So what are some of the pivotal paradoxes of Christian theology? The list if endless. There are a few, however, that I sense are more important for the current Church to be reminded of:
1. The Trinity: God is Three, but One
2. The Nature of Jesus: He is 100% man yet 100% God, and further still, does not have dual personhood.
3. The Kingdom of God is now, but it is yet to come.
4. God is transcendent (outside of time and space), yet he is immanent (everywhere all the time).
5. Salvation is punctiliar, yet progressive.
6. Weakness is power.
7. The Cross. The greatest act of injustice brings justice to the world (Justice is grace)
8. Life in death.
These are the paradoxes of Christianity that will be the focus of this book. There is a crucial caveat to make at this point. The reality of paradox does not give to license abandon theological endeavor. To the contrary, the reality of paradox sets the parameters in which we’re invited, by the Holy Spirit, to do theology. Doing theology is by no means explaining away the mysteries of God. Once again, to the contrary, doing theology is exploring the mysteries of God so as to protect the mysteries of God. Does God really need us to protect His mysteries? In fact he does, but not for His protection but for our own. God forbid we fool ourselves into thinking that we’re able to fit the Creator into our heads! We must guard ourselves against being tempted to think such. Finally, we must remember that anything we can say about theology is merely a metaphor for what truly is because there is no created reality that is fully like True Reality. For example, we say, “God is a Father”. This is a metaphor to explain that God is like a father. A father is a human concept limited to human experiences involving all sorts of human dimensions that do not apply to God. This metaphor, like all metaphors, eventually break down. This, we must remember. There’s always more to the picture than what we’re able to conceptualize.
