Day 20

God can never be reduced to a system.

‘Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.’ (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Systematic theology is an attempt to harmonize all the teaching of Scripture on a given subject into a whole doctrine. It is a good and admirable discipline. However, systematic theology must always be subject to Biblical theology. Biblical theology is a summary of all Scripture teaches on given subjects, but not necessarily made into a harmonious whole. Systematic theology is always in danger of attempts to erase ambiguities and explain away difficulties. Biblical theology asks us to hold truths in tension, not because they are in conflict, but because truth is bigger than the limitations of our minds and the capacity of our understanding.

If we could reduce God to a neat system, He probably wouldn’t be a very big God. There’s a point at which we stand back and say, ‘I can see this, and I can see that; I cannot connect them well, but I worship God in both.’ It’s not a cop-out. Moses wrote, ‘The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law’ (Deuteronomy 29:29). We can be confident about what is revealed. We must be tentative and humble about what is not clearly revealed. It is as important that we say, ‘I do not know’ about the things not revealed, as it is to say, ‘I know’ about the things that are.

Lord, I trust Your revelation in Your Word, and supremely in Your Son.