Recently, as a business, we have begun sending monthly emails to those who subscribe to our email list. These emails contain a few small articles; one mentioning our top sellers for the month, another giving some detail of what has been happening behind the scenes of FGG, and then a short devotional-type article written by me (Shaun), titled: “From the desk of Shaun M. Hewlett.”
My aim in those short articles is to limit the content written in them to around 300 words. However, since it’s very hard for me to keep anything that short (one of them is already around 360 words), we thought it would be a good idea also to reintroduce our blog and allow me to write some theological articles with a little more content in them. My desire to do this stems largely from my love of God’s Word and a desire to see His people built up through knowing it better.
Theology is important. There are many well-meaning Christians who may disagree, they will say something like, “I don’t need theology, I just need Jesus.” While to some degree this statement is true, it is also incredibly wrong. Jesus indeed is all we need, but who is Jesus?
How can we learn about Him, His life, His work of redemption, how He relates to us, and what the future holds for Him and those who trust in Him? The answer, of course, is through theology.
After Jesus was risen, He encountered two disciples on a journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus. These two disciples expressed to Him their anguish and discouragement over the death of Christ (this, of course, was before they had come to recognize Him). Turning to them, Jesus said, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:25-26). Once He said this, we read that “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (v. 27). What a Bible study that must have been! But not only would it have been a fantastic Bible study, this verse shows us that Jesus isn’t only in the Gospels, He is in all of Scripture.
Another passage to prove this comes from Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees in John chapter five. During this interaction, Jesus says to them, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). The Pharisees were searching the Scriptures (which at least was a good thing), but they were failing to see how the whole Bible is about one Man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sure, there are many topics in the Bible, but its central theme is Jesus. He is the One to whom the whole Bible points, and rightly so. He is the Son of God, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the eternal Word made flesh, and of course, He is our Lord, our God, and our Savior.
If the whole Bible is about Him, then as His people who have been redeemed through His blood, how important should theology be to us?
The Bible has been regarded by some as God’s love letter to His people. Now if you were enthralled with the person of your dreams, and they sent you a letter, would you neglect to read it? I would be shocked if the answer to that question was “yes.” It may actually be evidence that you are not quite as enthralled as you thought! However, I can imagine that the answer would be, “Of course I would read it!” We should be enthralled, captivated, and devoted to the Lord Jesus, and so we should desire to cling to every Word written about Him. But not only should we desire to know what the words about Him are, we should be diligent to know what the words about Him mean. This pursuit of understanding what the Bible teaches is theology.
And so, it is my aim to use this blog as a platform to discuss, in a little more detail, matters that pertain to theology. If this is something that interests you, please feel free to let us know in the comments, or keep your eyes open for the first article, which I hope to write, and release, sometime in the next month or two.
Until then, Soli Deo Gloria.