Knowing God and the gospel: introducing Christian Belief

This introduction:

• examines the connection between the gospel and knowing God;

• defines Christian doctrine;

• explains how Christian doctrine must be based in the Bible;

• considers the role of tradition, experience and reason in the development of doctrine;

• sets out some reasons why Christian doctrine is important.

Knowing God
Christian doctrine is all about knowing God. It exists because God’s plan for the
world is that his people will know him, that is enjoy, love, trust and worship him. This is
plan centres on the person and work of Jesus.
Jesus’ prayer in John 17 makes this clear. He prays for his disciples and for all who
will hear from them and believe in him. Eternal life — sometimes just termed “life” — is a
key theme in John’s gospel (Jn 1:4; 3:15–16, 36; 4:14, 36; 5:21, 24, 26, 39; 6:27, 33, 35,
40, 47, 51, 53, 54, 63, 68; 8:12; 10:10; 28; 11:25; 12:25, 50; 14:6; 17:2–3; 20:31). Here
Jesus says that eternal life is knowing God and knowing himself (17:3). Eternal life is not
simply living forever, but enjoying communion with God. Carson say “Eternal life is not so
much everlasting life as personal knowledge of the Everlasting One”.1
Knowing God and Jesus are not two separate relationships, rather to know the Son
is to know Father; to know God is to know Jesus. The reason for this is spelled out in the
chapter (as it has been all through John’s gospel and specially through the previous three
chapters). The Son, who is God and was with the Father and is one with him has come in
the flesh as Jesus. Jesus was sent by the Father to do and teach what the Father gave
him. His words and actions reveal God (vv4-8). So, Jesus prays: “I have revealed you to
those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and
they have obeyed your word” (v6). The Father has shared everything with Jesus who says
“All I have is yours, and all you have is mine”, and on that basis the disciples have
received God’s glory from Jesus (v10).
Jesus prayer looks beyond his earthly ministry to the events after is his resurrection.
He prays that just as he brought the disciples to know God, they in turn will bring others
into the same relationship (vv20-26).
This prayer is at the climax of John’s gospel, when Jesus has almost completed his
mission. He is facing his death and preparing the disciples for life after he returns to the
Father. His prayer reinforces the message of John’s gospel — that he has come to
redeem and reveal and everything he does achieves that. What he does is shared with
people who were not there through the message about him, shared by his disciples. Near

1
D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John (Leicester/Grand Rapids: IVP/Eerdmans, 1991), 556.
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that end of the gospel, John says that he has written about Jesus so that people may
believe in him and have life in his name”. (John 20:30–31)
So, Jesus is sent by the Father to redeem people who will know God, his words and
action achieve this, and the message about him extends that work to future generations.

The biblical drama

John 20 lies at the centre point of the biblical story or drama. We may think of the
Bible as the record of the drama he stages.2

• God is the playwright, and also the main actor.

• The drama reveals God. The theme of the whole drama is God redeeming his
people to know him in his presence. As he is the playwright and director, the whole plot
shows us something about himself. As the main actor (“the star”) his lines and actions
reveal him. He steps on stage as a human character at the decisive moment and returns
at the climax.

• The key moment in the drama is Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension.

• The climax of the drama will be when God fixes the world and brings us to live
with him in full fellowship.

Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen, The Drama of Scripture: finding our place in
the Biblical Story, Grand Rapids, Baker, 2nd ed., 2014. Analyse the “drama” of the Bible
into six acts, including several smaller scenes, and an interlude.
Act 1: God establishes his kingdom (Creation)
Act 2: Rebellion in the kingdom (Fall)
Act 3: The King Chooses Israel (Redemption initiated)
Scene 1: A People for the King
Scene 2: A Land for the People
Scene 3: Exile, Promise & Return* (added to original analysis)

Interlude: Waiting for an ending

Act 4: The Coming of the Kingdom (Redemption Accomplished)

