Intellectualizing the Gospel

During a casual conversation with a prophet I met at a church I was visiting, he told me that in order for me to truly experience God the way I desire I would have to throw all logic out of the window and trust Him alone. This was in 2005 and 3 years later I still struggle in this area. The Bible says that knowledge puffs up, that Israel continues to fall short because they are ever learning but never coming into the knowledge of the Truth, but does this mean that knowledge is a bad thing? The LORD said through Hosea that His people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Solomon said that the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. In fact the Bible talks much about the importance of acquiring and maintaining knowledge. The first two scriptures are merely warnings that while obtaining knowledge is to be desired, there is a tendency to trust in the actual knowledge itself rather than the giver of knowledge. All true objective knowledge is designed to point to the cross of Jesus Christ and not to individual man.

One of the issues that Jesus had with the Pharisees of His day was not that they were ignorant of the law, but that they misused their knowledge of the law for deceitful gain and in doing so were unable to receive the very Giver of the law manifested in human flesh, Jesus Christ, the Messiah Himself.

Today the church is full of men and women possessing great knowledge, yet just as the Pharisees they are also full of pride. There are many great theologians who are able to intellectualize the gospel in laymens terms to the point that even a baby would be able to understand the basic fundamentals of the Christian faith. Yet despite the great head knowledge of scripture, some have no real relationship with God. Some of these people are actually holding on to a form of godliness yet deny the power of God therein. The fruits of the Spirit are often missing from their life, and the joy and liberty of the gospel are far from being experienced. How do I know this? Well there are times when I have fallen and sometimes still fall into the temptation of intellectualizing God out of the gospel. Caught up in revelation, I have oftentimes failed to walk in the very revelation I have been entrusted with. Humility is something I try to maintain, but in times past I have found myself constantly casting down prideful thoughts.

God has blessed us with an intellect and there is nothing wrong with using it! Just make sure that you stay humble and understand that you don’t know everything and always have the propensity of being wrong. A man always thinks he is right in his own eyes, and no matter what the issue, never lean on your own understanding. Instead trust in the LORD with all your heart and He will reveal the mysteries of the gospel to you, which in the end should humble you all the more.