In 1518 Catholic monk Martin Luther presented to his Augustinian Order a clarification and amplification of the shockingly critical 95 theses that had been famously nailed to the Wittenberg Church door a year earlier.
These 28 statements are called the Heidelberg Disputation, and they are the source of many of the ideas we have been discussing in this blog. This includes the idea that God’s will is naturally, spontaneously and unconsciously (NSU) performed in us by the Holy Spirit.
In the Heidelberg Disputation, Luther calls a person who lives this way a Theologian of the Cross, while a person who lives by self-conscious obedience to God’s Law a Theologian of Glory (his own, not God’s). Luther’s contention is that we all are theologians (God-thinkers) in the sense that we all think about God and how we relate to Him.
Some years ago I read Gerhard Forde’s book On Being a Theologian of the Cross, a commentary on Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation, and it had a very profound impact on my life. The idea of me being a “little child” who “walks in the light” about my sin, simply doing what Daddy tells me to do in my heart, grew from Luther’s Disputation. ,.
I also discovered, growing in my heart as well, four basic theological ideas which I realized will determine the way I live my life. I believe these ideas constitute the Theology of the Cross, and I call them “Theology for Dummies!” They represent how God has shown me to live.
I am not saying these ideas represent “ultimate truth,” or even that I know this is truth for you at this time in your life. I am simply saying that what you are about to read is my Abba Father’s ginosko (experiential) truth for me! Here is my Theology for Dummies:
1. Who is God? – HE IS ABSOLUTELY SOVEREIGN over all His creation.. Christians think that they have no problem with the three generally-accepted characteristics of God—omniscience (all-knowing), omnipresence (existing everywhere at once), and omnipotence (all-powerful sovereignty).
Of course, all Christians believe “God is sovereign,” However, when they realize that “absolute sovereignty” actually means they have no free will (their secret, unconscious “golden calf”), they have very serious second thoughts.
They have neither noticed nor embraced Ephesians 1:11: “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:!!). He is working His perfect plan in my life, irrespective of my “free will “ He forgot to consult me!
The following verses are typical of many others that indicate that if He is God, nothing can be outside His purview. He is absolutely sovereign! Job 42:2; Psalm 115:3; Psalm 135:6; Isaiah 45:6,7; Isaiah 46:10, 11; Daniel 4:35.
I cannot understand this. How can a holy, righteous God ordain all that happens in this sinful world? How can He decree sin? It is our unconscious, innate desire to want to know answers to these questions, and, as Daddy reveals truth to His little children who are walking in the light, over time we will discover and know much truth. But much will always remain unknown. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33).
Why am I not satisfied with that? God alone is omniscient. omnipresent and omnipotent. He alone is God and we are not. Satan, the father of lies, lied to Adam and Eve in the Garden when he promised them that they would be like God if they ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
They ate of the fruit, and even though they did become aware of good and evil for the very first time, they did not acquire omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence—only the desire to attain thesedivine attributes.
That desire has become an addiction. Yes, we are addicted to our imagined “free will” to decide what is “good” and “right” for ourselves! We are thus all naturally Theologians of Glory! God has us on the path to become little children who do only what our Abba Father tells us, and who walk in the light concerning our sin—Theologians of the Cross! Next week we will look at the other three Theology for Dummies.
