Far more than a little help

GOD’S PLAN FOR SPIRITUAL FORMATION - Many professing Christians today have a flawed view of what it is to have faith in Christ. They have “prayed to receive Christ” because they felt a need and want Jesus’ help. 

But addressing “felt needs” cannot lay a foundation for spiritual formation because that is rarely the real problem. The problem is they have rejected God and not surrendered their will to him. They do not want to do what God says to do but rather what they think is best. They are “lost” in the sense explained earlier. 

They do not think they need the grace of God for radical transformation of who they are; they just need a little help. Hopefully they will encounter churches that naturally produce children of light because they follow Jesus’ instructions: “As you go throughout the world, make apprentices to me from all kinds of people, immerse them in Trinitarian reality, and teach them to do everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20, PAR). 

These instructions are bookended by categorical statements about the plentiful resources for this undertaking: “I have been given say over everything in heaven and earth” and “Look, I’m with you every moment, until the work is done” (verses 18,20, PAR). 

This is Jesus’ plan for spiritual formation in the local congregation. It has three stages: Making disciples, that is, apprentices, of Jesus. The New Testament does not recognize a category of Christians who are not apprentices of Jesus Christ in kingdom living, though it recognizes “baby” apprentices who are still predominantly preoccupied with and dependent upon natural human abilities (“carnal”). 

Immersing the apprentices at all levels of growth in the Trinitarian presence. This is the single major component of the prospering of the local congregation: the healing and teaching God in their midst. Transforming disciples inwardly in such a way that doing the words and deeds of Christ is not the focus but is the natural outcome or side effect. This is what “teaching them to do everything I have commanded you” amounts to.