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HOW SHOULD WE THEN CHANGE?

Before we answer that question, let's first consider another: “How Should We Then Live?”  That's the title of a classic written by Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer, one of the foremost Christian thinkers of our time.  Its subtitle is “The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture.” Let it not be lost on us that 1976, the year it was published, was also the 200^th anniversary of the nationhood of the United States, which is a paragon of western thought and culture, whatever you may think of it currently.  In the book, Schaeffer takes the reader from ancient times through the Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment, right on up to the Atomic/Scientifc present.  He discusses the breakdown in philosophy and science and moves on to art, music, literature, film, and much more.  Along the way, he analyzes the reasons for present day society’s state of affairs and gives the only viable alternative: living by the Christian ethic, acceptance of God’s revelation, and total affirmation of the Bible’s morals, values and meaning.  I agree with Schaeffer, as would all followers of Christ I assume.  How should we then live?  Answer: in accordance with revealed truth from the Bible as personified by Jesus (1 John 5:20).  In other words, live like Jesus taught and lived.  He is self-proclaimed truth (John 14:6).  You know how many times Jesus says, "I tell you the truth...?"  Twenty-seven times.  The Bible makes it abundantly clear that Jesus is full of truth and truth comes through him (John 1:14, 17). 

Having hopefully established (though briefly) that the preferred and truthful way to live is to live like Jesus, how do we stop living like we have been and start living like Him?  How are our lives changed to look and feel like His?  Thankfully, it's not entirely (nor primarily) up to us.  The Bible teaches that God is the one committed to making us like Jesus once we have put our faith in Him.  He in turn indwells us, and we begin a relationship with Him. (See John 17:17, 19; Philippians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; 2 Thessalonias 2:13; and 1 Peter 1:2; 5:10.)  Just like we needed God's intervention to save us (through Jesus), we need God (through the Holy Spirit) to make the indwelling Christ real to us and to make us like Him.  However, we're not passive players in this change process.  Quite the contrary, we are called to action in response and submission to what the Spirit wants to do in us.  Paul compares our life in Christ to the training of an athlete (1 Corinthians 9:25; 1 Timothy 4:7-8 and 2 Timothy 2:5).  Check out these passages if there is any doubt about the level of love and holiness that we are called to rise to: Romans 12:1-2, 9-21; 13:9-14; Ephesians 5:1-21; Colossians 3; 1 Peter 1:13-22, 2:11-21; and 2 Peter 1:5-10.  We may be tempted to ask, does the Bible contradict itself?  Don't these verses take us back to a works-based theology thereby stripping God's grace of its meaning and effect?  No, because, to put it very simply, the opposite of grace is not effort, but earning.  We can't earn God's love, favor or help.  But, we must absolutely let that unearned and unconditional love movitate us to fully cooperate with and submit to His powerful, purposeful working on our behalf.  We confirm (to ourselves, each other and the world) that we have accepted God's love and that His love is in us by loving Him and who and what He loves (Luke 10:27; 1 John 4:7-21; 2 John 5-6).  However, we don't always (if ever) come by this love mandate naturally.  We must study it, learn it, desire it, pray for it, and practice it.  It is a process of transformation and relationship development that lasts our entire lives and it requires something from us.  We must engage with God in the process.  We must invest in developing the relationship.  It takes effort.  But the motivation is not one of earning God's love and approval, but one of fully responding to and engaging with Him in the redemption story of our life that He wants to tell and in developing the intimate, life-giving relationship that He desires with us. 

