Either Or, Both And

       As I was driving home this afternoon, I was pondering how we tend to think one directional.  We are this, or we are that.  We are fine or we are not.  We are happy or we are sad.  The problem with that is that sometimes we are not either one thing or another, but sometimes we are both this AND that.  For instance:

There are days when my spirit and mental parts of me are fantastic though my body may be in great pain so I am both fine and not.

After a long and painful illness of a Christian relative who then dies, I am both sad for our loss and happy for their gain of heaven.

I am both a daughter and a mother (also a sister, aunt, friend, sis-in-law, niece, grand-daughter…)  You get the picture.

       Yesterday I was researching “the bride” of Christ and some say it is the church, others the New Jerusalem, yet others the Jews or earthly Jerusalem.  Perhaps it is all of those.  I have not studied it enough to say for certain, but I do think scripturally it is at least two of them.  So I was pondering how some song books changed the lyrics of a great hymn- Amazing Grace.  The problem with this is: it is one directional thinking.

       For instance in the song there is a line that says, “that saved a wretch like me” and it has been changed to, “that saved a soul like me”.  The reason?  We are not wretches: believers are sons of God.  We were created by God and are valuable.  Yada yada.  The truth is, we both sons of God- heirs to His empire- and wretches at the same time. 

Beloved, now are we children of God… 1Jh. 3:2 ASV

For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. Gal. 3:26 ASV

Wretched man that I am!… Rom. 7:24 ASV

Wretched defined in Webster’s 1828:

-A miserable person

-A worthless mortal

-A person sunk in vice

-Sometimes used for slight pity or contempt

       So even though we are sons of the Almighty and heirs to all that is His, we are also wretched sinners unworthy of salvation because of our sin.  For we have all sinned and fallen short (Rom. 3:23), have gone astray like sheep (Is. 53:6), and none of us are righteous (Rom. 3:10).  There is also constant war within us, one side wanting to do wrong (Rom. 7:14-20). 

       And so for all who like the new lyrics I say- strike a balance in your opinion of yourself lest you think more highly of yourself than you ought, and are told like the lukewarm in Rev. “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” and you are spued out of His mouth (Rev. 3:16,17).