Sense and Sensuality: Jesus Talks With Oscar Wilde on the Pursuit of Pleasure by Ravi Zacharias

Author:Ravi Zacharias [Zacharias, Ravi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Christian Life, Philosophy, Christian Theology, Chrisitian
ISBN: 9781590528600
Google: KNLXbgpgRs4C
Amazon: 1590528603
Barnesnoble: 1590528603
Publisher: Multnomah Books
Published: 2006-05-31T22:00:00+00:00

Wilde: That’s one of the most difficult things about my life… so debauched… now watching its imposition upon my family.

Jesus: A society that hates laws that guard the soul despises not so much the laws as much as it despises the very thought of a soul. Those who belong to such a society consider the flesh the totality of their being.

Wilde: I know why You care. You of all beings have my highest admiration. I don’t have a problem with You, Lord Christ. There is such compassion in Your voice, such pleading in Your call. Your mercy shines through the Gospels.

Jesus: You cannot separate Me from the law. The law was like a schoolmaster leading to me. I am the fulfillment of the law. I embody the law. The world crucified Me, but it couldn’t destroy Me. In bearing that pain, I showed you what the breaking of the law brings. The only difference between the justice system and My crucifixion is that in the justice system you pay—hunger, disease, insomnia. In My death, I paid—sorrow, isolation, inordinate suffering—to deliver you from the price the law could have exacted.

Wilde: Ironic, isn’t it, that it was in prison, where I learned to hate the law, that I saw what so many had done to themselves, becoming coarse, hard, and hate-filled.

You know, I once told a story about a man who caught a momentary glimpse of this being that hid its face from him. It haunted him with determined frequency, but somehow, no matter how hard he tried, he could never see its face. Finally one day, seduced by pleasure once again, the man entered a long room where the tables were spread and the revelry was to begin.

Suddenly, as if a ghost had brushed past him, he saw the face in a mirror. It was there like a flash and then gone. I begged the face to stay. “Please, please, let me see you,” I said, and it came and I saw it. I saw it! I’m sorry I ever did. It’s unbearable to even think of it now!

Jesus: I understand.

Wilde: Well, the face stared at me and said, “Look at me. You pursued me from your youth. You will want to see this face no more. This is the face of your soul. And it is horrible.”

Jesus: Similar to Dorian Gray. You can’t deny that I gave you insights into the seeds of your lifestyle and how they would blossom into the life of your future.

Wilde: I was better at art than at living.

Jesus: You used art as an excuse for your living. You see, it’s not the law that’s the problem, Oscar. The point you’ve made is that what you had done to yourself was a lifelong marring of the young, beautiful giftedness that I had given you. But what many others may have missed is that when you were in the throes of pleasure for pleasure’s sake, you often saw most clearly the devastation of your soul. Is

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