How Depraved Are We?

What Is Theology?

Theology is literally the study of God or Theos using the Greek. It is like a "God-talk." Theology has a bad connotation for some but I hope to clear this up.
I'm writing this because every believer ought to know his way around the block theologically and not be an ignoramus, but have a working knowledge of basic doctrine or credo.

Theology is not an abstract science like economics with many conflicting schools of thought and interpretation. It is the "Queen of Sciences" because it deals with the truth of Jesus who is the embodiment of truth. It is not a fool's errand of speculation but a revealed knowledge from divine revelation. We could not know God apart from revelation because the finite cannot penetrate the infinite--God must take the initiative because no man can see God and live.

Great preachers are those who have honed their theology to perfection and can then deliver the goods. Every Christian is a theologian, what kind of theologian is open to question. We all have a theology; the question is whether we have sound theology. You can have a sound theology and an unsound life, but you cannot have a sound life without a sound theology.

In sum, everyone has a theology and you cannot avoid it.  The question is how good and sound it is because we cannot have a sound life without sound theology, though sound theology doesn't guarantee sound life and spirituality.  

  Soli Deo Gloria!

Is Faith A Gift?

Is faith a gift or a work? "Who makes you to differ? What do you have that you didn't receive?" (1 Cor. 4:7). Are we not clay in the hands of the potter? "For it has been granted unto you...to believe..." (Phil. 1:29). Jesus is the "author and finisher of our faith;" hence He originated it. Let us live according to "the faith God has distributed to each [of us]..." (Rom. 12:3).

Some believe it is a meritorious work because they believe in merit plus grace and not sola gratia or grace alone as the reformers championed. "This is the work of God [not our work] that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29). "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God [antecedent is faith as the gift], lest anyone should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). If faith were a work then we would be saved by works.

Faith is not our salvation and faith is not reckoned as righteousness but unto righteousness (cf. Rom. 4:3 translation of dia meaning unto). Faith is the instrumental cause of salvation (cf. Acts 18:27; 16:14), and we don't put faith in faith but in God. Faith doesn't' save, Christ does! God opened the door of faith to the Gentiles in Acts 14:27, and He opened Lydia's heart to believe in Acts 16:14. It might be interpreted as God quickening faith within us (cf. Acts 18:27). The Spirit kindles faith in a dead person.

Why is this important? 1 John 5:1 says that "Everyone who believes that Christ is the Christ has been born of God [ESV]." That means that regeneration precedes faith--we don't conjure up faith and then get saved. If we could believe without regeneration, we don't need it to be saved and we would get some merit in our salvation. God gives us faith and expects us to use it. It is our faith but it is the gift of God. "Who believed through grace" means that we're enabled by God to believe as 2 Pet. 1:1 says, we have "received a precious faith like theirs." "... [B]ecause God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thess. 2:13, KJV). [NB: sanctification precedes belief.]

Thus we are given faith. This doctrine is important so that we don't have a merit-based rather than grace-based salvation. God wants all the glory (Soli Deo Gloria). To sum up, "Faith comes by hearing and by hearing of the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17).ail This Soli Deo Gloria!

The Gift Of Faith

This is an issue that separates theologians and some call it a doctrine that divides. If you believe faith is a work, then you are saved by works. If you believe faith is a gift, then you are saved by the grace of God. Titus 3:5,7 says we are "saved by grace." Faith is not something we conjure up, but it is bestowed on us through the preaching of the Word. "Faith comes by hearing and by hearing of the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17). Regeneration actually precedes faith according to John Piper and John Orr. If we could believe without regeneration, what good is it? The Spirit is like the wind that blows where it wills. "For by grace are you saved by faith, and that (the complete deal) not of yourselves, it is the gift of God..." (Eph. 2:8-9).

We don't psych ourselves up for faith, and we don't catch it like an illness from others, we don't conjure it up--it comes directly from the Holy Spirit who quickens faith within us. He overcomes our hardened heart and reluctance to believe. God has the ability to cause us to do something willingly in His omnipotence. Some, on the other hand, have made faith into a meritorious work, and denies that there is any such "gift." What else could it be, a work? Are we saved by grace or works, then?

Some pertinent verses are as follows for meditation:

"For you have believed through grace..." (Acts 18:27). "...To those who have obtained like precious faith..." (2 Pet. 1:1). "For it has been granted unto you ... to believe in Him..." (Phil. 1:29). "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ HAS BEEN born of God..." (1 John 5:1 ESV). Nota bene that this is the past tense indicating that regeneration precedes faith. "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him..." (John 6:29). "God ... opened the door of faith to the Gentiles..." (Acts 14:27). "God opened Lydia's heart to pay attention to Paul..." (Acts 16:14). "What do you have that you didn't receive?"
(1 Cor. 4:7).

Faith is our act (God doesn't have faith), but it is God's work. Soli Deo Gloria. God gets all the glory, and we have nothing to boast of. It isn't our virtue nor our wisdom, but God's. God is no man's debtor and isn't obligated to save anyone. It is grace that He saves anyone. God works all things "according to the pleasure of His will." "We are the clay, He is the potter" (See Isaiah 64:8).lSoli Deo Gloria!

What About Repentance?

First, let me define the term. It comes from the Greek metanoia which means to "think after," "after-thought," or to "change one's mind." Actually, it means to do a 180-degree turn or to do an about-face in military parlance. It is repudiating and renouncing sin; not doing it partway. It is not mere emotionalism but involves the mind or intellect, the will, and the emotions. It is the gift of God (cf. Acts 5:31; 11:18) and is a fruit of saving faith, not a condition for salvation; Reformed theologians do not believe we can do anything to prepare ourselves for salvation, because we are depraved people who cannot do anything meritorious. A dead man can do nothing! This U-turn or turnabout is a radical change of heart, mind, and will.

It is not a one-time event but is progressive and one is never through repenting as far as God sees it--it is progressive. It is not mere remorse, self-condemnation, regret, or feeling sorry, for Judas had these--it must be accompanied by saving faith. It is more than eating humble pie--it is coming clean with God. Surrender to the Lordship of Christ is implied and there can be no real repentance without it--there must be submission to the Lord's will and absolute surrender.

John the Baptist heralded Christ's coming with the message, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." This is also the first message Christ proclaimed. Repentance is a recurring motif in the Scriptures. "Unless you repent, you shall likewise perish," Christ warned. Ezek. 18:30 says, "Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin." "And the times of ignorance God winked at, but now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). "Repent, and be baptized every one of you...for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38). Many see repentance as the prerequisite of salvation and the starting point. We must see our sin, our need, and then Christ can fill that need.

Faith and repentance are linked in Acts 20:21, which mentions "repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ." It is clear that repentance is a mandate. It is in the imperative case and everyone has to do it. Some say that the righteous have no need of repentance, but they are righteous because they have already repented or demonstrated saving faith. Spurious repentance or pseudo-repentance is like a child that just wants to be good enough not to be whipped (being sorry about the consequence not that he offended someone).

