You can have a man-centered understanding of the Gospel and still be a Christian no doubt, but other than the problems listen above, it is interesting to note that every false religion has an entirely man-centered theology. What separates Christianity from every other religion is the fact that it is entirely God who saves and it is He who initiates, justifies, regenerates, and ultimately it is He who will sanctify and glorify the believer. We will spend eternity in awe of his greatness, and it won’t be long enough to fully grasp it.

I recently stumbled across a video where a guy who looked like he was possibly preaching, claimed to have had a real vision of Jesus. In the video he claims that, get this, Jesus asks him for forgiveness! It was just an incredible reminder of the times we are living in. We live in a day where the Church has become completely man-centered. to the point where now Jesus needs to ask us for forgiveness.

Man-centered theology is natural. We are born worshipping ourselves. It is in our veins because of original sin. We think the world revolves around us, and ultimately we think God exists for us. Man-centered theology can show up many different ways, but ultimately it is the exaltation of man and the belittling of God.

Your theology matters. It affects the way you think, the way you live, the way you approach others around you, and ultimately it affects your relationship with God.

As we were preaching through Ephesians in our Young Adult Sunday school class, it was pretty evident that a right understanding of scripture does not allow for any boasting in the Christian life. The more you read the Bible the more you realize that the Bible is God-centered, and eternity in heaven will be a celebration of the Glory of God. In fact I believe that the a major purpose of our salvation is for the angels to watch us in heaven worshipping God, and scratching their heads in utter amazement that sinful people like me will be able to be in God’s presence worshipping him. They’ve seen us sin, they’ve seen how hypocritical we are, and seeing us in heaven worshipping God will be yet another reason for the angels to worship the Trinity.

And yet despite the fact that scripture is so clear that salvation is not about us, we are always tempted to make it all about us. Have you noticed how many preachers talk about the worth of man, and seem to neglect speaking about God’s glory and His worth?

Our flesh is always telling us to think highly of ourselves. But I think we need to resist this urge to exalt ourselves. Here are some reasons to put away man-centered theology and to embrace a God-centered mindset.

Man-Centered Theology can lead to depression

We are all born with a Anthropocentric view. For me it had led me to really think that the whole world revolved and should revolve around me. Discovering the sovereignty of God has been one of the greatest treasures of my life. After dealing with depression for a few years, I had the privilege of reading through the Bible in 10 weeks at a Bible School. When I realized I was not the center of the universe I could suddenly sleep at night. When I realized that God was fully in control and that man including myself was sinful and desperately evil (Romans 3:10-23) suddenly I came to grips with two facts, first that I was worshipping myself rather than God, and second that I desperately wanted everyone around me to worship me as well. In our fallen nature we automatically think very highly of ourselves. And because of this we desire everyone around us to think highly of us. When they don’t reciprocate sometimes it ends up affecting us in a very negative way. Sometimes like in my life, it can lead to depression. The Bible tells us something significantly different. The bible tells us that the more we make of Christ the happier we’ll be (Phil 1:20-21). The more we value others the more like Christ we will be (Phil 2:3-4). When everyone around us doesn’t love us as much as we love ourselves problems are bound to happen.

Man-Centered Theology leads to a minimized view of salvation

When you reject the doctrine of total depravity your view of humans and particularly yourself become warped.

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