“I want this world not to have meaning; because a meaningless world will free me to my own erotic and political pursuits.” These were the words of R. Huxley in 1946. When I heard those words I was angered. My position however changed in the weeks following my first interaction with that podcast. I had been reading from the Gospel of Matthew and I remember appreciating the Word of God as a mirror because as I looked at the wicked and sinful Pharisees, Sadducees and Chief priests, I saw myself in them – a man desperately in need of God’s help and guidance to righteousness. Then I thought again about that statement by Huxley. And I thought to myself that I may be no different because it may be that at times I want to wish away meaning and consequence so I may be able to sin freely and with a clear conscience. I realize that this is a struggle faced by believers throughout history and all across the globe. It is a struggle that embodies Paul’s words to the Romans in the seventh chapter of that book, when he said that it was the good he wanted to do that he was unable to do but he evil he did not want to do that he found himself doing (Rom 7:15-21). The desire for meaninglessness is an expression of the struggle with sin. For though we have been saved by Christ Jesus our Lord, we still reside in this body of flesh and so are constantly at war with the flesh. The spirit may many times be willing but the flesh is many more times weaker and we find ourselves falling to sin and falling short of that standard of perfection (Mt 5:48) and holiness (1Pe 1:16) set for us by God. Feelings of shame and guilt plague us and lead many into depression, stress and utterly unlivable lives. The easy way around all these matters is to eliminate our sense of guilt and shame, which is the work of secularization, or ultimately to eradicate meaning and reason, which is the work of pluralization. We know that when there is no meaning there is no morality. There is no clear distinction between what is wrong or right. In essence, there will be no such categories (right and wrong). Truth as an absolute moral principle is rejected and anything and everything is acceptable because nothing can be rejected. Then we are able to release ourselves to our fantasies without a stained conscience.
An attractive thing it may sound but the implications of such a situation scare me and greatly so. It scares me because without meaning, morality would be nothing! Moral absolutes would not exist. Justice, love, and good would not exist as categories and thus man would be extremely lost with no apparent means to restore him. (Evil would not exist in the absence of good for evil cannot exist unto itself) How would we be able to understand and rely on the cognitive faculties of our minds? Rather we would be totally given to existential sensuality that seeks to gratify our every passion, here and now. God would not exist because we would live in an amoral world and God is a moral God. The tragedy would be greater than we can think because, thankfully, we are trapped in the confines of meaning and reason.
This is a matter for great concern for the layman and theologian alike. The love of God and holiness of God would be abstract concepts because love and moral purity as tenets of reality and as moral categories would not be. How then would we know what our lostness and depravity means? We could not, for meaning would not exist. Remember in Romans 3:10-12 we are told;
” There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
That scripture which Paul lifts from Psalm 14:1-3/53:1-3 is a clear and constant reminder of our true state as human beings. We are eternally separated from God and as a result spiritually dead and consequently totally unable to respond to God, unless he quickens us. We would without meaning be unable to relate to God. We would be unable to understand sin and our own nature, as illuminated by Scripture, because of our total inability to place ourselves against the backdrop of God and His holiness. In that understanding then, I thank God greatly for His great gift to us; the gift of comprehension and meaning. Without this, life would be a disjointed lot of sensualities and passions. He has revealed to us absolute meaning in His Son, Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:16-17 tells us that all things were created by Him and for Him and that he is before all things and in Him all things consist. What that means is that he brought the entire universe, including us, into existence by His own purpose and will. We are sure by means of logical reason that where there is purpose, there is meaning! The fact that there is purpose only substantiates my point further! Purpose and the meaning of reality springs forth from the mind of the Creator but have tried to work things back to front, interpreting life starting from the creature.
We know that all things came from Him, through Him and to Him (Rom 11:36), and therefore we are assured that meaning is and must be! It is woven into the fabric of reality. So let us be careful then before we hastily wish for reality to alter in order to accommodate our passions. We cannot change the will and purposes of God; those stand forever. Let God be true and every man be a liar! (Ps 51:4/Rom 3:4) God’s purpose is to glorify Himself. Meaning exists as an absolute blanket over reality that holds things together. I am talking of Christ Jesus.
Unless meaning means something then reality is illusory. Unless meaning means what it means, God cannot be. We cannot know His holiness, we cannot be sinners and effectually, Christ did not die for us (and his resurrection means nothing for there is no resurrection without death)! Unless meaning means what it means, nothing is, for through Him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made (John 1:3).
I thank God for meaning. For by it I am able to understand the message of the gospel and in accepting it, be saved according to His will and purpose. I thank God that through Him I can pursue righteousness and holiness even as I sojourn in this world as an alien housed in this tent that keeps me in this great struggle until our Lord is revealed. Remember Paul in that classic passage in Romans 7, after stating the struggle with sin asks a rhetorical question; “What a wretched man I am! Who shall free me from this body of death?” He goes ahead to answer with words that have been an encouragement to me, saying; “Thanks be to God-Through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Yes, we ought to thank God for His Son in whom we find life. In my inner man I delight in God’s Law, which is now written on my heart and so I rejoice in meaning and abhor any idea that rejects it. Meaning does not make me an unwilling slave to Christ but remains a reminder and encouragement to walk in righteousness and to imitate Christ. I mean every word of what I have said!
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