“I Don’t Need Bad Theology”
I confess I am a nerdy Bible student. I listen to most if not all of a couple of different sermons almost every day. My email inbox is flooded daily with articles about Christian devotion and leadership. Most every week I am listening or reading thirty to fifty messages about the Bible.
Not every one of those messages promote sound doctrine. When I hear something that is not as solid as it needs to be, rather than turn it off or stop reading, my mind tends to recreate how the message would sound if it were correctly interpreted. I know that a part of the process rests at my feet. How do I know that my interpretation is correct? Over the years, I have come to rest of a system of Bible study that helps my understanding blend the historical context with the application of truth to culture.
This week I heard five sermons and read three articles that rubbed my theology the wrong way. The articles all supported the same theme – we don’t need theology, we need Jesus. I understand what the articles were trying to say – and I am not denying the need for a personal, saving relationship with Jesus. After all, HE is what the story of the Bible is all about.
But don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. A personal, saving relationship with Jesus IS good theology. Theology just means the “study about God.” When I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I need to have made that decision based on a thorough understanding of the teaching of the Bible about the sinful nature of man and our need for eternal redemption. Can there be any more sound theology than that?
The sermons I heard were all meant well, but they all missed the same vital theological point. The sermons all insisted that one day we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. They continued that we will all give an account for the deeds we have accomplished on earth. The sermons make great preaching. The day will come when you are going to have a reckoning. You better fly right.
But the theology is sort of wrong. The Scripture does teach that we will stand before the judgment seat of God. But listen to a description of how that will unfold.
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 For I was hungry
and you gave Me something to eat;
I was thirsty
and you gave Me something to drink;
I was a stranger and you took Me in;
36 I was naked and you clothed Me;
I was sick and you took care of Me;
I was in prison and you visited Me (Matthew 25:31-36 HCSB).’
Standing before the judgment seat of God, did you understand what takes place? God says, “Come into heaven. You have done wonderful things for me.” There is no recounting of the bad things.
The righteous respond back – rather sheepishly, forgive the pun. “When did we do that for you?” God replies, “When you did it for the least of these, you did it for me.”
Although Jesus’ story does not go into a huge amount of detail, theology can help me make better sense of the circumstance. When I stand before the judgment seat of God, and God opens the book of my evil deeds and shortcomings, He sees page after page, volume after volume of this:
Nothing. The blood of Christ forgives – wipes my slate clean. If I eventually stand before God and have a recounting of all of my failures, my relationship and forgiveness are no more real than a nagging spouse or mother who weekly recounts the way you wronged them ten years ago.
Grace tells me that judgment is not mine. A case can be made that the biblical pictures of judgment always fall upon the wicked. Sometimes our sins have earthly consequences. Ask Moses. Ask David. But thanks be to God the eternal consequences of my sin have been wiped off the marker board.
The reason I need sound theology is to realize I couldn’t have cleaned the marker board on my own.
