Week 33—Tuesday 2 Corinthians 4:7-11
Week 33—TUESDAY
REALITY DIVIDED INTO OBJECTIVE
AND SUBJECTIVE REALITY
We must now gather up the truth in each of these strands of truth to see if we can come nearer the truth.
Someone has said that reality is divided into objective and subjective reality. Objective reality is that which has occurred in history; subjective reality is that which has occurred in our experience. Each kind of reality can be proved to a high degree of certainty. But the highest degree of certainty is where the objective becomes the subjective—the historical becomes the experimental—and corroborate each other.
In the Christian faith there is the historical Jesus—the Word become flesh. But that historical Jesus becomes the Christ of experience—the Word becomes flesh in us, in an imperfect way, of course, but in a real way. The experimental corroborates the historical. So the two kinds of reality come together and become one. This brings a high degree of certainty—objective and subjective reality verify each other. Christ lived—he lives in me. Myths cannot produce reality, for like produces like. Only if Christ is real in history can he be real in experience.
So Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). And it may be added, “Your experience is a myth, for it was founded on a myth.” So those who cut the historical from under Christianity use a two-edged sword—they cut both the historical and the experimental at the same time. They make Christianity the Word become word and, at the same time, make experience the Word become word. And that word is myth. The Word cannot be saved from becoming myth unless that Word becomes flesh in history and flesh in us. So the Christian faith stands or falls upon the Word became flesh.
But it stands, for the history is corroborated by experience. “You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart.” The person who has experienced the living Christ is certain with an invincible certainty—it is an immediate underived certainty.
O Blessed Redeemer, you have redeemed me from resting on question marks. You have turned all my question marks into exclamation points. I know you better than I know anyone else. You are more intimate than breathing. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I know him without in history, I know him within in experience—I know him.