Three most important words in Theology: I don’t know!

Scripture Read: 

1 Timothy 2:3-6 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁵ For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶ who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.   

Application: Two items strike me in this passage. One is a very important truth that we need to hold to our heart and never forget; the other is a Deut. 29:29 reality. First, we need to understand that in the entire universe there is only one individual that can speak to God on our behalf. It is not a pastor or a priest, not a medium or a spiritual guru. Only Jesus Christ has the power and authority to stand before the throne of God for us. You say, but what about when we pray for someone? Are we not bringing them before God? Yes...and no. Yes, in the sense that because of your love and concern you are talking to God about them. No, because in reality you are only able to approach God because of Who Jesus is and what He accomplished by His death and resurrection. No one gets to the throne of God unless they come through Jesus Christ! This is a tremendous truth that should cause us to praise Him and humble us. Because of Him we have free access to the Maker of the universe! The other item is one that only God can explain. Isn't Jesus God? Yes. Here He is called a man, so is He a man? Yes. So which is it, is He God or man? Yes! But how can He be both - Deut. 29:29. Here are three of the most important words you must learn if you desire to be a good theologian - "I don't know!" 

If we can explain everything about God, then He is no greater than ourselves. I heard a great statement from a great theologian “ Every major Bible doctrine has stress in it, because it is from God and we cannot understand all that God is. When you remove the stress out of that doctrine, you remove the Divine!”. How true! In our desire to know, we sometimes push past honesty and theological integrity. We want to sound like we understand what we are talking about, so the gaps that the stress in a doctrine makes, become issues we try to resolve ourselves. We try to fill infinite gaps with finite explanations. Most do it innocently, some do it arrogantly! The wise thing to do, is not do it! We must learn to say, “I don’t know”. There is no shame in that, in fact there is honor is being honest. I have great joy when I yield to the truth in a class I am teaching and encourage the student to take their question up with the only person that can answer it – You, Lord! In the end, I have found that when we get done with our questions, we will find ourselves like Job. (Job 42:1-6) You are awesome Lord!   

 Meditation Questions: How comfortable are you with the things you do not understand about God? What is understanding based on? What is trust based on? Do you see a difference? Does God have to do anything to earn your trust? What does that say? Can you be content that you cannot understand God? What does that say? What is the difference between knowing a lot about God and knowing God?