John 6:68 Simon Peter answered Him,
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.
Next Wednesday evening, Pastor JJ begins a teaching series
on Theology at our church. Theology (from
Greek Θεός meaning
"God" and λογία, -logy,
meaning "study of") is the systematic and rational study of concepts of God and their influences and of the nature
of religious truths; a discipline of Christian theology that
formulates an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the Christian faith
and beliefs. Why is it important to have a sound theology? Why should we
carefully and diligently study it? We hear people say: “I don’t need to know
any theology; just know Jesus!”, but the moment that they tell you anything
about Jesus, that is “theology”. The question isn’t if we are going to have a
theology, but if we are going to have a sound theology (true or a distortion of
the truth)? And what are the consequences of bad theology. We need to seek
diligently to master “Theology”, because we want to master the truth about God,
and if our understanding of God is incorrect, then that is going to have an
impact on our life and our personal relationship with God. But it is not about
Theology.
1 Corinthians 1:20-24 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the
debater of this age? Has not God made foolish
the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world
through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was
well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those
who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and
Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a
stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of
God and the wisdom of God.
Theology involves the systematic
understanding of the ideas and concepts that describe the character, nature and
activity of God, but those concepts and ideas are not God’s. And the reason
that we pursue the concept is not the end, but merely the means to the end,
discovering HIM. What we need is God. What we want is God. What we are
searching for is God. The word “God” points to something beyond the word. A
picture of Jesus is not Jesus. The word “God” is not a god. The word points
beyond the sounding out of the word or the written letters because the symbol
of the language is something that is far greater than any concept or any
doctrine can ever capture. The finite cannot grasp or contain the infinite.
Nothing can capture the greatness of who He is. So let us always remember the
in the study of Theology is really about: “We want Him.”
John 17:3 Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom you sent.
In Christ, Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment