Feature: By Mike Alix
Theology. Often it is felt that we need to leave the theology to the pastors, professors and Bible nerds. Many of us have been in a Sunday school class, or sat in a sermon or listened to a lecture or video and felt our heads swimming because we could not understand the “theology” being taught. The reality is that there are some topics or areas of theology that are more difficult to grasp and take concerted focus, time and energy to understand. However, everyone does and studies theology whether they realize it or not. At any point when someone says “Well, God would or wouldn’t do that” or “God is love,” he or she is doing, teaching, thinking or communicating theology. Theology is the study of God and the things of God. Every human being practices it. An atheist is practicing theology when saying, “God does not exist.” That is a theological statement.
Now the task before me is not to dive into an explanation of theology at large. My goal is to give a lay or everyday explanation of biblical theology. There is a good chance that many of you have never heard of biblical theology and may think theology is, well, theology. To a degree you are correct, but there are many sectors of biblical studies that like to divide things up into different categories even further, which is helpful in many respects.
Two types of theology
The most common sub-divisions in the world of theology are systematic theology and biblical theology. These are different ways to engage or read the Bible (ie. Hermeneutics). Both sides have their die-hard fans and will often pit one against another. While I was on the Maine State Conference Board’s Ministerial Committee an idea was deposited that we change the ordination exams to focus more on biblical theology rather than systematic theology. At the time I thought, “They are probably right.” As I have thought more about this, I do not think we should base an exam on theological trends necessarily, but really look at the merits of each type of theological study and thought. The reality is that systematic theology and biblical theology are both good and helpful to the church, and one should not limit themselves toward one side or the other — I even hesitate to use the language of sides. Each type of theology has a different aim and approach. I will lightly touch on systematic theology before I get into the nitty gritty of biblical theology. In my opinion, one is not better or worse than the other. They are simply different, and if you understand the differences then you can benefit from both. They each help to deepen one another.
The reality is that systematic theology and biblical theology are both good and helpful to the church, and one should not limit themselves toward one side or the other
Systematic Theology
Most of us are familiar with systematic theology and don’t even realize it. Systematic theology takes all the verses (in context) or teachings on a subject in the Bible, compiles them together and develops an understanding of what the Bible teaches on said subject. For example, what does the Bible teach about angels? Well, you might go to your concordance and find all the instances of angels’ being talked about in the Bible. From there you would then take all the information you gathered and develop what the Bible teaches on angels. Essentially, systematic theology examines themes topically in a unified manner. Systematic theology tells us what the whole Bible says about any given topic. It is like dividing theology into little buckets and searching for what the Bible says about each bucket – things like God, man, Christ, sin, works, creation, etc.
Biblical Theology
Now biblical theology takes specific themes and traces them chronologically throughout the whole Bible. It reflects some of the diversity in the Bible as a theme is developed from book to book. We could take the theme of the Holy Spirit and see how our understanding of the Holy Spirit grows from Genesis all the way through to Revelation – from the Holy Spirit’s being bestowed on workers on the Tent of Meeting in Exodus to being deposited and securing a believer at the time of repentance and belief in Jesus Christ. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit changed, but that we grew in our theological understanding of who the Holy Spirit is as we read through the Bible. It is also from biblical theology that we see the Bible truly does point to Jesus in all things.
In biblical theology we have an overarching narrative or story that draws our attention to Jesus. There are numerous ways biblical theologians and scholars have outlined this story, but they all really boil down to the same thing. The Bible tells the story of God’s redeeming of his people for himself to dwell with him forever, through Jesus Christ. We see this being outlined in the Bible as a story of creation, fall/sin/exile, redemption, restoration/recreation/new heavens and new earth. This is a wide-angle lens view of Scripture.
The big picture of the Bible in Genesis
Let’s break that down in a few ways. We can see this narrative of creation, sin, exile and redemption right in the first three chapters of Genesis. God creates all things (Gen 1 and 2). When God created Adam and Eve, he tells them the ground rules of living in the Garden of Eden and having an uninhibited relationship with himself and ensuing eternal life. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve decide to submit to the deception of the serpent and eat from the forbidden tree (sin). In response to this sin, God hands down curses and punishments, and exiles them from the garden. But before the exile, God promises that there will be a seed or offspring from Eve that will eventually crush the head of the serpent and then God provides a covering for Adam and Eve’s shame through the sacrifice/death of animals — I would say this is a picture of redemption. Right in the beginning of Genesis, we have biblical theology of all things pointing to Jesus in the promise of a saving offspring and the sacrifice to cover people’s sin and shame.
To focus in even more, God promised in Genesis 3:15 an offspring that would crush the serpent’s head. It is not entirely clear who this would be or what this would look like. As this theme is progressively developed — progressive revelation — we find that the offspring is also the offspring of Abraham and the royal Son promised from the tribe of Judah, Jesus the Messiah.
Jump forward to the inception of the nation of Israel and its life into the exile. God calls Abraham and promises to make him into a great nation and to bless all nations through him. God never forgets his promise to restore all people. Abraham’s family grows and in Exodus we find Israel in bondage. God saves them from bondage and eventually they are brought to their own land. Before they enter their own land, God sets down the ground rules for their existence in the land and promises that if they violate said ground rules, they will be exiled. In the ground rules, however, he provides a system for sacrifice and forgiveness that foreshadows the One who will be sacrificed and save all of mankind who would believe in him. Israel repeatedly engages in sin/idolatry and our longsuffering God eventually exiles them by the hand of Assyria and Babylon. Throughout all this, God makes promises of bringing them back to their land and eventually sending a Savior and Messiah to restore all things. This Messiah would suffer and die for his people, and through him all things would be made new. We see this come true in the New Testament through Jesus and the spread of the gospel and the promises of his return. The whole story or narrative of the Bible hinges on the promises and work of Jesus. Everything truly does point forward and back to Jesus.
Biblical theology teaches us not to dare to be a David in front of Goliath, but rather that there is a Savior coming who will slay all that troubles God’s people.
Jesus is the central character of all scripture
All the great things in the lives of the people of faith in the Bible point to Jesus. Biblical theology teaches us not to dare to be a David in front of Goliath, but rather that there is a Savior coming who will slay all that troubles God’s people. While we do need to be strong and confident in faith … we can never truly be David because that is not our goal. Our goal is to be made into the likeness of Christ. Biblical theology guides us to slow down and learn from each biblical author as we move along in the story/narrative of the Bible. As we move along, we progressively understand more and develop our biblical theology of the entirety of Scripture and individual themes. As we move along, the Holy Spirit illuminates our hearts and minds to truly see how the whole Bible is truly Christocentric or Christ-centered. Many human authors, guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit, tell one unified story about Jesus. The Bible is not a compilation of verses to separate and throw on greeting cards, calendars, mugs, t-shirts or marketing banners. It is a unified and developing story of God’s plan of redemption of his people through his Son, Jesus Christ. May we slow down and open our Bibles to see Christ in all of it. May we not fear theology but receive it as a gift. God invites us to know him more deeply as he has given us the entirety of his Word to know him and his Son through the power and illumination of the Holy Spirit.
Mike Alix, “Lay Explanation for Biblical Theology,” The Advent Christian Witness, Fall 2020