2
This has become a relatively common way of speaking of God’s work in history and ways in which
Christians think about doctrine. Some of the major authors who use this metaphor are: Hans Urs von
Balthasar, Theo-Drama. Theological Dramatic Theory (5 vols); Michael Horton, Covenant and Eschatology:
The Divine Drama (2004); Kevin Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to
Christian Theology (2005) and Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine (2014). See
M. Habets ‘“The Dogma is the Drama”: Dramatic Developments in Biblical Theology.’ Stimulus 16.4
(November 2008), 2-5.
.
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 Act 5: Spreading the news of the Kingdom (The Church’s mission)
Scene 1: From Jerusalem to Rome
Scene 2: And Into the Entire World

Act 6: The Return of the King (Redemption Completed)

The gospel and knowing God

Jesus is at the centre of God’s plan, and the gospel is the message about who
Jesus is and what he has done. That announcement is crucial to drama. It is the summary
of God’s drama, and makes sense in the context of the wider drama. The gospel tells us
that we are invited into the drama because of Jesus, and that is how we meet God and
get to know him.
At this point it would be useful to define “the gospel”, since it is a word which gets
used in all sorts of ways, and which I will use regularly in this course.
The gospel is the proclamation of God’s work in the Lord Jesus by his life, death,
resurrection, exaltation and return through which he redeems his people from sin and
gives them the Holy Spirit, fulfils his purposes for Israel and brings the renewal of
creation. This gospel calls all people to trust in the Lord Jesus as God’s saviour and to
submit to him as the Lord and Judge.

In this definition the gospel as has a focus on Jesus. It then has three wider aspects
— the redemption of God’s people, the fulfilment of God’s purposes for Israel and the
renewal of creation. Each of these flows from God’s work in Christ; and are connected to
each other. God’s people are redeemed as the new Israel and participate in the new
creation. Their redemption is only complete with the new creation. God’s purposes for
Israel were always that it would bring blessing of the nations and be the vehicle for the
renewal of creation.

Doctrine and the gospel

The word ‘doctrine’ simply means teaching, so Christian doctrine is Christian
teaching. The gospel is the key to Christian teaching. Paul tells Timothy he must know the
gospel, guard it and pass it on carefully to others. Paul summarises the gospel: “He has
saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because
of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the
beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour,
Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:9-10). Paul himself has been appointed as “a herald and an
apostle and a teacher” of this gospel (v12). And now Timothy must keep the same
“pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus” and “guard the good

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deposit” he has been given (vv13-14). That is why Paul tells Timothy to pass on the
message and teaching to reliable people who will be able to teach others (2 Tim 2:1).
As we’ve seen, the gospel is focussed on Jesus but is wider than just the story of
Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. To teach the gospel we also have to teach about God
who planned and promised the gospel, the creation God is saving, Israel through whom
God worked and the people God saves. So Christian doctrine is focussed on Jesus but
spreads wide to summarise what the Bible teaches.

Confessing the faith: the Apostles’ Creed

The Apostles’ Creed was certainly not written by the Apostles, it is however based on
some of the earliest Christian doctrinal summaries. An early version comes from the
church in Rome about 180 C.E. and it developed into its final form in about the 8th
century.
I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
he descended into hell;
the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic Church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting. Amen.

How does it summarise the gospel?

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What else does it deal with beyond the gospel?

How are these other things related to the gospel?

Are there things that you are surprised to find in the Creed?

Are there important doctrines are not included? Can you think of reasons why they are
not in the Creed?

Where does doctrine come from?

First and foremost, Christian doctrine comes from the Bible. One of the aims of this
course is to show the connection between the Bible and doctrine. I grew up in a church in
which we heard meaty doctrinal sermons, but as a teenager I often could not find the
connection from the doctrine to the text which was announced for the sermon. On the
other hand, there are people who can quote many Bible passages but are unable to
explain the overall teaching of the Bible. One of the key goals of this unit is to help you
make the connection between the Bible and doctrine.
Doctrine is primarily Christian teaching, based on the Bible which focusses on the
gospel.
Real God for the Real World, ch 5. “God’s trustworthy word”, pp94-127 has a discussion of the
nature of the Bible. The key points of that chapter are summarised below. We will look at this in more
detail in a later lecture.
1. The nature of the Bible
1.1. The Bible has authority
1.2. The Bible is true
1.3. The Bible is clear
1.4. The Bible is sufficient for us to know what we need to know
1.5. The Bible is unified
2. God speaks his word through the Spirit
2.1. The Spirit inspired the Bible
2.2. The Spirit opens us to the message of the Bible
2.3. The Spirit opens the Bible to our understanding
3. God speaks his word in history
3.1. God speaks in Jesus
3.2. Jesus affirms the Old Testament — so the church accepts it as God’s word
3.3. Jesus appointed the apostles as authoritative teachers on his behalf

