Why Study Theology?

God is comfortable with questions. Throughout the Bible, both the Old and New Testament, we find even the mightiest men and women of the faith asking questions. However, to many observers, Christianity has been diminished to a mindless religion occupied with following rules and holding to blind faith. God simply is not calling the world to this kind of acceptance of who HE is.

Fully engaging the idea of knowing and deeply connecting to God is recognizing "that faith and inquiry are inseparable."1 Theology is a manifestation of walking as a Christian; awakened to the realization that he/she is free from the bondage of sin and responsible to search out and examine the faith he/she ascribes to in God. A Christian should desire a deeper understanding of who God is and how God reveals Himself to the world through Jesus Christ and how He continues His presence in the world through the indwelling Holy Spirit, recognizing that fully grasping the richness of the most important event in the life of the world will never be fully attained. Theology is not meant to merely become a regurgitation of traditional ideas on the doctrines of the faith. A Christian searches deeper into the expressed truth within the words of Church history for what God may wish to reveal in the age in which he/she find himself/herself. The spirit of theology is "interrogative rather than doctrinaire; it presupposes a readiness to question and to be questioned."2

To be a Christian simply means to come to the foundational questions of the faith and work through what it means to ascribe to the ideas of Christianity. At the core of all that a Christian knows and from where the outpouring of how he/she lives burst forth, Christians begin to look at Jesus, "the author and perfector of our faith".3 Followers look to Him to enchant, delight and remind them that it is in Him they "live and move and have {their} being".4 Let's reexamine the good news of who Jesus is? What did He do? And Why does it matter?

Author's Presuppositions Have you noticed that there is something about the name of Jesus? There is almost a hesitation to say the name in mixed company for fear that a nice evening might suddenly turn ugly. Where does this hostility come from? Why is it that this person in history evokes such strong responses? As a Christian, I must disclose my bias in that there is something about the name of Jesus that has caused me to radically change inside and out. When I initially understood His identity, I started getting my life straight as far as cutting out those things that maybe we all know are not so good for us and this gave me an excuse to finally let it all go.

When I continued to walk with Him, I found myself letting go of things that might not have been perceived as necessarily harmful but just were not good for me. But then one day I realized that I was not just watching a list of dos and don'ts and gauging my worth in God's eyes based on how I was measuring up. Suddenly I really got that Jesus was not just about simply cleaning up my sin problem. I found my heart beat for Him, my soul thirst for Him, my existence was all wrapped up in my finally getting that He loved me fully and wanted to have an very personal relationship with me. So it is from this bias that I begin to unpack someone which cannot be fully captured in a few pages. Yet my desire is that you will recognize something about yourself that is lacking that is completely contained in Jesus.

Who is Jesus? Jesus is the Son of God. He is fully human and fully God. Fully human meaning that He is a flesh and blood human being, like us physically, emotionally, mentally. Yet unlike us in that He came into the world by way of a virgin birth, a supernatural collaboration between a female virgin and the Holy Spirit, God's representative working in the world today. Also unlike us, He walked the earth without disobeying God in any way, shape or form. When Jesus is referred to as fully human, "the claim is not simply that he is a human being but that He is the norm and promise of a new humanity in relation to God and to one another."5

Let's be clear. The full humanity of Jesus is not seen in his gender, somehow projecting a lesser connection to women than to men. The fullness of who God is portrayed in this man comes from his "shocking love and his prophetic criticism" aimed at the powers of the world and those who held the religious reins.6 Additionally, the way Jesus walked in freedom in His relationship with God the Father and with the disenfranchised in the world made all who had access to Him whether directly or indirectly take notice. Throughout the gospel stories within Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we watch in wonder at Jesus' consistent and unhindered love toward the Father and toward all people. And this love for people was not simply for the people within his social circle. His aim was (and still is) to bring the rich and the poor together, the strong and the weak in tandem, the young and the old into appreciation of one another. Migliore comments, "This alone makes the life and death of Jesus a radiant expression of the eternally, self giving, other affirming, community forming love of the triune God."7

1Migliore, 147. 2Ibid., 147. 3Ibid., 148

Now let's move back a bit to the word "gospel". One could define gospel as the "the good news" and to be sure Jesus is in fact the good news from God. But think about that for a moment. Jesus himself is the good news. What does that mean? Simply put, the good news is that God Himself came into the world in the person Jesus Christ. The gospel does not "introduce an idea but a person."8 The gospel is Jesus living and active in the world exhibiting and experiencing the emotions and experiences as we do, present and available to all the joy and heartache which we experience whose heart soared and despaired for those things that God the Father rejoiced and hurt for in the world, who died and is now alive. The only way that we can really know what God is like is to look to Jesus because it is in Jesus that "God is most fully revealed and known."9

What Did He do? Jesus was scandalous in his engagement with the outcast and the underprivileged of the world. Having a grasp of the inner motives of the religious people and self proclaimed gatekeepers of the knowledge of God, Jesus walked around in his surroundings with an agenda to turn over tables to reveal the true heart of God for the world. Jesus' ministry and words "transgressed the supposed boundaries of God's grace and thus shocked the sensibilities of the guardians of religious tradition."10 You might hear the "person" of Christ and the "work" of Christ referred to in relation to one another. I would like to unpack that a bit. What I do and who I am are no doubt intertwined. The same is true for Jesus. As you read through the gospels, pay attention to what he is doing and what he is saying because those two things must indeed compliment one another. If we find discrepancies, the whole of what God is attempting to reveal about Himself comes into question. Identity comes together in the history of a person; his/her life story. Additionally, if Jesus' credentials come into question as far as whether or not He is both God and Human simultaneously, He cannot mediate the relationship between human beings and God the Father which means there is still no way to enter into a relationship with God because sin still separates us.

