Bones, skeletons, and truth

In the last year or so I came across the best analogy I've yet seen to describe the proper place for doctrine/truth within the Christian life. It comes Phillip Yancey and Paul Brand in "In the Likeness of God", but since the whole book is full of Brand sharing (from his knowledge as a surgeon) incredible parallels between the physical body and the spiritual body, ultimately this analogy is derived from Paul.

Doctrine and truth and such are the bones of the body. They provide structure, strength, permanence, shape, sturdiness, inflexibility, and a whole host of other similar adjectives to the body. They are essential to life as we know it; a broken bone can be healed, but while it is doing so it can't be used. And a bone out of place or improperly healed can bring all sorts of pain. Bones are designed by God to do exactly what they do, and to allow us to do pretty much everything we do. A person without bones, if such a person could exixt, would not live long. And even if they did or could they would be little more than a lump of fleshly pudding. Along the same lines, have you ever seen somebody with Brittle Bone Disease? Our church works with several of them in Belize, and they literally can't do anything for themselves. If you touch them wrong you can break their bones. Such is life for those without proper bones, and such is life for those with no truth in their lives. At worst they have no life at all, and at best they are incapable of anything.

But before we glorify bones too greatly, have you ever met a skeleton? The bones themselves do not bring life either. They are living, but only in order to provide structure and so on to the greater life that their life is utterly dependent on. Bones are only of value in the context of the body and in the ongoing story of what the body is doing.

I love and will never forget the comparison analogy Brand uses to show the flip side of the proper place and role for bones. Have you ever seen a crustacean or a mollusk, say a lobster? I'm sure you have. They carry their bones on the outside; an exoskeleton. Their "truth" is hard and often even sharp, able to keep at bay the outside world or to "pierce" anytihng within reach of it's claws. Lobsters make horrible pets, because all you encounter is their exoskeleton. They're actually quite soft inside, but that softness never quite reaches the outside world nor is it ever intended to.

Now all that is fine for lobsters and such, but for a human it's a horrible way to live. Can you imagine carrying around an exoskeleton wherever you went? Not only would it be needlessly cumbersome, but it would destroy all the warmth that human touch can convey and make it quite hard to love. You may truly love somebody with your soft insides, but you'll find it quite hard to convey that when every touch you make is hard. Humans were designed with skin on the outside and bones on the inside for a reason, and there's a reason Jesus loved to touch the people He brought healing and new life to. Exoskeletons are incapable of communicating love and a whole host of other godly emotions and actions, for all that they might feel on the inside.

There's another inherent limitation to an exoskeleton, and that's that you can't grow within it. All internal growth and new life leaves you just crushed against the inside of the exoskeleton. To really grow you have to abandon the current one you inhabit and either grow or find another one, a process that can be quite difficult, possibly painful, and extremely dangerous to the soft interiors of the crustaceans and mollusks that are forced to attempt it. And they were designed for it! What happens to a human when they attempt to do the same thing? Sadly, we've seen the answers strewn across the landscape of what we call the Church here an America today. How many people do you know who are living within the cramped conditions of a shell of laws that doesn't fit the person God created them to be? How many people do you know who went off to college with an exoskeleton of "Christianity" to protect them and, when forced to grow both by college and by that age and season of life, emerged from their exoskeleton in search of something better fitting only to be devoured by godless philosophies? Lacking the ability to grow from the inside out, as bones the way God designed them in us quite naturally do, no truth dwells INSIDE of them and their only capacity for growth is found in whatever they can find and attach themselves to, regardless of whether the exoskeleton they find is living or dead.

My last point on exoskeletons is that with an exoskeleton the full extent of the freedom and life God came to give us in Him is impossible. Picture a man wearing a full suit of metal armor, a literal "knight in shining armor," ha! He may be useful in war or look quite impressive astride his horse. He most certainly is quite protected from most anything the world outside may throw at him. But can he play baseball like that? Can he sit and have a quiet meal with his family? Can he read a book, love his wife, perform most any job competently, or enjoy the sunlight? Of course not! He is a caricature; his suit of arms was designed for war and for war alone is it good for. But we Children of God war not against flesh and blood, so of what noble use would such a suit be to us when worn in relation to other people? Take it off and go play baseball, I say! Go live the life God created you to, and enabled you to do so in part through the bones He has blessed you with. And when you encounter people while playing baseball (or whatever else your delight is in), go and share your delight in God's great world with them, giving them all the love and compassion and joy He has given you and clothed you with.

And now, when someone encounters you who lacks the life that you now have, they are quite naturally drawn to you and desire it for themselves. Quite the contrast from the reaction we in the church are used to by now from the world who often encounters little but pain and condemnation from our hardened exterior of doctrines, laws, and "truth." Truth it may be, but if it is not internalized in such a way that it enables real life to dwell in and flow through the body, it is of little use. So don't put on that suit of armor! Instead:


"PUT ON then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these PUT ON love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ DWELL IN you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

(Colossians 3:12-17)