She will give birth to a Son; and you shall name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins- Matthew 1:21 NASB
Theology is not a popular topic these days. Many view theology as a mind-numbing waste of time only relevant to a few eggheaded old guys in sweater vests.
It’s a lie from the pit of hell.
Theology matters. A lot.
Good theology is instructive and useful in very practical ways. Good theology empowers Christians to understand God and love Him more. What a person believes about God and His goodness makes a huge impact on how they work out their salvation (Philippians 2:12). Good theology helps non-Christians to grasp their need for God. What a person believes about God and His character will influence whether they become a follower of Jesus at all.
Conversely, bad theology is the root cause of spiritual dropouts and at the heart of most spiritual malpractice. When Christians impose their erroneous opinions about God on people who don’t know better those folks inevitably get hurt and become bitter (Hebrews 12:15). Many leave the church, those who don’t leave spread their bitterness and bad theology. Bad theology drives people away from Jesus by giving them the wrong idea about Jesus. Bad theology blinds seekers to truths necessary to understand salvation. Bad theology can even lead to sin in some situations.
Most bad theology is not obviously bad. Very little bad theology is an obvious pack of crazy pants lies. If this were the case only very dumb people would get sucked into believing bad doctrine. At its core, most bad theology is really just a small kernel of truth encased in a whole bunch of half-truths and/or errors regarding what the Bible really says. The seed of truth conceals the lies, and the lies blind people to the truth.
Which brings me to the subject of this post.
There is a popular Christian teaching making the rounds that is an excellent example of bad theology. Those who have bought into this heretical theology do not know what they don’t know about salvation. What they do understand is probably not adequate to get anyone saved. This teaching revolves around Jesus, why Jesus came into the world and what salvation is ultimately all about.
The teaching basically goes like this: Jesus came to earth because He wanted to be with us. That’s it. He loves us so much He just wants to be with us. However, He can’t do that until we let Him in. Once a person lets Jesus into their life, He just wants to be with them. Jesus wants to hang out with us and let us get to know Him and experience His presence.
It sounds awesome, because at the core of this teaching there’s some important theological truth. However, it simplifies some complex realities, skips over some important stuff and, like most contemporary bad theology only focuses on the good stuff that makes its hearers feel good (2nd Timothy 4:3-4).
It is one-hundred-percent true that Jesus came into the world as baby and grew into a man so He could restore relationship between God and humanity (John 3:16, Galatians 2:20). It is also totally true that God wants to be with us (Matthew 1:23). Human beings were literally created to have relationship with God and reflect His goodness (Genesis 1:26-28, Psalm 16:11, Psalm 21:6, Jude 1:24, Revelation 3:20).
Okay, so here’s the tricky part:
Jesus did not come to earth as a baby simply so He could “be with” His creation. Jesus already knew enough about humans to know people are much too sinful for a holy God to simply hang out with (Isaiah 64:6, Jeremiah 17:9, Ephesians 2:1-3). God is perfectly holy (Isaiah 6:2-4, Revelation 4:8). God is so holy He cannot be in relationship with anyone who is unholy, unrighteous and unwilling to do life His way. Jesus also understood that humans are incapable of being good even when God tells them exactly how to do it. God gave the law to help people understand their own unholiness and need for God. Sadly, most folks who followed the law just become bloated with pride and self-righteousness (more giant sins). All people sin. Sin, unrighteousness and rebellion separate us from God forever and make it impossible for anyone to “be with God” (Romans 3:23, 1st John 1:8)
So.
Because humans are sinful Jesus came to earth as a baby. Jesus is God so He had the power and ability to redeem us: or buy us back from the penalty of sin. The penalty of sin is death and eternity in hell (Romans 3:23). Because Jesus was perfect in every sense and because He was both God and man. He was able to take all our sin, unrighteousness, rebellion, pride and overall ickiness on Himself when He died on the cross. His death paid the price we all deserved to pay for our own sin.
That’s what it took for God the “be with us”.
When we skip over the ugly part of the story, we naturally miss the wonder of being with God. Being with God is more than a choice we make. There was a harsh penalty paid so we could get right with God and “be with” Him. This popular teaching sends the message that being with God is a nice option if that’s what we’re into, but there are no real consequences for choosing NOT to “be with” God.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The alternative to choosing to “be with” God is eternity in hell. Furthermore, many teachers skip over what must be done in return for the privilege of “being with” God. To “be with” God we must admit we are sinners. We must change our thinking, so it aligns with God’s thinking (Matthew 3:2, Matthew 3:8, Acts 3:19). Then we must allow the Holy Spirit to transform us from sinners into the image of Jesus (Romans 12:1-2, Colossians 3, 2nd Peter 1:5-11).
Any teaching that skips over any of that that is false teaching and the definition of bad theology.
