Machen Chapter 3

God and Man

This chapter focuses on how the gospel focuses on how God saved man. Machen explains that before we can understand this concept, we must understand more about who God is, and who man is. Though there are many solid points in this chapter than should be noted, I plan on picking out two points that really reignited with me as I was reading this portion of the book.

Towards the end of this chapter, Machen states,

“But although Christianity does not end with the broken heart, it does begin with the broken heart; it begins with the consciousness of sin. Without the consciousness of sin, the whole gospel will seem an idle tale” (57).

When I read this part of the chapter, my mind was a little bit blown. I have never thought about the gospel and the consciousness of sin in this way. At times I will ponder on what life would be like if the fall didn’t happen. What would life have been like if the world God didn’t have to send the gift of Jesus, because it was so perfect that we weren’t in need of a savior? Then I begin to think about what life is like for a non-believer who does not understand the concept that life can end without a broken heart, when we have the gift of Jesus. Why would someone not want this gift? The answer to this is complex, but often the answer is that people simply don’t believe that this is even possible! If I was living my life without the hope of having a completely un-broken heart in the end, and spending eternity with Jesus, what would the purpose of my life even be? My simple answer to this is, “I don’t know!”. The idea of why one might not believe about the gift of an unbroken heart slides me into my next point.

           

In the middle of this chapter, Machen states,

“It is no wonder that such a method seemed strange. Could anything be more impractical than the attempt to influence conduct by rehearsing events concerning the death of a glorious teacher?... It seemed foolish to the ancient world, and it seems foolish to liberal preachers to-day” (40).

When I think about it, if the concept of surrounding my entire life around the fact that my Savior died for me so that I could have life through him may seem strange to someone who has not experienced his presence before. Just the other day, one of my co-workers was making fun of someone she met in a grocery store who noticed she was having a difficult day, because the women walked up to her and said, “I’ll pray for you that your day goes better”. When she was telling me about it, she was laughing and said, “I don’t believe in that…” and used some choice words to follow. My initial internal reaction was to be angry with her, but my anger quickly turned to sadness as I realized that she, along with many other people in this world, have never understood what it means to encounter a moment with Jesus and experience His presence. It saddens me that many people live their lives without a strong purpose, and their lives end with a broken heart because of it. This chapter has made me consider how I encourage others to follow Jesus, and ponder how much I allow God to use me as a vessel to further His kingdom.