Thursday, July 02, 2009

The Theologian With a Pacifier


Picture this.

A famous theologian (think Augustine + Calvin + Spurgeon + Edwards + insert-your-favorite-Bible-hero-here all rolled into one) is standing on a street corner. A lady scooting a baby stroller nods to him as she passes; everyone knows he’s one of the most spiritual men around. The lady stoops to pick up the pacifier she accidentally dropped on the ground. As she’s stooping, her baby—scratch that, it’s a toddler—jumps out of the stroller and rambles into the street. The lady and theologian look on in horror as the 5 o’ clock bus rounds the corner and closes the gap between its tires and the toddler in the street.

The lady screams and makes a dive for the baby. The theologian, who is closer to the toddler and the street, thinks faster and calculates that saving the toddler isn’t worth possibly injuring himself. So out of the Pharisaical goodness of his heart, the theologian stops and picks up the pacifier.

Question: Is he worth his spurs as a theologian? Of course not. He's a jerk. But here’s a little more difficult question: can the theologian have good theology and act so selfishly?

Tougher question. At first blush, we’d probably say that the man’s theology shouldn’t be invalidated by his own miserliness. You can’t jab an entire creed because of one imperfect representative. On the other hand, if theology is our view of God that supposedly impacts every aspect of our lives, then we have no choice. We must question the man’s theology if he acts wrongly. We’ve got to wonder what he honestly believes about God, human life, and himself if he doesn’t bat an eyelid at the danger to the toddler at his feet.

While I’ve made up this scenario, it’s something we see all the time-- professing Christians who fall into sexual immorality, respected pastors coming out of the closet, or our own selves taking a fall to pride. How does this happen?

I suspect that we can have a flawless statement of faith and still be heretics. We may check off on our theological list “the chief end of man is to glorify God” and yet secretly scramble for all the praise we can get. Our hearts may not actually line up to the list of points we think we believe. Our actions reveal our true theology.

So how do we know we truly hold to good theology? There's no math equation for having a right heart. Ultimately, we have to renew our minds continually in Scripture. We must question our motives when we sin and ask what lie we're believing that makes sin look attractive.

In the end, good theology compels us to duck and run back towards the cross. As Vern Poythress wrote, “The power of the Christian faith is the power of the cross, power in human weakness, the power of God’s love.” It’s not the arrogance of knowing it all or thinking we have our spiritual ducks in a row. Good theology leads us to the Rock that is higher than ourselves-- and then to prove its strength by hanging all we have upon it.