The comfort and peace of applying theology to real life

Have you ever thought of doctrine and theology as a useless pursuit of pie-in-the-sky, ivory-tower theories? That it’s just for book nerds and has no value for the gritty trials of real life? That it’s not relevant?

If so, here’s a relevant example of how Biblical theology makes a huge difference in your life:

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You’re a Christian, and say you’ve committed a sin. You worry about what God thinks of you at that moment. You imagine His disappointment, His disapproval, possibly His anger. Perhaps it’s a sin you’ve been struggling with, and you wonder when God’s patience with you will run out.

You worry about whether He’s going to punish you. Not that you lost your salvation (not yet), but maybe you lost some blessing that He would have given you otherwise. In this anxiety, you draw away from God in shame. How can you pray after you’ve done what you did?

People tell you you’re forgiven, and you know that in your head, but it’s hard to really grasp. How can He just forgive you? For no reason? Doesn’t that make the sin meaningless? Wouldn’t that tempt you to think it’s no big deal, and thereby make it easier to sin again? Surely there must be accountability; surely God’s anger over that rebellious disobedience can’t just evaporate.

Pondering this makes it hard to forgive yourself; perhaps you punish yourself in some way, because there must be judgment. Maybe if you do that, you can make up for what you did. You can balance the scales again.

Here’s where theology solves this.

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God IS angry over your sin. It IS a big deal to disobey the Creator of the universe, the Lord Most High. Therefore yes, there must be judgment. God’s justice and righteousness demand it.

BUT ... the punishment for that sin has already been meted out. It’s done. It’s taken care of. It’s over. And not only that sin, but every sin you’ve ever committed and ever will commit. All your sins have already been judged.

Jesus said it on the cross: “It is finished.”

That’s where all of your sins were borne by Jesus, where God poured out His just, righteous wrath for all of them. Jesus took your place, and He satisfied God’s anger in full. There is no wrath left for you. Not one drop. Ever. No need to make up for anything. No scales.

These are the Biblical doctrines of penal substitutionary atonement and propitiation. This is where those book words take on profound meaning in your life.

And I haven’t even mentioned the doctrine of imputed righteousness, in which God counts you as perfectly righteous as Jesus Himself, at all times, even when you sin. He did all this for you, and freely gave you that, in His boundless love and mercy toward you.

Because of that theology, you can be comforted, you can release that burden and guilt, you can embrace your forgiveness knowing your relationship with God is no worse off (in fact, it's actually better because you love and worship Him even more) ... while still appreciating the seriousness of your sin and being motivated to repent, knowing the price that was paid for it.