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 3.4. The apostles wrote the New Testament — so the church accepts it as God’s word

Christian doctrine must be based on and determined by the Bible. It summarises

the key teaching of the Bible on its most important themes. Because the Bible is God’s
authoritative and sufficient word for his church, then every part of Christian doctrine
must be based in and tested by the Bible.
Biblical theology is the study of how God’s revelation is presented across the whole
Bible and how it develops through the history of redemption. It is key for seeing the
unity of the Bible and so as a basis for doctrine.

There are three other important factors which contribute to doctrine: church
tradition, Christian experience and reason.
We do not understand the Bible alone, but as part of God’s mulit-generational,
global church. God has promised that his people will have the Spirit to help them
understand his word. Over the years, as the church has had to deal with various issues
and has come to conclusions about what the Bible teaches on different topics. (The
Apostle’s Creed is an early example of the church recording its insights). Even the
simple action of picking up a Bible and reading it depends on church tradition. The
church recognised the books of the New Testament, developed a common order for
the books, and decided it was appropriate to produce it as a single volume. The
translation you read reflects interpretations developed over the centuries. The
chapters and verses were added by Christians in the 16th century.
This dependence on church tradition is a blessing (not a problem). We don’t
understand doctrine just from our own understanding; but we benefit from hundreds
of years of thought and study.

The Creeds and Confessions are the considered and authoritative statements of the
teaching of the church and deserve our respect and trust. We need to have extremely
good reasons to disagree with the Creeds and Confessions of our church.
Historical theology is the study of how Christians have understood the Bible and
expressed their faith over time.

Christian doctrine also takes Christian experience into account. Our experience
raises questions for us. We realise what seems to really matter for Christian living and
learn from our mistakes (and those of others).
Christian experience is both our own personal experiences and the cumulative
experience of the church. It has to be understood in the light of the Bible and
interpreted by the Bible, but it is a significant factor in developing doctrine. It raises
questions which need answers and suggests ways to understand God.

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 There is an ancient saying that the way we worship is the way we believe (in Latin,
“Lex orandi, lex credendi”). The experience of worship, both in church and living for
God is life, can and should shape doctrine.

Doctrine also makes use of reason. It develops answers which summarise the
teaching of the Bible and applies it to various questions. Doctrine is not based on our
thinking, but it is developed through careful thinking.
Reason is the human capacity to self-consciously understand and to apply that
understanding to respond appropriately to ourselves and our environment. To be
rational is to be someone who is accountable to have reasons for what they
understand and what they do; and who is responsible for and able to test to those
reasons. Reason should be integrated with other human activities such as trusting or
feeling, even though it is somewhat distinguishable from them.3 Reason allows us to
understand, explain and apply our faith, but must always be kept under the rule of
Scripture.
We have to be careful that tradition, experiences and reason do not take over and
become the basis of our doctrine. Kept in the right place, they are an important
contribution to doctrine.

Why doctrine matters

Several times in this course we will spend time looking at Colossians 1. The opening
chapter of Paul’s letter to the Colossians is rich in important Christian teaching and we will
take that as our main text. We will use it as a home base and set out from there to explore
other parts of the Bible.

What key areas of Christian teaching does Paul touch on in Colossians 1?

