Paradoxes are a very mysterious thing.
Dictionary.com defines "paradox" as
"a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth."
Although this dictionary definition captures the denotative meaning of what a paradox is, the connotative sense and texture of what a spiritual paradox is is absent here.
Spiritual paradoxes, in their very nature, cannot have their depths plumbed by humankind's mental faculties. For the Christian dealing with spiritual paradoxes of the Christian faith, one will never fully understand these mysteries intellectually. It's impossible for the finite mind to wrap itself around a universe of spiritual mystery that is more vast than the physical universe itself.
Paradoxes such as:
How God's presence is simultaneously the most powerful thing in the universe, yet the most peaceful as well.
How God is 3 persons, yet of 1 exact divine nature at the same time.
How fully denying oneself and dying to one's own desires leads to finding Real life and living in it.
How the humble person is both the "lowest" and also the "highest" in a group at the same time (of course, without aiming for the latter).
We see these spiritual paradoxes incarnated in the Gospel accounts of Jesus the Nazerene. Not only by what he said, but by how his observers responded to him when in his presence. When he taught, his teachings were intelligible to the uneducated masses of his day, yet they had a depth to them that dwarfed the religious understandings of the religious scholars/experts of his day. When he was in social settings, little children didn't feel intimidated by him at all and easily came up to him to interact with him, yet when some religious and political authorities (Pharisees and soldiers) wanted to arrest him and finally encountered him, they were so intimidated that they collapsed to the ground when in his presence (John 18:6). These 2 paradoxes have been very thematic in my personal experience with God in the past couple years of my life. God's presence is so mighty and powerful, like a mighty earthquake or a powerful thunder roar, yet at the same time, it is the most peaceful and calm-inducing presence in the world. When God, in his grace, manifests himself to me very imminently, I experience this spiritual paradox and sense the dual, seemingly opposite, traits of his very presence that exhaust my rational understanding. It is has trans-human effects. It is beyond what a mere human presence is ontologically capable of. And the fact that when Jesus teaches me, his teachings are so very simple and non-convoluted that people of any age can understand them, yet at the same time, they are the most deep and profound insights in the universe that people with PhDs have trouble grasping with their minds. If you were to ask me "what is experiencing this paradox first-hand like?" I could not tell you if I tried. You.. just have to encounter it yourself to really know what the mystery is like... like if I were to try to explain the effects of gazing at the Mona Lisa, I'd be at a loss for words. One just has to gaze at the painting itself to fully know what its effects are. Of course the difference is that with Jesus, his effects are superhuman, where no worldly analogy can fully do justice to its supernatural effects.
There are no contradictions in these 2 paradoxes in and of themselves. It is not a contradiction to say that the presence of God is so mighty and powerful yet so peaceful, nor is it a contradiction to say that Jesus' teaching is extremely simple, yet extremely deep at the same time. It's just a paradox. It's hard (I'd say impossible) for the finite human mind to wrap itself fully around these greatly expansive mysteries.
Experiencing the paradox first-hand seems to be the key to intuitively understanding it in a way that defies exhaustive verbal comprehension. Although I can't fully explain the enigmatic coherence of these paradoxes of God, I have come to develop more of a visceral awareness of them through my direct experience of God.
Perhaps an illustration can help express, to some degree, what my journey of understanding the paradoxes of God through a non-rational (though not anti-rational) and intuitive way is like.
If an 8 year old asks a thoroughly reflective 60 year old "Did the 60 years of your life pass by quickly? Or slowly?", The 60 year old can legitimately say "Both." You can then picture the 8 year old reasonably say to the 60 year old man in response "What? Stop joking. I'm serious. Really. Tell me. Did the 60 years of your life pass by quickly or slowly?" The sincere 60 year old can legitimately repeat "Both. Really." It would then be understandable for the 8 year old to seriously question the legitimacy of the answer, and think that it is a contradiction, when in fact, it only seems like a contradiction, but really isn't one in reality. Each individual day of the 60 year old's life, probably, for the most part with some exceptions, passed by slowly when he experienced each one of them day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. Yet, as he got older and reflected on each New Years' Day regarding how each previous year went, he probably had a sentiment that the past year zoomed by so quickly. He has a non-rational way of understanding this paradox with his experience-seasoned intuition. It is not that his finite mind has intellectually grasped the depths of this paradox. It is that he has experienced the simultaneity of seemingly contradictory phenomena at the same time in a mysterious way. His soul has experienced the coexistence of two seemingly opposite aspects of the same coin of chronological reality that only make sense in a transrational way after one has had a first-hand encounter with the paradoxical mystery itself.
The same goes with understanding the spiritual paradoxes of the Bible. We can try all we want to exhaustively wrap our minds around them by rummaging through biblical commentaries, scholarly exegesis/hermeneutics, and academic research. Those endeavours have its place and help to some finite degree, but after we reach their limits, they fail to assist the human mind in exhausting one's mental comprehension of spiritual paradoxes. The only thing that will "fill in the gaps" of one's mental understanding is direct/immediate first-person experiences and encounters with the person of God. And I would argue that although it is totally by the grace of God that he reveals his manifest presence to individuals and allows them to sense his presence, he usually reveals his manifest presence to people who seek his face/presence and seek it with all their heart. This seeking is both demonstrated and cultivated in persistent classical spiritual disciplines such as prayer, fasting, meditation, solitude, silence, and I would add listening prayer. These have no power in and of themselves to invoke the presence of God. However, they are like doors and portals that open oneself up to what's already there, God's presence.
I've come to understand that only the presence of God can be superhumanly powerful yet superhumanly peaceful at the same time. No human (without the supernatural presence of God active in them) can have that effect on people. And only God's teachings can simultaneously be simple and profound at the same time (once again, humans, if the Spirit of the supernatural God is actively at work in them, can accomplish this as well, i.e. Dallas Willard). These are 2 paradoxical qualities of God that cannot be replicated by people of the world, who live without the accompanying assistance of God's presence. It's not that people of the world can do this but they are stopped from doing so. It's that they simply can't. They have no ability to. Neither can carnal/worldly Christians who do not seek an overall lifestyle that cultivates the growing activity and liveliness of God's presence in their human bodies. Only something, or more like Someone, literally out of this world can produce these paradoxical effects on people. And only those who have direct/non-institutionally-mediated experiences of this God can understand it.
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