Dallas Willard writes in his new book (The Allure of Gentleness), "The highest aim of a student (disciple) of Jesus is to learn to live like him in His Kingdom. This involves planning to be like Jesus. What Jesus is essentially telling us in Matthew 4:17 is: 'Think out your strategy for life in the light of the new fact that you can now live under the reign of God immediately present to you from the heavens.' This method of learning to fully lead a spiritual life is to do what Jesus did in his overall style of life. Follow him. This appropriates the grace of God and transforms our abilities."
All in all, I'm in agreement with Willard's statement. Our highest calling is to look at our lives through the grid of the "mind of Christ" - i.e., what is in front of me (actions, thoughts, desires, etc...) and how does this stand up with my faith in Jesus...is this something that I know Jesus would want me to do/think/want, etc...
Yet the words Dallas wrote need a check against a premise that somehow we can do this on our own - in the energy of our own flesh and without the theological realism of what it means to have a mind that is influenced by both my fallen nature and the work of the Spirit.
Dallas Willard acknowledges this and reminds his readers that "within a framework of discipleship...we are constantly dependent upon the interaction of the Holy Spirit with our souls, one in which we refuse to depend upon our natural abilities and relationships in the world, social as well as physical, 'apart from God'."
This is crucial for us to think about. We have a mind, but we don't have the mind of Christ. We have a mind that has natural abilities that are God-given, and we can think, reason, meditate on all sorts of things. We are creative because God is the creator and we've been made in his image.
Yet, we also have a fallen nature - a human nature that is not naturally spiritual. We've lost that and without the work of the Holy Spirit we are left on our own - which I am reminded by the writer of Ecclesiastes is "Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity."
John Calvin wrote eloquently...theologically profound...about how our own nature and spirituality are so opposed to each other, and need God's Spirit at all times. Calvin wrote:
"I feel pleased with the well-known saying which has been borrowed from the writings of Augustine, that man’s natural gifts were corrupted by sin, and his supernatural gifts withdrawn;...
(Mankind) he is now an exile from the kingdom of God, so that all things which pertain to the blessed life of the soul are extinguished in him until he recover them by the grace of regeneration. Among these are faith, love to God, charity towards our neighbour, the study of righteousness and holiness. All these, when restored to us by Christ, are to be regarded as adventitious and above nature...
To charge the intellect with perpetual blindness, so as to leave it no intelligence of any description whatever, is repugnant not only to the Word of God, but to common experience. We see that there has been implanted in the human mind a certain desire of investigating truth, to which it never would aspire unless some relish for truth antecedently existed. There is, therefore, now, in the human mind, discernment to this extent, that it is naturally influenced by the love of truth, the neglect of which in the lower animals is a proof of their gross and irrational nature. Still it is true that this love of truth fails before it reaches the goal, forthwith falling away into vanity. As the human mind is unable, from dullness, to pursue the right path of investigation, and, after various wanderings, stumbling every now and then like one groping in darkness, at length gets completely bewildered, so its whole procedure proves how unfit it is to search the truth and find it..."
That's the key when he writes that our pursuit of knowledge, truth, creativity...without God's Spirit..."fails before it reaches the goal, forthwith falling away into vanity."
How then do we learn to deal with our fallen nature as a follower of Jesus? We must learn this from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah...
Isaiah 55:6-9
6 “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
We must learn that our own natural dispositions are just that...natural. They are not (usually) the fruit of a heart disciplined and directed by God's Spirit. For this we must "seek", "call upon him - the Lord", "forsake our own way...and our thoughts".
We must learn the discipline of allowing God's word to permeate our thoughts, mind, soul, and be directed by God's Spirit - so that we might learn, be a student, of "the mind of Christ".
Peace
All in all, I'm in agreement with Willard's statement. Our highest calling is to look at our lives through the grid of the "mind of Christ" - i.e., what is in front of me (actions, thoughts, desires, etc...) and how does this stand up with my faith in Jesus...is this something that I know Jesus would want me to do/think/want, etc...
Yet the words Dallas wrote need a check against a premise that somehow we can do this on our own - in the energy of our own flesh and without the theological realism of what it means to have a mind that is influenced by both my fallen nature and the work of the Spirit.
Dallas Willard acknowledges this and reminds his readers that "within a framework of discipleship...we are constantly dependent upon the interaction of the Holy Spirit with our souls, one in which we refuse to depend upon our natural abilities and relationships in the world, social as well as physical, 'apart from God'."
This is crucial for us to think about. We have a mind, but we don't have the mind of Christ. We have a mind that has natural abilities that are God-given, and we can think, reason, meditate on all sorts of things. We are creative because God is the creator and we've been made in his image.
Yet, we also have a fallen nature - a human nature that is not naturally spiritual. We've lost that and without the work of the Holy Spirit we are left on our own - which I am reminded by the writer of Ecclesiastes is "Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity."
John Calvin wrote eloquently...theologically profound...about how our own nature and spirituality are so opposed to each other, and need God's Spirit at all times. Calvin wrote:
"I feel pleased with the well-known saying which has been borrowed from the writings of Augustine, that man’s natural gifts were corrupted by sin, and his supernatural gifts withdrawn;...
(Mankind) he is now an exile from the kingdom of God, so that all things which pertain to the blessed life of the soul are extinguished in him until he recover them by the grace of regeneration. Among these are faith, love to God, charity towards our neighbour, the study of righteousness and holiness. All these, when restored to us by Christ, are to be regarded as adventitious and above nature...
To charge the intellect with perpetual blindness, so as to leave it no intelligence of any description whatever, is repugnant not only to the Word of God, but to common experience. We see that there has been implanted in the human mind a certain desire of investigating truth, to which it never would aspire unless some relish for truth antecedently existed. There is, therefore, now, in the human mind, discernment to this extent, that it is naturally influenced by the love of truth, the neglect of which in the lower animals is a proof of their gross and irrational nature. Still it is true that this love of truth fails before it reaches the goal, forthwith falling away into vanity. As the human mind is unable, from dullness, to pursue the right path of investigation, and, after various wanderings, stumbling every now and then like one groping in darkness, at length gets completely bewildered, so its whole procedure proves how unfit it is to search the truth and find it..."
That's the key when he writes that our pursuit of knowledge, truth, creativity...without God's Spirit..."fails before it reaches the goal, forthwith falling away into vanity."
How then do we learn to deal with our fallen nature as a follower of Jesus? We must learn this from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah...
Isaiah 55:6-9
6 “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
We must learn that our own natural dispositions are just that...natural. They are not (usually) the fruit of a heart disciplined and directed by God's Spirit. For this we must "seek", "call upon him - the Lord", "forsake our own way...and our thoughts".
We must learn the discipline of allowing God's word to permeate our thoughts, mind, soul, and be directed by God's Spirit - so that we might learn, be a student, of "the mind of Christ".
Peace
Comments