — it is reductionism again that hounds us. For these words are vastly greater than we know. They are explosive. They are the wardrobe door. They are an invitation beyond every temptation of reductionism into the wild horizons of the life of God.
For God so loved the world.
The expansive world of God begins here. In love. The arrival of Jesus was not because of the disappointment of God or the anger of God or the vengeance of God or the hatred of God. Everything we know of why Jesus came begins here — the deep, passionate, yearning love of a Father for His estranged and hurting children. Love is the motive for heaven’s response to sin. Love is the reason for the arrival of Jesus. Love was the motive for the work of the cross. Love is what reaches to you and I in this very moment.
That He gave His only Son.
The response is generous. The response is lavish. The response is relational. The response is to give of Himself.
That whoever believes in Him.
A new way of being and doing spirituality — not on the basis of rules and practices and activities, but on the simple basis of acknowledging and trusting in Him, where every moment and breath and purpose and activity becomes the overflow of being interconnected with Him in trusting belief.
Shall not perish.
For death is the outcome of all life apart from Him.
But shall have
Present tense. The gift is an inbreaking reality into this very moment.
Eternal.
The Greek word speaks not primarily of eternal quantity (as in ‘everlasting’ or ‘never-ending’) but quality — as in the kind of quality of life that is characteristic of the eternal age.
Life.
For the outcome of every intention of God is the restoration of and the giving of life.
John 3:16 is an apologetic against reductionism. For the person and mission of Jesus was that you and I may find this wild love of the Father, and through lives of trusting journeying with the person of Jesus, may find our lives invaded with the inbreaking life of heaven, until this life of heaven becomes our unending reality.
Reflect:
Which words of this verse do I most need to hold in my heart today?
Pray:
Father,
Love,
Is where you meet me
And where you heal me.
The world,
Is where you find me,
And where you send me.
Your Son,
Is where I find you,
And find myself.
Belief,
Is how I learn to see, and live, and breathe, and imagine;
It is where I find the life that is truly life.
Perishing,
Is what happens to every atom of the cosmos
When it is disconnected from you.
Eternal life,
Is what breaks in through this new way of being,
Into my heart, my mind, my soul, my whole being.
Father,
Expand me,
Unto the wonders of your Story.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
2 Chronicles 24-25 | Psalm 118:25-29
Super encouraging!