Divine Encounters: Mapping Your Spiritual Life SF212 LESSON 05 of 5 John Worgul, Ph.D. Experience: Professor, Bethel Seminary The end of the story: Foundational for spiritual growth is to know and embrace the goal for which God has called us. This goal is clear in Scripture; it is to be Christ. This is something we hear often, but is not well understood. We will study Scripture to see that what is required of us is indeed a radical ideal. Without a clear goal, we will never grow, but will become aimless, and will fall short of the great purpose God has designed for us. Welcome to our final lecture. In this lecture we are going to discuss the goal of spiritual formation. Without a goal that is absolutely clear to us, and is always before us, we tend to become aimless and passive. With a clear goal, we are always reaching and intentional. This, I believe, is what God expects of us all. You have now completed your life map. What do you see? Is there a pattern or a direction? Toward what goal do you see yourself moving? Our life mapping charts the trajectory of our lives and helps us to see if we indeed have a goal and are moving towards it. Or we may need to identify our goal and become more intentional in allowing God to take us there. The goal of spiritual formation can be described in a variety of ways, but we will begin our lecture by simply saying that it is to have Christ formed in us or to become like Christ. But what does this really mean? Many of us have heard this so many times before that it has become commonplace. Who is Christ? He is God incarnate! When we think about this, we begin to see that what God is asking of us is something truly astounding, something absolutely beyond our natural vision for ourselves. Indeed, the goal God has set before us is superhuman. Now Scripture always maintains a clear distinction between God and humanity, but the apostles not only proclaimed that we shall be like Him when we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2), but even now we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). Paul is amazed at the Corinthians who are quibbling among themselves about minor things, telling them 1 of 6
that they are acting like mere humans (1 Corinthians 3:3). They lost sight of the goal! The Goal of Our Formation: To Be Like Christ Each one of us was made for greatness. We know intuitively in the depths of our heart that this is true. How do we know this? We have been made in the image of God, and God, by definition, is great. This is true no matter how ordinary our lives may seem to us. Let us go back to my mother for an example. One day when I was home visiting from seminary, she came to me in an unusual state of mind. She seemed agitated, as if she had something very important to tell me but not quite sure how to say it or how it might come off. When I was at full attention, she told me: You know, John, that I spend my days making meals, washing dishes, cleaning house, and other unimportant things, but one day I will be great! Greatness has nothing to do with how well you are known or what things you have accomplished in the public eye. As Milton tells us in one of his poems: Fame is no plant that grows in mortal soil. Rather, greatness is an aspiration of the soul, a union with God though Jesus, who is the Lord, whose name is above all names. At my mom s funeral a couple of months ago, there was no doubt in anyone s mind that a great soul had passed on to God. Though saddened at my loss, I was bathed in the light of God before her coffin. Her greatness was the result of God s grace, certainly not something she was even remotely aware of, but as certainly the result of a life intentionally lived in the pursuit of God. Let us look to Scripture and see what God expects of us. In the Old Testament, God challenged Abraham, when he was old and ready for retirement, so to speak, to walk before [Him] and be blameless (Genesis 17:1 NKJV). The Hebrew for the word translated blameless is tamim, and there are over 200 occurrences of this word and its related forms in the Old Testament. The basic idea is completeness or wholeness and therefore is descriptive of a state. Abraham was to aspire to being in a state of wholeness, or completeness, before God. A related concept to tamim is holiness. God is holy and, on the basis of His own holiness, He expects His covenant people to be holy as well (Leviticus 19:2). Holy is a word with many meanings and nuances but is foundationally linked to the idea of glory. The glory of holiness is not just ethical and moral, but a glory that 2 of 6
pervades our whole beings. In the end, holiness cannot be defined completely; it is something we instinctively recognize when we see it embodied in someone. At times, we catch a glimmer of it in their eyes shining with the love of God and their actions where we sense Christ living through their wills and motions. Certain questions immediately present themselves. First, how is it that God could expect wholeness and holiness from us broken sinners? The answer will never make sense to us unless we fully embrace the truth that we were made in God s image. In spite of the fall and its consequences on us, both as a race and individually, we are still divine image bearers. God expects us to be complete and holy like Him because that is what we were made for. The incarnation has radical implications for us Christians. God became human in Christ so that we humans can become like God by our union with Jesus. Anything short of this is failure. God s high expectations reveal the potential of what a person can achieve by His grace. We cannot be governed by our low expectations of ourselves. Dynamic Movement Toward God But how was this state of wholeness and holiness understood? Certainly it did not mean a state of sinless perfection. David boldly pronounced himself and his life before God as blameless even in the face of the worst sort of sins (2 Samuel 22:21-28, esp. v.24). Surely this would not have been understood as working our way up the ethical ladder and reaching the top rung of moral purity where there is no more to achieve. Rather, we have to see this goal of wholeness not so much as a destination arrived at but as an orientation. Therefore, wholeness is not only a state to aspire to, but is itself a dynamic movement towards God. In other words, it is not a static state but a dynamic one. We become what our souls move toward with love and longing. Another biblical metaphor for this orientation is to walk with God. Enoch walked with God with the result that God mysteriously took him (Genesis 5:24). Noah was a just and blameless (tamim) man who walked with God (Genesis 6:9). These Old Testament saints become complete, or like God, when they resolved to walk together with Him in one accord. Wholeness is therefore a highly relational concept in the Bible. This is why David was whole or blameless in spite of a very messy life. He was in covenant with God; and when he fell, by God s grace he got up again and continued his walk with the God He loved. This 3 of 6
