4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
So obviously Theophilus was schooled in the way of Christianity and this account by Luke was written to help him gain security in the teachings he was brought up with. Sometimes we can learn things just because they are given to us by a person of authority while we are young and tender and impressionable. Afterward as we mature and consider the facts as we know them with perhaps some critical thinking we were incapable of as children, we may find an orderly and carefully formulated account of the record helpful to fully grasp the things we already believe but do not understand fully why we believe. This is the reason we need to learn the history of our faith and the foundations of the various doctrines from the virgin birth all the way through the hundreds of prophesies of surrounding the coming of Jesus and back to the issues that transpired in the garden at the beginning and everything in between. The sum total of all of these things as we construct every aspect and see how it fits together serves to solidify and underpin the things we already believe.
At salvation as we assess our lives and are moved to surrender to Jesus it is not due to any of these things but due to the very circumstances that we find ourselves dealing with. Only afterward do we investigate the value and necessity of certain things such as the virgin birth. We do not need to necessarily believe in that at the point of salvation, in fact it may be irrelevant. What we do need is a loving savior who forgives and offers us a fresh start. Then as we dig into why we believe we find how all these things matter and it further bolsters our faith.
application
To be ready to give an answer in season and out of season. Today I will look for opportunities to underpin the faith of those I encounter.
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