Scripture is full of paradoxes. For example, how can God be one being, yet subsisting in three persons (i.e., the Trinity)? Or how can Christ be fully God, yet at the same time fully man? We are not talking about contradictions here. A paradox In the Biblical sense is a mystery not a contradiction. “A paradox is something we do not see how to put together, whereas a contradiction is something we do see cannot go together.”[1] Thus, there would be a contradiction if we said there is one God, yet three Gods. Monotheism (one God) cannot be Tritheism (three Gods). However, there is no contraction in saying God is one in essence but subsisting as three persons. This is Trinitarianism. There is mystery here, but no contradiction. Matthew 11:25-30 contains another Scriptural paradox (mystery) that may not be readily apparent at first glance. It is the paradox of divine sovereignty and human responsibility in the matter of salvation. We must not miss either one of these truths.

The coronavirus pandemic has had a way of exposing one of the great fears of humanity, perhaps its greatest fear—the fear of death. Even the Christian is not immune from this fear since it speaks of the Edenic curse brought about by the sin of our first parents Adam and Eve (see Genesis 3:14-19). Satan uses the threat of death to cripple us with panic and fear, but for the Christian this should never undo us because we are held securely by the One who defeated sin, Satan, death, and all manner of earthly corruptions like worldwide pandemics.