Sunday, June 1, 2014
Theology Matters
Theology what is it?
Dictionary.com in
their Cultural Dictionary defines theology as the disciplined study of
religious questions, such as the nature of God, sin, and salvation. That is some pretty heavy stuff! I'm guessing if you are like me you may not
have given much thought to theology.
That was me until I realized while casually sitting in my Connect/Sunday
School class discussing different denominations and different religions. You see being that there are so many
expressions of what people call christianity as well as other religions like Mormonism,
Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, etc... it has never been more important to know
and understand what it is you believe.
Now you might still be dwelling on what I mentioned in the paragraph
above. Why in the world where they
discussing other religions and not focusing on the religion they went to church
to celebrate???? That is a great
question. We were discussing the Bible
and specifically the book of Galatians chapter 5. Galatians as a book is written to people who
at one time believed in Jesus alone as their Savior. What I mean is that the believers in Galatia
proclaimed that there wasn't anything they could do to make their relationship
with God (the God of the Bible) close or right. They needed a savior and the
depended on Jesus' perfect life and sacrificial death on a cross as the payment
needed for their offence against God. Fast
forward to when the book of Galatians reaches them and you will find that there
was a group of people who were saying yes that's right you do need to believe
that Jesus death and resurrection is a great start but you need something in
addition to that to finish the job. In
the time the book of Galatians was written the specific issue was that of
circumcision. But fast forward 2000
years and it could be anything anyone wants to add to Jesus finished work on
the cross as an add on.
Jesus plus religion isn't good news.
You may have heard the Gospel of Jesus called the Good News of
Good. The Good News is simply this. God did what was necessary for people to be
brought into a right relationship with Himself all by Himself. There isn't anything any of us can do to add
or make Jesus sacrifice better or more complete. Face it, it doesn't matter when you began to
look for God in your life, I'm willing to say that you weren't born seeking
after Him. How many of us looked to test
what our mother, father, or adult figure wanted for us in our early life. Why do you think it would be any different on
a spiritual level. If anything, it would
be even harder to want and turn to God because you can't reach out and touch
Him or interact with Him as you would another human. And that's the point. As a Christian the Good News is just that as
a matter of Faith.
As you read this I'm not sure who you are specifically or where you go
to church or if you go to church. I want
to encourage you though. Whatever you
are currently doing or not doing know why you are doing it. Don't take what I'm saying as the last word
on Christianity or anyone else for that matter or if you are a Muslim, Mormon,
or Jew know why you believe what you do or you may find yourself in a compromising
when asked what it is you believe about Theology or how you define studying
God.
Labels:
Atheist,
Bible,
Catholicism,
Christian Living,
Christianity,
Faith,
Freedom,
God,
Grace,
Islam,
Jesus,
Judism,
Life,
Mormon,
Muslim,
Religion,
Resurrection,
Sin,
Theology
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)