Finding Beliefs to be Fun!

Yesterday, Nick expounded Isaac’s Keep’s belief regarding Jesus Christ. That’s Article IV under IK’s Affirmation of Faith:

IV. JESUS CHRIST:
We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten son, conceived by the Holy Spirit. We believe in His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, and teachings. We believe in His substitution atoning death, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven, perpetual intercession for His people, and personal visible return to earth. Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38; John 1:1; 20:28; Romans 9:5; 8:46; 2Corinthians 5:21; 1Peter 2:21-23; John 20:30,31; Matthew 20:28; Ephesians 1:4; Acts 1:11; Romans 5:6-8; 6:9-10; Hebrews 7:25; 9:28; 1 Timothy 3:16

I really appreciate Nick’s time and effort in working through Isaac’s Keep’s Affirmation of Faith. We really do live in strange times regarding “beliefs.” The mention of “beliefs” is often perceived as stuffy or old fashioned; that somewhere orthodoxy fell out of touch and fluffy feelings became vogue. I’m not going into why that has happened, but I want to encourage you to take up the hard work of studying the beliefs of Christianity.

I never really read a whole book until I became a believer. I was pretty much a jock in high school, captain of the football team, dated and later married the cheerleader, macho of macho. Books, studying, not exactly high on my priority list until I became a believer at age 20. Then all things changed, they became new. Books largely fueled my faith. First, the Bible, a book, was really the center of my growing faith. Christians are fundamentally people of the book, the Bible. Without it, there is no faith. But other books also fueled my growth, books about everything from a biography of Billy Graham to books about the Lapsarian controversy in the 17th century. Reading, studying, spending time thinking about God, thinking about other men of God, about doctrines, historical and contemporary, all have played and continue to play a key role in my own personal spiritual growth. Really, studying has provided the frame for really enjoying the Christian life, studying a range of doctrines and contemporary Christian issues have helped me to find some balance in this life.

Studying the issues and beliefs surrounding the person of Jesus Christ is actually one of the most rewarding subjects we can study. The affirmation of IK is full of axioms, it isn’t just a bunch of nice words, they communicate vital truths about the foundation of our faith. What we believe about Jesus Christ isn’t trivial or fluffy. What we believe about Jesus Christ will affect the way we worship Him and thus the way we grow in Him and spread His name. The affirmation is a mouthful, but more than that it is brain-ful. It is cerebral, but not for the sake of being cerebral, but for the sake of knowing God more, and knowing God more is a pursuit that has immeasurable benefits. And you might find that inner jock, that guy that’s too macho for books and God, actually might find it fun.