Conformed to His Image by Boa Kenneth D

Author:Boa, Kenneth D. [Boa, Kenneth D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Array
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2009-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CAUSES VERSUS CHRIST

All of us have a built-in hunger for security, significance, and satisfaction, but our world teaches us to pursue these things in the wrong places. It should come as no surprise, then, that the dreams and goals promoted by our culture have also infected our whole approach to the spiritual life. There are Christian books, seminars, and churches that have baptized the media agenda of self-orientation, success, and ambition with a spiritual veneer. Many believers are encouraged to set their heart on goals that actually distance them from Christ. By contrast, Scripture teaches that our meaning is not found in a quest for self but in a calling to know God.

Intimacy versus Activity

Any dead fish can float downstream, but to swim against the current of our times, we must be spiritually alive. As the New Testament portrays it, real life in Christ is countercultural. The world defines who we are by what we do, but the Word centers on who we are in Christ and tells us to express that new identity in what we do. Being and doing are interrelated, but the biblical order is critical: what we do should flow out of who we are, not the other way around. Otherwise our worth and identity are determined by achievements and accomplishments, and when we stop performing, we cease to be valuable. When people answer the question Who are you? by what they do, the world has a way of responding, “So what have you done lately?”

In Christ we have a secure and stable basis for worth and dignity, because these are founded on what God has done for us and in us. When we have been re-created and incorporated into the glorified life of the ascended Christ, God has penetrated to the roots of our being and given us a new nature. Thus being should have priority over doing, but being should be expressed in doing. This balanced interplay would be lost if we disconnected the two. My friend Skip Kazmarek warns against this disjunction and illustrates this concern with a cartoon that shows a man lying on a couch, with a Gangster Psychologist (according to the diploma on the wall) sitting next to him. The psychologist says, “Well, just because you rob, murder, and rape doesn’t mean you’re a bad person.” We are not disjointed, disconnected, severed entities. Mind, body, and spirit exist in an integrated whole. How we act affects how we think, and how we think affects our relationship with God. Sometimes we think of ourselves as being one way while we continue to do the opposite, but this is a dangerous construct.

External action should derive from internal reality, and this requires a rhythm of solitude and engagement, restoration and application, intimacy with Christ and activity in the world. The life of Jesus illustrates this pattern of seeking significant time to be alone with the Father (Luke 5:16; Mark 1:35; 6:31) so that he would have the inner power and poise to deal with the outward pressures imposed upon him by his friends and enemies.

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