You Can’t Live “Christian-ly” Without the Christian Message

Sometimes the original writers e-mail me to say they like the titles I gave their pieces better than what they had. But other days, I’m personally challenged to get inside the author’s message and try to re-frame it in different words.

^{Titus 3:8} This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

Today we pay a return visit to What’s Best Next, the Christian Leadership blog of Matt Perman. Click the title below to read at source:

Why is Theology Central to the Christian Life?

Why is Theology Central to the Christian Life? Because, as J. Gresham Machen said so well, Christianity is not just — or chiefly — an ethical code, but rather “a way of life founded on a message.”

Christianity is based on news. On something outside of us. On truth. And that’s theology.

Since Christianity is a way of life founded on a message, you can’t uphold the way of life if you disconnect it from the message. It’s like cutting a plant from its roots. It won’t last.

Further, Titus 3:8 shows us that sound doctrine (with exhortation) leads obedience when it is understood and believed. Note how Paul tells Titus there to teach the doctrine of justification so that God’s people will excel in good works.

How is theology the foundation of obedience? Because it builds the joy and hope that fuel obedience. Theology builds faith, and faith fuels obedience. The Christian life is a life of faith, and therefore doctrine is essential.

Of course it is not enough to just hear truth. We also must believe it and act on it. In turn, as we do so we find that application yields more spiritual discoveries.

So, interestingly, if you care about theology, applying what you learn leads to both love and, in turn, greater theological insight. But the ultimate aim of it all is love (1 Timothy 1:5).

---

 

^{1 Tim. 1:5} The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
 

The Sufficiency of Scripture

After several days of writing original pieces here at C201, I went back to mining the internet for interesting topics and articles, only to strike gold. Rebecca Writes is the blog of Rebecca Stark, and one of the features on her blog is the Theological Term of the Week. So far, she’s covered about 270 such entries, going back to 2007. I encourage you to use this resource again and again. Remember that theological terms are not necessarily Biblical terms; the entries in a theological dictionary won’t always occur in your concordance, in fact the majority won’t.

After reading many recent ones, and trying to choose a sample, I ended up going to one of the older ones, on the sufficiency of scripture, and then one of the newest, on the mortification of sin. Honestly, there are so many good articles at this blog that we might do this again sometime.

---

sufficiency of scripture

The principle that the words of scripture contain everything we need to know from God in order for us to be saved and to be perfectly obedient to him.

• From scripture:
  

  …from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. ( 2 Timothy 3:15-17 ESV)

• From The London Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 1, Section 6:
  

  The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture, to which nothing is to be added at any time, either by new revelation of the Spirit, or by the traditions of men.

•  From Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem:
  

  The sufficiency of Scripture also tells us that nothing is required of us by God that is not commanded in Scripture either explicitly or by implication. This reminds us that the focus of our search for God’s will ought to be on Scripture, rather than on seeking guidance through prayer for changed circumstances or altered feelings or direct guidance from the Holy Spirit apart from Scripture….

  The discovery of this great truth could bring tremendous joy and peace to the lives of thousands of Christians who, spending countless hours seeking God’s will outside of Scripture, are often uncertain about whether they have found it. In fact, many Christians today have very little confidence in their ability to discover God’s will with any degree of certainty. Thus there is little striving to do God’s will (for who can know it?) and little growth in holiness before God.

  The opposite ought to be true. Christians who are convinced of the sufficiency of Scripture should begin eagerly to seek and find God’s will in Scripture. They should be eagerly and regularly growing in obedience to God, knowing great freedom and peace in the Christian life.

Learn more

1. GotQuestions.org: “What is the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture? What does it mean that the Bible is sufficient?”
2. Scott McClare: The Authority and Sufficiency of Scripture
3. Tim Challies: The Bible’s Sufficiency
4. Mark Thompson: The Sufficiency of Scripture
5. David G. Peterson: The Sufficiency of Scripture
6. Mark Dever: “God Told Me” and the Sufficiency of Scripture
7. John MacArthur: The Sufficiency of Scripture, Part 1 (mp3); The Sufficiency of Scripture, Part 2 (mp3)

Related terms:

• authority of scripture
• canon of scripture
• inerrancy of scripture
• infallibility of scripture
• inspiration of scripture
• perspicuity of scripture
• sola scriptura

---

mortification (of sin)

A way of life in which a Christian takes an active role in “crushing sin from their lives … rooting it out, and depriving it of its influence”;1 a Christian’s active role in battling sinful habits in the power of the Spirit.

• From scripture:

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away:anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:5-11 ESV)

• From John Owen in The Mortification of Sin in Believers: 

[Mortification] is, then, the work of the Spirit. For, —

(1.) He is promised of God to be given unto us to do this work. The taking away of the stony heart, — that is, the stubborn, proud, rebellious, unbelieving heart, — is in general the work of mortification that we treat of. Now this is still promised to be done by the Spirit, Ezek. 11:19, 36:26, “I will give my Spirit, and take away the stony heart;” and by the Spirit of God is this work wrought when all means fail, Isa. 57:17-18.

(2.) We have all our mortification from the gift of Christ, and all the gifts of Christ are communicated to us and given us by the Spirit of Christ: “Without Christ we can do nothing,” John 15:5. All communications of supplies and relief, in the beginnings, increasings, actings of any grace whatever, from him, are by the Spirit, by whom he alone works in and upon believers. From him we have our mortification: “He is exalted and made a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto us,” Acts 5:31; and of our repentance our mortification is non small portion. How doth he do it? Having “received the promise of the Holy Ghost,” he sends him abroad for that end, the Spirit, as Tertullian speaks, “Vicariam navare operam,” to do the works that he had to accomplish in us.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions.org: What is mortification of sin?
2. Sinclair Ferguson: The Practice of Mortification
3. J. Ligon Duncan: Putting Sin to Death
4. John Owen :  The Mortification of Sin in Believers
5. Christopher Love: The Mortification of Sin
6. Octavius Winslow: The Believer’s Obligation to Mortify Sin
7. John MacArthur: The Mortification of Sin (pdf)

Related terms:

• progressive sanctification
• regeneration