The chapter is full of doctrine as Paul teaches (or at least reminds) the Colossian
believers of things they should know. Most obviously Paul gives a complex and awe-

3
A.G. Padgett, “Faith Seeking Understanding Collegiality and Difference in Theology and Philosophy” in
Faith and Reason: Three Views S. Wilkens, ed. (Downers Grove: IVP, 2014), 89-91.
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inspiring description of Jesus, the Son of God, in verses 15-20, setting out who Jesus is in
relation to God and the creation and explaining what God has done through Jesus.
Paul teaches doctrine because the faith of the Colossians is under threat. He points
to the threat when he warns the Colossians to make sure that they are not deceived by
“fine-sounding arguments” (2:4) nor captured by “hollow and deceptive philosophy”
(2:8). He cautions them against people who have adopted “idle notions” (2:18). The result
of this, he states, is that they have lost connection with Christ who is the source of their
life and growth (2:19). Paul knows that false teaching ruins Christian living. He teaches
true doctrine to counter destructive false teaching.
In contrast to this threat, Paul wants the Colossians to continue in the firm and
growing faith he knows they have (2:5). His wants them to be united in love and a deep
knowledge of Christ, “the full riches of complete understanding” (2:2). A few verses later
(2:6-7) he states the theme of the book, urging them to continue to live for Christ as Lord
in the same way that they first received him. They will do this by maintaining a deep living
connection with Christ (being rooted and built up in him). To keep this relationship they
will need to be “strengthened in the faith” just as they were taught. Paul does not mean
that they should trust God more strongly or deeply (though that may also be the result of
his letter). Rather, he wants them to grasp “the faith” — that is the message about Jesus
which they have received — and grasp it more fully and richly. As they do that they
should overflow with thankfulness.
So, doctrine protects from false teaching and provides the basis for continued
growth. Paul’s own work is based on the connection between teaching and growth, he
proclaims Christ to people “admonishing and teaching” so they will be mature in Christ
(1:28).
It is not that Paul thinks that doctrine is everything or that being a Christian is merely
a matter of knowing the correct teaching. He prays for the Colossians (1:3,9) and suffers
for them (1:24). Their faith is a living trust in Christ which is bound up with love and hope
(1:4-5). He prays that they will live in a way which is worthy of their Lord and pleases him
(1:10) and that they will be strengthened by God and give thanks to him (1:12). Teaching
and knowing doctrine has to be accompanied by trusting Christ, knowing him and living
faithfully for him.
To take up one of Paul’s favourite images in Colossians — doctrine is like the
skeleton of the Christian life. Without a skeleton there is no body, just a pile of pulp. Yet a
body is not all skeleton, it must have muscles and ligaments and soft organs and
neurones and blood vessels and a host of other parts. A body is healthy when all the
systems are working well and a working together.

Doctrine and life and worship

Christian doctrine cannot be divorced from life and worship, because head, heart
and hands are connected. Doctrine teaches us about God and his ways, but we if we truly

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know him then we will praise him and love him and serve him. As we live for God and in
his presence, then we will deepen our knowledge of him.
An ‘armchair’ expert seems to know a lot about a topic but does not put it into
practice. I’m an armchair expert when it comes to many sports. I can comment on the
skills and strategies of the players and coaches, though in most cases I’ve never played
the sport myself. I know the theory, but that’s all. Paul is not interested in armchair
experts in Christian doctrine. He wants the Colossians to know the truth because it is the
basis for them living a secure, healthy Christian life.
Because understanding doctrine is an act of worship it must be done obediently.
Christian doctrine is not a speculative free-for-all in which we come up with interesting,
entertaining or intriguing ideas. It is fascinating, but doctrine must first of all be true to
God by reflecting his revelation of himself. We are not free to make our doctrine more
comfortable or neater than God’s revelation. So we must proceed prayerfully. As you
work through this course make sure you take time to pray about what you are learning. If
you are working on it in a weekly format in a group, it would be a good idea to spend
time praying together and to use some of the material as a basis for prayer during the
week in between. We also need to keep asking how our doctrine applies to life. That may
not always be immediately obvious, it may take time to see the relevance but we should
seek it.
Doctrine matters because it helps us understand God who loves us and calls us to
be his. As we understand him and his ways we gain a truth to live by. The rest of this
course will examine some of the great themes of the Bible and help you see key doctrines
which rest on those themes. I hope you enjoy the journey.