Dancing to Doctrine: About a Person

"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me." —John 5:39

There is perhaps no subject within our Christian faith that people find more abhorrent than doctrine. At the mere mention of the word, the mind evokes images of that which is dry, dusty, disconnected and divisive. While such a view is not entirely without support, it fails to account for the beauty of not only what doctrine is, but also what it does, and what it invites us to be and do.

Doctrine demarcates between that which is true, right and useful, and that which is wrong, bad and destructive to the soul. Doctrine discloses what is true and exposes what is false. But doctrine goes further than simply differentiating between the good and the bad; it also unites and invites. Doctrine unites us under an umbrella of safety, thus protecting us from error, while inviting us to participate in the life of God.

There is only one God, but He reveals Himself in three Persons together known as the Trinity, or Tri-Unity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The three exist in an interdependent relationship of love overflowing to one another. While the three are distinct Persons, they make up the one God. As Trinity, God decided to make man in His image for His own glory. But man sinned, thus fracturing the relationship forever—doomed to pain, death and destruction.

Nevertheless, God sent His Son to repair the fractured relationship by taking upon Himself humanity and offering Himself as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of man, thus fulfilling the righteous requirement of God. The purpose of Christ’s incarnation is manifold—to identify with man, to pay for sins, to destroy the works of the devil, and to give life—full, abundant life (John 10:10). The invitation to abundant life comes only from Jesus’ resurrection life, made available to us through our trust in Him. These are biblical truths that comprise precious doctrine, which helps us to see and know how we might live in this resurrection life.

Doctrine is a statement of belief, but it is a statement of belief concerning a divine Person. The Bible is not merely a book of propositional statements telling us what is good and bad, but it is a divine story where God the Creator Judge assumes the flesh of His creation and is judged for their sin. The Bible is a story of God’s love relationship with a particular people, the Jews, and His plan to use them to bring forth a Savior who would be a Savior to the entire world. Jesus is the central and pivotal character in the Bible and in history. The entirety of the Old Testament pointed forward to His coming, while the New Testament points back to it. Within Jesus is salvation. Doctrine then, is first and foremost about a Person—Jesus Christ, who He is, what He did, and what He invites us to—everything else is secondary.

Jesus offers us an invitation, to drink of Him, to eat of Him, to take up His cross, and to live life daily in wholehearted surrender to Him. He invites us to die—to ourselves, our desires, and to live in His resurrection life so that we might experience the joy, peace, and state of blessedness which comes from Him. That’s what doctrine clarifies for us—the means by which He does it and the parameters within which we are to experience it. I hope that all of us might look at doctrine with new eyes—not as mere rules and regulations for living, but as an invitation to fellowship with a Person—Jesus Christ, God’s Son, who came to save sinners such as us. Amen.