It's not just the words

“What is true?” the young man asked sincerely. He was caught up in explorations of doctrines of Christianity. Finding the plethora of opinions about such matters had confused him. He knew that good minds wrestled with these issues. Unable to reconcile the various conflicting systems he admitted, “When I read each position, it makes sense, but they cannot all be true at the same time, can they?”

I knew his dilemma! Time was when I would spend hours debating the place of sacraments in our faith, the free will of man and the rule of God, predestination, election, and the work of the Spirit in the Church.  When I recall the ongoing debates about the timeline of God’s acts at the End of the Age, arguing about whether the Rapture would be Pre- or Mid-Trib, I wince at the wasted expenditure of effort.

Jesus encountered the Jewish scholars of his time who were amazingly learned in the Scripture. Many of them could quote the entire Torah! They spent their lives dissecting the Text. Jesus told them that their efforts were not bringing them nearer to God because their perspective was wrong. “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life." (John 5:39-40, NLT) They thought that if they could get all the words to make sense, if they got their doctrine all sorted out, they would find assurance of peace with God. The Bible was given to humanity to reveal a Person! And, He was standing there in front of them, yet they could not see Him or believe in Him despite their scholarship.

Study of the Word is by no means a waste of time.  We need to love God’s revelation to us. Beware of ‘Bibloatry,’ worshipping the words instead of the Holy One that they reveal to us. Theology is important as are doctrinal statements. They give us a framework of understanding for our faith. Unless we come to the Word with humility and an invitation for the Spirit’s revelation, we risk becoming just like those men Jesus met, who studied and missed the point!

Then, too, we must wisely realize that not all doctrines carry the same weight in our practice of Christianity. The identity of Jesus, knowing that salvation comes us to through grace and is accepted as a gift of God by faith, the hope of eternal life because of the Resurrection of Jesus – these are things we need to anchor in the Scriptures.  Many other issues are secondary. Paul urges us to be charitable about things that are convictions but not at the heart of our hope. He says, in Romans 14, “each man must be fully convinced in his own mind.”

This is a word from the Word. Here we are reminded of the crux of the matter. "He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours . . . So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.  . . .  to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength." (1 Corinthians 1:1-2, 20-25, NLT)

___________

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
      creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
      who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
      and born of the virgin Mary.

      He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
      was crucified, died, and was buried;
      he descended to hell.

      The third day he rose again from the dead.
      He ascended to heaven
      and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.

      From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
      the holy catholic* church,
      the communion of saints,
      the forgiveness of sins,
      the resurrection of the body,
      and the life everlasting. Amen.

(*that is, the true Christian church of all times and all places)