The Catholic Bible (Vulgate) translates "repentance" as "doing penance." They view it as a meritorious work and externalize it, and not as the gracious work of God in a person's heart. We do works fit for repentance, but repentance is an attitude that God grants us. "If perchance God may grant them repentance..." (2 Tim. 2:25). Acts 5:31 and 11:18 talk of God "granting repentance." There is no genuine repentance without saving faith, and likewise, no saving faith without genuine repentance according to Billy Graham; for they are complementary and go hand in hand. Repentance is the flip side of the coin of faith.

One must either have believing repentance or penitent faith, so to speak, as John Piper and Wayne Grudem phrase it. True repentance manifests itself in works that are appropriate (bringing forth fruit worthy of repentance), and I don't mean doing so many "Hail Mary's" or "Our Father's." Restitution or reconciliation is often called for, but to be sure we must see our sin as God sees it and that it is an offense against His holiness. (Confession (homologeo) means to "say the same thing as.)

Many preachers today do not preach repentance because it is such a killjoy word, and they want to tickle the ears of the church members. People listen to what their itching ears want to hear, and this is unpopular. Without repentance, there is no salvation, but God grants repentance in His grace. False repentance is attrition or simply regret.

Contrition is when we are truly sorry and don't intend to do it again. Judas was sorry and Esau was sorry, but they found no repentance. Whereas Peter was truly sorry for having denied the Lord and did find repentance and a change of heart, and thus forgiveness and restoration. Peter sincerely believed in the Lord--that is the difference. He believed the Lord could forgive him and never despaired.

In sum, saving faith is the flip side of true repentance--they go hand in hand; often it's not how big your faith but how thorough your repentance. (They are forever juxtaposed in Scripture in Acts 20:21) Soli Deo Gloria!

We Have A Dark Side

Mark Twain is quoted by Charles R. Swindoll as saying that we are all like a moon that has a dark side no one sees. This is true. We all have "feet of clay" and are vulnerable to sin because of our very nature. We cannot clean up our act before we can come to Jesus; we must come as we are, but we cannot stay that way.

We must see how bad we are before we can become good. It's not how bad we are, but how bad off we are. It is like the distance of a deaf man to a symphony or a blind man to the Mona Lisa. We cannot bridge the gap. Jesus sees through the veneer and we cannot fool him.

Humanists think mankind is basically good, but we an inherently bad. You must realize that we are not sinners because we sin, rather we sin because we are sinners. It is our constituted nature to sin. We can deal with sins in the plural, but our problem is sin in the singular--our old sin nature inherited from Adam. This is God's estimation of man, not man's estimation of man.

The totality of our nature is permeated with sin and our image of God is marred and defaced morally. "No one knows how bad he is until he has tried to be good," says C. S. Lewis as in a catch-22. The paradox is that we must see our bankruptcy--the truly bad person thinks he is all right! And Lewis adds, "We must realize how bad we are before we can be good." The way up, by paradox, is down.

We are sinful in toto and in solidarity with Adam completely. Someone has said, "We cannot escape our birthright." We cannot ingratiate ourselves with God, because we "have feet of clay." That means we have hidden vulnerabilities. We are permeated with sin through and through--there is no vestige of righteousness.

R. C. Sproul writes of a man who never lost his faith in the basic goodness of man despite being held captive in Iraq--this is sheer ignorance! Compared to Saddam Hussein the run-of-the-mill sinner looks like a saint; however, he is just as bad off from God's viewpoint and they both must come to Jesus the same way in childlike repentance and faith. Soli Deo Gloria!

Wherefore Art Thou, My God?

"God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us" (Acts 17:27, NIV).
 "Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself..." (Isa. 45:15, NIV).
"Oh, that I knew where I might find him..." (Job 23:3, NIV).

"I am sought of them that asked not for me, I am found of them that sought me not..." (cf. Isaiah 65:1). 

Paul reminded the Athenians that God isn't far from any one of us (cf. Acts 17:27)!  The whole message of Christianity is that we can actually find God!  Job thought he lost God and despaired where he was: "O, that I knew where I might find Him."  God is not hiding, He just wants us to search earnestly and sincerely.  God is no man's debtor and will authenticate Himself to us for seeking Him. Pascal wondered this very point:  What we see is not the manifest presence nor total absence of God, but the presence of a hidden God.

God doesn't want to be so obvious that it takes no faith to see Him, but there is enough light if one chooses to see, and enough darkness to keep the stubborn and rebellious blinded.  There is always enough evidence for the willing, or never enough evidence for the unwilling. No one can claim ignorance due to lack of evidence, for the heavens declare the glory of God; no one has an excuse in God's view. 

The doctrine of the immensity of God and the omnipresence shows that God is wholly present everywhere!  He says, "...' I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite'"(Isa. 57:15, NIV).  When God seems distant or MIA it is not His fault, but ours:  He didn't move; we did!  Recall how God asked Adam as an analogy: "Where are you, Adam?"  This is where walking with Christ matters, to keep in touch with the Almighty on an intimate basis.

It is a fact that God tests us by removing some of the sense of His presence as He did to Hezekiah to see what was really on his heart (2 Chron. 32:31).  Our faith must be tested by fire!  (Cf. 1 Pet. 1:7). The measure of our faith is not our ecstasies or experiences, but our obedience!  Abraham by faith obeyed!  Dietrich Bonhoeffer's famous dictum is pertinent:  "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."

Christianity, in essence, isn't just about believing in God, but God in us and about the God who is there!  As Francis Schaeffer wrote:  "He is there and He is not silent."  That's why we must maintain our dialog and communication link open to become intimate and near to God as our Father.  We are never alone if God is with us!  We have not lost all if God is in us!  We must examine ourselves to see if Jesus is indeed in us (cf. 2 Cor. 13:5)!

And so God is transcendent, ubiquitous, and immanent:  He is both above and beyond as well as near to every one of us.  It's not about a galactic address but a spiritual realm or domain we cannot see.  The reason is that He is not defined, bound, or confined by space, for He cannot be limited by the time-space continuum that He created.   In a sense, God is extra-dimensional!  However, we can enter His presence in the privilege of prayer!    Soli Deo Gloria! 

What Is Salvation?

Salvation is literally being rescued from a calamitous, dangerous, threatening condition; namely in our case, hell and the wrath of God.  If you ask the man on the street if he's saved, he might inquire:  Saved from what?  The term is loosely used and misused to even mean being "saved by the bell" in boxing matches.  This concept is important because that's the meat and potatoes of Christianity:  salvation from self, sin, Satan's power, and hell.  Our faith is one of salvation and the saviorhood of Jesus must be made manifest front and center as the focus of our faith.  The actual, literal interpretation of the name Jesus means "Jehovah is salvation."  He was named Jesus because He was ordained to save His people from their sins. 

Now we must not neglect such great salvation and realize its implications!   He saved us; He did.  He keeps us; He does.  He's coming for us; He will.  And so it's more than mere forgiveness!  We are set free from the power of Satan and sin over our lives; we don't have permission to live in the flesh, but the power to live in the Spirit.  Our past is indeed forgiven (in fact, all our sins, past, present, and future); our present is given meaning, and the future is secured and given hope. Only in Christianity are we given dignity and meaning in life that has objective as well as subjective foundations.

