theology – Authentic Hope for Answers

Some may protest that the Christian message is too easy: is all you have to do to have access to eternal heaven, to believe in Jesus? Is that what Jesus meant when he said, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”? Just believe in Jesus – is that all?

While that appears quite simple, you need to think a bit more: you can’t just decide to believe in something without taking it seriously as true. In fact, faith means trusting in the truth of what is said. And if we consider a speaker to be not serious and trust-worthy we just can’t believe all he says.

On the other hand, there are those who think that becoming a Christian involves a whole lengthy study of all the aspects of deep theology which, like the principles of Buddhism, require considerable effort to really grasp. Of course, when we deal with God almighty we may expect there are issues that cannot easily be understood. Then some would say, “Don’t bother trying to understand – just believe”. That option, however, errs on the side of the simplistic and misunderstands what’s involved in truly believing.

What we need, for a clear and real kind of faith, is to find the happy medium between the simplistic on the one hand, and the hyper-complicated on the other. What’s necessary in order to have faith that saves the soul? What exactly is that sincere faith in Christ that leads to a real conversion to Christ?

Essentially three things:

To know the basic facts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
To realise that these facts call for a personal response
To make that response in a commitment of repentance and trust in Christ which is formulated in a prayer.

Let’s think those three things through.

First, the Bible itself says, “How are people to believe in him of whom they have not heard?” (Romans 10.14). Obviously, in order to believe and trust in Christ, we must know who he is and what he has said and done. That’s why the Gospels were written. John ends his account of Jesus’ life saying, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name” (John 20.30-31). Becoming familiar with the Gospel records of Jesus’ life is therefore basic to believing in him. Such biblical information does not necessarily lead to faith, but it is essential to know the Gospel facts about who he was, what he said and particularly, that he died to save us.

Secondly, Jesus’ teaching calls us to “come to him” (Matthew 11.28), to “trust in him” (John 14.1), “to follow him” (Matthew 4.19), and to “love and obey him” (John 14.21,23). He consistently teaches that his followers must commit to living in a real relationship with him, their risen Lord and Master. He insists there needs to be a turning from all evil and a decision to live a new life following him.

Thirdly therefore, faith in Jesus shows itself by turning in prayer to Jesus, asking him to come into our lives as our own personal Lord and Saviour, promising to put away all sins that he disapproves of, and to live the rest of our lives as his faithful followers.

If you haven’t done that yet, maybe now is the time.

Clive Every-Clayton

Tis soon “the season to merry” – so the song goes, as Christmas approaches. But Christmas, let us not forget, is the Christians’ fête; it is the celebration of a miraculous event that sparked off the Christian faith. So behind all the buying and giving of presents, the big family meal, and all the musical songs that surround this fête, let us spend a few minutes in this blog post and in ones to come, looking into some of the profound expressions that properly honour this unique historic event.

Here’s one from the pen of the apostle Paul, one-time persecutor of Christians, in one of the earliest New Testament writings:

“When the fulness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4.4).

This simple statement is rich in theological truth! It says essentially three things:

1. God did something at the right time in history

2. He sent his Son into the world

3. His Son was born of a human woman

Christians believe in a God who is active; he is no mere philosophical ideal, a postulate put forward to start some kind of Christian reasoning. Not only does God act in history, but he acts at the right time. He had prophesied the coming of his Son, the Messiah, in the Old Testament, as some future blog posts will show. But here and now, writes Paul, this event that had been predicted by the prophets of old had recently come to pass.

And what did God do? He sent his Son into the world. Think about that. God must be a Father if he has a Son. Here is an allusion to what Christians have discerned from the acts of God according to the Bible – that God is a mysterious divine Tri-unity. There is only one God: on that the Bible is clear. Yet in that one God there is the Father and there is the Son. They are distinct from each other (the Father sends the Son) yet they are united in the same divine nature. That’s why Jesus could say, “I and the Father are one” (John 10.30), and “I have come down from heaven… to do… the will of him who sent me” (John 6.38). He also said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14.9).

Jesus is also called, “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1.15). He came into the world in human form, and by the holy life he lived, he showed forth the holiness and the love of God his Father. We can know God’s character by considering the life of his Son, Jesus.

The third thing is that the Son of God, Jesus, was “born of a woman”. This does not mean that there was any sexual activity that brought about the incarnation of Christ. But it does mean that Jesus was brought into the world as a baby, formed by a miracle of God’s Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin, Mary. Mary herself was neither divine nor should be honoured as having contributed to the incarnation of God’s Son. She agreed to God’s angelic messenger who announced to her that she would have this unique role. The fact that this text of Paul is the only allusion to Mary in all the didactic writings of the apostles in the New Testament should prevent us from glorifying Mary. She called herself the humble servant of the Lord. She was a godly woman and she brought up Jesus and other children after him.

So Jesus was truly divine – the Son of God, who became incarnate; and he was truly human, born the natural way, yet as an act of God surpassing anything else in time and history.

Clive Every-Clayton

Tag: theology

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