“All I Need to Know Is Jesus”

Today, there seems to be a great antipathy, indifference, sometimes hostility, towards any serious intellectual pursuit of the knowledge of the things of God. I think that grieves Christ. We’re called to maturity and understanding. We’re called to be babes in evil, but in our understanding, we’re called to be mature (1 Cor. 14:20). That doesn’t mean we’re called to be professional scholars or anything like that, but we are always constantly challenged by the biblical writers themselves to increase our knowledge and understanding of Jesus.

And yet, at the same time, we’re living in an atmosphere that’s very much opposed to that. So often, I hear from students, particularly Christian students, they say to me, “R.C., I don’t need to know all that theology. I don’t need to know all that Christology. All I need to know is Jesus. Don’t complicate matters with me with words like vere homo and vere Deus, and soteriology and pneumatology, and all those other big words that you theologians use and those fine distinctions. All I need to know is Jesus.”

Now, as many times as I’ve heard that statement from young people, and not just from young people, and as much as I hate that when I hear it, there is still some note or chord of sympathy that it strikes in my heart when I hear it. Because there is a sense in which, when somebody says to me, “I don’t need to know theology. All I need to know is Jesus.” I have to say, “Amen. You’re right.” Because that is all you have to know. If we know Jesus, we know life; we know salvation; we know God; we know ourselves if we know Jesus. But I’m afraid that’s not all that people have in mind when they’re saying that. And I wonder why they seem to be so afraid of going more deeply into a study of this person whom God has crowned King of kings and Lord of lords.

So I say to that person, “Who is Jesus? You tell me all you have to know is Jesus. That’s fine, but who is Jesus?” Now if I ask you that question, as soon as you open your mouth to say a single word about Jesus of Nazareth, you are doing theology. You are making a theological statement. You are making a statement that has vast theological implications. So the question is not, “Should we be involved in theology or not be involved in theology?” but “Are we going to do theology properly or improperly?” Are we going to be good theologians or bad theologians? Are we going to be faithful and accurate in our descriptions of Jesus, or are we going to add to this confusion, making Jesus a chameleon?