 |
| My very well-grounded junior highers, 2012-13 schoolyear |
"This is gonna be so easy!" I heard two of my eighth graders whisper excitedly to each other. I grinned to myself. It wouldn't be as easy as they thought.
I started with a shy seventh-grader. She reached in and pulled out a card. "Doing good is it's own reward," she read.
"Is that part of the gospel message?" I asked her.
"Say yes!" A few whispered to her.
"No! It's not! That's not even in the Bible!" an older boy told her frantically.
"It's her turn," I told the class. Turning to her, I asked, "Is that part of the gospel?"
"I don't think it is," she replied, a little uncertainly.
"You are correct!" I said. "Ten points."
"I could have sworn that was part of the gospel," one of the other kids hissed under his breath.
The next student got a little bit harder one. "God created the earth in six days," he read. "Yes, that's gotta be part of the gospel message."
"Well," I told him. "It is biblical truth, and it's what we believe as Christians, but it isn't part of the message of salvation--at least not in a specific way."
Several of the students protested at this. "How can you witness to someone if you don't convince them that God created the earth in six days?" One of my very intelligent older boys asked. "Evolution is false, and we have to show people that!"
"I agree with you," I said, "but that isn't what you'd start off with when witnessing. It isn't the gospel. It is part of the larger truth of the Bible, and it is very important, but it isn't the salvation message. If someone is unsaved and you just want to share the message with them to get them to understand what Jesus did for them, you wouldn't get into a debate about Evolution. That might come later."
The boy looked nonplussed (he probably had a calling on his life to be an apologist).
The rest of the quotations on cards ranged from statements such as, "Jesus rose again on the third day," (definitely a gospel point) to "What goes around comes around." I was trying to get the students to zero in on what the gospel message is. These were smart, well-grounded kids who knew their Bibles well. However, because they knew the word so well, they didn't really know how to share their faith without sharing the entire Bible with someone in one sitting. I was trying to help them fine-tune it.
What is the gospel? God created and loves us (John 3:16a). We have sinned (Romans 3:23) and God's righteousness demands our sin be punished--death (Romans 6:23). Jesus took the penalty for our sinfulness by willingly dying for our sins and rising on the third day (First Corinthians 15:3-4). Salvation is received by faith in the finished work of Christ (Acts 16:31). That is the gospel message in a nutshell. These details can be fleshed out. The entirety of scripture frames this message, and teaches us so much more for our lives as believers. However, not every truth in scripture is part of witnessing to the unsaved. No one is saved because they believe that Noah built an ark. That is true, and that story, as all parts of scripture, reveals the truth of who God is and how He has been at work...but that story in and of itself doesn't offer us salvation. Believing the account of Noah and the flood in Genesis is good and right, but it doesn't save us. It is a picture of what does. If someone doesn't believe this, or any other part of the Bible, I would question how they can know any of the Bible is true if they can't believe all of it. That is an entirely different issue, though.
In saying that these other biblical narratives and teachings aren't part of the gospel, am I de-emphasizing them or relegating them to a place of lesser importance? Not at all! Second Timothy 3:16 tells us, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness. All scripture...every verse...every word. It is all true, God's message for us. Hebrews 4:12 says, The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joins and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. It transcends time, and is just as applicable to us today as it was when it was first recorded. God's Spirit lives in the hearts of believers, and illumines the truth of the Bible to us as we read it. The Holy Spirit applies it to our lives in ways He knows we need it. God's word is all valid. However, different passages serve different purposes. The gospel is the overarching message, and all of it contributes in some what toward that, but not every verse is the gospel. Not every verse is about salvation.
My dad was an adult Sunday school teacher from my very early childhood until I was in my thirties. As a young adult, I spent time in his class. He used to assign homework. Everyone would receive the passage for the next week, all printed out in the King James Version (because it was legal to print it out and distributed it without violating copyright laws). The students were to read the passage and color each verse with one of four colored pencils. If the passage taught something about the nature of God, they were to color it in yellow. If it was a promise, they were to color it blue. If it was a command or warning, it was to be colored red, and it if was something true about Christians, it was to be colored green. Every week, people would share what they had gotten for each verse. Sometimes, people saw some verses a little differently, and some verse fit more than one category. This basic practice should illustrate that different verses serve different functions in the Bible. After the students colored their verses, they were to write their own paraphrase of the passage, verse by verse. This was also eye-opening, as people were actually sharing what God had shown them through these verses.
I remember one time, I was teaching a Bible lesson in Vacation Bible School. The story that day was about Adam and Eve. One of the boys, Jason, was my little Bible scholar, and he was the type who would always raise his hand and try to tell the rest of the story as soon as he recognized what I was teaching. When he realized I was teaching about Adam and Eve that day, his hand shot up.
"Jason," I said, knowing from experience what he was thinking, "I'm making you my mistake catcher. You listen carefully and make sure I don't mess up, and at the end, you can tell me if I forgot anything."
This was agreeable. Well, I taught the story, and at the end, was ready to move onto the next activity.
Jason called you, "You forgot to let me tell you all the mistakes you made!"
"Did I make any?" I asked.
"Yes," he replied. "You forgot to mention that a day is as a thousand years with the Lord!"
This is a cute, funny story, but in reality, does that truth Jason quoted (which is found in Psalm 90:4) apply to the story of Adam and Eve? No, not really. If we are going to study the Bible, teach it to others, and especially share the gospel with the unsaved, we need to know how to handle the Word. We need to understand what to use and when to use it. Second Timothy 2:15 says, Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
We not only need to read and know the Bible, but understand what it teaches. We need to have a discipline of Christian theology that formulates an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the doctrines of the Christian faith. This is called systematic theology. Know what the Bible teaches, and where to apply these teachings. Then, you can effectively share the gospel without getting into a debate about other matters...and you can teach a Bible study about those other matters and know how to correctly explain them.
So...how do we develop systematic theology? We need to be reading the Bible in an ongoing way. Daily time in the word is a must. When you read a passage, ask yourself what the passage is saying, who was being addressed in the original audience, how it applies to you today as a believer, and what the passages teachings about God. See if the notes in your Bible give parallel passages, and look them up. Maybe you could even highlight verses the way my father had his Sunday school class do. Find a biblically-sound commentary and use it in your Bible study. A free online commentary I like is the Enduring Word Commentary. Look it up. I also own some hard copy copies of the Bible Knowledge Commentary. They are really helpful. Having these tools is a real aid in developing systematic theology, and in turn, knowing how to handle God's word.
No comments:
Post a Comment