THE CHALLENGE OF THEOLOGY

Theology, the study and understanding of God, might be your most difficult undertaking. This is because we have in our sights a transcendent, omnipotent, and omniscience Creator who is greater than His perplexing creation.

When I first began to teach apologetics, which must address the many challenges against the Faith coming from every corner and every discipline, I found it a daunting task. It took me years to rise to the occasion. However, I no longer regard apologetics as a challenge equal to understanding of the Bible. I was tempted to use the word “mastery” in regards to understanding the Scriptures and the God of the Scriptures but immediately recoiled from such a thought. There is no mastery when it comes to understanding the Bible.

We still cannot get our minds around the basic concepts of science, like the nature of matter, light, time, and space, let alone sub-atomic particles. If these basics are illusive, so too must be the Creator of these basics. Nevertheless, He has revealed Himself to us with such clear manifestations that we are “without excuse” when we deny His existence and even His character:

·       For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)

He has also imprinted our conscience with His righteous moral truths to such an extent that we cannot claim ignorance (Romans 2:14-16). Besides, he has directly revealed Himself through His Scriptures. Nevertheless, much remains such a mystery that He defies our feeble attempts to comfortably insert Him into our equations and our pat theological constructs. Let me give you an example, which we encounter throughout our journey through the Scriptures. This example points to the impossibility of fully reconciling His work and plan with our freewill efforts:

·       ¹  We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, ²  for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. ³  For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, ⁴  begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— ⁵  and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. ⁶  Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. ⁷  But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also. (2 Corinthians 8:1-7)

Who exactly is doing what? Was their alms a product of the “grace of God” (verses 1,5,6,7) or the “generosity on their part” (verse 2), “of their own accord” (verse 3), in all earnestness (verse 7). Clearly, the Macedonia believers weren’t the puppets of God. They were exercising their freewill but it was “by the will of God” (verse 5).

How do we understand this mystery? Let me try to draw some incomplete but useful conclusions from this passage:

1.    The will of God and the will of people work together in a way that we cannot fully understand. His plan is unchanging (Numbers 23:19; Psalm 33:11; Proverbs 19:21; Isaiah 14:24; Ephesians 2:10), but we freely fulfill it.

2.    However, God is the master Mover. Paul concludes this teaching by crediting God for our giving: “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift” [of our giving]! (2 Corinthians 9:15)

3.    However, the truth of God’s sovereignty and providence over our lives does not relieve us of our responsibilities (1 Corinthians 15:10; Philippians 2:12-13) or culpability when we fail to live up to them.

4.    Somehow, we need to hold fast to both sets of these truths about God and His people without compromising either set.

You might balk at this and think, “This doesn’t make any sense.” Well, it certainly doesn’t make complete sense. But we have to make a choice. Will we reduce the Bible and its teachings to something that we can completely grasp, as many do, or are we going to allow the Bible to direct our thinking and living, even when we cannot grasp it completely? The latter is what any scientist must do. They cannot allow their theories to override the facts. Instead, they must follow the facts wherever they might lead.