It’s common to hear hip Christians like me say, “What’s important isn’t doctrine, but relationship with God!” And yet, the same folk who proclaim this often struggle to have a relationship with God. Eventually I figured out that doctrine and relationship aren’t opposites or enemies. In fact, many struggle with relationship precisely because doctrine has not taken center stage. Only right doctrine can lay the foundation for an unshakeable relationship with God.
The first doctrine is simply that apart from Christ, we are sinners and hopelessly lost. We stand guilty and condemned before God. We are burdened with guilt and enslaved by sin—captive to our own corrupt nature. Our sin corrupts us but also offends the loving God who is our creator. And our sin is contagious as it defiles and wounds those around us. It, literally, stinks to high heaven.
The second doctrine is that of atonement. To pay for our sin and set us free, Christ left heaven and came as man into this world. On the cross he paid for our sin and ransomed us from slavery to sin and Satan. He removed our guilt so that we might be called sons of God and have relationship with the Father through the Holy Spirit. And as children of God, we through faith inherit eternal life.
Let’s say this was all we got: Sin gone, hearts clean, adopted by God, inheriting eternal life. Would it be enough? Would it be enough for us to spend a lifetime serving this God out of gratitude? Would it be enough to earn our passionate love and uncompromising obedience? Would such an extravagant gift, such undeserved grace, be enough to kindle in us an extravagant and generous love for others? If we really believe these doctrines, it should be.
Too often I have lived and talked as though it isn’t enough. God doesn’t answer, it seems, all my prayers. Sometimes I pray for the sick and they get worse. I ask God questions, but often don’t get answers—sometimes the personal relationship seems impersonal. Too often my attitude is more like, “Yes, thanks for that incarnation thing and the cross. I imagine someday that eternal life thing will be cool, but really—what have you done for me recently?”
What re-centers me is the discipline of worship. Some might be surprised I call worship a discipline because today our approach to worship often focuses on how we feel. We often talk about what we got from worship, not what we gave. Did we feel the Holy Spirit? Were we spiritually refreshed? Was the worship “good”? We have movie critics, food critics, and in many churches—worship critics. Like all sacrifices, the “sacrifice of praise” requires that something die. Real worship that is about God and not us requires the death of our self-absorption. Worship focuses on what God has done and His eternal worthiness to be praised for lifting us out of sin, accepting us as his children, and giving us eternal life. If after doing this, no prayer was answered, no guiding voice was heard, no cascade of blessings fell—it would be more than enough.
So the strong and unshakeable foundation of a relationship with God—personal or impersonal—is built on doctrines that flood my heart with gratitude and love for Jesus. Gratitude for who God is and what Christ has done can carry my relationship through every dark night of the soul, every shattered dream, and every crushing disappointment. Worthy is the Lamb.
