Christian Theology

The believer, however, will be concerned for the creation not simply because our actions there affect us, but also because it is God’s, is valuable to him, and therefore should be to us as well.

2. Theology is necessary because truth and experience are related. While some would deny or at least question this connection, in the long run the truth will affect our experience. A person who falls from the tenth story of a building may shout while passing each window on the way down, “I’m still doing fine,” and may mean it sincerely, but eventually the facts of the matter will catch up with the person’s experience.

Providence is in certain ways central to the conduct of the Christian life. It means that we are able to live in the assurance that God is present and active in our lives. We are in his care and can therefore face the future confidently, knowing that things are not happening merely by chance.

Galatians 4:4: “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” It is apparent, then, that for the disciples and the authors of the New Testament books, there was no question about Jesus’s humanity.

We often tend to think of the Father as transcendent and far off in heaven; similarly, the Son may seem far removed in history and thus also relatively unknowable. But the Holy Spirit is active within the lives of believers; he is resident within us. He is the particular person of the Trinity through whom the entire Triune Godhead currently works in us.

John said, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). John was particularly emphatic on this matter in his first letter, one of the purposes of which was to combat a heresy that denied that Jesus had been genuinely human: “Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God” (1 John 4:2–3).

3. Theology is needful because of the large number of alternatives and challenges abroad at the present time.

Our humanity is not a standard by which we are to measure his. His humanity, true and unadulterated, is the standard by which we are to be measured.

Theology is necessary because truth and experience are related. While some would deny or at least question this connection, in the long run the truth will affect our experience. A person who falls from the tenth story of a building may shout while passing each window on the way down, “I’m still doing fine,” and may mean it sincerely, but eventually the facts of the matter will catch up with the person’s experience.

Religion is actually all of these—belief or doctrine, feeling or attitudes, and a way of life or manner of behaving.

God sent his Son . . . born under law, to redeem those under law.

James Orr put it well: “He who with his whole heart believes in Jesus as the Son of God is thereby committed to much else besides. He is committed to a view of God, to a view of man, to a view of sin, to a view of Redemption, to a view of the purpose of God in creation and history, to a view of human destiny found only in Christianity.

Our contention is that doctrines do indeed consist of genuine knowledge about God, and that religion involves the whole person: intellect, emotions, and will.

In addition, the modern mind often tends toward humanism, making humans and human standards the highest object of value and concern.

We are not to be surprised by the fiery trials (1 Pet. 4:12), but to rejoice in them, since such ordeals enable us to identify with Christ’s sufferings (4:13) and prove the reality of our faith (1:7).

1. Theology is important because correct doctrinal beliefs are essential to the relationship between the believer and God.

Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body; spiritual death is the separation of the person from God; eternal death is the finalizing of that state of separation—one is lost for all eternity in his or her sinful condition.

Theology is needful because of the large number of alternatives and challenges abroad at the present

Let us summarize the role of the Spirit as depicted in John 14–16. He guides into truth, calling to remembrance the words of Jesus, not speaking on his own, but speaking what he hears, bringing about conviction, witnessing to Christ. Thus his ministry is definitely involved with divine truth. But just what is meant by that? It seems to be not so much a new ministry, or the addition of new truth not previously made known, but rather an action of the Holy Spirit in relationship to truth already revealed. Therefore the Holy Spirit’s ministry involves elucidating the truth, bringing belief and persuasion and conviction, but not new revelation.