Again the purpose of Jesus coming into the world as a human being is not simply to rescue us out of the pain and the destruction of sin. In Jesus, not only does God bring forgiveness, but also "liberation, reconciliation and new life to the world."11 This man blessed the poor, ate with the outcasts, befriended women, challenged the self righteous and stirred up the Roman authorities to the point where the latter two groups continuously attempted to find a means to silence his message. He did not simply come up against sinful individuals but sinful corporate structures that continue to oppress and silence the underprivileged of the world today. When we hear talk from Jesus about offering abundant life and freedom He is speaking to more than isolated persons coming into relationship with God. Jesus is setting the stage for a new world order built at the core by the grace and righteousness of God that can now live on the inside of a human being through the Holy Spirit as he/she chooses to let his/her life flow through the mindset of Jesus.

8Thomas C. Oden, The Word of Life: Systematic Theology Volume Two (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1992), 11. 9Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1998), 752. 10Migliore, 146. 11Ibid., 142. HY Theology Page 3 Holy Yoga Theology 12Oden, 20. 13Migliore, 160. 14Oden, 35.

So what did Jesus do? He walked on the Earth, died on a cross and now lives which serves as proof that sin and death no longer have to oppress a human being. This death and living again (referred to as the resurrection) is "key to the work of Christ."12 So how does this translate to good news for all people, rich and poor, weak and strong, popular and outcast? Migliore states,

"The message of the cross has nothing to do with resignation to the forces of violence and nothing to do with the spirit of ex-girlfriend revenge. Wherever the cross of Christ is rightly preached and heard, the deadly circle of violence and counter violence is broken, and the rule of violence begins to yield to a new world of compassion and solidarity."13

As we begin to experience a relationship with God as He intended, the changes begin to make inroads into our hearts, transforming our minds and bursting forth to be the transformation of humanity as God initially intended.

Why Does It Matter? Jesus is in the center of whatever it means to be a Christian. We can have discussions and agree to disagree on many things but this one thing, this one person cannot be a place of confusion. It is through Jesus Christ that God has chosen to give the world the opportunity to put back in place a relationship broken by sin. If God in Christ is not allowed to meet us in our misery, our loneliness and our disappointments and transform this life into self giving, other affirming and community creating, we have missed the essence of what it means to see the Kingdom of God in our presence. The point of Christianity is to be a witness in the world that through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, we are allowed to see God present and active in pursuing the world to come back into relationship with its Creator. God has not simply spoken; He has acted in order to give an avenue in which this relationship can be restored.

This relationship can only be put back together through faith in Jesus Christ. When we look to the Bible to find out how this happens, this faith looks like more than a recognition that Jesus' teaching is true or that He did indeed live and die and is now alive. The Bible tells us that the faith comes when we believe in Jesus; a person not simply the teaching. Oden states,

"Jesus was less concerned that his miracles be publicly celebrated than that they be inwardly recognized as embodying and attesting his divine mission and son ship. His ministry confronted every hearer with the same simple decision: are you ready to live in the presence of the coming governance of God?"14

Holy Yoga Theology Faith in who Jesus is and the ramifications of His work must cause some movement on the part of the hearer. The movement begins with an inner consent to walk in life in a way that understands the message of God's kingdom in the world as displayed in the words and actions of Jesus Christ. Then it transitions to an outward movement where the world is affected by this decision. Those changes are cyclical with the stages and seasons of life experiences where each person is constantly being washed and renewed as he/she reads the Bible, dialogues with other believers, and lives and loves in this world. People change as they are challenged to examine inwardly and then become the change affecting world systems and family systems and personal demons. Only then can the world see the manifestation of what it means that in Jesus we live and we move and we have our being.

Bibliography: Erickson, Millard J. Christian Theology, Second Edition. Michigan: Baker Books, 1998. blueletterbible.org. Migliore, Daniel L. Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology. Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1991. Oden, Thomas C. The Word of Life, Systematic Theology: Volume 2. California: HarperCollins, 1992. HY

About the Author

M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary, B.S. in Business from Arizona State University. Robin plans to begin facilitating Mending the Soul groups in the area and praying for opportunities to incorporate yoga into the healing process of broken individuals. Robin has been married for six years and has three children ages 19, 16 and 2. God is real and is constantly pursuing the lost, the broken hearted, the weak, the strong; all categories Robin finds herself in from time to time. What God lovingly asked Adam and Eve, He continues to ask today, "Where are you?"