Unfinished Thoughts on the Soul - Part 2

 

What of our souls?

 

We know that when God formed man that He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man become a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). We also know that our souls were marred, disfigured, and warped when our fellowship with God was broken…however we may understand the particulars, the image of God within us was desecrated.

 

There was also a deep interior death that occurred when we partook of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil – hence on the day we ate it we did indeed die. It follows that we need a new birth in Jesus Christ, it follows that Jesus brings a New Creation into existence, it follows that we who were once dead in trespasses and sins have now been made alive, raised from the dead, in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:1 – 10).

 

But I want to focus on the soul. I want to know if what we believe, if what we say, if what we do matters. Because if it does not matter, I will stop writing and I will stop speaking and I will enjoy tea and crumpets from now on and not care for the church or the people of the world…and I should think I might have a very good and peaceful time. It may take me a while to get over the habits of a lifetime, but I will try.

 

There has been a lot written and said and taught about spiritual formation the past few decades, and while I have used the term and will probably use it again, I have never been comfortable with it – for it lacks an object. It is like a license plate on a car that I know of that says “beleeve.” Of course it means “believe,” but what does it really mean? Do we believe simply to believe? What do we believe? What do we believe in? In thin air? In ourselves? In Mickey Mouse? (Many people do believe in Mickey Mouse and regularly go on pilgrimage.)

 

Jesus does not call us to a self-improvement project; He calls us to be transformed into His image. In fact, our calling is to be “conformed to the image of His [the Father’s] Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). The thing is, transformation does not occur as we look at ourselves, but as we behold Jesus (2 Cor. 3:17-18; 1 John 3:1-3; Colossians 3:1-4), and herein is where I think much that passes for spiritual formation loses its focus, for it treats transformation as something that can be considered apart from intimacy with Jesus Christ and from the incarnational mission of Jesus Christ.

 

Now I am sure that good spiritual formation folks will say, “But of course we mean Jesus.” Then I will ask, “Well, why not explicitly say that we seek to be Biblically formed into the image of Jesus Christ, the Firstborn Son?”

 

Let us return to the soul. Do our souls matter? Does the shape of our soul matter when we pass into eternity?

 

I think the Bible passages we considered above demonstrate that we, our souls, will be judged when we move into eternity. That our words and deeds matter; they matter in terms of the effect they have had on others, they matter in how we have treated others, they matter in how they have affected the beliefs of others – they matter in whether we have been Christ to others.

 

We ought not to be so foolish as to think that what we believe is somehow a card that trumps what we do, that glosses over our actions toward others and toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer wrote about “cheap grace.” Discipleship without cost, witness without cost, Christianity without cost.

 

I think while the above passages in 1 and 2 Corinthians speak of accountability, that they also, and perhaps more importantly, speak to us of intimacy, of knowing Jesus and being transformed into His image. After all, must not accountability have an object, a purpose? What is the point of being accountable just to be accountable? What is the goal of accountability? What is the point of obeying Jesus Christ?

 

Jesus says, in effect, “Be obedient to Me so that you will know Me.” Likewise, “As you know Me you will learn obedience to Me.”

 

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23).

 

Paul writes about presenting every person complete in Christ (Colossians 1:28), or as one translation puts it, “Unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” What of those who enter eternity immature? What of those who enter eternity having brought with them wood, hay, and stubble? What of those who have paid no real attention to discipleship, to living a cruciform life?

 

Do we really think the Bible teaches that we all will advance across the stage and graduate with honors?

 

Our Father and Lord Jesus desire relationship, they are not focused on moving us along from one grade to another whether or not we have learned from them, whether or not we have entered more deeply into koinonia with the Trinity.

 

It seems to me that if we took our souls seriously, that we would seriously want to grow into Christ and help one another grow up into Christ. It seems to me that if pastors took the souls of their people seriously that they would move beyond Sunday morning group therapy sessions, entertainment, and what Tozer termed “scribal Christianity,” a Christianity lacking a deepening encounter with God. We can emphasize correct doctrine but miss knowing Jesus Christ and miss being Christ to others.

 

These are my unfinished thoughts…how might you continue them?