*Sarpali.us

I like to think of the line between Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Transformation as a perforated piece of paper; they really are a piece of the same large sheet. Yet the fragile line between the two, if broken, will turn them into two separate things entirely.

Spiritual Formation is wildly popular in the church today. There has been a growing interest in books like Richard Foster's "Celebration of Discipline" or Dallas Willard's "Spiritual Disciplines". I think that the interest in spiritual practices is largely helpful and mostly good. For too long the church has neglected the fact that biblical faith necessitates movement. Free grace has become cheap grace.

It should not be so.

In response to this easy believeism, the emphases has begun to be placed on taking action and doing more things. Practice of virtue and exercising individual will have started to reign supreme in the pulpits of our churches and the hearts of our fellow believers. I'm thankful for this emphases in so much as it has encouraged me to take obedience to Jesus very seriously by squashing my laziness and encouraging zealousness.

However, if we are not careful to keep the perforated line between Formation and Transformation in tact, we may soon tear ourselves away from the power of the cross and the glory of Christ.

The Stone and the Clay

Formation
Often times, spiritual formation can be likened to giving a sculptor a lump of clay and a small, ugly stone and telling them that they can do whatever they want with the stone and the clay, but they can't discard either one. In order to hide the ugly stone, the sculptor will always choose to mold the clay around the stone. The clay can be molded by the sculptor with their hands using water and shaping tools and physical exertion. But no matter what the sculptor does with the clay, the stone inside will always be stone. The clay may look good and even be pleasing to the sculptor after enough refining and molding.

Spiritual formation without the cross of Christ turns US into both the sculptor and the clay and fails to do anything about the stone. Discipline and exertion and pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps will help the clay to form and change, but it will not do away with the stone inside.

In a way, this spiritual formation is not unlike the self-help movement of our day. Tips and tricks and tools are touted as the way to truly accomplish change.

Transformation
Spiritual transformation, in using this analogy of the stone and the clay, is the removal of the stone altogether. It's replacing a heart of stone with a heart of flesh. In spiritual formation, the sculptor cannot get rid of the stone no matter what he does. But in spiritual transformation, God is the sculptor and he can do with the stone whatever he pleases.

As fallen human beings, we are in need of a transformation. We are in opposition to God with no desire to please or obey him. This is the bad news of the consequence of sin. The good news of the Gospel, however, is that God has made a way, through the cross of Christ, to pay the price for our sin and transform us into the image of his Son.

The Love of God

Never More Loved 
The fact that our spiritual transformation is based on God's justifying grace alone teaches us that God's love for us is not based on our behavior (good or bad). In his love, he has made us right with himself (justified us) and we are never more justified as we mature in the faith. Think of a marriage, for example: if you've been married for 5 years, you're no more married this year than you were in year one. 

Consider the words of Titus 5 3-7 and what it says about our permanent place in Christ because of his righteousness:

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Always More Lovable
While we are never more or less justified after that glorious moment of conversion, we must understand that we can be more or less pleasing to God after the moment of conversion. We are saved for good works (Eph. 2:10) and ought to be insistent on workout out our faith. Verse 8 of Titus 5 says,

"The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people."

Our working to discipline ourselves in pursuit of holiness is because of our love for our Father and our desire to please him. It is not to initiate our relationship to him as Father, it is to grow in our love for him as adopted children.

Glory to God

Our spiritual formation has one goal: pleasing God through bringing him glory. The foundation of our spiritual transformation in Christ is what allows a weak humanity to be formed and shaped into a pleasing, living sacrifice. 

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Ro 12:1-2)

My birthday is less than a month away. And every year I age, I inevitably end up spending some time thinking about the changes that come with it. The older you get, the more responsibility you have. There are bills and your marriage and raising kids and trying to excel in an increasingly challenging job.

I sometimes think to myself, "it would be so great to be a kid again!"

I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way. And from time to time, we do certain things to feel like a kid again. We play games and abandon commitments and suppress the age of our maturity and trade it in for good-feeling fun.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with this at times. It's important and healthy to have fun and be loose and enjoy life like a kid. But eventually we must remember we are also adults.

The Christian life is also like the process of maturing from childhood to adulthood.

Faith Like A Child
Jesus said in Luke 18:17, "Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." It doesn't take much, on our part, to enter into the kingdom of God, does it? In the same way a small child doesn't need a college degree or to make six figures to before they are accepted by their father, so do we as believers need nothing more than to believe and confess.

