He Who Loved God Became Greater Than All
Biblical scripture is a deep source of comfort, but it is also a deep source of discomfort. This divine discomfort is God calling us to greatness.
Perhaps the most ubiquitous human trait is that we dream of greater things. Adam dreamed to be like God, Cain dreamed for Adam’s approval, Abraham dreamed for a son, and Christ dreamed for us to be His sons.
Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, poet, and theologian. He is considered the father of existentialism,1 and because of this, I recently started one of his prominent philosophical works, Fear and Trembling.
Kierkegaard speaks of a man (likely himself) who descends into insomnia after reading the story of Abraham and Isaac. “There were countless generations that knew the story of Abraham by heart, word for word. How many did it make sleepless?”2
Scripture has only ever made my sleep soundly. While the Bible’s truths are a deep source of comfort, they are also a deep source of discomfort. And it is this divine discomfort that is avoided at all costs.
How often do I hear a sermon, mull it over for a few minutes, and then forget about it? How often will God’s truth inspire and challenge me, only for me to ignore it?
“For we have the living Word of God, which is full of energy, like a two-mouthed sword. It will even penetrate to the very core of our being where soul and spirit, bone and marrow meet! It interprets and reveals the true thoughts and secret motives of our hearts.”3
The Word of God will only penetrate, interpret, and reveal if we let it. And we let it by thinking on it.
But today we read of Abraham making the three-day journey to Mount Moriah to sacrifice Isaac and will hardly bat an eyelid. We read that Jesus calmed a storm and yet won’t even think of Him when actually in a storm. We have become too comfortable with Biblical stories because we don’t truly think about them.
I have recently come across these verses:
“I said ‘You are Gods’; you are all sons of the Most High.”4
“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these… You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”5
These verses can be read as if reading an Instagram caption, or they can be read as Kierkegaard did – with deep thought and without dilution. He said, “For my own part, I don’t lack the courage to think a thought whole.”6
The surest step to greatness for any Christian is to have the courage to think verses like these wholly. To actually think what it means to be Sons of the Most High, to think that we can do greater things than Christ, to think that He will give us anything we ask for in His name, and then to believe it and act accordingly.
It is this last part - acting accordingly - that is our greatest challenge.
Kierkegaard said, “The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.”7
Søren Kierkegaard acted accordingly. He is called the father of existentialism and Abraham the father of faith because they didn’t shirk from the discomfort of God’s truth. They had the courage to think about it and act on it. They met with God authentically, and so they became great.
Thinking and acting authentically stems from a love of God. “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.”8
“For he who loved himself became great in himself, and he who loved others became great through his devotion, but he who loved God became greater than all.”9
Let us be sleepless thinking of God’s truth, and yet still be dreaming.
To the layman such as myself, existentialism conveys thoughts of atheism and nihilism, yet in reality it is “a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.”
Søren Kierkegaard, 1843. Fear and Trembling, pg. 30. Denmark
Hebrews 4:12
Psalm 82:6
John 14:12-14
Søren Kierkegaard, 1843. Fear and Trembling, pg. 34. Denmark
Søren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard
John 14:23
Søren Kierkegaard, 1843. Fear and Trembling, pg. 16. Denmark