Opus 2024-019: Barista Theology

What are the big questions of life?  Some wag one said, “If Jesus is the answer, then what is the question?”  In a sense that’s funny and from another view rather vapid.  Everyone knows the questions.  Anyone who has ever had to get up and go to work and watch other people sitting eating a big breakfast, and reading the newspaper has wondered, “Why?”  It’s a real question, even if it’s just a matter of selfish self-interest.  When it gets the bigger issues of children coming down with cancer and parents going into dementia we still ask questions.  Everyone knows what the big question are.

Whether you like the answer, one of the big questions in life, possibly the ultimate question, was asked by the Philippian jailer,

(Act 16:30 KJV)  And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Men and women of all cultures and religious backgrounds have asked this question.  It might have different cultural contexts but the question is universal.  From a Christian perspective, there are three basic positions.

Position one is that of the sovereignty of man.  You earn your way to heaven.  Everything depends upon you and your efforts.  You picture someone going through mazes, climbing mountains, swimming oceans, and then, when he turns that last corner, there’s God waiting with a nice blue ribbon to put on his chest and say, “Good job.”

You could find plenty of verses in the Bible that would go along with that.

At the other extreme, you have the sovereignty of God.  Now from my personal, prejudiced, opinionated perspective, I would call this hard-core, five-point Calvinism.  That may not be fair but that’s what I call it.  Under this version God is sovereign.  Totally.  Even if you have an opinion, He gave it to you.  Back when He created the heavens and the Earth He laid it all out in concrete, from the first declaration of “Let there be light” to the final shape of the kingdom and eternity.  He chose who would be saved.  He chose would be damned.  He did it because he wanted to, and no one else had a say in the matter.

In between you have all of the shades of the coffee shop.  You can walk in and tell the barista that you want just a black coffee.  That is all I ever order so I don’t know the progression, but I notice all of those different boutique drinks listed on the menu behind the barista.  I would imagine that you can go all the way up to having a coffee flavored milkshake with whip cream and a cherry on top, and in some places, still call it coffee.  This is kind of what it’s like in the world of theology when you put together the concept of the sovereignty of God and the free will of man.  Most people fall into this category and it has so many variations that they all would completely think of the others as being outside of the plan of salvation.

At one end you have free will, and at the other end you have the sovereignty of god. My recent reading is telling me that neither term is found in Scripture.

This means that that middle category of barista theology is pretty much where we have to end up.  The Bible teaches the concept that we are responsible.  It teaches that we make choices.  The choices have consequences.  It also teaches that the God of the Bible has the final say in everything.  He can do anything He wants, including turning you into a turnip.  I think the Biblical concept is that God can make descendants of Abraham out of the stones, but turnips would be easier and cause fewer headaches.

So the ball is in your court.  God has largely done his part.  He created the universe you exist in.  He created man in His image.  He caused you to be born.  Now it either doesn’t make any difference what you decide or it’s up to you to work this out under His guidance.  He’s also provided for that because He has giving us the Bible and the Holy Spirit.

(Php 2:12 KJV)  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

No one every said it would be as easy as falling off a log.

homo unius libri