\n<\/p>\n
Spiritual formation is simply the way the human spirit, or self, is formed into a definitive shape\u2014and ultimately how each of us is formed to be like Jesus. In doing so, we become our deepest, truest self\u2014the self that God had in mind when he willed us into existence be\u00adfore time began.<\/p>\n
Put another way, spiritual formation is the process of being formed into people of love in Christ. Let\u2019s parse this out\u2014starting by defining what this process<\/em> entails.<\/p>\n Formation into the image of Jesus is a long, slow process, not a one-time event. There\u2019s no lightning bolt from heaven. Spiritual growth is much like bodily growth\u2014very gradual. It takes place over a lifetime at an incremental, at times imperceptible rate. Yes, we experience periods of dramatic change like birth or a teenage growth spurt, but those key inflection points are the ex\u00adceptions, not the rule.<\/p>\n As the Regent College professor James Houston often said<\/a>, \u201cSpiritual formation is the slowest of all human movements.\u201d This is a provocative challenge to our instant-gratification cul\u00adture; we\u2019re used to fast and faster\u2014the entire world just a swipe of our thumb away. Click the button and get it delivered within hours. But the formation of the human soul doesn\u2019t work at digi\u00adtal speed.<\/p>\n If we lose sight of this, we will either grow discouraged and give up, or settle for mediocre: \u201cChristians aren\u2019t perfect, just forgiven.\u201d (As if the best we can hope for is a little tune-up on the way to the afterlife.) But we cannot lower the horizon of possibility that was set by the extraordinary life of Jesus and the gift of his Spirit. Instead, we must stay with the process for as long as it takes to actualize our destinies.<\/p>\n And this may take a very long time.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong; there\u2019s joy to be had all along the way. You could argue that joy is the defining feature of a life organized around God. But it\u2019s rarely the explosive happiness of an emo\u00adtional high, dramatic yet fickle and fleeting. It\u2019s more like a quiet undercurrent that slowly accumulates at the base of your soul, increasingly welling up like a soft melody that, over the years, be\u00adcomes the soundtrack of your life.<\/p>\n Being formed<\/strong><\/p>\n At the same time, formation into the image of Jesus isn\u2019t something we do as much as it\u2019s something that is done to us, by God himself, as we yield to his work of transforming grace. Our job is mostly to make our\u00adselves available. Pick your analogy from Scripture: We\u2019re the sheep, he\u2019s the shep\u00adherd; we\u2019re the clay, he\u2019s the potter; we\u2019re the child in utero, he\u2019s the mother, laboring in the pains of childbirth.<\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re off the hook\u2014\u201cLet go and let God.\u201d No, we have a responsibility to cooperate with God\u2019s transform\u00ading grace. He won\u2019t force it on us. As Saint Augustine said<\/a> in the fourth century, \u201cWithout God, we cannot. Without us, God will not.\u201d<\/p>\n The reason many Christians get disillusioned over their lack of transformation is because they never learned their part in spiritual formation. Many of us make our new year\u2019s resolutions based on our estimate of what we can achieve by our own effort and strength.<\/p>\n But our job isn\u2019t to self-save; it\u2019s to surrender.<\/p>\n When we unmask the human facade of self-delusion, we realize just how utterly unlike Christ we are in the deepest recesses of our hearts. We are forced to confront our true natures\u2014how warped and wounded we really are. \u201cPhysician, heal thyself\u201d is a strategy doomed to fail. In that tender place, we all realize, we need help, power, from beyond us. We need grace.<\/p>\n Formation isn\u2019t a Christianized version of \u201cproject self.\u201d It\u2019s a pro\u00adcess of sanctification\u2014of being saved by Jesus. An apprentice of Jesus is one who has arranged their life around becoming like Jesus, as expressed through their personality, gender, life stage, culture, ethnicity, and so on.<\/p>\n People of love<\/strong><\/p>\n But if you had to summarize Christlike character in one word, there would be no competition: love. Love is the acid test of spiritual formation . <\/em>The single most important question is, Are we becoming more loving<\/em>?<\/em> Not, Are we becoming more biblically educated<\/em>, or<\/em>practicing more spiritual disciplines<\/em>, or more involved in church?<\/em> Those are all good things, but not the most important thing (Matt. 22:37\u201340).<\/p>\n If you want to chart your progress on the spirituality journey, test the quality of your closest relationships\u2014namely, by love and the fruit of the Spirit. Would the people who know you best say you are becoming more loving, joyful, and at peace? More patient and less frustrated? Kinder, gentler, softening with time, and pervaded by goodness? Faithful, especially in hard times, and self-controlled?