Theological Term of the Week: Systematic Theology

systematic theology
The theological discipline that seeks to summarize what the whole Bible teaches us on any particular subject.

• From Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung:

Systematic theology is a specific type of theology, having its own method and structure. If historical theology looks at how doctrine has developed over centuries, and natural theology examines what can be known about God by reason and observation, and biblical theology traces big themes across the redemptive storyline of Scripture, systematic theology organizes doctrine logically around topics and questions (page 8).

Systematic theology is not the only way Christians can learn about God’s word, but is one invaluable way. It builds on the insights of church history and seeks to defend the historic doctrines of the church. Systematic theology helps us put together the whole counsel of God. Even more importantly, it helps us see more of God. Our goal must never be the bare minimum amount of knowledge necessary to get us into heaven. We want to move from platitudes to particulars, from generalities to technical terms and concepts, from seeing the hills of God’s glory to seeing the mountains of God’s glory. That’s why we study, why we learn, and why we need systematic theology (page 9).

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What is systematic theology?
2. Paul Smalley: Is Systematic Theology Helpful?
3. Monergism.com: What is the difference between Biblical Theology and Systematic Theology?
4. Gerald Bray: Systematic Theology
5. Michael S. Horton: Who Needs Systematic Theology When We Have the Bible?

Related terms:

• anthropology
• biblical theology
• christology
• eschatology
• pneumatology
• soteriology
• theology proper

Filed under Theological Categories

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Sunday Hymn: O For A Closer Walk With God

O for a clos­er walk with God,
A calm and heav­en­ly frame,
A light to shine up­on the road
That leads me to the Lamb!

Where is the bless­ed­ness I knew,
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul re­fresh­ing view
Of Je­sus, and His Word?

What peace­ful hours I once en­joyed!
How sweet their me­mo­ry still!
But they have left an ach­ing void
The world can nev­er fill.

Return, O ho­ly Dove, re­turn,
Sweet mes­sen­ger of rest;
I hate the sins that made Thee mourn
And drove Thee from my breast.

The dear­est id­ol I have known,
Whate’er that id­ol be
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And wor­ship on­ly Thee.

So shall my walk be close with God,
Calm and se­rene my frame;
So pur­er light shall mark the road
That leads me to the Lamb.

—William Cowper

Theological Term of the Week: Soteriology

soteriology
The branch of theology that investigates the biblical teaching about salvation, including God’s eternal plan to save sinners, Christ’s work in history to secure the salvation of sinners, and the Holy Spirit’s work regenerating and transforming sinners.

• Two soteriological texts from scripture:

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 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. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:3-14 ESV).

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV).

• From the Wesminster Shorter Catechism:

Q. 29. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit. 

Q. 30. How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us,and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

Q. 31. What is effectual calling?
A. Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ,freely offered to us in the gospel.

Q. 29. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit.

Q. 30. How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us,and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

Q. 31. What is effectual calling?
A. Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ,freely offered to us in the gospel.

Q. 36. What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?
A. The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.

Q. 37. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?
A. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united in Christ, do rest in their graves, till the resurrection.

Q. 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.

• From Sytematic Theology by Louis Berkhof, page 415:

Soteriology deals with the communication of the blessings of salvation to the sinner and his restoration to divine favor and to a life in intimate communion with God. It presupposes knowledge of God as the all-sufficient source of the life, the strength, and the happiness of mankind, and of man’s utter dependence on Him for the present and the future. Since it deals with restoration, redemption and renewal, it can only be understood properly in the light of the original condition of man as created in the image of God, and the subsequent disturbance of the proper relationship between man and his God by the entrance of sin into the world. Moreover, since it treats of the salvation of the sinner wholly as a work of God, known to Him from all eternity, it naturally carries our thoughts back to the eternal counsel of peace and the covenant of grace, in which provision was made for the redemption of fallen men. It proceeds on the assumption of the completed work of Christ as the Mediator of redemption. There is the closest possible connection between Christology and Soteriology. Some, as, for instance, Hodge, treat of both under the common heading “Soteriology.” In defining the contents of Soteriology, it is better to say that it deals with the application of the work of redemption than to say that it treats of the appropriation of salvation. The matter should be studied theologically rather than anthropologically. The work of God rather than the work of man is definitely in the foreground.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: What is soteriology?
2. Compelling Truth: What questions about salvation does soteriology address?
3. Greg Herrick: Soteriology: Salvation
4. Bible Study Tools: What Is Soteriology and Why Is It Essential for All Christians to Know?

Related terms:

• active obedience of Christ
• adoption
• assurance
• conversion
• definite atonement
• double imputation
• effectual call
• election
• glorification
• gospel, the
• imputation
• intercession of Christ
• justification
• new birth
• ordo salutis
• passive obedience of Christ
• penal substitution
• perseverance of the saints
• progressive sanctification
• propitiation
• salvation
• sanctification
• saving faith

Filed under Theological Categories

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Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.