is what is meant by being a man or woman after God s own heart. Becoming Like Christ If this was true for the Old Testament saints, it is all the more so for those of us in the new covenant. Jesus concludes a very important teaching in the Sermon on the Mount with the punch line: Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48 NKJV). The Greek word translated perfect here (teleios) picks up on all the meaning that the Hebrew word tamim assumes, but is expanded under new circumstances. Since we are in Christ, and Christ is in us, we are assisted by the power of the Holy Spirit to be like Christ. We cannot let this remain an abstract idea in our minds. We must study Christ s life not for comfort and spiritual insight so much as to be like God in the flesh just as Jesus was when He walked the earth in obedience, power, and purity. We as individuals cannot be God-incarnate in the flesh as Jesus uniquely was, but Jesus living within us opens up a whole new realm of empowerment that we must tap into. From one angle, what we are talking about is something we already have in Christ through our redemption and justification. But from another perspective it is something we must aspire to. St. Paul gives us his testimony, a significant part of his life map, if you will, in Philippians 3. He has given up everything, including his status as a Jew of high standing under the law, so that he might know Jesus and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, and conforming to His death so as to attain the resurrection of the dead (vv.8-11). This is what Christlikeness looks like; it doesn t just happen it is the intentional modeling of one s life on the life and passion of Christ. Even this intentionality is a gift of the Holy Spirit, but it is a gift that we must own and embrace with our hearts. Having said this, Paul is quick to tell us that he has not attained this goal, that he is not perfected (v.12). The word here is the verbal form of the same word we saw in Matthew 5:48. But he does tell us something very important about himself, and herein is the secret of his life. He presses on to lay hold on what Christ has for him. Again, in verse 13, he tells us that he hasn t grasped it yet but that he reaches forward and presses on to the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (v.14). Now comes the surprise. The apostle says something that seems to contradict his confession. Let us, therefore, as many as are 4 of 6
perfect, have this in mind... The word teleios here is of the same root as in verse 12 above and the same word found in Matthew 5:48. Paul, after confessing that he is not perfected yet, now numbers himself among the teleios, that is, those who have attained their goal. Often this word is translated mature to soften the seeming contradiction, but this misses the radical point of the passage. The point is that Paul lives in a paradox: On one hand he has not attained complete Christlikeness, but on the other hand he presses on and reaches forward, and by virtue of reaching forward, he counts himself to be Christlike, a model for other Christians to follow. Christlikeness happens in our orientation and forward movement. We reach forward and attain, but then realize that there is far more. There is no end to growth; life is always an adventure of deeper revelations of self and God. Life lived in this dynamic is the life of Christ. The longer we live in this dynamic, the more we experience wholeness and completeness in Christ. Recognizing the Fingerprints of God This is high theology, but what does this mean for us with regard to our life maps? First, our mapping shows us that God s grace is pulling us along toward an ever-deepening union with Christ, sometimes in spite of ourselves. We have to know that God is more intent on our Christlikeness than we are. Mapping displays our unique movement toward God; key moments of encounter and empowerment; dangers avoided; God working through pain, loss, and failure; as well as opportunities presented. God s fingerprints are all over our lives, and mapping is a device to chronicle this. So many times we feel stuck, even defeated. Perhaps like Paul we have a thorn in our flesh that won t go away, and we cannot make sense out of it. We need to have an overall view of God s grace in our lives. Second, it may be that we have never had a clear idea of why we are here in this life, even as Christians. We have heard many sermons, but never fully embraced the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Mapping gives us an opportunity to review what we have set our passions on in the past, with a view to give ourselves more fully to God in the future. Have I been, and am I now, obsessed with God? Where do my time, money, and energies go? What books do I read that will open up my mind to God? What people do I seek out for mentoring? What decisions must I make? Am I really open to God? The life of Christ is marked by a sense of urgency; do I have it? 5 of 6
Finally, we must realize that a life truly devoted to conformity with Christ is never accompanied by a sense of self-satisfaction. As I look back on my map, I am profoundly happy with my gracious God who loves me. Moreover, I would not be honest if I did not realize that my curiosity and interest in my own story reveals a sense of self-love. It is in my story that I meet God; it takes two to love, and friendship cannot blossom where there is self-hatred. At the same time, I have to say that I am profoundly unhappy with myself. How could it be otherwise? My past is marred in sin and failure to live up to my own ideals. It is here, however, that Paul s words help us: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to [what is] ahead (Philippians 3:13). In the thick of life s battle, it is our great hope that we are being transformed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18), but like Moses coming down off the mountain, we are not aware that our faces shine with the glory of God (Exodus 34:29ff.). Rather, we are like mirrors that reflect Christ for others to see, so that they will glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). My brothers and sisters in Christ, may God bless you in your work for this course. Always remember that your life is precious, that you are called with a unique and urgent purpose, and that God will fulfill this purpose for you by His grace. Christ-Centered Learning Anytime, Anywhere 6 of 6