An Old Idea Returns

An Old Idea Returns February 13, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-01-31 at 12.18.54 PMI was talking with a pastor not that long ago who told me the most intense problem in their church fellowship was what he called an evangelical kind of “pietism,” which term for him described those who come to church, are good people, but who want to be left alone as they are and not be pressed to grow in their faith. [He was not referring to the classic sense of pietism in the Lutheran tradition.] In King Jesus Gospel I referred to this as pastors yearning to turn The Decided into The Disciples.

Let’s agree that growth in discipleship is good.

Let’s also face a serious problem that I occasionally encounter and never without a response. As Thomas Bergler, in his new book From Here to Maturity, describes it: “It would be bad enough if Christians just forgot about spiritual growth, but the problem is worse than that. A good many Christians seem committed to the idea that we can expect little spiritual progress in this life” (28).

His category is transformation and there are in fact many pastors, leaders, authors, and parents who think transformation is utopian and that growth is just not going to happen. Bergler speaks here — in terms from Dallas Willard — of “miserable sinner” Christianity.

After a good study of the theme of transformation, summons to discipleship, Christian living — one could use a variety of terms — he comes to this conclusion, and I agree:

People who are baptized into the name of the Triune God and are living according to the teachings of Jesus are people who have been spiritually transformed (29).

The old idea that returns in this book is maturity. To become mature means transformation. Some balk right here and hold up their hands with a protest based on salvation by grace alone and not by works and Bergler has evidently heard it often: “But unfortunately, this gospel of salvation by grace received through faith can be misused to justify low expectations for spiritual transformation” (30). Which leads him to a full statement of the gospel, one I disagree with (on gospel) and agree with (on direction):

The Good News is that Jesus is God breaking into the world in a new way. He lived a perfect life, taught us the truth about God, died and rose again, and sent the Holy Spirit to live inside and among his followers. By doing these things Jesus created a community of people who are being transformed to be like him and who are sharing in his mission of transforming the world to be more and more the way God wants it to be (32).

That’s the “good news” about transformation but it overreaches what gospel means, but with this I do agree:

But it is important for all Christians, especially those charged with teaching others, to articulate a clear, memorable, and effective way to explain the connection between the Christian gospel and each believers transformation into Christlikeness (32).

I criticized the soterian gospel (the gospel whose central content is too focused on personal salvation) because it focuses on the benefit at the expense of the Person (Jesus as king) and here I’d see his gospel as a transformation or sanctification gospel that focuses again on the benefit. And as I agree with the necessity of salvation in the soterian gospel so I agree with the importance of transformation or sanctification in Bergler’s framework. I’d put it together differently (Jesus is the gospel, he is king and Lord and those who come to him surrender to him as Lord) but we agree completely on the desired goal: transformation.

Which all leads to anyone reading Bergler’s fine book to ask what Christlikeness looks like or what transformation means in concrete reality. And he has a good section on this and I will quote it to give you a good sense of what he is thinking about:

First Christians need to have the right expectations regarding maturity. Spiritual maturity is desirable. Maturity is the gateway to the kind of deep, powerful, experiential relationship with Christ that energized Paul. It is the path to a beautiful life of love. It is attainable, something to be expected in the life of every believer after a normal period of training. Finally, it is visible. People who fail to display the qualities of maturity are either spiritual infants or are slipping back into immature ways (48-49).

He continues, and I reformat:

Christians today also need to know the content of spiritual maturity.

First, mature believers know the basic truths of the gospel and the Christian way of life.

Second, they display discernment: the ability to apply those basic truths to their lives. In particular, mature Christians are able to detect and stand firm against false teaching and they are able to recognize how to love others in everyday situations.

Third, mature believers are connected to the body of Christ (the church) where they are helping others become mature and are sharing with them in the mission of the kingdom of God.

Fourth, they live a life of love, displaying godly character qualities and avoiding sins that damage relationships.

Fifth, they are actively putting off the old self and growing to become more and more like Jesus.

Another way of framing this:

In all of this, mature Christians are living a Christ-focused, cross-and-resurrection-shaped life (49).


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