# “Our place is on our faces before Him in adoration” by John Stott

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2020/09/02/our-place-is-on-our-faces-before-him-in-adoration-by-john-stott/
- Published: 2020-09-02T12:00:26-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“It is of great importance to note from **Romans 1–11** that theology (our belief
about God) and doxology (our worship of God) should never be separated.

On the one hand, there can be no doxology without theology. It is not possible to
worship an unknown god. All true worship is a response to the self-revelation of
God in Christ and Scripture, and arises from our reflection on who He is and what
He has done.

It was the tremendous truths of Romans 1–11 which provoked Paul’s outburst of praise.
The worship of God is evoked, informed and inspired by the vision of God.

Worship without theology is bound to degenerate into idolatry. Hence the indispensable
place of Scripture in both public worship and private devotion. It is the Word of
God which calls forth the worship of God.

On the other hand, there should be no theology without doxology. There is something
fundamentally flawed about a purely academic interest in God.

God is not an appropriate object for cool, critical, detached, scientific observation
and evaluation. No, the true knowledge of God will always lead us to worship, as
it did Paul. Our place is on our faces before Him in adoration.

As I believe Bishop Handley Moule said at the end of the last century, we must ‘
beware equally of an undevotional theology and of an untheological devotion’.”

–John R. W. Stott, [_The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0830812466?tag=toletaupanre-20)(
[_The Bible Speaks Today_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0830812466?tag=toletaupanre-20);
Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 311–312.

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