Theology and the Gospel #EverydayMay

I am a little bit of a theology nerd. Not the kind that will explicitly lay out the 5 points of Calvinism or bore you to death about my view of dispensationalism. I could care less about that. But I will confess that I get slightly giddy when I hear the gospel proclaimed and words such as “justification”, “propitiation”, “substitution”, and “atonement”. These words light a fire inside of me. I heart theology because it encompasses the beautiful truths that define not only our identity in Christ, but also our position in Christ. It becomes the compass of life when my heart goes astray.

To me there is direct connection between sharing the gospel and our knowledge of theology. When I used to work at CBU, I had the honor of interviewing several dozen students to serve on our International Service Projects. During their interviews, I always asked them to share the gospel with me as if I was an unbeliever. I am embarrassed to say that most of these “believers” could not articulate clearly what the gospel is and how one must be saved. Somehow the cross, Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection were absent and were reduced to “love God” and “ask him into your heart”. Sometimes Jesus’ name never even made it this gospel conversation. I don’t think that it’s because these students aren’t believers or they don’t have a heart to share the gospel. It is actually more elementary, I just don’t think they have the theological basics to fully understand the breadth and width of the gospel and how it changes our identity and position, from enemy to friend, from death to life, from condemned to heirs, from sinful to holy, from bondage to freedom. Christ’s death changed everything. Even now, my heart beats faster thinking of the gospels power in my life.

In college, I had to read a book called, “Fit bodies, Fat Minds” by Os Guinness. It basically argued that evangelicals were the worst intellectuals and called for Christians to understand intellectually and theologically their own faith. (As a disclaimer, I will be the first to say, I think theology has a place, but it should NEVER be a stumbling block for anyone to not share the gospel. In the New Testament, we see how people were being used by God in radical ways and had NO seminary degree or biblical training. People were constantly going and telling. Their testimony was a powerful bridge to people to coming to know Christ). But I have also seen that people are afraid to share their faith because they are afraid of the questions they will be asked and scared they will not have answers. No one wants to do something that they possible risk looking like an idiot, especially when it has to do something as crucial as salvation.

I am just going to come out and say it, the Church does a bad job at teaching theology. Despite this, we still love her and embrace her. We sometimes are afraid to dig deep and gain the nuggets of truth that are needed, sometimes out of laziness. Most of us can’t even share the narrative story of God from beginning to end. The Old Testament instead is a sea of confusion and has a disconnect to the New Testament. This is why I am passionate about people knowing the complete narrative of God, book end to book end. I think the more people know about God the more naturally it will flow to share the gospel in everyday situations. The more we know our own biblical framework and world view the more we are able to share the gospel. We will be ready and equipped because we did our homework. Our knowledge also frees us to meet people where they are with God and not recite some Roman Road or Wordless Color Book.

The gospel is the essence of life and the reason we exist. But we can’t keep it to ourselves. We Must Tell…it HAS to be the reason we exist. Sharing is the goal. All nations coming to Christ is the goal.

All this to say, If you are looking to grow in your theological intellect, I would actually recommend “Doctrine: What Christians Believe” by Mark Driscoll. Most theology books are beastly in size and difficulty, but Driscoll does a fantastic job of breaking down the essentials. I started to go through this with a girl I was mentoring and it provided GREAT discussion and resulted in “my theology heart to be very happy.”

Book club anyone?