Natural vs. Supernatural Life

The Natural or Supernatural Life

If you could choose between living a natural life or a supernatural life, which would you choose? The natural life is defined by and focused on what is observable, provable, and experiential. The supernatural life seems to imply mystical, spiritual, myths, and magic. In our highly enlightened and scientific world people have little to no need for the supernatural. This is reality as defined by our secular age.

Charles Taylor explains, In “our present condition, our secular age, …many people are happy living for goals which are purely eminent. They live in a way that takes no account of the transcendent" (Smith, James K.A. How (Not) to Be Secular. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014)143).

By eminent, he is referring to that which is immediate, observable, natural, and now. Transcendent refers to that which is beyond the moment, the supernatural, or even spiritual or mystical.

You and I live in a secular age. The gravitational pull of this secular age makes it difficult to imagine life beyond the natural world. And yet, our hearts yearn for the supernatural.

In Galatians 4:21-31, Paul is ending his doctrinal explanation of what the Gospel is and why it matters. His final argument describes two ways to live and define your life: naturally or supernaturally.

If Paul was writing to an American church today, I think he would also be concerned about the need for Christians to awaken from their obsession with the immanent (the natural life) to the neglect of the transcendent (supernatural life).