- Paradidomai – a fearsome word, or a wonderful one. Choose well.
Years ago, I ran across a paragraph penned by the late theologian Carl Henry, in which he identified what he considered one of the most alarming words in the Greek New Testament:
I think we are now living in the very decade when God may thunder his awesome paradidomai (I abandon, or I give [them] up) (Rom. 1:24 ff.) over America’s professed greatness. Our massacre of a million fetuses a year; our deliberate flight from the monogamous family; our normalizing of fornication and of homosexuality and other sexual perversion; our programming of self-indulgence above social and familial concerns — all represent a quantum leap in moral deterioration, a leap more awesome than even the supposed qualitative gulf between conventional weapons and nuclear missiles. Our nation has all but tripped the worst ratings on God’s Richter scale of fully deserved moral judgment. (Carl Henry, Christian Century, November 5, 1980 pp. 1058-1062)
The word paradidomai is used three times in Romans 1. It is, indeed, a stunning thought that eventually God could say to us, “Enough! I give you up, I hand you over!” Henry’s implication that He might reject an entire nation that continually disobeys Him is chilling but not without biblical precedent. And recall the date those lines were published: 1980. Henry died in 2003; imagine his response to America’s “quantum leap in moral deterioration” in the last 20+ years.
But there is an even more disturbing use of paradidomai in Scripture. Consider this passage from Peter, after the healing of the lame man in Acts 3:
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over (paradidomai) and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. (Acts 3:13/ESV)
Not happy that Jesus is in your way or threatens your worldview? Well, apparently, it is in the realm of possibility that you could give Him up, hand Him over to be rid of His obstacle.
A further study of the word suggests that while the prospect of paradidomai can be dreadfully dismal, it might also be in the running for the most beautiful five syllables in your New Testament. Says Paul in Galatians…
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself (paradidomai) for me. (Galatians 2:20/ESV)
The choices in these verses: 1) God can give us over to our own devices, or 2) We can give Him up because He seems to be getting in the way, or 3) We can embrace the fact that He gave Himself up out of His immense love for us.
The first two options are among the most severe warning shots in Scripture. The latter possibility – one of the most glorious spiritual realities.
What if, on a much smaller scale, that is how our faith is lived out on a daily basis? An issue arises, and we make a decision. One of three things can happen: we choose to die to self as Christ lives in us, we give Him up, or He lets us have it our way.
With these choices, of course, come consequences.
Paradidomai – a fearsome word, or a wonderful one. Choose well.