We must never contextualize, water down, or dumb down the gospel message but realize that the bad news of universal sin and total depravity must also be preached--not just the good news about Jesus rising from the dead.  Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost and the sinner, not the righteous.  There is a danger of preaching easy-believism or cheap grace that justifies the sin, not the sinner too. Lordship issues must not be glossed over!   We don't add to grace either:  grace is not only necessary, as Catholics will acknowledge, but sufficient!  We are saved wholly by grace and not by our merit--we don't deserve it, cannot earn it, nor can we pay it back, nor can we add to it!

The essence of the gospel is that "salvation is of the LORD," according to Jonah 2:9.  This means that we don't have to cooperate or contribute our human do-goodery or good conduct as a presalvation work or merit.  Nothing we can do can make us fit for salvation!  The only way we can be assured of our salvation is that it wholly depends on God, not on us.  If we had to do anything, we'd fail!  Therefore, it's not Jesus plus (plus going to church, plus doing good deeds, plus charity, plus preaching, or even plus prophesying or doing any miracle).  Jesus alone saves, not faith--it's the object that saves (Jesus alone is the Savior)!

Much confusion arises in understanding this because of the tenses and times of salvation:  we are saved, are being saved, and shall be saved!  As for the timing:  It all began in eternity past, is realized in time, and looks forward to heaven.  The formula of the Reformers was that we are saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone (God's grace is the source, Christ the means, and faith the channel). If we have no works to validate our faith, it's suspect.  Therefore, we are not saved by good conduct nor by good works either, but unto them.  As they say, we're not saved by good works, but not without them either! 

In sum, we get saved by recognizing our sin, realizing Christ's death and resurrection on our behalf, and repenting of our sin and finally, receiving Christ as our Lord and Savior.  As a result, we get the power to live in the Spirit and conquer sin, a new purpose in life, pardon of all our sins (known and unknown), and even the peace of God which surpasses understanding.    Soli Deo Gloria!  

Have You Rejected Christ?

"Sin is the refusal of the love of others." (Karl Menninger, M.D.). 

We like to think of ourselves in the best light:  We like to look down on those who are ignorant and going astray and don't see the light.  But we have nothing to brag about that God didn't give us and He is the One who made us different. "Who makes you to differ?"   We once rejected Christ and were in the same boat, without hope, and without God in the world like the rest!  It has been documented that the average Christian has rejected Christ an average of 7.6 times before coming to a saving knowledge and faith in Christ.  God's grace is inexhaustible and gives us a second chance.  And this proves that rejecting Christ is not unforgivable and not the unforgivable sin.  At one time we were in the same boat of rebellion from God.

We are no better than the unbeliever who doesn't know Christ, neither wiser, more loving, nor more intelligent.  It was by grace that we came to know Christ, not our own doing.   We are not saved by feeling (that would be emotionalism), nor by knowledge (that would be Gnosticism or intellectualism), nor by obeying the rules (that would be legalism).  We cannot be saved by mysticism or having a backchannel with God that others don't either!  We all must approach the throne of grace on the same ground and position of unworthiness and humility.

We all tend to condemn the fickle crowd that demanded Christ's crucifixion, but we would've done the same thing had our hopes been shattered like that (from the triumphal entry to the repugnant trial unbecoming the King).  But it can be assumed that many of these souls became penitent upon the hearing of the gospel at Pentecost and were among the 3,000 saved.  Peter committed a heinous sin by denying Christ so vociferously and even to the point of using profanity and sacrificing his personal dignity and heritage, but he was restored to fellowship afterward by an understanding Savior who knew that Peter really loved Him and only his faith had failed.  NB:   What made Peter different from Judas was his love for the Lord and his contrition and willingness to believe he could be forgiven.

The lesson to be learned is that we shouldn't be surprised if we are rejected for preaching the gospel or being a witness to me--they will not accept us either!  This is what carrying the cross is about--what difference being a Christian meant and what we had to endure because of it.  If we realized how many times we rejected Christ we would be all the more patient with others and give them a break.  This is because some sow, some, water, and some reap, but only God gives the growth of the seed planted which is the Word of God. Just bear in mind, that they are not rejecting us, but Christ whom we represent as ambassadors in His cause.

The bottom line is that we are no better than anyone else and shouldn't despise or look down on anyone but only pray that God opens the door of faith leading to a knowledge of the truth and open their eyes!        Soli Deo Gloria!

Are Christians Sabbatarians?

"If you want to kill Christianity, you must abolish Sunday."  --Voltaire   
"The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27, HCSB).  

There are Christian Sabbatarians--that's not an oxymoron!  Once, I was almost fooled by the Seventh-day Adventists as a teen but studied Luther to be set free from their legalism.  Now I consider myself free from any form of legalistic interpretation.  Point in fact: No place in the New Testament are we admonished to keep the Sabbath--search for yourself!  It is the only one of the Ten Commandments not reinstated in the New Testament.  Do not live in the Old Testament!  To some believers, Paul says, every day is holy and for the others, we are not to judge them.

It is wrong to assume that Christians changed the Sabbath to Sunday, for they observed it early on by tradition and custom, and eventually dropped the practice.  The Lord's Day was strictly in tribute to the Resurrection.  Note that John said in the Book of Revelation:  "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day."  There is ample evidence of Christians meeting on the Lord's day early on; they even observed the Sabbath in addition at first--old traditions die hard!

Though I agree with the moral equivalent of having a day set aside for rest as observing the Sabbath, these are not the same.  There is simple morality, and then there is spirituality and religion or Sabbath observance.  Sabbath observance by no means is to be a litmus test of spiritual orthodoxy.  We have no right to judge our brother in regards to a Sabbath (cf. Col. 2:16i).  But experiments with this day have proven unsuccessful:  The USSR tried to alter the seven-day week for eleven years and it ended in failure.  We are just hard-wired for this cycle of work and rest and need to lay aside a day for R & R spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, as well as physically.

Jesus did say that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (c. Mark 2:27) and that means not to let someone tell us what our day of rest should be used for.  The principle is so important to God that if we don't take due rest, He will give it to us anyway.  In principle, there is no hard-and-fast rule for what a Sabbath should require, or prohibits.  If you want to get technical, you shouldn't even go out to eat or buy fuel on the Sabbath because that requires others to work on your behalf.  The Spirit of the law prohibited the doing of business on this day of so-called rest--the Pharisees had redefined it with thirty-nine additional definitions of "work activities."

God promised that He would give us a permanent (spiritual) rest--we will work in heaven physically.  Israel kept the outward sign of the Sabbath but failed to enter into His rest, as noted in Hebrews 4:3, HCSB, as "... 'So I swore in My anger, they will never enter into My rest.'"  The important thing is that we rest for our labors as we rest in the Lord's and become empowered by the Spirit so as not to be working in the flesh or our own strength.

