A Brief Exposition Of The Essential Christian Conception
by Philip McPherson Rudisill
Updated11/23/02, and slightly edited 1/16/2011
[Thanx to the Palmquists for their inciting interest.]

God created us to delight in him in order that he might delight in us. God is delighted by being delightful to another.* And it is his delight that we love the Golden Rule**--not just comply with it, but adore it and want to follow it. But this is impossible due to our fallen nature, i.e., our natural predisposition to evaluate everything in terms of self first and foremost. The most we can do on our own is to seek to comply with the Rule, but not to love it.

[* There are suggestions here for a trinity. One person, the Holy Spirit, to be manifested, requires a body, but which is only given in the realm of flesh and blood.]

[** I use "Golden Rule" here as a vernacular expression for Kant's "moral law". I realize that they are not equivalent terms with regard to their content as concepts, and make this verbal identification only for the sake of ease of comprehension on the part of people not versed in Kant.]

The Prudent Realm. A man once reported trying to help street people because he knew that God loved them and wanted him to help them. He subsequently justified his complince with God's wants by saying it would earn him a reward, in this case additional delights in heaven. This means that while he is complying with the command of God, he does not love the street people, but is only working for pay, the exact amount being unknown but assumed to be considerable. Therefore this man is essentially marketing his energy and talents, and has judiciously decided that God promises the best return. But the fact remains that the Golden Rule is odious to him, much as though God wanted him to stand on his head and play a fool. He is like this: thinking the return is right, he chooses God; but quite naturally he always seeks to do no more than merely to comply with this Rule and so always only reluctantly. "After all, God doesn't expect us to be fools!" In this frame of mind an intelligent and prudent man will essentially do no more to get the benefits of heaven than he has to. He is and remains a minimalist, and by the rule of (prudent) reason itself, and does not even understand that this selling of his life to the highest bidder is really evil, for he does not realize that if the payoff were different he would gladly be serving the devil, and thus he can be no delight to God at all. It makes so much sense to every normal person to want heaven and even do everything necessary to get it, but reason itself tells us that only a fool would give more than he had to for any given return. Who would offer a $100,000 for a house that the owner is willing to sell for $90,000? That would be foolishness. And the upshot is that even though this complier with the Golden Rule thinks he is righteous because he is complying with the commands of God, and even though he has a clean conscience in doing so, he fails to delight God in the least, for he is not acting eagerly and with desire and in perfect freedom, i.e., without fear (like the fear of missing out on a reward). He is acting for profit. He is a hireling. And not a delightful friend.*

[* He is not spontaneous and subject to a good spirit, but rather is calculating. Perhaps a certain spontaneity must be available so that when a good spirit comes and touches us we can act with the alacrity of Abraham, i.e., immediatetly, for, according to the Christians, the Holy Spirit will say with Shakespear's Richard III, "Don't stand upon the word go, but go!"]

But then how is it possible to overcome our own nature and even our own prudent reasoning and come to adore the Golden Rule in order then to delight God? Kant said:"the highest goal of the moral perfection of finite creatures, never fully to be attained by humans, is the love of the moral law." How can we fallen creatures, steeped in prudent self interest, come even to move toward such perfection? It would take a miracle!

The Necessary Miracle. God provides this miracle. Even though we can never come to adore the Golden Rule in our own strength, if we will but want to love the Rule and believe it possible that a person could actually achieve to that love, even if only with help, God will produce a miraculous transformation in our desires such that we will begin to enjoy complying with the Golden Rule. And even though this is not an immediate and perceivable perfection, it is an actual transformation in fact which manifests itself to human eyes gradually and over time and through practice, much as the world slowly brightens during a clear dawn. But God, who sees the heart, is delighted immediately in the transformation itself without having to wait for its perfect manifestation in the world of flesh and blood, for waiting is merely a matter of time, and time is not a matter of concern to God.*

[* See the third tenative speculation at the end.]

The transformation works in this way. It is the Holy Spirit in a person which enables him to actually love the Golden Rule and in that way become a delightful person. This Holy Spirit will not enter into the heart of any person unless that person believes it is possible and wants it enough to strive for conformity with the Golden Rule, i.e., do all his in own power to comply, and always in anticipation of it becoming easier and more natural. In a word: He will enter into us upon, and only upon, our explicit invitation, i.e., we must believe it enough to ask for it. This Spirit must be invited in. Therefore any person who hopes for the Holy Spirit in this wise will surely be filled with that Holy Spirit. For this is the very delight of God.*

[* I suppose the Wesleyan will say that it is the prevenient (preceding) grace that acts to bring news of this hope to any individual and to stir up this hope within him. But even though stirred up by the Holy Sprit, the decision concerning the invitation is still the individual's, i.e., he is conscious of deciding as he does to invite this Holy Spirit in by beginning to undertake actions called for by the Golden Rule in anticipation of eventual success in enjoying doing so.]

Persuading the Reluctant. Now in order for any person to be induced to leave the more comfortable realm of prudence and enter the realm of foolishness (so-called in the realm of prudence) he must first of all, of course, want that perfection of love of the Golden Rule and he must be held back only by prudent fear. To want it he must believe that it is possible for a human being to be perfect. And to this end he has both his internal witness of the moral demands which he makes upon himself in his self recriminations,* and he also has the vivid and brilliant story of Jesus.

[* Kant once suggested that if we could get the worst scoundrel to be willing and able to think coldly and rationally for a little while, i.e., in total candor, we would find that he would be driven by the moral conversation to admit that the moral life is far more desirable than the life he has (despite any successes he might have through his cheating), and further: that he would actually be living that life if he were not so possessed by his powerful and selfish inclinations and desires.]

And secondly every person must be assured of a result. He must believe that he will indeed become delightful to God, and thus have no need for prudence.* To this end he must believe that the promise of perfection is made to him individually and in an unmistakable way. And then he must also believe that this promise will be efficacious in enabling him to reach that perfection and without fear. Every religion (if it purports to be effective morally) must be able to satisfy this two fold, very natural need of every human being. It must issue a universal call, even to those who are outcasts in prison. We now turn to consider the Christian provision for this requirement.

[* The thought of being imprudent is frightening to us, and this is a fear which works to insure our survival, and so in this regard can be thought of as a gift of God to every person. Few people are like Saint Francis who can strip off his clothes and return them, and his name, to his father, and walk out of the city entirely naked and to an uncertain future without the protection of a family name. The road that we are led on by the Holy Spirit is made for children and the lame, for it moves us no faster than our ability to walk. At the beginning it is enough to give just a little, up to the edge of insecurity and fright, but not beyond it. Gradually, as we gain experience, our faith increases and our little giving seems too little, and we are expanding our horizons. Let every man act in accordance with the degree of faith in the promise that God has enabled him to have. Some are given 10 degrees of faith, another 5 and another 1; let each provide in accordance with that degree of faith. And let us not judge the servant of another. Another person may be our friend, but he is also an individual servant of God, at least in the Christian conception.]

Universal Call. The way we test any assertion is to go immediately to the extreme. When, for example, the Libertarian calls for total freedom within the very minimum confines of orderly respect for the rights of others, we can test him by asking if he then might want to permit dueling to the death between two or more consenting adults. In this way we discover the limits, if any, of his belief.

In order now to convey the universal love and invitation of God for all humans, the Christian religion has God intervening in human history in order to die in the place of the least worthy human imaginable, namely Barabbas, the convict thief and murderer who did not even know what was going on. In this wise, by reaching to the extreme of unworthiness, the Christian religion is able to assert the absolute universality of the promise of God to all people whomsoever. "Yes, God even loved Barabbas, and so you know he loves you and wants you to delight him by delighting in the Golden Rule!"

Promise of Success. By means of the report of the resurrection of Jesus from this death, the Christian religion is able to assure all persons that the God who calls them to a second chance at perfection is able to guarantee the success of that second chance, and that eventually they will experience the perfection of loving in the manner of Christ.*

[* Here the honest and sincere witness of the followers of the Lord can be efficacious, i.e., the experience.]

Conclusion. Thus the Christian religion can assure every person that he or she can become perfect in love in the eyes of God and thus become delightful to him, and thus able to rely on him in lieu of self interest. All he have to do is to trust in this story or the experiences related by others who have trusted in this story, and do it in the same way that Abraham trusted his voices, i.e., act like you believe and indeed with alacrity.* He does not have to become perfect, at least not just yet, for it will be God that will provide any needed perfection and then in accordance with His wisdom. People must merely believe it and want it enough to seek it.

[* Even though Abraham raised his knife in full anticipation of plunging it into the heart of innocent Issac, a violation of the moral law, he is no more guilty of attempted murder than is the magician's assistant who must plunge a knife into the heart of the victim, except that Abraham does not know how the trick will be played by God. Abraham's trick was simple: do as told. It was God's trick to make things happen. (Thanx to Palmquist for this example)]

Postscript 1. The delight of God can perhaps be better expressed by saying: God wants us to love him naturally and without fear, like a child does a loving parent, or more especially like one friend does another. But no one can love a superior (and thus fearful) being unless we are first assured that that being loves us. But it is only in actually coming to love the Golden Rule in the way just described that we can also come to know in experiential fact that God loves us (proven now in our changing), and where we then for our part can come to love and adore God with abandon. For it is only when we see that we are coming to enjoy complying with the Golden Rule that we know in fact that God has indeed made a promise which he is keeping, and that he does love us individually and personally (and not merely in story, no matter how vivid). And it is then that we are first and finally able to love God naturally and with spirit, which is the only sort of love that God can respect and delight in (as opposed to merely formal worship, which is acceptable for those still only seeking witness of the transformation in experience). "How can we love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love our neighbor whom we do see?"*

[* Consistent with this we might say that the authentic Christian experience is not the decision to follow Christ (which is iconized by the thief on the cross) but the experience of coming to love the Golden Rule (which is iconized by Zacchaeus, the reformed cheat and bully). The former constitutes the joy of faith and hope of salvation, the latter the joy of salvation. (Both of these men were announced by Jesus as possessing eternal life.)]

Postscript 2. There is a paradox here which is inherent in the Christian conception. We become concerned about our wretchedness when we realize that we are not delightful to God,* for we then realize that we are in danger of losing out on some important benefit, i.e., heaven. In an effort to become delightful in his sight and thus to reap the reward of heaven (which is a very prudent thing to do, all things considered), we embark upon our journey to perfection in faith. But we are not tainted by this prudent beginning, because the goal we seek, even though it is originally prompted by prudent considerations, is an existence where this very prudence is itself subjugated to the Golden Rule and where we come to love the Rule more than life itself, i.e., with abandon. Thus we prudently seek to give up our prudence (to unseat it from the throne in our lives, and put it second to the Golden Rule).

[* Interestingly enough we come to this realization after we are able to conceive of the Son of God, i.e; a person who always acts only in accordance with the moral law, without the least deviation, and even dies for the sake of that law. While this idea can and does arise through one's own thinking, its first actual expression was in the life of Jesus. But regardless of the origin, this conception provides a comparison so that we are able to tell that we are already enthralled with prudent evil in the pursuit of self above all else, and that it was apparently a natural use of our freedom that we are so enthralled. And so while is natural, it is still free. But since it is free, it can be changed! (This is all Immanuel Kant, of course!)]

Postscript 3. It seems clear to me that the Wesleyan conception comes very close to the model described in this essay. This is not to say that United Methodists, for example, have come to embody this in full perfection, but the conception of that movement is essentially that as described above. This is due, I think, to their emphasis on the "witness of the spirits" in realizing that they are loved of God which in turn is based on their doctrine of progressive sanctification, which is eptitomized in their saying: while I am far from perfection, I am not as far as once I was, and I am on the way.*

[* It may be interesting to note that this conception of God delighting in lovers of the Golden Rule and of wanting to promote this love in people is, I think, suggested in Martin Luther's Preface to Paul's Letter to the Romans. Wesleyans will quickly recognize that it was this preface that was being read at Aldersgate when John Wesley suddenly realized that God actually did indeed loved him, and never expected of him any more than what he could actually do,** and it was this realization that ignited the fire storm of Methodism which swept over England and much of the world.]

[** Once he realized this, and so once he could relax in the presence of God and not feel that he had to do a lot, he found that he could do quite a lot, only now it was no longer him doing it, but God through him and even perhaps in spite of him. He had always tried to live up to God. He had tried to convert Indians, but had failed and had not lived up to God. Now he no longer had to live up to God, but simply served him in whatever capacity he might be called to, while leaving the results up to God.]

Postscrip 4. Concerning the Church. The Christian faith not only calls upon people to seek this moral perfection which was exemplified in the person of Jesus, but indeed to join together with others in doing this as a joint effort. And there is a good reason for doing so. The world of prudence-above-all is corrupting on its own for it is there that we consider anything other than prudence to be foolishness; and we tell each other that. It seems so enticing. So reasonable. It tempts us at all times. The society of the prudent world (and thus we ourselves) actually and naturally expects us to be prudent above all and to even explain and justify ourselves when we appear imprudent. In order to remain right acting in the face of this inexorable, reciprocal corruption it behooves the person in pursuit of righteousness to unify with others of a like mind for mutual help in approaching this righteousness through resisting the morally debilitating talk and action of the prudent society we are otherwise imersed in. Since we naturally work to keep each other in the pit of prudence, we cannot expect much success if we do not help each other to do good. Kant stated that we have a human duty to each other to help each other become morally perfect. And since we cannot become perfect without the help of God, and since no one can expect the help of God in providing that which he can already do on his own, it follows that we are necessitated to involve ourselves in ways which facilitate this perfection. And that means joining a grouping dedicated to the mutual encouragement of right thinking and right living, e.g., a church.

1. Perhaps God will speak to humans only once on any subject and will not repeat himself.

2. The Holy Spirit will enter into all persons who know about Him and who are desirous of having Him enter into their spirit and refashioning their desires away from prudence and toward the Golden Rule.*

[* This notion that God wants to unify with given individuals and become one with each of them by entering into his or her spirit is very difficult to convey. Perhaps the notion of the Holy Trinity is efficacious in this regard.]

3. Then when God wants to convey this information to the world, since He will speak it only once, He waits for the likes of Barabbas as a product of a sinful world where the Golden Rule is utterly odious in prudent and self righteous eyes, for it is only in this one pronouncement (Jesus' crucifixion), as we speculate here, that God will convey the universality of the message of the possibility of the reception of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the first most adequate example was Barabbas and the context of his time.

As a further speculation we can imagine Jesus' context, namely God had spoken for the last time and all that could ever be demanded of humans had already been demanded, and no new demands could be issued. Consequently it was self evident to the leaders of his context that Jesus was either a fraud or a lunatic, and in either case could not be authentic. For this reason it was impossible for them to reason with Jesus, for he was asserting an ability to issue new rules, and that simply was impossible (per their own mind-locking premise). And so these new rules were ipso facto deceptions. If you have the idea that your opponent is either a lunatic or a fraud, in neither case are you going to take him seriously, but you consider him as ranting, perhaps dangerous, but still simply a ranter. Hence, if it were possible that there were truth in the life of Jesus, such men would never be able to see it, and so would remain defiant of Jesus' assertion without considering it on its merits; like scientists questioning their own eyes before admitting to a miracle before their eyes. Jesus referred to it as a sin against the Holy Spirit and means that with such an attitude you simply do not know that you are sinful and so you cannot know that you have a deficiency and thus a need, and so you cannot even know to try to escape from that sin, and so you are utterly unreachable and thus lost in that sin. A very terrible and sad blindness!*

[* Any faith which had faith in itself would call upon all faiths, including therefore itself, to be subject that faith to the scrutiny of reason. Immanuel Kant has already do so for the Christian faith and has declared it to be morally acceptable.**]

[** Even more! he declared that it was the only moral religion in the history of the world.]

A third speculation: perhaps there is some ontological reason that a perfect man must arise in existence in order to give the moral authorization on the part of God (in a realm of freely judging beings/people) to save the world. While the beings facing God may not speak the words aloud, God still may want to justify his action in an objective way in answer to their thoughts, as one free being to another in a free court where the devil may also express himself to himself. Perhaps God will deign to show us the moral possibilities of creation and indeed through the fact of an actual moral perfection (in the life of Jesus). Without that perfect example people would have to take it on faith that the world were morally deserving of continuing. The moral deserving of the world was first expressed by the obedience of Noah. By means of such obedience God could justify a continuation of the world. Now in Christ he has the final justification, namely the recognition of moral perfection in the flesh, and so this fact does not have to be accepted on mere faith.* The obedience produced Christ (through the Jews), and now the new mode was a manifestation of the step beyond obedience, namely personal moral perfection. And so Christ proves moral perfection, as it were, and thereby justifies a hope for the world among all spirits looking at God's work (including therefore also ourselves), for as God produced Jesus in a world that was "very good" even so will he produce the saints. God's apparant concern: I must find someone to listen to me and to do what I say if I am ever going to be able to help the humans. Adam disobeyed and the world has gone mad. If no one will listen to me, then there is little point in continuing the farcical horror. Enter first Noah. Then Jesus. Through Jesus' obedience the "gentile Christian" is justified and freedom reigns. No longer are we to be obedient; now we are have a new nature where we want to do what is right, even as Jesus wanted to do what was right. Obedience now gives way to transformation, and the miracle and glory is that of God alone. Instead of obedience to laws we have an anticipating practice of holiness.

[* Hence we say that the Christian faith is our faith in the witness of the disciples of Jesus; for they, seeing the Resurrection, with their eyes, per the story, no longer needed faith.]

See also a moral physics in my essay on the Golden Rule.