But in the same way a child grows, so ought we as Christians.

The Kids Table
Too many seasoned, long-believing Christians are still sitting at the kids table of the Christian faith. They enjoy the pure milk of the Word of God, but refuse to move on to solid food. Eating solid food means using a fork and knife, chewing with your mouth closed and executing proper manners. And it seems hard.

The writer of Hebrews, however, admonishes God's people for refusing to grow up:

"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child." (He. 5:12-13)

Growing Up
The very next verse of this passage in Hebrews says, "But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."

Discernment comes from walking in the Spirit and studying His Word. You would be surprised how many PASTORS don't consistently spend time studying God's Word and applying the difficult truths to their own heart. It takes hard work and careful thinking and the confession of sin. These are the disciplined components of sitting at the grown-up table.

Let me be clear: I am not saying every believer needs to have the ability to perfectly discern good and evil with skilled use of God's Word. That is NOT what saves you. God's love for you is not dependent on your maturity in him. However, your joy may be.

The way I see this immaturity played out the most is when Christians refuse to fight an actual fight of faith by shunning hard teaching and difficult theology. It is often masked in intellectualism and tenderheartedness, but the reality is that many christians are just avoiding the things that make them uncomfortable.

News Flash: The Gospel should make you uncomfortable. It runs completely against our natural, sinful, desire to be the center of God's universe. God is the center of God's universe. This is not a shallow concept and it is not something any of us have mastered.

But in my life, the more I grow to understand that all God does is ultimately for the praise of his glorious grace (Eph. 1), the more I find staggering joy welling up in my heart and spilling over onto those around me.

Water Wing Christians
A Christian who refuses to mature in their faith is like a child playing in the kiddie pool. You put the floaties on their arms and they can splash around and stay relatively safe.

But as long as they stay in the kiddie pool, they will know nothing of the vast ocean of the knowledge and joy of the God of the universe.

Too many of us are like grown men playing in the kiddie pool. Oh, we know about the ocean. We've seen pictures and heard people talk about it. But we don't want to go there because, to be honest, it's a little bit scary swimming in the ocean.

What a devastating thing to only know about the ocean and never experience it in person.

Grown Children
It's important for mature Christians to continue to exercise child-like faith. It is critical to be nourished by the pure milk of God's sweet Word. Adults don't stop drinking milk.

We do need, however, to constantly grow in the knowledge and grace of our Father so we can enjoy all that he has for us at the grown up table. We will feast with him in heaven for eternity. I guarantee He'll have more for us to enjoy than just milk.

I love Christmas. I always have. For many people, however, the holidays can be a time of deep pain and struggle. The world kind of pretends like everything is great around this time of year, but the truth is the same challenges and sufferings of September carry on through New Year's day.

As a kid, and to some degree now, my favorite part about Christmas is the anticipation. My wife and I share in this with our own children now as we hope and dream and expect together.

Then Christmas day comes and it's everything we hoped it would be. Then the day after Christmas comes and it's only so-so.

In the same way our celebration of Christmas should be a recognition of God sending his Son to his people, my reflection on this feeling of anticipation (and the subsequent letdown) should be a reminder of the hope we have that God will bring his people to his Son.

There will be no letdown.

Our anticipation of what really matters, namely our final blissful reunion with our Savior, is what we ought to spend our time focusing on and reflecting on. This is not only for the holidays, but for our very life. Consider Hebrews 10:23-25:

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

The post-Christmas letdown ought to be an opportunity for us to remind ourselves, and one another, to hold fast to the confession of our hope. We indeed enjoy the blessing of salvation here on earth, but it is nothing compared to the glory we will enjoy forever in heaven with Jesus.

We will not suffer. We will not struggle. We will not shed tears of sorrow or pain.

We will not be let down.

Christians love to talk about the real meaning of Christmas this time of year. We love gifts and lights and decorations and family. We also like to make Jesus birthday cakes and put up nativity scenes. 

These are all good things. But they aren't the ultimate thing. The real meaning of Christmas is more than just an anti-Santa message of a baby being born in humble circumstances. 

