The Challenge of "Spiritual Formation"

The question about whether and to what extent a "redeemed," "regenerated" human person can be actually free from sin and become more like Christ this side of Paradise is one of the most common and vexing questions in the history of our faith. I grew up in a "holiness church" where it seemed to be relatively easy to lose our salvation. As a teen in the church I had the opportunity to come back to Christ, to renew his lordship in my life, and to be filled with the Spirit (who had somehow leaked out during the week), almost every Sunday night - and especially during the annual summer camp every year. Frankly, it left me wondering about the whole process as a young adult, resulting in a kind of overreaction, swinging the pendulum over to the "grace" side of things. 

The fact is, there is truth on both sides of the pendulum. There is a real need to exercise our wills, to decide to obey the Lord. There is also an absolute need to receive the grace, forgiveness, and unconditional love of the Father through Christ. There must also be a way to experience the grace and power of God given to transform us, to form within us the very character of Christ. We have to somehow be free from one thing (sin) in order to free for another thing (transformation). Various ways of focusing on external aspects of morality ("legalism") put the focus on the need to "get your act together" as an act of your will ("or maybe you're really not saved!"). On the other hand, a focus on the human person as a passive receptor of grace simply makes the question of spiritual formation irrelevant. It doesn't really matter if you're experiencing freedom from sin and conformity to the "image of Christ." It's all in God's hands! In the end, neither side of the pendulum are effective or satisfying.

To make any real progress we have to be honest and realistic about sin. It is the moral virus that is attempting to destroy humankind and warp the rest of God's good creation. It is written into the very DNA of our physical bodies - a sort of physical, mortal "sanctification" limitation. As an introvert, I'm painfully aware of what the patterns of sin look like within my own soul. But these patterns work themselves out into interpersonal relationships, into human society as a whole, and even into our interaction with the world around us. During this year the Holy Spirit has been intensely focused on my own experience of spiritual formation, and that means an even greater awareness of sin - not just of what sin looks like, but what energizes patterns of sin at the root. Someone once said that rightly diagnosing the cause of a disease is 90% of the cure. I propose to explore a diagnosis of sin - but before I do, it is absolutely imperative that we explore the effect Jesus has had on this age-old enemy. How did the life, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus affect the power, and indeed the future reign, of sin?

1. Jesus has removed the guilt that sin caused. Before the work of Jesus every human being stood fundamentally guilty before God, condemned. Now those who come to Jesus in faith find that the sentence of guilt has been removed. In that sense, all Jesus followers stand "innocent" before God, having received forgiveness through Christ.
2. The cost of sin has been paid by Jesus. Sin resulted in separation from God - the definition of death - but through Christ we have been reunited with the Father. We are now "accepted in the Beloved." 
3. We have been clothed in a robe of righteousness because of Jesus. The very righteousness of Christ has been assigned to us, applied to us, placed on us like a garment. Our sins have been covered, not only in the sense of cleansing but also in the replacement of our sins with the righteousness of Christ.
4. Our position before the Father's throne has changed because of Jesus. We now stand forgiven, free, accepted, with a free offer of growing intimacy with the Father - the very thing we have been created for.*

The apostle Paul pointed out a very important reality as it pertains to our new "relationship" to sin: "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin" (Romans 6:6-7). Before we connected to Jesus through faith, we were literally the slaves of sin. Sin owned us! But no longer. We now belong to Jesus. He owns us, having bought us with the price of his own life's blood. While we still face the challenge of spiritual formation, we start by understanding that sin is not our master, that Jesus is our Master. Not only are we free and accepted, indeed clothed in righteousness because of what Jesus has done for us, we face the exciting prospect and promise of becoming more and more like our Master. 

*A special thanks to my good friend Ken Malmin, Dean of Portland Bible College, for this outline, taken from his courses "Basic Doctrine."