God condemns any work done in the energy of the flesh, no matter how good we deem it.  God said to Israel (if they would keep the covenant):  "My presence will go with you and I will give you rest."  Christians enter into this rest from their labors upon salvation and living by the power of the Spirit, not in the energy of the flesh.

The Sabbath command was a sign for Israel in Nehemiah 9:14, HCSB:  "You revealed Your holy Sabbath to them, and gave them commands, statutes, and instruction through Your servant Moses." God blessed the Sabbath and made it a special day for us too!  Note that it was given as a sign of His covenant forever.  Exodus 31: 13 says, "'Tell the Israelites:  You must observe My Sabbaths for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations so that you will know that I am Yahweh who sets you apart." Also, note Ezek. 20:12, 20, HCSB:  "I also gave them My Sabbaths to serve as a sign between Me and them so they will know that I am Yahweh who sets them apart as holy."  "Keep My Sabbaths holy, and they will be a sign between Me and you, so you may know that I am Yahweh your God."

What I am trying to point out, is that although there are applications to the general principle of  rest required for us and the way we are designed for it; however, its main intention was to be a sign for Israel to be a special nation, and it was so serious that there was a death penalty of stoning for violating the Sabbath.  As believers, we are not under the law (cf. Rom. 6:14) but under grace and are liberated from all demands of ceremonial custom and tradition and observe the Lord's day by the assembling together of ourselves (cf. Heb. 10:25).

We have liberty as Christian to hallow the Sabbath as stated in Romans 14:5-6, HCSB:  "One person considers one day to be above another day.  Someone else considers every day to be the same.  each one must be fully convinced in his own mind.  Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord...."   Above all, according to Col. 2:16, HCSB:  "...[D]on't let anyone judge ... in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. "

In other words, don't get legalistic about it and the faith you have, is to be kept to yourself (cf. Rom. 14:22), not to be used to spiritually bully others believers into your convictions, if you are free in the Lord, don't flaunt it, and if you are bound in the Lord, don't condemn.   There are always exceptions to the rule:  Necessity knows no law, as David exhibited by taking the shewbread in the temple to violate temple rules, and priests were allowed to "work" on the Sabbath.  Jesus asked the ultimate question:  Can we not do good  [works] on the Sabbath?  Christians are to be known by their love, not known by their Sabbaths like Jews:  Viva la difference!  

NB:  In 1929 the USSR exchanged the traditional seven-day week with a five-day one.  This experiment with a Sabbath lasted only eleven years before returning to normalcy!  In 1795, during the French Revolution, a new calendar was decreed with three ten-day weeks per month, eliminating Sundays and holidays, but after ten years it was terminated.  God's way is the best way!   Old traditions die hard!     Soli Deo Gloria!

How Big Is Your God?

We can boast of our faith, but faith progresses in natural states: from no faith at all to defying faith--hatred of God at least admits His existence; from little faith (actually no one really has no faith, they just suppress the truth they know and the God revealed to them); next they go to doubting faith--we all have doubts, an element of faith; to rebelling and/or independent, even rogue faith; to misunderstanding but sincere faith; to misdirected and ignorant faith; to accepting faith; to acknowledging,  understanding and comprehending faith; to open-minded and learning faith, to saving faith; to eager, zealous, obedient faith; to expressing faith; to seeing and discerning faith; to confessing faith; to witnessing faith; to overcoming faith; to following faith; to sacrificing and loving faith; and finally, to serving and a disciplined faith in one's calling and gifting--but note that the faith should always be a growing, forward-looking, and advancing faith--it is never inert or stagnant!

(Note I am not dogmatic about the order of my list of progressions of faith per se, since it may vary in individuals.)  That's why Romans 1:17, NIV, says we progress through faith all the way "[I]n a righteousness which is by faith from first to last." God doesn't insist on perfect faith, but sincere, unfeigned faith is what's a prerequisite for salvation (cf. 1 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 1:5)).

We must not boast of the size of our faith, for we shouldn't boast of something we received from God and didn't conjure up (1 Cor. 4:6)--faith is given not achieved or viewed as a meritorious work, but a pure gift of grace (cf. 2 Pet. 1:1; Phi. 1:29; Eph. 2;8-9; Acts 14:27; Acts 16:14; Acts 18:27).  Though it's a gift we must exercise it for good and prove it by good works.  And we should always pray for bigger faith as long as it's in the right object, which is Jesus--we want God-confidence, not self-confidence!  God may just reveal a bigger Personhood to us with resultant, increased faith.  Faith is only as valid as its object:  It's the object of our faith, Jesus Christ, that matters and saves not our faith; i.e., faith doesn't save, Christ does.  We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone!  Faith is merely the channel and means!  Grace is the source and justification, faith the channel and method, and Christ the means and reason via the sacrifice.

We can have a lot of faith in the wrong Jesus or false god or idea of God, and that will not save; we must reject those who teach another gospel, a different Spirit, and the wrong Jesus, as Paul admonished us in 2 Cor. 11:4 and Gal. 1:7.  Every religion thinks highly of Jesus, but we must accept Him for who He claimed to be--the Son of God.  Muslims have great faith in a false imposter of a prophet and a god named Allah. You could say that it matters not how big your faith in the long run (and it only takes the faith of a mustard seed to be saved) but how big our God.  Our God cannot be put in a box or labeled by our criteria or standards, and certainly not limited or confined by our definitions or conceptions.

William Carey, the father of modern missions, had the right idea of faith in stepping out of our comfort zone into the domain of faith.  He preached a famous sermon and motto:  "Expect Great Things from God, Attempt Great Things for God."  It goes without saying that too many of us think small and have little expectation from our God.  Think Big!  We can go no further than our dreams and only in the direction of our purpose and calling in life with God's approval.  Saint Theresa set out to build a convent and when asked about her resources at her disposal, she replied she had 12 Pence.  They tried to make it clear to her that even Saint Theresa couldn't build a convent on 12 Pence!  But her comeback was that she "and God can do anything!'  If God is in it, He will provide the resources and means--you can bank on that according to Paul in 2 Cor. 9:8 and in Heb. 13:21!  Our God is the God of possibilities, for with Him nothing shall be impossible (cf. Luke 1:37, KJV; 18:27; Matt. 19:26!  Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 32:27 (cf. Jer. 32:17), "Is anything too hard for the LORD?"  (Cf. Gen. 18:14).   Never count God out, nor leave Him out of the equation!

