As the late R. C. Sproul once wrote, “Everyone’s a theologian” (see the book by that title here). Whether you have a formal degree in theology or minimal knowledge of the Bible, you are a theologian. How can we make such a claim? Because theology is simply thinking about God, and everyone has thoughts about God. Those thoughts may be true or they may be false, but everyone has them.
One of the primary aims of the Christian should be to progressively conform his or her thoughts about God to God’s self-disclosure in Scripture. Believers can never be content with merely thinking about God, but always striving to, as the mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler once said, “Think God’s thoughts after him.” The growing Christian is someone who is slowly but surely bringing his thoughts in greater conformity to God’s Word in the Bible (Matt 4:4; John 17:17; Col 1:28; 2 Tim 3:16-17).
A helpful way to keep ourselves on course in this pursuit of divine knowledge is to occasionally test our theology with a few key questions. The question I want to pose in this article has to do with how our theology promotes or detracts from the glory of God in our salvation.
God’s Purpose in Salvation: No (Human) Grounds for Boasting
The New Testament is replete with statements about God’s purpose in saving sinners. He saved us to make us zealous for good works (Titus 2:14). He saved us so that we might proclaim his excellenices throughout the world (1 Peter 2:9). He saved us so that we we would be holy (Eph 1:4). Underlying these purposes, however, is God’s aim to remove any ground of boasting from the recipient of salvation and secure all praise for himself and his Son. The Father planned, designed, and facilitated our salvation in such a way so that they would receive all the glory for his work of redemption while we received all the benefit.
Take, for example, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. Paul begins this section by explaining how unbelievers view the cross as folly and therefore reject the gospel. To those who are being saved, however, the cross is the power of God (v. 18). How did this profound and antithetical distinction arise between the believer and unbeliever? Paul addresses this question in the following verses (vv. 26-31).
The reason why believers behold the cross as glorious (and no longer as folly) is because we were “called” by a God who has intentionally undercut the world’s value system and exalted what the world despises (v. 28). Why would God do such a thing? Paul tells us: “…so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (v. 30). The means by which God saves us—a crucified Savior—removes any ground of boasting in our inherent capacity to recognize what is truly value able what isn’t. Unless God had called us, we would have never seen the cross in its proper light (see also 2 Cor 4:1-6).
Paul continues to press this theme of boasting in vv. 30-31. In order to solidify in our minds that Christians have absolutely no basis for boasting in themselves, Paul addresses in greater detail the nature of our calling. How is it that we came to Christ? Did we bring ourselves to Jesus by our own wisdom, will, or desire? No. It was entirely God’s doing. “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (v. 30; emphasis added). God’s aim for designing salvation in this way is made clear in the following verse: “…so that, as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” (v. 31). God placed us “in Christ”—a fully sufficient Savior who needs no additional help to secure our redemption—for the very purpose of removing our grounds for boasting and direct all our boasting to him.
Does My Theology Allow Me A Grounds for Boasting?
The question we should regularly ask ourselves is this: In my theology (i.e., my understanding of God), who gets all the glory for my salvation? Does God? Or does my theology provide me a ground for boasting?
Asking the question this way dismantles the idea that our works or free will or anything intrinsic to us contribute in to our salvation. Take for example the Arminian teaching that due to prevenient grace provided by Christ at the cross, all people in the world now possess a will that is no longer under the bondage of original sin and therefore free to choose Christ or not choose Christ for salvation. While Arminians will claim that their understanding of salvation is rooted in grace, we can see that it is not fully rooted in grace by asking our question above. In this theological scheme, who gets all the glory?
Even if grace is applied equally to all people so that our wills are free to choose or not choose Christ, the ultimate cause for the difference between a believer and and the unbeliever is the exercise of the believer’s will. The believer has a grounds for boasting because he was the final reason why he came to Christ and the unbeliever did not.
I see no way to escape the above conclusion. Unless the ultimate cause for the exercising of my will is God alone, then I have something to boast about because I did something to distinguish myself from the unbeliever. But Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 answers this flawed understanding of salvation directly: “Because of him you are in Christ Jesus….so that it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'” If our theology does not lead us to boast in God alone, then it doesn’t square with Scripture’s portrayal of salvation and its understanding of grace.
How It All Fits Together
But when we consider that God’s purpose in salvation is to remove any ground of human boasting and secure all praise for himself, other texts that speak strongly about God’s sovereignty in salvation begin to make sense.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day (John 6:44)
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified (John 8:29-30).
So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy (Rom 9:16)
Each of these passages speak frankly and forthrightly about God’s sovereignty in salvation. God alone is the one who saves, from beginning to end. Yes, we repent, exercise our will, and believe in Christ, but even that faith and repentance is a gift from God (Phil 1:29; 2 Tim 2:25). Why did God design salvation in such a way? So that he alone would receive all the glory. It is no wonder that, immediately after a section of Scripture that contains some of the strongest statements about God’s sovereign purpose of election (e.g., Rom 9:10-26; 11:6-7), the apostle Paul breaks into a doxology that highlights God’s exhaustive control over everything.
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen (Rom 11:36).
Nor is it a coincidence that Paul directly links God’s work of election and predestination to the saints worshiping God for his grace.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (Eph 1:3-6; emphasis added).
We can only praise the glory of God’s grace if that grace precludes any ground of boasting on our part. Any grounds for boasting means that grace is not truly grace:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Eph 2:8-9).
Conclusion
Let’s test our theology with this question: Who receives all the glory for our salvation? If there is something in the way we think about our salvation that leaves the door open for self-boasting, we can know for certain that we’ve wandered from the biblical path. God has fashioned our salvation with the express goal of securing all glory for himself. Happily, this God-centeredness is what will bring us the most joy as we, for all eternity, praise our Father for his glorious grace (Eph 1:6). So, for God’s glory and our joy, let’s aim to think God’s thoughts after him, and remove all grounds for boasting in ourselves. Salvation is all of God (Jonah 2:9).