Trinity and Humanity

      There is a logical fallacy called the False Dilemma, more commonly known as the “Either-Or” fallacy.  This fallacy presents that for any given problem, there are only two solutions, and usually one (or sometimes both) of them is pretty distasteful. One example of this fallacy can be found in political ads, where voters are told something like, “Either you vote for Candidate X, or America will continue to decline.” Even simple shampoo ads convey to viewers that either you wash with Brand Y or your hair will not be soft and shiny. This fallacy has also made it into the realm of Christianity. When we think about the crucifixion of Jesus as the result of the wrath of God for our sinfulness, we are presented with an either-or dilemma:  either Jesus dies for our sins or we die for our sins.  Neither prospect seems like it would come from a God of love.

We human beings are a compilation of contradictions: we want the security of a savings account but we also want possessions; we want to work but we also want leisure time; we want to be thin and fit but we want to eat anything we want and never exercise; we gravitate toward sin but we are children of God.  When we get caught in dualistic thinking (believing there are only two ways for us to be, either good or bad), we start identifying ourselves as being only one of those two ways.  We either see ourselves as good (righteous, moral) or we see ourselves as bad (sinful, licentious), rather than seeing ourselves as the complex composite that is held together by the master transformer Jesus.

“For in him we live and move and have our being,” it says in Acts 17:25 (NIV). We are living and moving and having our being in a variety of ways, most of which contradict each other as our true selves wrestle with our false selves (our egos).  “For in him” is the key part of this verse, as the god-man Jesus has brought our two selves, both true and false, together in him. It is no longer “either-or:” either you follow a legalistic set of rules or church doctrine or you don’t belong to God.  Rather, in Jesus, it is “both-and:” Jesus is big enough to contain our dualities, and even more importantly, it is in him that they are resolved and transformed, put to bed, like the tired, petulant children they are. In fact, Jesus himself offers us the resolution of two contradictions:  fully human and fully divine.  By demonstrating his ability to hold together these opposites, it proves Jesus’s ability to hold together ours.

As we more fully grasp that Jesus is the glue to hold together those “either-or” parts of ourselves, we can better understand the crucifixion.  We now see that it wasn’t an angry God taking out his wrath on his Son so that we could live.  Instead, we see the god-man Jesus taking our contradictions, our good, our bad, our love, our hate, into himself and then rising again that Easter Sunday, transformed.  “For when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin,” Romans 6:7 (NLT) informs us.  This setting free means taking the entirety of human existence, both the beautiful and the ugly, and transforming it all in himself. No more “either-or,” but instead, BOTH-AND. We are both good AND bad, often at the same time, yet ultimately in Jesus, we are transformed and included.

We can celebrate this resurrection day coming soon, knowing that all our parts are held by Jesus, both good and bad.  What’s more, in him they are made sense of and transformed, turned into the good, loving kindness that is the Father, Son, and Spirit. No more being either good or bad, but lovingly held  in the Triune embrace.

~by Nan Kuhlman

**Note: this post was edited for clarity