NOTE:  THIS IS A LONG PARAGRAPH BUT ONLY DELINEATES DIFFERENT MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD TO US IN CHRIST.  Christians too often limit their God by putting Him a box like preferring to think of Him merely as their Father, their Savior, or even man upstairs, believe it or not!  But we are really committing idolatry if we fall short in our idea and conception of God.  He reveals Himself in manifold ways; such as these personifications: as our Lord of all, Author and Finisher of our faith, Enabler for God's will, Teacher that inspires us to learn, Wisdom to apply to every situation, Redeemer to fellowship with Him and other believers, Friend (even Confidant), Lover of our soul especially when we feel alone, Judge that is fair and understands our case, Justifier when no one understands our case, Advocate when the facts and status quo seem counterproductive to peace and we need Him on our side, Healer of all our diseases, Balsam for every sore, Balm for every wound, Defender when attacked, Protector from the onslaught of Satan, Reconciler in broken, estranged relationships, Banker who forgives our debts and writes credits not debits to our divine account,  Peacemaker during quarrels, Holy One who convicts us, Glorious One that is worthy and shares His glory and makes us awe and amazed, Sanctifier who makes us holy and doesn't give up on us, Go-between (Intercessor, Mediator, or Middleman) when we are alienated, Maker or Creator to whom we are accountable and find our purpose, Farmer who sows good seed, Potter Who makes us for a purpose, Sustainer of the universe down to every last molecule, in whom we live and move and have our being, Substitute for our sins at Calvary, Exemplar to emulate, Shepherd to lead us to green pastures and feed us, Lawgiver to give us a sense of law and to rely on, King over all the earth and its kingdoms, Orderer and Organizer of our life putting everything in its place and priority, Designer (or Architect) of the intricacies of life, Planer of our goals to make sure we're with the program because He has no Plan B, Artist that we admire and expresses Himself so beautifully, Answerer to all our questions and doubts, Light at the end of the tunnel, Explainer in Chief when we just wonder why,  Illustrator of our life situation, Purposer that gives us purpose, a mission, and calling to fulfill, Counselor in lost causes or crises (Life Coach if you will), Umpire calling all the shots, Referee looking for foul play,  Coach calling the plays of the game of life, Comforter when we are in need of someone being there for us, Consoler in time of need and bereavement, Provider when we are needy, Director of all minutia in our life even as a micro-manager of the cosmos that shows us the Way), Producer of the show of a lifetime financing His will, Author (of the Word, our predestination, election, and salvation), Disciplinarian when we need to learn a lesson in the school of hard knocks and get back with the program, Sovereign One that we can trust will do the right thing for "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28) for all things are under His control and sovereignty (cf. Eph. 1:11), Pilot who guides us to keep us on course, de facto Leader that shows us the way, Inspirer to God's will, Convicter to show us our wrongdoing, Motivator to energize us from our inertial and lethargy, and even Benefactor, for whom it pays to serve and gives fringe benefits and perks, et al., and this list isn't complete, exhaustive, or definitive--He is everything we need Him to be (that's why His name is I Am Who I Am...).

There is a reason God has no predicate in His name and we cannot describe Him fully or exhaustively but can know Him personally and experientially.  When we have a need, God is there ready to meet it, saying, "I Am ...  here to aid you for all your needs!" He foots the bill of our needs and has the right job description and domain or authority to fulfill them.  Indeed, He's the Great King of the universe that doesn't just reign but rules, He's the dependable Rock we can truly rely on, Captain of our soul, and Master of our fate--worthy of all our trust and worship.  In short. we don't just believe in God but in the One who is there and ready to come to our aid in any crisis, trouble, or time of need: He believes in us so we're never hopeless, He is on our side so we cannot lose, and He is with us so we are never alone.

As believers, we are the heart that God loves through, the hands that God gives a helping hand though, the listening and sympathetic ear through which God hears, and the voice through which God speaks--He uses us all in unique ways according to our election and calling, of which we ought to confirm according to 2 Pet. 1:10.  In fact, when we start to realize how big God is and what He is capable of, our faith automatically increases exponentially and we realize how small and insignificant we are, especially how sinful we are in light of His holiness and justice.   We utter with David in Psalm 8:4, "What is man?" [That God takes consideration of Him].  All in all, when we contemplate God, we are humbled and challenged intellectually, our minds are boggled and enlarged and blown away by His greatness, glory, and goodness.

People with small faith have a small God--though it may be enough to save, they will never be satisfied in God nor desire and enjoy Him.   It is a good thing to say, "My God is bigger than your God!" if you get my drift.  It isn't a matter of book-learning or of academics but of realizing who God is and knowing His capabilities and what He can do with us as part of His plan.  Our God cannot be too big!  God is infinite and we will never realize just how big He is in all eternity!  God is whomever He chooses to be and whatever He chooses to be for us.

Cf. Dan. 11:32, HCSB, "The people who know their God will be strong and take action ["and carry out great exploits" in the NKJV]) these people see how God chooses to manifest and reveal Himself in such manifold manners.  One example is the threefold office of Christ:  As our High Priest He puts us right with God as the Sacrifice Himself; as our Prophet He makes us aware where we fall short, aware of our ignorance, and teaches us; and as our King He frees us from the dominion of slavery to sin, setting us free, and rules over us--in fact the more we let Him rule, the freer we are and all the more power over sin we have simply by letting Him be Lord.  When He is Lord we are so glad that He is Lord, for He alone is worthy--this is meant as a comforting consolation.

By way of analogy, some people have small dreams or no dreams in life and end up in "nowheresville" as a "nowhere people" but some are satisfied with a small world with little impact or influence.  We all ought to pray to God to increase our horizons and the size and significance of our orbit, so we can influence the culture for Christ and transform it by being a light in a dark world.  The prayer of Jabez in 1 Chron. 4:9 is for God to make us a blessing and to have a greater outreach.  It is notable also that Zechariah 8:13 says that we are saved in order to become a blessing as our cup overflows!  Einstein considered a success by any standard, said that we ought not to strive to be a successful person, but one of impact!  Mother Teresa, now canonized, and who wouldn't call this success? is known for saying that God doesn't call us to success but to faithfulness!

Mother Teresa lived in virtual poverty, having to take that vow for her church, but Habakkuk lost nearly everything and still praised God in Hab. 3:18, HCSB, as follows: "[Y]et I will triumph in Yahweh; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!"  It should go without saying that we really don't realize we need God and how big He can be and is until we have come to the end our rope or thrown in the towel or even of losing everything.  Then we find out that God is a big God and He is all we really need--all else is extra and we are stewards of. It should be of comfort to realize that God hears all our prayers:  None are too trivial for Him because everything is trivial to Him, and nothing is too big for He is Almighty, and He cares because He loves us all as His children.

In conclusion, only as we see God for who He is are we properly oriented to reality and have a God's eye view on the world and its events.  Since "all truth is God's truth," as Augustine maintained, and Plato said that in order to live in reality he must know what God is really like, so we have no excuse for God is expressed fully and personally in the person of Christ as His icon, express image, and personification--all we need to know of Him is in Jesus, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells!  In the final analysis, the faith you have is the faith you show and it's foolhardy to trust a small, ineffectual God--true faith always expresses itself and is shown not said: we prove our faith and demonstrate it because it's an abstract idea and concept.

CAVEAT:  WE NEVER WANT TO BE ACCUSED OF HAVING TOO SMALL A GOD OR OF HAVING THOUGHTS OF GOD THAT ARE TOO HUMAN, WHICH PUT HIM IN A BOX AND LIMIT HIM.  ALL THIS IS SO VITALLY IMPORTANT TO OUR SPIRITUAL WELLBEING BECAUSE WHAT WE THINK OF GOD IS THE MOST TELLING TRAIT WE HAVE.    Soli Deo Gloria!

