What Christian doctrine was the hardest for you to come to grips with?
For me it was probably the doctrine of election and its twin the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Election seemed too much like fatalism and the doctrine of perseverance seemed to contradict my experience of having seen many people walk away from the Christian faith.
And yet.
I saw those doctrines on almost every page of my Bible.
One of the RMM readings from today says:
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44 ESV)
The Greek word translated as “draws” is more literally “drags”. God has to drag people to Jesus. Sooner or later verses like this demand to be factored into our soteriology (our understanding of how people get saved).
Another verse from the same chapter says:
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. (John 6:39 ESV)
It sounds like if God drags you to Jesus then you stay with Jesus all the way through to the end.
What God does stays done.
And salvation is a work of God from start to finish.
I fought that doctrine for probably 10 years but was finally worn down by a steady stream of verses. I gave in and admitted that before I began responding to God, he had been working on me.
He went first.
He opened my blind eyes and then I saw Jesus and believed.
It took me a while to understand my own experience that way but when I did a lot things immediately shifted in my soul. I stopped feeling proud of my insight, discipline and tenacity in chasing down these significant truths and holding them tightly against the assault of the world, the flesh and the devil and I started feeling simply grateful.
And humble. I also felt cautious. I realized that my own internal narrative is not always accurate or fully informed. I realized that my view on me and my story could be very short sighted and self deceived. That gave me pause when it came to all my other doctrines and convictions. I realized that perhaps I believed a number of things “experientially” as opposed to exegetically; meaning that I was aware that having had an experiential doctrine before which turned out to be untrue, perhaps I was harbouring other experiential doctrines unknowingly. That motivated me to do an internal audit and to insist that all of my beliefs and convictions be tested by the cover to cover reading of the Bible.
I don’t want to think my own thoughts.
I want to think the thoughts of God.
I think that is what Christians do. The Bible says:
this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:2 ESV)
My heart is deceitful. My culture is confused. My perspective is limited and my enemy never sleeps.
Therefore, I will trust in the Lord my God. I will take him at his Word and I will believe what he says is true.
So help me God.
I’d love to hear from you as to the doctrine you struggled with the most. Tell me what it was and tell me how it changed under the power and scrutiny of God’s Word.
And may God alone be glorified.
Pastor Paul
N.B. To listen to Pastor Paul’s Into The Word devotional podcast on the TGC Canada website see here; to listen on SoundCloud see here. You can also find it on iTunes.
