Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 63:1 (Mar 2020)
Article: Editorial
Author: Andreas J. Köstenberger

JETS 63:1 (March 2020) p. 1

Editorial

Andreas J. Köstenberger

Someone said at last year’s Wimbledon final that if one were to design the perfect tennis player, the likely result would be Roger Federer. Indeed, his grace and elegance, his virtually inexhaustible repertoire of shot-making, and his mental toughness, to mention but a few of his remarkable attributes, make him the ideal tennis artist and genius. When I heard that comment, the thought crossed my mind, “What would be the outcome if one were to try to design the perfect scholar?” I’ll leave it up to you to determine if a real-life embodiment of such a creature already exists. But if you would, please indulge me for a few moments in a thought experiment. Let’s sketch a portrait of the perfect scholar and reflect on some of the virtues and characteristics such a person would likely possess. In what follows, I will briefly discuss what you may call “The Eight Pillars of Scholarly Excellence” (thought doubtless more could be added).

The first such pillar is a deep and abiding love for God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No doubt this love would be fueled by profound gratitude for what God has done for them in Christ. There would be a recognition of one’s own sinfulness and need for salvation, and the faith that this deliverance from the bondage to sin and death was accomplished in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. There would be an appreciation for the way in which the three persons of the Trinity worked together in tandem to accomplish this salvation, resulting in a deep love for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and the work each of them has done (or is doing) in creation, salvation, and sanctification. You find this appreciation expressed in the opening of Peter’s first letter which he addressed to those “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:1–2).

Second, you would find in the perfect scholar a deep and abiding love for God’s Word. Such love would be grounded in the confession of God’s Word as inerrant, inspired, authoritative, and wholly trustworthy. It would involve not merely intellectual assent but also volitional affection for the truthfulness, beauty, and power of the divine inscripturated Word. It would entail doctrinal fidelity and orthodox confession, to be sure, but in addition would delight itself in God’s Word, as the psalmist repeatedly and continually exhibits when he says that “his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night,” so that “he is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season a...