Danny Franks was sharing at our most recent men's group meeting about the pharisees and followers of Jesus. They both studied Jesus, followed him, asked him questions.
The difference was the pharisees were trying to take Jesus and put them in their mold of religion. They wanted to take what Jesus was saying and call it good or bad. If it fit their ideals and rules then they would except him. Of course it didn't fit. So they labored to oppose him. The disciples did the same things; studied, followed him, asked question. And the disciples even had some bad ideas about Jesus. They wanted him to be a military ruler, to conquer this world, and make them great.
The difference in the two is that the pharisees were trying understand Jesus and change him so they could put him in his appropriate place in their lives to make their lives better, put him in a box or throw him out of their box. The disciples wanted to be understood and changed by him.
This made me think about how much weight we currently place on people being "solid". I'm not saying that this is bad. Having strong, good, solid theology is not bad. It is good to understand and know God more. But that is not being a Christian. Rather than measuring a person's "Christian-ness" by their theology and understanding shouldn't we measure that by their willingness to follow Christ and be changed by him.
Being a Christian is not about how much correct knowledge you have it is about your posture before the Cross.
I am very guilty of this. When I read books, study scripture, go to church, listen to sermons, I am trying to learn so that I know and can be seen as one who understands. Rather than this, I should do these things with a heart desiring to be more like Jesus.
We should grow in knowledge of him, but let us support those who follow him and are changed by him, not just if they can quote piper.
(addendum; talked with a friend last night about this and he commented that when he says solid that he is referencing the person following Christ and not their theology. solid is not a bad word, I just hope we don't become pharisees in that we feel superior as Christians because of what we know. We all have some bad theology in there somewhere, Jesus asks that we follow and pursue him.)
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3 comments:
Of course, I think there are theological aspects that are inherent in your posture before Christ. Thus, often there is no clear line, or even any actual distinction, between someone's posture before Christ and someone's theology.
As Tozer said, What you think about God [i.e. your theology] is the most important thing about you.
Perhaps what we are actually talking about here is the level of someone's maturity in the faith. Theoretically, if one believes in absolute truth, then there are "solid" stances on theology and not solid stances on theology. Thus, when one is not "solid" they are either (1) young in the faith and simply not dealt with individual issues, (2) have not put in the time, thought, study, prayer, meditation, necessary to come to the proper, "solid" conclusions on faithOR (3) are actually not pursuing the true God and thus espousing errant theology. Certainly much of this is not just our efforts, but rather the work of the Spirit. However, if we are putting forth a good faith effort to know God, then I feel like we can safely assume that God will honor that and develop in us, through the Spirit, correct and "solid" theology.
One may say, well certainly a "solid" Presbyterian and a "solid" Baptist differ on the proper expression of baptism. Well, I would hardly say that T.Keller is not "solid" because he doesn't believe in immersion or that J.Piper isn't solid because he does. They both believe in the Trinity, the sole sufficiency of scripture, and the exclusivity of Christ. These I would say are the measures of "solid" theology. These are also fundamental aspect to one's posture before Christ.
I definitely get your point Andrew. Maybe the disciples fall into the category of being young in the faith and have not dealt with an issue.
There are other times in the bible where people get things wrong. Like the disciples thinking Jesus was here to be an earthly king, Zechariah questioning God when he was told he would have a sun. When they misunderstand God does this mean they are no longer following him?
I don't think it necessarily means people aren't following God. Sure, it could mean that if someone is fighting the spirit and stubbornly fitting God into his theology rather than the other way around.
However, "working out our faith" means just that. Misunderstandings happen for a variety of reasons. If you are intellectually engaging the Gospels and earnestly seeking "solid" theology, you may misunderstand. And I could even see God allowing you to misunderstand for a while in order that you have a greater understanding of something when that day does come that you gain a right understanding. Satan may tempt us to allow such things to undermine our confidence in truth or at least the ability to know truth, but it goes back to the posture we take. If we approach Christ and His truth with humility and with an understanding the some things are simply mystery (a la JD's point with Deut 29:29), we encourage correction and rebuke upon ourselves, in pursuit of a greater, deeper understanding of Him.
Interesting you mention my boy Z. I was actually reading Luke this morning and that passage struck me because Zechariah questioned the angel and was made mute for a while. Yet, a few verses later, Mary asks almost an identical question in an identical situation and and the angel is gracious with her and gives her an explanation.
I think it's the beauty of how God's grace and compassion on us. God exists and gives power to ultimate, unchanging, overarching truths. However, those are juxtaposed with his individualized compassionate, dealings with our feeble, sin-limited minds as we struggle and strive to grapple with our faith and His revealed Word.
Sometimes our maturity or our posture warrant gentle compassionate explanation as is the case with young, naive, earnest, genuinely befuddled Mary. Then sometimes, well he takes away our ability to talk in the case of the priest who is at a level where he gets to go do the incense thing in the temple. What sweet symbolism that God would take away a voice when he wants you to understand.
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