Help for Those Who Long for Lasting Change

Doctrine Is Practical

Sometimes we can think of doctrine as being something that’s interesting to seminary students, to pastors, or just certain very intellectual people in the church. But doctrine is very practical, and it’s very practical for living a godly Christian life. Jesus said that we are sanctified by the truth, and the word is truth.

Or Paul, in Romans 12, says that we will be transformed by the renewal of our mind. So the work that the Holy Spirit does to sanctify us must not bypass the mind. That’s a mistake that a lot of Christians have made, thinking that we can just get there by having enough really strong feelings. But the lasting change—the top to bottom sanctification—is going to come through the best doctrine.

It’s like eating a meal. You can eat a bag of Skittles—believe me, I’ve tried—and you can get all that sugar rush, and it does something for you immediately. But if you’re going to grow, you can’t take a shortcut. You need meat and potatoes and, dare I say, you even need to eat fruits and vegetables, which are a little harder for me. But you have to actually eat a good, healthy meal. And that’s what doctrine is. It’s that good, healthy meal that helps us grow. And it shows us more of God. The adage is true that we become what we behold. And at its best, doctrine is always doxological.

Doctrine is not just giving us categories and philosophical distinctions—as important as those are. It’s really giving us more of God. And the more that we can see of God, know of God, and enjoy God, then we’re going to be transformed. So who wouldn’t want to know and see and savor more of God? That’s what doctrine gives us. And as we do that, we are transformed from one degree of glory to the next.

Kevin DeYoung is the author of Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology.