If you have ever paused to ponder perpetual motion, you are not alone. But hey, even if you haven’t, stick with me.
And would you allow me to connect two ideas? We’ll get to perpetual motion as the second one, and here’s the first one:
You start reading the Bible. And you’re not out of Genesis chapter 1 before you get to what theologians call “the cultural mandate,” which is that humans were given a job, blessed by God to
Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. (Ge 1:28, NIV)
In other words, being created Imago Dei -- in the good image of a good God – means we’re designed to be procreative, both in making babies and in inventive stewardship.
Here’s the second idea.
Perpetual motion is the idea of motion that, duh, is perpetual, meaning it keeps going indefinitely. A perpetual motion machine is one that would keep on cranking without an energy source. And if you do a little poking, humankind has been trying to invent one since at least the Middle Ages.
So here’s how these ideas connect.
Perpetual motion has this little problem called…friction. Modern theories of thermodynamics show that perpetual motion is impossible. Scientists keep trying, but to no avail. You can’t eliminate friction.
Now if we go back to the book of Genesis and turn a few pages, what do we see in chapter three? The entry of sin into the world. It starts with a lie that God’s holding out on you, doesn’t want you to live up to your potential. And shouldn’t you be living your own truth, determining for your what good and evil are?
Put another way, you’ve got freewill, and you can do just about anything except this one thing that will bring you death -- broken relationship with God.
More than once this Advent season we’ve talked about Jesus being on a rescue mission, one historical point of which we celebrate on Christmas. But catch how John not only shares why Jesus is uniquely qualified to do this and gives this two aspects to that mission:
You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins and there is no sin in him. The one who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works. 1 John 3:5,8 CSB
Sin is like friction. We can’t get rid of it. But no matter how much friction you get rid of, you can’t get rid of it all. Sooner or later the machine comes to a stop. And sooner or later we come to a stop. The wages of sin is death.
But is that what the world around us tells us? Aren’t we utterly flooded with Instagram posts that tell you if you just try hard enough, believe hard enough, chant enough self-affirmation mantras, that you’ll eliminate the friction? That you’ll overcome your junk?
Friends, that’s religiosity. “Do this, and you’ll get to God, nirvana, moksha, enlightenment.” And it’s denial. As GK Chesterton put it,
Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved. ~ GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy
We can deny it. We can listen to The Enemy telling us that God surely wants you to be happy, and that if you feel like doing that thing over there that He says isn’t good for you, He’s just holding out on you. We can keep trying to build a perpetual motion machine.
Or we can say, Jesus, it’s really awesome that you’ve already done what I cannot do. That which only you could do through your sinless life, atoning death, and bodily resurrection. I’ve tried the religiosity, and I can’t seem to make it work. Today I trust You. Again. Thank you, again, for that original Christmas morning.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in communications, an award-winning author and speaker, and a passionately bad guitarist. ForTheHope equips on-the-go professionals with biblical principles to engage marketplace relationships with competent humility. On Twitter can follow him @RogerCourville and/or his podcast @JoinForTheHope, or get all updates by email subscription at www.forthehope.org.