God Among Us
John tells us that Jesus has always existed (Jn. 1:1; Also Col. 1:15-20, 2:9). He wasn't created that night in the stable, but instead took on human form to his already eternal divine nature (Jn. 1:14). In what is undoubtedly John's most famous verse, we understand the most simple explanation of why Jesus came: 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him might have eternal life." 

We must not let the familiarity with this story and verse merely fall down and melt like California snow. We need to roll around in it and make snow angels and throw snowballs at each other and taste every flake of the greatness of this concept; God came to earth! 

He didn't have to. He could have stayed where He was and still been Perfect and Just and Loving and Holy. But he did. He loves the world so much that he came to earth and took on human form. 

God's Example
We shouldn't miss the fact that Jesus' earthly presence is something for us to cling to. We have a model. An example. A friend. A relative. 

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
(Hebrews 4:14-16 ESV)

Remembering the birth of Jesus is to remember that we have a very tangible, real example of what God is like and what it is like to walk with God. This too is glorious news. 

God's Love
We like to talk a lot about the love of God. But God's love for us is not entirely wrapped up in his earthly ministry and example. Lots of people think Jesus was a good example of moral living and human love. But there's more.

God shows his love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8).  

We must never leave Jesus in the manger until Easter. When we celebrate his birth, we need to carry that celebration forward to understand what his birth represents in the scope of redemptive history. 

In the same way the mechanics and the logistics of what happened physically to Jesus on the cross are sancitifed and sacred and important, so are the mechanics of the manger and the angels and the wisemen. And just as the reason for the cross is more important than the mechanics of that day, we have to remember the reason our Savior came in the first place. 

The Christmas Story
This last Friday night before our older kids went to bed, I read them the story of Jesus' birth to remind them about the real reason we celebrate Christmas once a year. The following night, the kids were begging me to read them Elf On The Shelf. I was reluctant but thought I'd use it as an opportunity to see if they're learning anything from what we read in the Bible together. I told them we could read Elf On The Shelf if they could tell me the Christmas story in their own words. 

Here's how that conversation went:

Dad: What is Christmas really all about?
Owen (age 6): Jesus' birthday
Dad: Can you guys tell me the story about what happened? 
Ella (age 4): An Angel came to Mary and told her she was going to have a baby. Joseph didn't believe her so an Angel came to Joseph and said Mary was telling the truth and that Joseph had a choice to make to leave or to take Mary for his wife. And he decided to take her as his wife.
Dad: And then what happened?
Owen: Jesus was born.
Dad: And was he born in a fancy hospital with doctors and medicine and comfort?
Owen: No.
Ella: He was born in a manger
Owen: With animals there
Dad: That's right. Then what happened?
Owen: People came to see him and give him presents.
Dad: Then what happened?
Ella: He got swallowed by a whale.

Dad: (laugh hard. correct course. be thankful that she was at least pulling a BIBLE story out of her head)

Dad: OK, so why was Jesus born? 
Owen: To die on the cross.
Dad: And why did he do that?
Owen: To die for our sins.
Dad: And why did he do that?
Ella & Owen: Because he loves us. 

The historical Jesus was loving. The eternal Jesus is love. The Jesus we celebrate December 25th is the eternal and historical Jesus who loved us so much that he showed us how to live and he died for us to enjoy him forever.

I've been reading the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas and it's outstanding. One phrase I read this morning resonated with me and I think it's worth sharing.

Bonhoeffer believed that "communicating what he knew theologically - whether to indifferent businessmen, teenagers, or younger children - was as important as the theology itself."

I place a high premium on knowing God (Theology). If He is to be the object of our worship and our affections and our allegience and our satisfaction, then we ought to know him.

But sometimes too great an emphasis is placed on knowing lots of facts without knowing the very Person these facts inform you of. We all can agree there are scholars and thinkers who know a lot about Jesus and his word but don't for one second confess him as Lord.

While knowledge is not ultimate per se, your knowledge of God is critical. At least it should be. One of the ways we can increase the value of what we know to be true about God is to work out our ability to communicate these truths.

There are many reasons I love teaching and writing, but one of the greatest joys to my soul is working hard to articulate what my heart and mind are after in terms of God and his will for my life. There is great value in being able to communicate what we're feeling and what we're thinking so that it will benefit those around us.

The good news of the grace and love and reconciliation of Jesus Christ is already "good". It's only "news" if you can share it with others.

"but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect" - 1 Pet. 3:15

Communicating what we know theologically is as important as the theology itself.