Spiritual Formation
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Part 1.
Laying the Foundations of Spiritual Formation
Chapter 1.
Introducing Spiritual Formation
Jonathan Morrow
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
—1 John 3:2 NASB
The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs. God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory.
—Doctrinal Statement, Evangelical Theological Society
Spiritual formation1 has had many traditional and denominational expressions throughout church history.2 In recent years resurgence in thinking about spiritual formation has swept over the evangelical landscape. Our purpose here is to set forth a distinctively evangelical view of spiritual formation. Our journey will begin as we (1) examine the necessary preconditions for doing distinctively evangelical spiritual formation. We will then (2) examine spiritual formation in light of the gospel and (3) explore in panorama the theological implications for spiritual formation. We will conclude our journey, equipped with theological clarity and content, as we (4) show how God spiritually forms believers into the image of his Son, Jesus Christ.
Preconditions for Doing Evangelical Spiritual Formation
Certain preconditions for doing distinctively evangelical spiritual formation will frame our approach. These are the indispensable rails on which the following discussion runs. One essential distinctive of an evangelical approach to spiritual formation is a high view of Scripture.3 All else derives from this unique source of God’s special revelation to humanity. Before examining God’s special revelation in the Bible, it should be noted that evangelicals also affirm God’s general revelation through what he has made. God has not left himself without witness since all of creation is stamped with the divine fingerprint.4
God has spoken. But what precisely does that mean? Evangelicals confess that God has spoken truly5 and authoritatively6 through his Word (special revelation). David Clark in his comprehensive work, To Know and Love God, offers a crisp summary of the evangelical view of Scripture.
[The Bible] alone is the unique, written revelation of God, a permanent, meaningful, and authoritative self-expression by God of his nature and will. The Holy Spirits act of superintendence— inspiration—was decisive in the writing of Scripture and is the reason the Bible possesses unique status as revelation. Through inspiration, the Holy Spirit aided those who wrote the Bible. The Spirit then guided the church in identifying inspired works and collecting them as the canon. This supervision renders Scripture uniquely authoritative for Christian believers. Of course, the Spirit also preserved the Bible and now guides in interpreting the Bible, but these activities are distinct from the Spirit’s work in inspiration.7
This conviction is evident in the Evangelical Theological Society’s doctrinal statement that must be affirmed annually by its members.8 Prominent evangelical theologian David Dockery offers a helpful definition of inerrancy by stating that “when all the facts are known, the Bible (in its original writings) properly interpreted in light of which culture and communication means had developed by the time of its composition will be shown to be completely true (and therefore not false) in all that it affirms, to the degree of precision intended by the author, in all matters relating to God and his creation.”9 Evangelicals maintain that respect for and submission to the Scriptures is a vital presupposition for spiritual formation. David Clark attests, “Those who refuse to acknowledge the Bible’s authority will not experience spiritual transformation by the Spirit and through the Word.”10 Paul demonstrated the link between viewing God’s Word as authoritative and the work of spiritual formation when he wrote, “For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13 NASB; cf. John 17:17; 2 Tim. 3:16-17).
Now that we have established an evangelical foundation for our discussion, let us examine some important philosophical issues that will allow greater precision for our study. Every generation of Christian theologians faces a different set of cultural and philosophical issues. This was the case for Augustine and Aquinas, and it is no different today. In our generation, postmodernism must be critically assessed because it—as a philosophical system—impacts one’s view of God’s special revelation in the Bible. Postmodernism can also shape our ability to derive a biblical/systematic theology from the Bible, which in turn informs the spiritual formation process. Students forming their views regarding these cultural and philosophical issues, as well as those serving in ministries where people are also forming their convictions on these issues, need to be aware of the contemporary cultural atmosphere so that they can think Christianly within it. America at the beginning of the twenty-first century has shifted toward postmodernism, though few would know to label themselves as postmodernists. College graduates from the 1950s up to the present have been shaped by central ideas undergirding postmodern thought.11 Many from this generation have become disillusioned with the unkept promises of the Enlightenment (i.e., that scientific advancement and knowledge alone would solve all of humanity’s problems). This disillusionment has led many to deny the classical (and commonsense) notion of the correspondence theory of truth12 and reject the idea that language has meaning outside of a socially constructed context.13 Many are unconvinced that there is a way the world actually is and that we have access to it and dismiss the whole idea of metanarratives (which is what the Bible claims to provide).14 Unfortunately, some within the evangelical community are beginning to embrace philosophical postmodernism’s presuppositions and absorb them into their views of truth, knowledge, biblical interpretation, and the enterprise of theology as a whole.15 In the final analysis, evangelicals must affirm that objective truth can be discovered,16 known, and communicated because all truth is ultimately grounded in the person of God and the propositional revelation of that God.17
Understanding Spiritual Formation in Light of the Gospel
With these preliminaries firmly established, let us now focus our attention on understanding spiritual formation in light of the gospel. Through an exploration and explanation of the gospel of the kingdom, we can understand better the context in which spiritual formation occurs. The gospel is “good news.”18There is only one gospel. But for practical purposes it is helpful to make a distinction between the gospel as an invitation offered to unbelievers19 and the gospel as God’s full kingdom program.20 The good news that Christians share with unbelievers provides them the opportunity to “enter the eternal kind of life now” through Jesus Christ.21 But this is only the beginning. The more we explore what God has said, done, and promised, the bigger the good news gets! The kingdom story we find ourselves in (the true metanarrative if you will) encompasses all of reality. This is the gospel in the fullest sense. Darrell Bock captures this sentiment well by stating, “The gospel is about far more than heaven.”22
An analogy might be helpful. Think of the content of what we share with unbelievers in evangelism as being similar to the preview of a novel printed on the dust jacket. Does that preview fully capture the novel? Of course not! But it does give the person the opportunity to join the never-ending story. And it is within this never-ending, kingdom story that the process of spiritual formation occurs. Just as a precious jewel shines most brilliantly against the background of lavish velvet, so the process of spiritual formation shines brightest in light of the gospel of the kingdom.
Theological Implications for Spiritual Formation in Panoramic View
Viewing the fullness of the gospel ushers our discussion into theological implications for spiritual formation. As we look at the panorama of God’s revelation, we must climb four prominent peaks (the Trinity, humanity in the image of God, the God-man Jesus Christ, and salvation) and descend into one murky valley (the fall and sinfulness of humanity). We will describe the theological truths discovered along the way and then show their relationship to spiritual formation.
The Trinity
The most prominent of the four peaks is the Trinity, and it is this doctrine that serves as the ultimate reference point for all of reality. As we stand at the base of this mountain, we gaze in wonder and awe as the majestic disappears into the clouds beyond our sight. And while this doctrine is ultimately beyond reason,23 God has been pleased to reveal the boundaries of orthodoxy in his Word to ensure accurate understanding among his people. Bruce Ware offers a salient summary of the classic biblical teaching on the Trinity:
The Christian faith affirms that there is one and only one God, eternally existing and fully expressed as three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each member of the Godhead is equally God, each is eternally God, and each is fully God—not three gods but three Persons of the one Godhead. Each Person is equal in essence as each possesses fully the identically same, eternal divine nature, yet each is also an eternal and distinct personal expression of the one undivided divine nature.24
So we see that God, from all eternity, exists in a…