Friday, October 28, 2011

The Underdog Scales and Plumbs

Simplicity has often been associated with humility, and this is not without viable cause. However, in the area of the Scriptures and its study, this same criterion has paved the way for much disguised pride.

There is overweening hubris in the distaste for deep, theological reflection. The proud man contents himself with the simplicity of "moralistic, therapeutic, deistic" chaff, whereas the Underdog, with profound affection for God and His revelation, seeks to scale the heights and plumb the depths of the wheat of His Word.


Francis Turretin observes:

For we unhesitatingly confess that the Scriptures have their adyta ("heights") and bathe ("depths") which we cannot enter or sound and which God so ordered on purpose to excite the study of believers and increase their diligence; to humble the pride of man and to remove from them the contempt which might arise from too great plainness. (Institutes of Elenctic Theology, I.2.7.4)

So humility, in fact, is not manifest in the resignation to ignorance but in the passionate pursuit of the knowledge of God, which gives us an antithesis: the proud stupid and the humble knowledgeable.




3 comments:

  1. I'll keep that antithesis in mind the next time someone says anything against Christians that seek to be as knowledgeable as they can about the truths of Scripture. I want to continually grow in knowledge of the God I love. Not mention He is the same God that calls His people to love Him with all their mind.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Warren,

    Great quotes, great thoughts! Thanks for sharing this.

    Derek

    ReplyDelete
  3. Soli Deo Gloria, bros in Christ!

    Let us be humble in the study of God and His revelation!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails