The Right Theology

In Acts 15:7-11 the Apostle Peter stood up and said to the elders, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

 

Our Pastor Kyle preached that both the right theology and the right approach are crucial. It is important to know and understand the true gospel and what it means for our lives. Acts 15 summed up this theological problem that these Jewish people had with gentiles who were coming to Christ and it also summed up what it means to be Christians today, for the 99.99% of Believers in the world who are gentile. The reality that was summed up is this we are all saved by Grace. We are not entitled to grace, and we do not deserve it. Because of our sin, we don’t deserve anything that we have from God, But, God is merciful and gives us His grace. We also have to fight to protect that precious bond of unity, the unity of peace that the Holy Spirit gives to us. So, the right approach and the right theology are both absolutely crucial, and that right theology is grounded in the grace of God, a proper understanding of the gospel and what it means for our lives. 

 

You know some people in society would love to say things like “all the religions out there are just talking to the same guy. We’ll just leave it up to interpretation. You know you call him Jesus, some people call him Allah, some people call him Buddha. I can pick anything to worship if I want to, but I can do whatever I want as long as I’m a “good person”. I love what the Bible says: God is love. Yes, the Bible says that God is love, but Scripture interprets Scripture and a lot of other things that the Bible says about who God is that we need to take into account. It sounds appealing that everyone can do whatever they want and believe whatever they want then we all ultimately wind up in the same place. But there is no cheap grace. The problem is, we need to right understanding of theology if we really want to come together significantly on any issue. And we have to embrace the gospel as it is presented to us in holy Scripture, not what the culture says the gospel should be. The gospel and the Scriptures pretty clear. 

 

I love John 14:6 where Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody comes to the father except through me.” Jesus was unashamed about the fact there weren’t many ways to Heaven; that it was the only way often. Another time He talks about how there is a way that is wide which leads to destruction. In other words, if you want to believe all that other stuff go ahead, but it leads to the wide road of destruction in Hell. But, Jesus said that the way is narrow that leads to eternal life; and He is that way.

 

Pastor Kyle states, Foundational to receive the gospel means to believe in the perfect sinless life of Jesus. That God became one of us; God incarnate. God became man, lived the life that we should have lived Because He lived the perfect life, He was eligible to be a substitute on our behalf through His death for the sins of the world. So by faith, when we receive Christ as our Savior and Lord, His death on the cross becomes the substitute for the death that we should have died. Then because He lived that sinless life, death and the power of the grave couldn’t hold Him down, so Jesus rose from the grave and went back to be with the Father. He sent His Holy Spirit to anyone who would simply believe in their heart that Jesus is Lord and confess with their mouth that God raised Him from the dead making a public declaration that Jesus is their Savior. That’s the essence of what it is to be saved and so that’s the bare bones of the gospel. True Theology is needed in order to have the relational breakdowns in our lives and turn into life-changing breakthroughs. The right theology is so important.

In Christ, Brian