Our longings for love, unity in diversity, communication, community, humility, peace, and selflessness are in fact–by design–longings for the Trinitarian God of the Bible and a world that is a reflection of the Trinity. Tragically, human desires corrupted by sin turn in on themselves; rather than finding satisfaction in God, longings become lusts–bottomless pits of selfish desire, never quite satisfied, inevitably leading to despair. Because we are made in the image of the triune God to reflect his glory, we will never stop longing; yet, our sin-stained longings distort that reflection.
Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears – Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe
Our deep longings can only be truly satisfied by God. The human nature to always want more money, power, sex, or bigger, better things is a result of our perversion of how God made us. He made us in His image, but sin has taken that image and rolled it around in mud with pigs. The fact that we can never fulfill our longings except through God is why the work of the cross and resurrection of Christ is so important.
Without Christ, our longing for love gets filled with empty lust. Without God, our longing for unity is denied by the differences we have with others. Communication and community are both flawed and distorted when they are not based on the Trinity. Humility is nothing but a selfish desire to humble others and peace is interrupted by seemingly endless war if not based on God’s perfect representation.
I just started reading Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe and the first few pages have already driven me to go deeper into the foundations of what I believe. Through reading Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris, I was able to gain a better understanding of the basic foundations of my faith. The Naked Gospel by Andrew Farley shed more light on grace and why it can sometimes feel like I’m not growing in my faith when I focus on my shortcomings. As I continue to read Doctrine, I expect to find new strength in the foundation of my faith.