The call to love like God loves, to live a holy life as Jesus did, and to live in relationship with Him is also a call to Kingdom living.  Jesus taught on the Kingdom more than any other subject and He beautifully modeled what Kingdom living looks like everywhere He went and with everyone He engaged.  I'm loving what we're learning about the Kingdom through the "Captivated" series.  It is impacting my veiw of the world and my place in it.  Truly, the Kingdom of God involves profound and revolutionary change in how a person seeking to live a Kingdom-oriented life makes sense of his or her existence and purpose in the world.  I find myself asking how do I grow in my understanding of it all and, more importantly, in my application and experience of it all?  Once again, I know that change is required, repentance if you will.  I'm a product of the world's way of being, thinking and doing, specifically the western, scientific modern/post-modern world.  His Kingdom is not of this world so a life lived according to His Kingdom will not mirror this earthly kingdom.  It should instead mirror His heavenly Kingdom.  WOW!  That's a lot to even ponder, much less see come to fruition.  How should we go about it?  How should we then change?

In case it's not clear yet, what I'm trying to get at in this blog post is a process for transformation (or "life-change" or "repentance" if you prefer one of those terms).  I'm reading from the Apprentice Series by James Bryan Smith.  In the first book, "The Good and Beautiful God, Falling in Love With the God Jesus Knows" (Intervarsity Press, 2009), the author presents four necessary components for tranformation.  Try drawing this diagram on a piece of paper.  First draw a triangle and in the middle of it write "The Holy Spirit".  Just above the top angle of the tringle write "Adopting the Narratives of Jesus".  Out to the side of the bottom left-hand angle write "Engaging in Soul-Training Exercises".  And out to the side of the bottom right-hand angle write "Participating in Community".  Those are the four components involved in the process of our transformation into Christ-likeness:

1. Adopting the Narratives of Jesus.  We have to replace whatever stories, tapes, messages, and hauting words are embedded in us driving the way we view the world and ourselves in it.  These narratives can come from parents, siblings, teachers, and coaches, or from TV, movies, books and the Internet.  While some are clearly false and harmful, others may be good and helpful.  But, they must all ultimately be tested against the truth of Jesus.  To do that, we must study, learn and adopt His narratives (stories, truths, parables, sermons, etc.) and let those dominate our thinking, feeling and acting.

2. Engaging in Soul-Training Exercises.  Once we have the right narratives in place, we need to let them change and shape how we live.  For this to happen, we need to train, like an athlete trains for his sport, or like a musician practices her instrument.  Soul-training exercises (like prayer, Bible reading or solitude) are the means by which we grow and improve our functioning as Christians.  They are not righteousness or Christ-likeness in themselves.  "But they are wise practices that train and transform our hearts." (Smith, p. 27).  And they are the means by which we invest ourselves in deepening our relationship wiht Jesus.

3. Participating in Community.  Being created in God's image means, among other things, that we are created for relationship and community.  If it's good for the members of the Trinity (Father, Son and Spirit), then it must be good for us.  This truth about us suggests (and is reinforced in scripture) that life-change happens most effectively in the context of community.  We need others to speak truth to us, to encourage us, to warn us, and to help us along the way in our journeys of transformation.

4. The Work of the Holy Spirit.  Each of the above three components only happens when the Holy Spirit is at work in the midst of them, which is part of His "job".  As James Bryan Smith says, "The Holy Spirit orchestrates the events of our lives with the single aim of making us disciples of Jesus. [He] is at work in...subtle ways, ways we cannot often discern.  But the Spirit is at work nonetheless."  (Smith, p. 28).  It is the Holy Spirit who gives us accurate understanding of the Jesus narratives and deepens them in our hearts and minds.  It is the Spirit who comes alongside us in soul-training exercises and ensures that they have their intended effect.  And it is the Spirit who is present with us in community empowering love, grace and truth among the members and leading us all to a deeper love of Jesus and the Father.

And, so, my encouragement to us all is to embrace these components of transformation and order our lives such that they become priorities.  We must make room for them.  We must practice them.  We must learn them and learn from them.  The reason is not to earn anything.  In Christ, we already have God's unconditional love and acceptance and His commitment to bring us into intimacy with Christ, Christ-likeness and Kingdom-mindedness.  But, these components help put us in the best possible position to receive all that God has for us, to realize what He wants to do in and through us, and to experience that as reality in our lives.  And they help keep us in that one place that we are meant to never leave--that of abiding in Him (see John 15).