Not Creed, But Christ?

I read That Incredible Christian by A.W. Tozer a few months ago, and while all of the (short) chapters are well worth a read, the chapter entitled 'How Important is Creed?' has always stuck with me. I mention this because I got caught up in a little conversation yesterday about doctrine and knowledge and all that intellectual stuff, and this chapter came straight to mind.

In it, Tozer highlights what was then (and probably still is) the cry of many Christians - Not creed, but Christ. Basically, he says this cry ushers us to forget about the nitty gritty of doctrine and go straight to Jesus. Sounds good, doesn't it? In fact, as Tozer says, this expression appears to honour our Lord more perfectly by focusing all of our attention on Him, and not upon 'mere words'.

However, he goes on to say that this kind of thinking is not the right kind of thinking. In fact, it's not really thinking at all. According to Tozer,

Love must be intelligent and informed if it is to have any permanent meaning.

I have to say, I agree with this wholeheartedly. I think too often as Christians we rely on our feelings in order to gauge how spiritually healthy we are. We love God when we have that warm, tingly feeling inside, and we are far from God when we feel down and depressed. I mean think of the dangers of this kind of behaviour in earthly relationships. Relying on 'feelings' for someone here on earth will only get you so far. You may set your eyes on a beautiful woman and have all these feelings rush through your body at the speed of light. She may then say or do something kind or loving to you, which causes even more excitement to well up within. However, if that's as far as things go, then could you ever say you truly love her? Of course not, because you don't actually know this person. You don't know who she is, you don't know what she stands for, you don't know how she treats people, you don't know what she values. Now of course she might be perfect with regards all these things, but if you don't get to know her and thus become informed of her qualities, then any kind of love you claim to have for her will be superficial, and it may not last, because feelings fade.

In the same way, we can go through life experiencing various 'buzzes' that we get from Jesus, but never fully understanding who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do. And as a consequence, how can we ever really worship what we do not know? As Tozer says,

We must worship in truth as well as spirit; and truth can be stated and when it is stated it becomes creed.

Of course a deeper intellectual knowledge of who Jesus is and what He did is not the goal of the gospel. You can know all the right things about Jesus and tick all of the right boxes, but never know His life inside of you. Faith in Jesus Christ is the heart of the Christian life no doubt, but a maturing knowledge of Jesus Christ must follow suit.

The kind of knowledge I'm referring to isn't simply the knowledge that will help you pass a test in Theology 101. It's the kind of knowledge that brings about transformation by the renewing of your mind. How can we live like Jesus lived unless we know what it is He stands for and what it is He values? It's not a case of ZAP! and then suddenly you just walk around like a zombie doing good things. We must read the Bible for ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to write the truths it contains within our hearts. Truths like who Jesus is, what He has done, how He wants us to live. The sermons we hear on Sunday must challenge us to think differently to the rest of the world. We should be engaging in conversations where iron begins to sharpen iron.

All of these things speak to both our intellect and our hearts. I think that too often we as Christians view the mind as something worldly and the heart as something godly, so therefore we think we need to shut off our minds and just let the Spirit stir in our hearts. This is not what Scripture teaches however. We are to love God with our minds, as well as every other facet of our being (Matt. 22:37).

If all you have are feelings of love for Christ without any sound foundation, then how can you ever be an effective evangelist with lasting fruit? The apostle Paul didn't appeal to King Agrippa on the basis of how Jesus made him feel. He appealed to King Agrippa by proclaiming the truth about Jesus, in order that he would believe and 'become also as I am' (Acts 26).

Because when we truly believe everything Paul believed, when we join ourselves to Christ through faith in Him, when we allow ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, when we are so consumed with the knowledge of Jesus Christ, then we will be a people who worship in spirit and truth, and a people ready to lead others to do the same.

The effort to be practicing Christians without knowing what Christianity is about must always fail. The true Christian should be, indeed must be, a theologian. He must know at least something of the wealth of truth revealed in the Holy Scriptures. And he must know it with sufficient clarity to state it and to defend his statement. - A.W. Tozer