The Fatherhood Of God

Adolf Karl Gustaf von Harnack wrote What is Christianity? downsizing the faith to the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man.  This is both right and wrong depending upon the premise.  If we are saying that we are all His offspring as Paul said in Acts 17:28, then we are all fellow brothers (love our fellow man!) and members of the human race and it is true that there is one God who is God of all regardless of faith, but this is not a justification for universalism.  God is our Father as believers and this is the Christian covenant name for God though He was the Father of Israel and urged them to call Him Father as well (cf. Jer. 3:19); however, the Pharisees thought Jesus was presumptuous to call God His Father.  

God is both the Almighty God and our personal Father. NB:  When we call God Father, we are appealing to His authority and position, not His superiority over the other co-equal members of the Triune Godhead, which entails the God the Father as an eternal relationship to God the Son--He always was the eternal Father and didn't become the Father.  In short, addressing the Lord as Father shows respect for His authority, use of a protocol in prayer, a feeling of familiarity and intimacy.

We have special access to His throne room as believer-priests.  We can gain entree via the virtue of the intercession of Christ on our behalf and because we are now legitimate sons of God and members of the royal family of heaven.  Our Father is called the Heavenly Father in Matthew and Jesus taught us to pray to Him with this rubric.  The Jews felt estranged from God and not in a fellowship like we are and addressed Him mainly as LORD God or as Lord. That is still His official title and the covenant name He will be known by (the YHWH, the Tetragrammaton is known as Yahweh) but God has opened the door to us to readily enter on family terms.

Behold what manner of Father we have:  He gave up His one and only Son to suffer and die for us; He is the Author, Planner, and "Purposer" of our salvation; or that creation was from the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit.  He wants us to feel right at home with Him as if He were a human natural father. Because of Christ's intercessory work on our behalf we have the privilege to go right to the top and God always has an open-door policy of quick access.  The parable of the Prodigal Son shows what patience and longsuffering the Father endures for our sakes.  It is true that no matter what we've done, we are still His children and He may chastise us but we will not be disowned as His children.  No one in Scripture is unborn, unadopted, or disinherited from God's family.  Learning from the prodigal son, we find out that God is waiting for us to repent and return to His grace.

God the Father is in the business of remolding us in His image since it was tarnished by the Fall.  What He does is take away everything that doesn't look like Jesus much the way a sculptor removes pieces of marble until it forms the image he so desires--he chips away at everything that doesn't look like the subject!  Sometimes we may have to go through the school of hard knocks but the best way to learn is directly from the Word applied to oneself.  

Note that with humans there is no guarantee that their children will turn out to be regular chips off the old block or as misfits, but with God, we are all guaranteed a future and heritage that won't fade away--a permanent legacy and home with Him.  The story of the gospel could just as well be:  Criminal gets pardoned of a capital crime by the judge who pays his penalty and adopts him as his son to live with him in his house.

We know that we are progressing in our faith when we feel comfortable addressing God as Father.  Some believers have not yet learned to see God in this light, while others only see Him in that manner thus putting God in a box:  He's more than our Father--He's the Judge, the Savior, the Lord, the Author!  He's the one who had the purpose behind it all and planned everything from eternity past!  When we say, "I like to think of God simply as my Father," we are putting Him in a box or labeling Him and restricting our spiritual growth and awareness.  Also, it is erroneous to construe God as a projection of some need for a father-figure, as psychologists would have.

Some people have had a history of experiences with their earthly father and cannot picture God in this manner, in fact, many so-called enemies of the faith have come from broken homes or estranged father-son relationships.  It used to be that Father knew best, but in today's society he is the object of ridicule and satire, parodied, and ends up being the butt of jokes.  This is merely a sad commentary on our time, not a reflection of how good God the Father is.  

It is our society that is sick and sinful not the Bible for portraying God as our heavenly Father.  Parents together stand for God's authority over children in the home and it is sometimes called in loco Dei or "in the place of God."  There is a direct correlation between one's relationship with one's father and how one sees and relates to God the Father, whether there is a reconciliation and healed fellowship or not.  You cannot have an estranged relationship with one's father and claim to be at peace with God the Father.     Soli Deo Gloria! 

Is Theology Relevant?

VERSES AND QUOTES TO REFLECT ON. 

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine..." (2 Tim. 3:16, NKJV).
"But as for you speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1, NKJV).
"There will come a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching.  They will collect teachers who say what they want to hear because they are self-centered" (2 Tim. 4:3, CEB). 
"The lips of the wise broadcast knowledge" (Prov. 15:7, HCSB). 
"The Spirit clearly says that in latter times some people will turn away from the faith [bail out theologically].  They will pay attention to spirits that deceive and to the teaching [doctrines] of demons" (1 Tim. 4:1, CEB). 
"There will come a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching [doctrine]" (2 Tim. 4:3, CEB). 
"A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash" (Prov. 15:14, NLT). 
"I can vouch for them:  they are enthusiastic about God.  However, it isn't informed by knowledge" (Romans 10:2, CEB).  "A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might" (Prov. 24:5, ESV). 
"Knowledge is power."--Sir Francis Bacon
"[T]hat we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine..." (Eph. 4:14, NKJV).


To the average run-of-the-mill churchgoer, doctrine and theology should be the business of clergy (theologians, pastors, teachers, serious Bible students, missionaries, and evangelists) but not them.  My contention is that it's relevant to everyone and not intended to be too arcane for the typical believer, no matter his spiritual growth or maturity level.  The communicator ought to know how to make it interesting and make applications. Doctrine merely means "teaching" and theology means the study of God, but both have become organized and systematized into volumes that have become cumbersome to many and even blase.  How can the normal churchgoer gain an interest in the deeper truths then?  It is the newborn or the immature believer who balks at the deep things of God and tends to thrive on the milk of the Word, being remiss of the solid food or meat of the Word.


To label some Christians as theologians simply because they are good at theology is to miss the boat because all believers are theologians--we are all studying God, as it were.  We cannot avoid theology, without committing spiritual suicide, and we owe a debt of gratitude to the great theologians of the past who have combated church heresy, including the Church Fathers, or those who made it their profession.  By analogy:  We don't neglect the appreciation of music because we're not musicians, do we?  We all have a latent ability yet to be discovered in the Word, as we develop our spiritual gift.  As far as I know, being a theologian is not a spiritual gift, but some people are just more studious, academic, and attentive to the Word--in short, they're better students of the Word.


In Scripture, if anyone was a theologian, it was Paul, whose compendium is laid out in Romans comprising all his basic teachings.  We would not understand the doctrines of grace apart from his inspired, studious, scholarly, and authoritative work here.  But give Paul himself some credit--he was most likely a highly gifted intellectual, well trained in Scripture, and even highly educated, and stood head and shoulders above his peers, like Peter, in this department--who admits some of Paul's writings were hard to understand (cf. 2 Pet. 3:16).


