I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. | Galatians 1.6-9
There is not a day that goes by that I don’t interact with someone asking the question: Is this it? I entertain it myself at least as often. While the question is similar, the answer being sought varies; it can be referring to numerous aspects of our experiences, including:
God Himself: Is this it? refers to the limits He puts on our ability to understand Him.
Christian Living: Is this it? refers to our own ability to live out the New Life.
The Church: Is this it? refers to the lack of community or emotion.
Spirituality: Is this it? refers to the sensing the presence of God in our life.
No matter what the specifics, Is this it? points to a perceived lack in God; it is trying to rectify the goodness of God and the world we live in. The question is a good one! It points to a conception of God that is too good for this; it is the acknowledgement that God is more.
The issue comes with how we pursue the concept of more. Many of the mistakes of Christianity can be tied to dissatisfaction and the attempt to bring reality in line with the divine; an attempt to make Kingdom come NOW! The truth is, the reason why our experiences fail us is because we have destroyed it.
God created a perfect revelation of Himself in relationship, it was human beings that decided He wasn’t enough. In the attempt to create more, the perfection of relationship with God and His creation were both marred. Since then our lives are a struggle between this independent desire to possess goodness without God and this need for something more than ourselves. God gives us a community of people to struggle with, and yet we get frustrated that they aren’t what we think we need. We ask God to do something tangible so that we can sense Him more directly.
God has already answered. In Jesus, we are given the solution to broken relationship, a promise of sanctification, a unity to God, and an assurance that He is with us. Everything that God does is to solidify what has already been done in the gospel. To the question: Is this it? The only honest answer can be: for now.