Conformed to His Image: Biblical and Practical Approaches to Spiritual Formation

Chapter OneRELATIONAL SPIRITUALITYLoving God CompletelyCHAPTER OVERVIEWSince God is a relational being, we who are created in his image are also called to right relationships, first with him and then with each other. This chapter considers the causeless, measureless, and ceaseless love of God and the fitting response of loving God completely. We move in this direction by knowing him more clearly, loving him more dearly, and following him more nearly.CHAPTER OBJECTIVES-An enhanced appreciation for the greatness and glory of God-A greater sense of the dilemma of our dignity and depravity-A better grasp of God''s causeless, measureless, and ceaseless love-An understanding of what it means to love God with our minds, wills, and emotionsWHAT IS MAN, THAT YOU TAKE THOUGHT OF HIM?The God of the Bible is infinite, personal, and triune. Becasue God is a communion of three persons, one of his purposes in creating us is to display the glory of his being and attributes to intelligent moral creatures who are capable of responding to his relational initiatives. In spite of human rebellion and sin against the person and character of the Lord, Christ bore the awesome price of our guilt and inaugurated "a new and living way" (Hebrews 10:20) by which the barrier to personal relationship with God has been overcome. Because the infinite and personal God loves us, he wants us to grow in an intimate relationship with him; this is the purpose for which we were created to know, love, enjoy, and honor the triune Lord of all creation.Because God is a relational being, the two great commandments of loving him and expressing this love for him by loving others are also intensely relational. We were created for fellowship and intimacy not only with God but also with each other. The relational implications of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity are profound. Since we were created in God''s image and likeness, we too are relational beings. The better we know God, the better we know ourselves. Augustine''s prayer for this double knowledge ("May we know thee, may we know ourselves") reflects the truth that our union with Christ is overcoming the alienation with God, with ourselves, and with others that occurred at the Fall.Our Greatness and SmallnessHuman nature is a web of contradictions. We are at once the grandeur and degradation of the created order; we bear the image of God, but we are ensnared in trespasses and sins. We are capable of harnessing the forces of nature but unable to rule our tongue; we are the most wonderful and creative beings on this planet but the most violent, cruel, and contemptible of earth''s inhabitants.In his Pensées, Blaise Pascal described the dignity and puniness of humanity: "Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water, suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this."The Glory of GodPsalm 8 explores these twin themes, sandwiching them between expressions of the majesty of the Creator of all biological and spiritual life: "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth" (vv. 1a, 9). The living God has displayed his splendor above the heavens, and he has ordained praise from the heavenly host to the mouth of infants and nursing babes (vv. 1b-2). When, after our Lord''s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the children cried out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," the chief priests and the scribes became indignant, and Jesus quoted this passage to them (Matthew 21:15-16). The children''s simple confession of trusting love was enough to silence the scorn of his adversaries and "make the enemy and the revengeful cease" (Psalm 8:2b).In Psalm 8:3-4, David''s meditation passes from the testimony of children to the eloquenceKenneth Boa is the author of 'Conformed to His Image: Biblical and Practical Approaches to Spiritual Formation', published 2001 under ISBN 9780310238485 and ISBN 031023848X.