How the world distorts reality
In the movie The Matrix, the hero Neo is given the choice to take a blue pill and continue to live in his current world or take a red pill and “wake up” to reality. Neo takes the red pill and discovers that the real world is nothing like the world he thought he knew.
Neo soon learns that his world is a computer-generated dreamworld. Human beings are actually asleep and only dreaming of the matrix, the world they think they live in. The real world is a harsh, dark, dystopian reality, which means that dreaming of the “fake world” sounds a lot better than living in the real one.
Our spiritual reality
Someone once wrote that reality “is that which continues to exist whether you or I believe it or not.” If Neo had taken the blue pill, reality would not suddenly cease to exist. Neither you nor I can change reality by simply pretending that it doesn’t exist.
The Bible speaks of reality in Romans 1:18-23:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
This is reality: there is a God in heaven who is worthy of worship and commands our worshipped – and man’s lack of God-ward worship does not go unnoticed. No matter how much man may try to suppress the truth about God, their actions do not make it any less real.
In fact, Jesus came to open our eyes to reality. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6)
Sin opposes reality
Christ came, not only to reveal reality to us, but also to transform us through His death on the cross us that we may live according to reality.
For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Rom 6:10-14)
Sin is a temptation, an enticement, a tendency to be further grounded in a false reality. For the Christian, sin’s aim is to pull us back into what is false. But it is not only sin that can blind us to the truth, but it’s almost everything in the world!
Combatting the world’s false picture of reality
TV shows, ad campaigns, social media, even the news, all make many attempts to pull us away from reality into a false view of life. The world is determined to make disciples of us all. That’s why we must stand firm in the faith and continue to preach the Gospel to ourselves and to others. We, ourselves as Christians, need to constantly be reminded of reality. This is one of the reasons why I am so thankful for the Sunday service.
The corporate gathering of the saints should be a time when we move ourselves toward and plunge ourselves into reality. We are reminded of reality when we open the Scriptures and call the saints to worship God. We are reminded of reality when we sing songs that proclaim Christ’s glory and the Gospel of our salvation. We are reminded of reality when the church prays together to the God who hears the prayers of His children. We are reminded of reality when the preacher opens the Word of the Lord and heralds an expositional message that has gripped his heart all week. We are reminded of reality when we see the faces of those whom we call brothers and sisters in Christ. We need the corporate gathering more than we realize.
There are a lot of things that come across your mind and come into your eyes all week long. Some of it is good and some isn’t. We need to be constantly reminded of reality so that we may not believe the lies of the world and live as though we have taken the blue pill.
Ademi Mirabal is the pastor of Seacoast Community Church in Portsmouth, NH. You can reach him at ademi@sccnh.com.