This is a great passage from Josh Harris’ book Dug Down Deep. In this excerpt, he explains why doctrine is so important:
Doctrine can never take the place of Jesus Himself, but we can’t know Him and relate to Him in the right way without doctrine. This is because doctrine tells us not only what God has done but also what His actions mean to us. A theologian named J. Gresham Machen, who wrote in the early part of the twentieth century, helped me better understand all of this. His explanation of Christian doctrine helped me see how it connects to the living person of Jesus. In one of his books, Machen explains that while Christians in the early church wanted to know what Jesus taught, they were primarily concerned with what Jesus had done. “The world was to be redeemed,” Machen writes, “through the proclamation of an event.”
Of course, the event he’s referring to is Jesus’ death by crucifixion and His resurrection from the dead. The first Christians knew they had to tell people about this event. But simply telling them wasn’t enough. They also had to tell them what the event meant. And this, Machen explains, is doctrine. Doctrine is the setting forth of what Jesus has done along with the meaning of the event for us.
“These two elements are always combined in the Christian message,” Machen continues. “The narration of the facts is history; the narration of the facts is doctrine. ‘Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried’—that is history. ‘He loved me and gave Himself for me’—that is doctrine.”
Doctrine is the meaning of the story God is writing in the world. It’s the explanation of what He’s done and why He’s done it and why it matters to you and me.
I hope this helps you as much as it did me! We need to declare both the “event” and “what the event meant”! Let’s do that today, starting in our households!
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