It has been well over a week since my last post. That is way too long. I was enjoying some time with some church family in North Carolina, had a wonderful time, and did not even think about blogging- was simply having too much fun.
In Sunday School yesterday I concluded my answer to the first of eight basic questions that every Christian ought to be familiar with. Here are the eight basic questions:
1. Why is it important to study doctrine anyway?
2. How do we know God?
3. Who is God?
4. Who is man?
5. Who is Christ?
6. What is salvation?
7. Who are God's people?
8. What will happen in the end?
I readily admit that these might appear to be obvious, simple questions. That is because they are simple questions. That is the point. My goal is to be clear and concise, not complicated and confusing. I have no desire to wax eloquently on such important questions and the topics that these questions address. Rather, I want to s l o w down and make sure that we are all on the same page. I truly desire that everyone in the class understand the answers to these questions. At times I am sure that I will be confusing (I am not perfect). But my goal is to aid our understanding of basic Christian doctrine. For the babes in Christ this might seem overwhelming. For the mature in Christ this might seem like review. However, I trust that the review will be fresh and insightful for the mature resulting in genuine worship and praise. On the other hand, I trust that the babes will have rich truth surrounding the Gospel open up before their eyes and excite them to worship and praise just the same.
Alright, several people in the class want me to duplicate the Sunday school material somehow. The easiest way to do this is to "duplicate" the teaching material on the blog. This is the way that we will start the "duplicating" process anyway. So let me start today by answering the first primary question listed above. We will spend the rest of the week looking at the answer to this question.
Here is the question again---- Why is it important to study doctrine anyway?
The first reason it is advantageous to study Christian doctrine is because the formulation of doctrinal belief is unavoidable. Now on the surface that might not sound like much of an advantage. Allow me to explain it to you in the following manner. Paul tells us in Romans 1 that all men "know" God. Now when we begin answering the second question, "How do we know God?", we will look at Romans 1 more closely. But suffice it to say that Scripture clearly teaches all men everywhere try and "make sense" of God. Without the aid of the Spirit of God beginning with regeneration, this "knowledge" will be minimalistic. For Paul tells us in I Cor. 2:14 that "the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to Him; and he cannot understand them". In other words, this "knowledge" will be suppressed (Rom. 1:18). The result of this suppression will be a whole gamut of different ways to "make sense" of God. Some will go to the extreme of declaring themselves as atheists. Atheism is a doctrinal belief about God that simply denies His existence. Therefore, it is a thoroughly negative doctrinal belief system regarding God. Nevertheless, it is a doctrinal belief about God anyway one slices it because it affirms a doctrinal proposition, namely that "God does not exist". Some declare themselves agnostic. This is also a certain doctrinal view of God, though equally negative. It says that we cannot know if God exists. This is also an obvious doctrinal affirmation in propositional form. And there are many other doctrinal positions regarding God. My point is that one does not have to be a Christian (regenerated and given new life in Christ) to have a system of doctrinal belief about God. God has created all men in such a way that we all have an inner awareness of God. This means they not only have the capacity, but the desire to "make sense" of this world, their lives, and the possible Creator who made it all happen. Here is what one writer says regarding this issue, “Man is endowed with reason, and the human reason cannot rest satisfied with a mere collection of separate truths, but wants to see them in their mutual relationship, in order that it may have a clearer understanding of them”.
Now how does all of this info spell out any sort of advantage to studying doctrine? In just this way. Follow this line of logic. If we are given the capacity and desire to "know" God, and God, by His grace chooses for His own glory before the foundations of the world to send the Spirit to regenerate our hearts enabling us to see the beauty, value and worth of Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected (and thus the value of God), then we have the responsibility and privilege to harness the power of the Spirit that indwells us by studying God's special revelation (Scripture) in order to "grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 3:16). In other words, we have been given the resources necessary to truly know God. And this all comes to us through the Gospel! To put it simply, if we all naturally form a doctrinal system anyway, and it has pleased God to save us, then we might as well have an orthodox, Biblical, true, and right "knowledge" of God. This only makes since. And the study of Scripture, doctrine, theology (whatever term you choose) is the means that God uses to grow our knowledge of Him. It really is that simple! The first advantage to studying doctrine can be wrapped up in the following phrase- "Studying doctrine helps our knowledge of God to be accurate and truthful, rather than inaccurate, false, and incomplete".
Because the possession of a doctrinal system (however minimalistic it might be) is unavoidable, Christians are duty bound and privileged to formulate their doctrine in accordance with God's authoritative, revealed truth contained in Scripture. Paul prayed this very thing for the Colossian believers (Col. 1:9-10). Paul tells the Colossians that since he heard they accepted the Gospel he has not "ceased to pray for you that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God". I find it interesting that the number one thing on Paul's prayer list for the Colossians was not the various illnesses, trials, or tribulations. Rather, it was their spiritual well-being. In short, he prayed that their knowledge of God would increase. (I said much more about these verses when I preached them. Paul's use of "knowledge" was different than the false teachers understanding of "knowledge". Paul wrote to correct the false teachers, and protect the true saints in the church.) Paul's prayer is proof that Paul saw the importance for Christians to study doctrine.
Romans 12:2 is another example. In verse one Paul calls for believers to be living sacrifices to God. Verse two then reads, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect". Paul calls for nothing less than a transformation of the mind. The Greek word translated "transformed" is where we get our English word metamorphosis. Very simply, our lives are only changed for the glory of Christ in our sanctification to the degree in which our minds are changed through the study of Scripture- doctrine. Our minds are renewed through doctrinal information. This "mind renewal" results in "practical life renewal"- a changed way of living.
Let me give one more text- 2 Pet. 3:18. We will look at the context of this passage a little closer in another post. However, Peter calls for the Christian to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ". Here is how Martyn Lloyd-Jones interprets this:
“That is Peter’s way of saying that I am to grow in my understanding of the truth... It means that I should increase and grow in my knowledge concerning Him, in my knowledge of what He has done and of what He has brought to this world. As a Christian I am not to stop merely at a knowledge of forgiveness and a knowledge of salvation; I am to grow in my understanding and in my knowledge of the whole scheme and plan and purpose of salvation… So that I must busy myself with Christian doctrine. I must learn to understand the doctrine of God and His Being, the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of man, the doctrine of sin, the doctrine of salvation, the doctrine of the ultimate and the last things. I must go into all these so that I may grasp the knowledge concerning the Lord Jesus Christ more and more” (Commentary on 2 Peter, 226-227).
Let it be clear. The study of doctrine is the duty and privilege of a believer with the goal to know God through Jesus Christ.
Next post we will consider some more reasons that the study of doctrine is important and advantageous.
Desiring Christ-Centeredness in All Things,
Andy
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