| THURSDAY | April 9 |
Faith in a Person
Doctrines are important. When we say that we believe in God, we will want to know more about God, and we will be eager to absorb what He has revealed to us. It only is natural that we want to provide a structured account of what we believe about our Creator and His dealings with us, and we want to be sure that we know His will. But though we believe that the doctrines of our church are true, our faith is not anchored in a doctrinal system alone but in Jesus.
The doctrines are not an end in and of themselves. The doctrines help us better understand Jesus and what He has done for us. In a sense, the role of doctrines in the Christian faith may be compared to the role of grammar. We can communicate through language only because there is a grammatical structure in the words we say and write.
Similarly, we give a structure to the content of our faith through the doctrines. Anselm, a medieval theologian, spoke the famous words that theology is faith that seeks to understand itself.
What does the New Testament tell us about the importance of sound doctrine? 1 Tim. 4:16, Titus 2:1.
Sound doctrine is essential, but doctrine and theology that remain lifeless theory can save no one. One even can be a theologian without being a believer. Faith, ultimately, is not just holding a number of beliefs as biblically correct but is trust in the Person of whom these doctrines speak.
How is salvation in this life and the life beyond connected with faith in the Source of life? John 3:36, 6:35.
What is the fundamental conviction on which the church is built? Matt. 16:13–19.
The passage in Matthew 16 often has been used as proof that the apostle Peter should be considered the founder of the Christian church. This idea finds no biblical support. On the contrary: Christ is the Stone on which the church is built. (See 1 Peter 2:4–8.) And it is the faith in this Stone—the unshakable conviction that Jesus, the Son of God, is our Savior—that makes the church what it is, not a human institution but the church of God. Someone says, “I believe in Jesus, believe in the teachings, yet sometimes I can’t help struggling with doubt.” What would you say to that person? What help and counsel could you give?
No comments:
Post a Comment