He is a Person, Not a Theology

At the time of Martin Luther, the church was building sanctuaries by selling bricks to people in exchange for indulgences. If a person bought a brick, they would be forgiven a few more sins or help a loved one out of purgatory. Because people couldn't read, and there weren't very many copies of the Bible floating around anyway, religious leaders used the threat of hell and God's wrath to manipulate the masses. But, as I mentioned earlier, when Luther read a copy of the Bible for himself, he began a reformation against this kind of crap. It makes you wonder how amazed he was when he first read the words of Christ in the book of Matthew, words about people who would try to distort relational truth and turn it into propositional truth for their own gain: "Instead of giving you God's Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God," Jesus begins, talking about the Pharisees,

They package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn't think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called "Doctor" and "Reverend."

Don't let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don't set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of "Father"; you have only one Father, and he's in heaven. And don't let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.

(Matt. 23:4–10 THE MESSAGE)

I know it's tempting to believe if we will walk through ten steps or listen to only a certain kind of music or pray in a certain way and for a certain number of days then we will find favor with God, but we won't. The formulas, I understand, were created by their authors to help us, but they do more hindering than helping. If we trust in a formula, if we trust in steps, we are not trusting in God. Formulas, while helping us organize our faith, also tempt us to trust in them rather than in God. In my own faith journey, I have disregarded formulas entirely.

There are many religions, and many religious sects within the faith of Christianity. Do I believe some are more scripturally faithful than others? Yes. But none of them matter in the slightest if formulas replace a personal relationship with Jesus. He is the authority we need. He is the God we must cling to for salvation. And He is a Person, not a list of ideas, not a theology.

This passage was an excerpt from Searching for God Knows What.

He is a Person, Not a Theology is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog