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by
Jen Wilkin
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April 26 - May 13, 2025
And immediately in chapter 2 we see Adam do exactly that. God brings all of the animals to Adam to be named, to be taxonomized, as it were. He does not say, “Let there be a new species of hippopotamus.” No, the work of creation is finished. Rather, he says, “Here is a hippopotamus, and here is a water buffalo.” He does not add to God’s creation; Adam simply brings organizing language to what already exists. In doing so, he is bearing the image of an orderly God. And he is fulfilling the command God has given him to take dominion.
Like taxonomies, organizer bins, filing systems, and calendars, theology is a means of organizing the ideas given to us in God’s Word. Theology does not add to those ideas; it simply gives us a way to understand them comprehensively from Genesis to Revelation. Theology sorts ideas into categories, it provides helpful labels, it orders relationships and events from a high-level view.
Theology matters because it shapes us not merely at the intellectual level, but at the emotional and the practical level.
We are doing theology when we preach, pray, and sing, but we are also doing theology when we go to work, when we take a vacation, as we care for an aging parent, as we fight sin, as we raise kids, as we mourn the loss of a loved one, as we spend our money, and as we grow old. You are a theologian, and you are always doing theology.
Because academics do theology at a level some of us never will doesn’t mean all of us should avoid doing theology altogether.
Put simply, we all want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, and we want our lives to matter. If theology is simply words about God, and God is the most important being—the ultimate Reality—is there anything that matters more?
It is more accurate to say that theology begins with the mind and moves to the heart.
Theology does not worship the life of the mind, but rather acknowledges that “the heart cannot love what the mind does not know.”3
Theology functions properly if an enlivened intellect fuels an enlivened heart. It recognizes the beauty of reason in the life of faith, and it gives to reason a vocabulary and a vision.
Theology that does not lead to doxology (worship) is not theology at all, but a v...
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What is theology? Words about God. Who does theology? Everybody. What does theology do? It organizes biblical truths. Why does theology matter? Because living well matters. Simply put, theology is part of a life well lived. Theology helps us live all of life well.
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The aim of Christian theology is to reflect on God’s revelation of Himself in Scripture.
The Bible is our primary authority because in Scripture God makes Himself known to us.
Theology begins and ends with prayer. The task of theology is best done on our knees, asking God, by the power of the Spirit, to awaken our hearts and minds to the person and work of Christ in the Scriptures.
In prayer, we begin to see God and ourselves rightly.
Theology is loving God with our minds. Theology is meant to lead us into greater worship of God, and worship of God is meant to lead us into greater knowledge of God.
We are humble theologians because we cannot know God unless He makes Himself known to us.
If we get the doctrine of God wrong, we face very real consequences in our daily lives. Conceive of Him as able to be controlled? Watch your prayers turn into negotiation sessions and your moral behaviors turn to efforts to earn His favor. Conceive of Him as gracious and loving, but not just? Watch your sin grab a stranglehold as you assure yourself, “He’ll forgive me!” Think He isn’t all-seeing? Prepare for the illusion of secret sins to pounce and devour you. Think He withholds good things from His children? The way you spend your time and money will show the signs. The way you love your
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If God is only one, we lose the distinct persons of the Father, Son, and Spirit. If God is three, we lose the beautiful unity of the one God. Heresy seeks to relieve the tension that the Bible demands. Orthodoxy requires us to hold that tension. God is one and three.
Economic Trinity God the Father initiates the plan for salvation. God the Son accomplishes salvation. God the Spirit applies salvation.
The sending of the Son is central to our understanding of the gospel. The triune God has so set His affection upon you that God the Father sent God the Son to die on the cross on your behalf.
The Father is unsent. The Son is sent by the Father. What distinguishes the Spirit from the Father and the Son? The Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son.
Think how many times this week, today, this hour, or maybe even this minute you have set your affections on a multitude of lesser things. The pleasures and distractions of this world are vying for our affections and attention in place of God. Our possessions, our work, and our relationships become objects of our worship instead of means for worship of the One who gives them.
You are invited to fellowship specifically with God the Holy Spirit. You no longer have to go to a temple to experience the presence of God. The Spirit now resides in you. He delights to be with you. In His presence you can know that God delights in you.
