Man's Never-ending Quest

"The only system of thought that Christ will fit into is the one where He is the starting point."  --Athanasius, church father and father of orthodoxy.  
"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death..." (Heb. 2:9, KJV, italics mine).   
"For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom..." (1 Cor. 1:21, ESV, italics added).  
"If a man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God?  If a man is made for God, why is he opposed to God?"  --Blaise Pascal, French scientist, mathematician, and philosopher
"Our hearts are restless till they find their rest in [God]."  --St. Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."  --Henry David Thoreau, author
"The search for God begins at salvation."  --R. C. Sproul, theologian
"Searching for God is the main business of the Christian life."  --Jonathan Edwards, theologian and revivalist


Whether mankind admits it or not, he's on a search for something to fulfill his inner needs--he's looking the Jesus he doesn't know.  He seeks the "pleasures of sin for a season" (cf. Heb. 11:35).  He may find it in the pleasures the world has to offer (cf. 1 John 2:14-15) or in some kind of intellectual fulfillment, but he will never be satisfied till he has found it in God because we are made to know God and to love Him in a personal relationship. God desires to get personal!  This void or hole in mankind's heart is a vacuum only God can fill (according to Pascal) and all of us will naturally seek crutches to lean on in order to find a substitute. Augustine said "we are restless till we find our rest in [God]!"  Man is a religious being who is meant to worship God, and if not, will find a substitute god to worship. He will not find it in political freedom, education, culture, higher standards of living, materialism, sex, drugs, nor false religions, but only in the truth that sets free.

Nature abhors a vacuum and man has expressed it in his boredom and frustration with himself and the world.  Man is not an animal in heat seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, but is hard-wired for meaningful work, dignity, purpose, and service in God.   But "emptiness is the ultimate truth," according to the Dalai Lama and Carl Jung said that "the central neurosis of our time is emptiness!"  We instinctively sense something wrong with us and the picture.  Billy Graham says, "We grasp at every passing straw, and even as we clutch it disappears." We are designed to be fulfilled in God doing His will and work, and ignoring design breaks faith with the Designer: for we are meant for purpose, honor, meaning, and dignity because we are in God's image.

So many today think of God as a thing to be used, such as the "Force," of Star Wars fame, but God is a divine person that loves us.  We use and manipulate things, but we know, relate to, and love persons.  Mankind will not admit it but he's really searching for the benefits without the Benefactor!  He may be looking for peace of mind (but not in Christ), prosperity (but not in God's economy), intellectual fulfillment (but not the truth to set him free), better relationships (but not humbly and not with God), (the answer, but not the Answerer!) or even just to know if there is a God or not (out of curiosity, not sincerity), without committing oneself to Him.

Truth is free but not cheap, we must be willing to come to Christ for it.  We look for what we want to see and view the world according to what we are, not what it is.  If we want forgiveness, we must first become convicted and file for spiritual bankruptcy, realizing we cannot please God on our own merit.  And so the qualification for salvation is to realize one's unworthiness! We must first realize our emptiness and need to be filled and made complete.

It should be noted that the Jews of Jesus' day were looking for a Messiah, but the one of conventional standards would deliver them from Roman oppression.  They wanted a military hero but got a pacifist that would rule the world of hearts in love.  It is a proven psychological fact that our prejudices and inclinations bias our viewpoints and and worldview--known as confirmation bias.  No one is totally objective and we all must realize that just because He didn't fit the profile doesn't mean He's not who He claimed to be.  The Jews saw no personal need of forgiveness or preaching and weren't seeking a Savior.

But Jesus is not always what we want Him to be and we must accept Him for who He is--the full package--or not at all, which is rejection.  We cannot dichotomize Christ and accept forgiveness without lordship and divide His offices and personhood as Lord and Savior--we must trust Him as Savior and also submit to Him as Lord of all.  We dare not "divide His person nor confound His nature," according to the church fathers.  

Jesus didn't come to do our bidding but to do the will of the Father, which was total relinquishment of His will to the Father's as the motto of His life.   Jesus is the only person who was born to die, yes to complete His mission He had to be crucified and die for our sins, carrying our penalty and paying the full cost.  We also have a purpose to fulfill God's purpose for our lives, and when we are done we can say with Paul that we have nothing to boast of but what Christ has accomplished through us.   Paul only wanted to complete the mission that God gave him (cf. Acts 20:24) and that ministry being obedient to the heavenly vision and the will of God for his life.  We also must live with a purpose and submit ourselves to God's will, which is not a one-time event but continual, progressive, and ongoing.

To really see, we need the eyes of our hearts opened (cf. Eph. 1:18) and that can only be done by Jesus Christ illuminating us through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit using the Word (cf. 1 Thess. 1:5; 2:13) to speak God's message.  The whole world is blinded by Satan  (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4) and doesn't see a need for God apart from a work of grace in the heart.   They have eyes but see not nor perceive (cf. Isaiah 6:9).  The whole world is under the influence and power of the Adversary (cf. 1 John 5:19)!

But Christ, as Savior, came to set us free from Satan's power, our sin nature, the sting of death, and the influence of the world-system that corrupts our minds.  The world at large doesn't see Jesus at work in Providence and is blind to the works of God, sometimes even calling them flukes, accidents, luck, or chance.  We all tend to see what we want to see!  No one has perfect objectivity but God. 

We must not become distracted by the world and it's pleasures and realize that God is at work in us to do and to will of His good pleasure (cf. Phil. 1:6); we are the vessels of honor being used for His glory if we let Him (cf. Isaiah 43:7).  It has been said by Corrie ten Boom, "If we look at the world, we'll be distressed; if we look at ourselves, we will be depressed; but if we look at Christ, we'll be at rest."  The way to victory is to keep our eyes on Jesus, the "Author and Finisher of our faith" and this will keep us focused on spiritual priorities.

We must "consider Jesus"  (cf. Heb. 3:1) and look at Him (cf. Isaiah 45:22), and also to realize that we "see Jesus" (cf. Heb. 2:9) spiritually and in Scripture that it's all about Him and if we keep focused on Him, all else pales in comparison.  We must not resort to the quest of the Greek disciples who said, "But we would see Jesus," for it's with our spiritual eyes we must see and be illuminated. It is a fact that believing is seeing, not seeing is believing!  

To find God, we must be open to who He is and who He claimed to be. We are to always seek His face!   Sincerity matters, but it's not everything. Our praise is recognizing Him for who He is as the eternal Son of God.  He's not just some babe in a manger who's cute and comfortable with our sensibilities and sentimentalism, but the Almighty God in the flesh--Lord at His birth.  Yuletide brings the revelation that He was born into our space-time continuum to identify with us but He did it in the fullness of time (cf. Gal. 4:4), when all was according to plan.

He entered history--the time-space continuum! And this is history that can be vouched for!  But whether He's born in us is a matter of salvation!  In our never-ending quest, we should not put God in a box, making Him too small, or we'll never find Him.  He can be real to us and our quest can be complete in Him as the "Captain of our soul and Master of our fate."   Only knowing and acknowledging the real Jesus satisfies and the danger is to accept "another Spirit, another gospel, another Jesus."  (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4).    The divine diagnosis:  Man needs God!    In summation, NB:  Wise men still seek Him!   

CAVEATS:  DON'T LET YOUR CONCEPT OF GOD BECOME TOO SMALL OR YOUR THOUGHTS OF HIM TOO HUMAN!   I MATTERS HOW BIG YOUR GOD IS, NOT HOW BIG IS YOUR FAITH?   ITS OBJECT IS VITAL.      Soli Deo Gloria!