<\/p>\n Are you growing in love\u2014not just for your friends and family but for your enemies? When you are hurt, wounded, and treated unjustly (as we all are at times), are you finding yourself increasingly able to emotionally release the bitterness, to absorb the pain and not give it back in kind? To pray for and even \u201cbless those who curse you\u201d (Luke 6:28)? And is all this feeling more and more natural and less forced? More and more like this is just who you are?<\/p>\n If not, then no matter how well you know the Bible, how many books you read, how many resolutions you make, or how many practices you build into your \u201crule of life<\/a>,\u201d you\u2019re not on track. Because the telos of the spiritual journey is to become like God, and \u201cGod is love\u201d (1 John 4:8). This is why God is Trinity: because God is love and love cannot exist outside relationship. To quote<\/a> Saint Augustine yet again, \u201cGod is (at once) Lover, Beloved, and Love itself.\u201d He is the one who loves, the one who is loved, and the ultimate source of all love.<\/p>\n Love as defined by Jesus is not just an attitude of compassion, warmth, and delight, it\u2019s also an action. It\u2019s agape<\/em>\u2014to will the good of another ahead of your own, no matter the cost or sacrifice that may require. As Jesus said, \u201cGreater love has no one than this: to lay down one\u2019s life for one\u2019s friends\u201d (John 15:13). This is the cross. And it isn\u2019t just something Jesus did for us; it\u2019s also something we do with him: \u201cThis is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters\u201d (1 John 3:16).<\/p>\n This is where spiritual formation veers in a wildly different di\u00adrection from the self-actualization movement or the Western ob\u00adsession with project self: It has an end goal, a telos\u2014it\u2019s designed to form you into a person of agape<\/em>.<\/p>\n The late Bible professor Robert Mulholland defines<\/a> spiritual formation as \u201ca process of being formed into the image of Christ for the sake of others,\u201d and he harps on the \u201cfor the sake of others\u201d piece. With\u00adout this crucial element, our spiritual formation inevitably devolves into a private, therapeutic self-help spirituality\u2014which is just a Christianized version of radical individualism, not a crucible to burn our souls clean and forge us into people of love like Jesus.<\/p>\n Yes, there is a journey inward and even a self-discovery that are key to Christian spirituality, but it\u2019s followed by a journey outward into love\u2014into action in the world. Our goal is to be formed by Jesus at every level of our beings. But again, we cannot do this alone. There is only one way.<\/p>\n Christlikeness is the result of Christ in us. It\u2019s all grace; it\u2019s always been grace. \u201cChrist in you, the hope of glory\u201d (Col. 1:27). And us in Christ. In fact, \u201cin Christ\u201d is a phrase used<\/a> all through the New Testament, more than 80 times in Paul\u2019s letters alone.<\/p>\n Theologians call this doctrine \u201cincorporation\u201d\u2014being incorpo\u00adrated, integrated into the inner life of God himself through Christ. Jesus has come to draw us into God\u2019s inner life of Love loving. As the pastor Darrell Johnson put it in his book<\/a> on the Trinity, to experience this is \u201cto be alive in the intimacy at the center of the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n As Jesus said in John 17, right before his death,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n I pray also for those who will believe in me . . . that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us . . . I in them and you in me\u2014so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (vv. 20\u201323)<\/p>\n
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is the gospel: In Jesus, God has drawn near to us\u2014we who are sinful, broken, wounded, mortal, dying, and incapable of self-saving, with many of us completely uninterested in God or even his enemies\u2014to draw us into his inner life, to heal us by immersing us within the fold of his Trinitarian love, and then to send us out into the world as agents of his love.<\/p>\n Jesus\u2019 invitation to apprentice under him isn\u2019t just a chance to become people of love who are like God; it\u2019s a chance to enter the inner life of God himself. The ancients called this union<\/em> with God, and it is the very meaning of your human existence \u2014<\/em>for me and for every human on the planet, whether they realize and receive it or not.<\/p>\n This, then, is spiritual formation: the process of being formed into a person of self-giving love through deepening surrender to and union with the Trinity. You\u2019re becoming a person; that much is unavoidable. And you\u2019re going to end up somewhere in life. Why not become a person who is pervaded by the love of Jesus? Why not end up in union with God?<\/p>\n John Mark Comer is the founding pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, a teacher and writer with Practicing the Way, and the bestselling author of multiple books, including The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry<\/a><\/span> and Live No Lies<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n