There is a command in Scripture to study the Bible, so as to be "approved unto God" and "to rightly divide the Word of Truth" in 2 Tim. 2:15.  Note that in the seventeenth century it was every gentleman's hobby to be conversant in theology and to discuss it at will and on-demand with anyone who would listen or inquire (there's sin of omission too).  This is not a passe skill but every believer ought to take an interest in biblical themes, and not so much their favorite sports teams as topics of conversation with their friends and family--knowing how to disagree without being disagreeable and to agree to disagree on occasion.


Bear in mind that if there is a God, theology is significant and paramount, but if there is no God, we are merely wasting our time on this endeavor and no one should indulge in it.  It's not just meant to be mental gymnastics or an intellectual or spiritual workout or exercise, but to aid in our maturity and understanding of God and where He's coming from in relation to us and our duty and response to Him. We must pursue this discipline because we adhere to the belief that absolute, universal truth is knowable--we are not to privatize it any more than flaunt it, but by no means are we to be ashamed of our position and relationship with God.

Reckon this:  Every other academic discipline is useless and incomplete without taking theology into account and starting from it as the pivot point.  We start with God and then proceed to explain everything else; we don't start with man or the cosmos, and then go on to explain God!  Modern worldviews such as Postmodernism want to reckon God as dead and irrelevant to man and our situation, but we must not let them remove God from the overall equation and make Him pertinent to all of life and to every discipline.


If theology seems dry and distant to some, blame the theologians who have made it the privilege of the literate, schooled, and informed, while forgetting where the average believers are, spiritually speaking.  Yes, theologians are at fault for making it dull, without application, and even blase--for this reason, many distrust theologians and have relegated their studies as inappropriate and irrelevant to their personal lives.  We all need to make it interesting and stimulate enthusiasm and gusto for the discipline, remembering that everyone is at a different level and good teachers know where their students are and don't wow them with their expertise or scholarship--and certainly don't want to appear pedantic. It is childish faith that has an aversion to theology, not the man of God.


The proper study of mankind is not man but the Godhead or theology, and how it relates to everything as the "queen of sciences."  To enjoy or appreciate the Christian or biblical worldview, doctrine must first permeate our minds, actions, decisions, and thoughts.  In sum, we owe theology more than a passing interest but a studious attempt at mastery.   Soli Deo Gloria!   

God Is With Us

"For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily"  (Col. 2:9, NKJV).


His name is Jesus (meaning "this Lord is salvation"), but He is "God with us" ("Immanuel") in the flesh or incarnated.  The full nature of God is manifest in Christ (cf. Col. 2:9) and God is personified for us to see, all we need to know is in Him and what we can know.  The whole revelation of God, as He is to be known and worshiped, is in Christ Jesus--to see Him is to see the Father and to accept and worship Him is to do so with the Father. Jesus left us, but not as orphans, the Holy Spirit was given as a Comforter and Paraclete to guide and enlighten us.

We are actually better off with the Holy Spirit within us than when Jesus walked the earth as the God-man among us.  We have both the whole counsel of God and the inward witness of the Spirit to be our inner comfort and witness.  Christianity is about Christ and to remove Him is to disembowel it and neutralize its teachings and reality.  You can remove Muhammad from Islam or Buddha from Buddhism and the religions stay intact, but not so with our faith: it is about Jesus beginning and ending, all else is circumference--every other issue is peripheral.  We could not know what God was like except for the incarnation, and our access to Him would be limited without His intercession and meditating on our behalf. 

We need to know what God is like to know how to live and Jesus is the express image of God with skin on for us.  Of men inspired by God or inhabited by God, there have been many, men called by God and lead by God numerous, men of God and godly men countless, but Jesus stands out unequaled and unsurpassed as the God-man, unlike any of His predecessors and disciples--you simply cannot improve on Him.  He is not a lord nor a god, but the Lord and God personified--the Word become flesh, and the Word is God.

According to Francis Schaeffer, Christianity is about "the God who is there."  Sometimes we may wonder where God is, but He is right here as close as His name, and we might wonder and realize He was there all the time.  Surely, He was there and we knew it not--that is the commentary on some people's spiritual life. For wherever two or three are gathered in His name, there He is!   As the title implies, Immanuel, Christians have the Holy Spirit and God with them wherever they go never forsaking us (cf. Matt. 28:20).

We must endeavor to attempt great things for God and expect even greater blessings in return because we can be assured that God is with us and will guide us all the way.  When God is in something, it will succeed.  There is a story of Saint Theresa, who said she desired to erect a convent, and when asked of her resources, said she had twelve pence.  They told her that even Saint Theresa couldn't do much with only that; she replied that God and Saint Theresa could do anything.  We can see that the only important thing is whether God is in it or not; we don't bring our plans to God for approval, but find His will and do it and He will provide the resources.  If we are led to do something from the Spirit, God will provide.

Jesus became what we are and what He was not, but continued to be what He was--He never gave up His divine nature, but became man as the God-man.  He is not a deified man nor a humanized God, nor a man with divine attributes, nor a God that acts or appears as a man.  He is not a God in human disguise either, but fully man and fully God, perfect man, perfect God--two natures united mysteriously into one nature forever.  He feels our pain because He Himself experienced the worst man could dish out Himself.  Could you identify with a God who knew no pain nor had any first-hand experience as a man in our world?  Not only can we relate to Him, but He identifies with us and is in a position to make intercession for us.  God is with us when we need Him most, and whatever happens, we will not be overwhelmed because of His presence through the Spirit abiding in us.

We must be careful not to limit Him nor put Him in a box:  He was a great teacher; He was a divine Healer; He was a miracle worker; He was a great leader, etc.  You cannot speak of Him in comparative nor superlative terms, such as saying He is Jesus the Great, or even the greatest leader, teacher, model, nor influence man has ever seen or for that matter, it diminishes Him by saying these things, for He cannot be compared but must be contrasted, the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in His nature for our benefit so we can know God personally and have a relationship with one that identifies with us on our level and we can resonate with Him, which is mutual.  He feels our pain!  Pronouncing Him in human terminology such as Jesus the Great doesn't do Him justice and no man can be what He was nor step into His shoes and do what He did (a regular man could do what Muhammad did, but no man can do what Christ did!).

Jesus took on the infirmities of man in the weakness of the flesh to identify with us and dwell in our midst.  He always was, is, and will be the Lord of all and couldn't be our Savior, if not God with us!  He emptied Himself of the independent usage of His divine attributes and obeyed the Father's will and didn't act independently on His own--for He could do nothing of Himself.  The wonderful thing is that we can taste and see the Lord is good and find it out for ourselves and experience His presence in the same Spirit that His disciples did, opening our eyes to spiritual truth and showing us the way.  In the final analysis, Jesus will not barter away His nature nor cease being God with us in the flesh!     Soli Deo Gloria!

The Kenosis Of Christ

The title refers to the "emptying" of Jesus (the kenosis in Koine or common,"vulgar" Greek) or when He "made Himself of no reputation," NKJV, in the sense of laying aside His glory and independent usage of divinity, as He functioned as a man with all the limitations that go with it.  Christ never stopped being God, nor did He lose His powers as God, but only did what the Father told Him to do, following the interposed will of the Father.  Philippians 2:7 (NLT) says, "Instead, he gave up his divine privileges...." Christ's glory is that He laid aside all His glory and humbled Himself, even to the death on a cross as a criminal.