What is the most important question we will ever seek to answer? As it turns out, it’s not, “What do you love?” And it’s not even, “Whom do you love?”—though how we answer both of those questions reveals the state of our hearts. The most important question we can ever seek to answer is this: “Who loves you?” God does. The one true God, the triune God. Say that answer out loud, no pondering or soul-searching required. Any love we have for God is only because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). The doctrine of the Trinity is the doctrine of God’s love. You are loved by God the Father, you are loved
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Incommunicable Attributes Only God is: Infinite Incomprehensible Self-existent Self-sufficient Eternal Immutable Omnipresent Omniscient Omnipotent Sovereign Transcendent Communicable Attributes God is (and we can be): Holy Loving Just Good Merciful Gracious Long-suffering Wise Jealous (for His glory) Wrathful Faithful Righteous Truthful
Although He may choose to use assistance, it is His good pleasure, not His need that governs that choice
God is above His creation, and He would exist if there were no creation.
His common grace is shown toward everything He has made, and His special grace is shown toward those who receive salvation through Christ
God is always good. It is essential to His character. He always does the right thing. Ultimately, since He is God, whatever He does is right. He is the absolute.
Buddy knows a fake Santa because Buddy knows the real Santa.
When we devote ourselves to the knowledge of God disclosed to us in His Word, we learn to recognize Him rightly and to offer Him right worship.
And we gain yet another gift in our knowing of God: the ability to understand ourselves in relation to Him.
The more we learn of Him, the more we love Him. The more we learn of Him, the more we love ourselves and our neighbors as we ought. And the more we want to proclaim to everyone we meet: “I know Him!!!”
Christianity distinguishes all knowledge of God as revealed knowledge. We do not discover God. We don’t stumble across Him or search Him out, but rather, He makes Himself known. He reveals Himself to us. We cannot know God unless He gives Himself to us in revelation.
We can know God through His creation, but that knowledge does not redeem us; rather, it condemns us. Creation gives us a knowledge of God as Creator, but we need to know God as Redeemer. We need a knowledge that gives new life. We call that knowledge special revelation.
The fact that its message is consistent and has withstood the test of time is evidence of its miraculous origins and nature.
Every text has a human author. God could have transmitted His words to us through any medium. But He chose to do so through human authors putting words on a page. Human authorship means we should expect Paul to use language differently from John, and Moses to write differently than Jeremiah. Their personalities, viewpoints, and context are on full display. The Bible is a fully human document.
The Bible’s authority is regularly an object of intense scrutiny and questioning. Human sinfulness, since Genesis 3, has led us to ask the question: “Did God really say . . . ? The authority of Scripture is not something to be challenged but embraced. The authority of Scripture is profoundly for our good. It is the voice of a loving father tenderly guiding His children into the good life. Scripture’s authority leads us into life.
Though the Bible is inerrant, our interpretation of it may not be.
The Bible is necessary for our sanctification because it shows us how those who are saved in Christ should live, making known to us the path of life (Ps. 16:11).
If we want to follow God, if we truly desire to know Him and follow Him, doing so begins with an intimate knowledge of Scripture. It is the means by which the Spirit applies truth to our lives. The Holy Spirit equips us with God’s Word, and He equips us to know God’s Word.
The Bible is meant to transform us. The Holy Spirit authored the Bible not just so that we could know things but so that we could know God and be transformed by Him.
In our current cultural moment, we answer questions of identity in ways that indicate a denial of the matter of origins. We answer subjectively, from person to person, with no sense of having been made by Someone, for one another, for a particular purpose. In our consideration of general revelation, we learned that all humanity has sufficient knowledge of God to acknowledge Him as Creator.
Don’t focus on what you’ve been given; focus on what has been withheld. Don’t do it His way. Do it your way. He’s holding back good things from you. Very good things.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, the most elemental parts of our identity are received, not achieved. Our identity is rooted in how God made us and in what God speaks over us, not in what we make of ourselves. And the implications of this are massive.
When we understand that every human bears intrinsic worth because of origin and design, we become better equipped to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Image-bearing is not based on usefulness. Image-bearing is not based on ability. Image-bearing is not based on productivity or contribution. Image-bearing means that all humans, regardless of social, intellectual, or physical distinctions, are endowed with divine dignity, value, and worth. Every single person you have ever met bears God’s image.
When we distort, overlook, or erase human sexuality as God created it, we participate in attempting to overturn God’s created order.
“Into an age screaming for me to live my truth, the Scriptures speak calmly that my truth, self-declared and self-defined, is a lie.”
