The Only Antidote to Cynicism

Cynicism is a result of misplaced faith, of arrogance really, of false and shattered expectations. You may recall Katerina Ivanovna from Crime and Punishment. She would latch onto people, invent all kinds of fantasies about them, experience bitter disappointment, and rage at them and the world. This is why the Bible warns us against “putting our trust in princes.” Jesus knew what was in man, and thus did not trust in man.

The gospel never leads to cynicism and is the only ultimate antidote to cynicism. Some of you have heard me say in class that the gospel is infinitely rugged. It destroys both our pride and our despair. Joshua was able to say, near the end of a very eventful life in which he saw both exodus and conquest: 14"And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed” (Joshua 23). This is an absolutely astonishing claim that atomizes all cynicism. I will be sixty very soon, and can say the same thing. We can never expect too much from God and He never disappoints. It is never about us and always about Him.

We at PHC will, by God’s grace, along with all the saints, help to serve the nation, shape the culture, take the gospel to the ends of the earth, build the kingdom. This is my fondest hope and has always been my prayer. This puts God at the center and not ourselves, is not delusional and will not lead to bitterness. As Christians, we are at once both utterly realistic and thoroughly idealistic—wise as serpents and innocent as doves. The cynic, ironically, is neither. He fancies himself the realist, shaking his head sadly at naïve “believers.” In fact, he has no real faith in God, for God’s magnificent realities always trump our tawdry ones. Where our sin abounds, God’s grace abounds all the more.

--Dr. Stephen Hake