Some may object to this ignominious death, (thinking that it's repugnant to have Christ "defeated" by man) but it was the pleasure of the Father to judge sin in this manner.  We all ought to learn a lesson in humility following His example.  Just to make a point about true service, Christ took a towel and washed the disciples feet, and they were all taken aback, Peter even objected, thinking this was not fit the Lord's dignity.  When Christ said that we also ought to wash each others' feet, we get the lesson that, in God's economy, the way up is down just like John the Baptist said, "He must increase, but I must decrease"  (cf. John 3:30).

Peter failed to see Christ as the servant of the Lord and that greatness is in how many people you serve, not how many serve you.  Christ himself said that he came, "not to be served, but to serve and to give [His] life a ransom for many" (cf. Mark 10:45).  This gesture of foot-washing showed that we must be willing to humble ourselves, for humility comes before exaltation.  There is no caste system nor superstar believer in the body, but all are "one in Christ" (cf. Col. 3:11; Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 12:13).  There are no "untouchables" and neither is anyone beyond redemption.

All believers are called to become  the servants of Christ; at the bema (or Judgment Seat of Christ) we all look forward to hearing Christ pronounce:  "Well done, thou good and faithful servant...."  Albert Schweitzer was right:  "The only happy people are those who have learned how to serve."   I call this humiliation of ourselves in Christ's service as the "order of the towel," and the question should not be how high we can aim, but how low we can go--nothing is literally "beneath" the believer.  Whosoever humbles himself as a child shall be great in God's kingdom (cf. Matt. 18:4).   Service is the keynote of Christ's ministry, for He went about doing good (cf. Acts 10:38).   Soli Deo Gloria! 

Natural Theology

"Dear brothers and sisters, don't be childish in your understanding of these things.  Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature in understanding matters of this kind"  (1 Cor. 14:20, NLT).

Theology is called the queen of sciences and is not an abstract study nor a so-called "fool's errand of speculation", but down to earth, systematic, and relevant;  it is in the application that the power is apparent.  All Scripture has theological undertones and significance (Note 2 Tim. 3:16, KJV, emphasis added,  "All Scripture is given inspiration of God, and profitable for doctrine...").  Childish faith balks at in-depth study, and thrives on the milk, without ever maturing to solid food! 

Charles Darwin attempted to become a preacher, before becoming embittered by the death of his father and was quite impressed with a book by William Paley, called Natural Theology.  In it, there is proof of God's existence, including the "argument from design."  For example, if you found a watch in the middle of a forest, you'd assume someone put it there, and even that someone made it and designed it, due to a design--voila--a Designer!  Now we've proved God's existence indirectly.  Men have no excuse for disbelieving in Him, there is ample evidence for anyone willing to do His will. Even Bertrand Russell, the most famous atheist of the UK and of the twentieth century probably, was asked if he found out there was a God, what he'd tell Him:  "Why didn't you give us more evidence?"  There is never enough evidence for the skeptic; note that Russell admitted that there was indeed evidence!

There is great inherent value in doctrine because it essentially means teaching; we are to disseminate sound doctrine according to Titus 2:1.  You can have a sound theology, though, and not a sound spiritual life; however, without sound theology, in its essential and non-negotiable aspects, you cannot have a sound Christian life.  It's not a matter of being good at theology or thinking that if you know some theology, you are better, and others are poor specimens of the faith.  We are all theologians by any definition of the term; it's not a matter of semantics--all Christendom should be on the same page here!

We need to know the scoop or the lowdown in order to live right.  Our actions and beliefs are interrelated and correlated.  Scripture says that in the latter days, some will bail out theologically, and no longer listen to sound teaching (cf. 2 Tim. 4:3).  Nonbelievers are defined as those who reject the truth in Romans 2:8, but God is able to open their eyes and show them the light when the day dawns and the morning star arises in their hearts (cf. 2 Pet. 1:19).  There is no "secret knowledge" like the Gnostics (those in the "know") taught, but everything God wants us to know and all we need is written in the Word. The things hidden are not in the Apocrypha ("hidden"), but they don't belong to us at all (cf. Deut. 29:29).

Theologians, or those who make theology their pursuit, are an unpopular breed.  They get a bad rap and this is with all due respect because there are so many false teachers out there.  We cannot reject theology, for that would be spiritual suicide in rejecting the knowledge of God--it's no option!  One of the signs of the last days is the rise of false prophets and/or teachers saying what the people want to hear with their itching ears.

There is also natural law (sometimes called transcendent law from God) that all men are aware of in their God-given conscience, and they have no excuse for not knowing basic right and wrong--it's not social custom nor inherited by genes, but granted by God's common grace to all men.  Paul says to look to creation and you will see that man has no excuse (Romans 1:20, NLT, says, "... So they have no excuse for not knowing God").  However, though there are many "proofs" for God, it cannot be done scientifically, for those who will only believe what science posits:  God is outside the domain of science, because He is unseen, immeasurable, and infinite, meaning you cannot define nor confine Him for experimental research with laboratory conditions.  God demands faith, and so the only absolute proof of God is by experience, knowing Him personally by invitation.  You cannot know without any reservation that there is a God, except that He came to earth and revealed Himself to us--Jesus is all the theology we need (i.e., knowing Him is where it's at).

Just because there is bad theology, doesn't mean we can avoid it or reject it.  There is also good theology and you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!  Bad theology needs to be answered.  We do have the option to reject biblical knowledge as believers, for this is ultimately rejecting God.  The wise are hungry for the truth  (cf. Prov. 15:14), and knowledge is found on their lips since they store it up.  We are commanded to "study to show yourself approved unto God," and this implies we are to become students of the Word and ready apologists for the Lord.  The elders and deacons are to have the ability to refute false doctrine and defend the faith (cf. Titus 1:9, NKJV, which says, "[Holding] fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict").  

And so, it's not "those theologians!" It's "what kind of theologian are you?"  Just like we are all preachers and Good Samaritans, even if it's not our gift, we are to study the Word systematically, if possible, and to learn to discern truth from error and discern the solid food of the Word, not surviving solely on the milk of the Word.  All theology was designed to be understood with the mind (we have the mind of Christ and illuminating ministry of the Spirit), and theology is said to enter the heart via the mind, not vice versa.

And in conclusion, doctrine or theology is necessary for healthy spiritual growth, but not sufficient:  the fact that our hearts be right is more important than what school of theology we subscribe to.  Our doctrine doesn't need to be impeccably correct, but our heart needs to be in the right place!  Scripture, however, does teach both the primacy of the heart and of the mind--God wants us to understand the Word!   The mere presentation of doctrine can leave a person cold and seem farfetched to the spiritually naive because it must be enlightened by the Spirit and done in the right way, not just as an intellectual exercise!   We are not called to make converts to our school of theology, and God won't even ask us what we held so dear doctrine-wise, but to be held accountable for our works, when the final audit of our life's work is done.  Soli Deo Gloria!