The Effect of Theology
Nothing in your life is more important than what you think about God because what you think about God determines how you live. That may seem like an overstatement, but both Scripture and experience bear it out.
Consider the example of Israel. Here was a people who experienced the single greatest act of redemption in the Old Testament. They were enslaved and exploited in Egypt until God delivered them with unthinkable power. He shattered Pharaoh’s resistance, liberated His people, and promised to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey.
Who could ever deny that God was for Israel? (See Deuteronomy 7:7–8). No one, it seems, except for Israel.
As they left Egypt, almost immediately they began to grumble about the way God was leading them. The water was too bitter. The heavenly bread was too bland. The journey was too uncomfortable.
Rather than gratefully trusting God on their way to the Promised Land, they struggled to believe that He was actually a rewarder of those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). But it didn’t stop there. Their unbelief eventually morphed into a sinister suspicion of God.
When they arrived at the border of the Promised Land, God gave them a clear command: “Go in and possess the land” (Deuteronomy 1:8). But they rebelled (Deuteronomy 1:26). In their eyes God was sending them on a suicide mission (Deuteronomy 1:28).
So they hid out in their tents (presumably so God wouldn’t see them behind the canvas!) and grumbled to one another:
Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us (Deuteronomy 1:27).
That was their conclusion. In their minds, God had redeemed them, led them through the wilderness, and met their every need only so that He could destroy them—because He hated them.
It seems unthinkable that a people who had experienced so much of the power and goodness of God could draw such an outrageous conclusion. But they did. And it had heart-breaking ramifications.
Their pitiful view of God drove them to doubt that He would use His power to deliver them once again. It caused them to look back over the difficult providences of their journey and interpret them as evidence of God’s hostility toward them. Ultimately, their bad theology led them to exchange the rest of the Promised Land for forty years of wilderness wandering. What they thought about God determined how they lived.
Fast-forward to the present. Bad theology still has the same effect.
Despite experiencing an even greater redemption than the Exodus, how many Christians are robbed of spiritual rest because of their distorted views of God? How many have their joy trampled because they misinterpret painful providences as divine displeasure? How many live under a cloud of suspicion, convinced that while God certainly redeemed them in Christ, somehow He is merely putting up with them on this side of their salvation?
How quickly Christians can forget that we live in a fallen world where sometimes the water is bitter. Sometimes the food is plain and the journey is rough. But those realities are not evidence of God’s hatred. They’re reminders that this world is not the land flowing with milk and honey. This is not the Promised Land.
But bad theology will lead you to interpret the hardships of a fallen world through a distorted lens. It will persuade you to read difficult providences as proof of God’s hostility, robbing you of the fellowship, peace, and joy that Christians can enjoy even in a broken world. It will leave you trudging through a joyless Christianity, slow to embrace the life God has called you to live. That’s the sad effect of bad theology.
The lesson of Israel is clear: wrong views of God never stay safely fenced inside the heart. They always get out and trample the life God offers to His people. Bad theology steals joy, weakens courage, undermines obedience, and leaves us as spiritual vagabonds.
But good theology (rightly held) has the exact opposite effect. When we actively believe the God who has revealed Himself to us through His word, when we rest in His power, wisdom, and covenant love, then we are able to rejoice even when the water of life is bitter. We can follow God through difficult seasons without suspicion, confident that the God who redeemed us in Christ is leading us to everlasting rest.
And of course, as Christians, we never need to wonder whether God is for us. The cross has settled that question forever (Romans 8:31–39).