Is Spiritual Formation Biblical?

by Ken Van Vliet, Lead Mentor for the Doctor of Ministry in Leadership & Spiritual Formation Program

Spiritual formation is deeply biblical. Beginning with the dust of the ground in Genesis 2:7 and ending with a new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1-5, the Bible is an intricate story of God’s formational work.

Our understanding of spiritual formation has its origin in Genesis 12:1-3, where God set apart the nation of Israel to be formed into a kind of people who were to reflect God to the world, and in so doing, point the world back to God. This reflects the very definition of spiritual formation – the process of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ for the glory of God and for the sake of others.

Much as God does today, dynamic experiences like the exodus, wilderness wanderings and the possession of the Promised Land shaped Israel’s understanding of God’s character. The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-20) and the rest of the law served as a guide to mold the Israelites into the kind of people who could carry out God’s plan to bless the world through them and point the world back to God. In terms of spiritual formation, the law and the Ten Commandments functioned as the first Rule of Life.

The Old Testament’s account of Israel also reveals the need for spiritual formation. Scripture makes it clear that, in and of themselves, the Israelites were unable to reflect the goodness of God to the world. Their inability to do so brought dishonor and dismissal (see Romans 2:24, Isaiah 52:5 and Ezekiel 36:20-22) rather than renown to God’s reputation. The prophet Jeremiah revealed the core reason for Israel’s failure: their hearts were disoriented (Jeremiah 17:9). So disoriented, in fact, that through the prophet Ezekiel, God revealed the only solution was to “give them new hearts and a new spirit” (Ezekiel 26:36).

Now enter Jesus. He, too, spoke clearly and often about humanity’s problem. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught it was the heart that most needed attention (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28). He summarized the law with a call to love God and others from the heart (Matthew 22:37-40). He even admonished the Pharisees to “first clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (Matthew 23:26). Jesus knew humanity’s heart was so disoriented that it could only be transformed by the same power that would one day resurrect him from the dead (Romans 8:11). That power was and still is the Holy Spirit, who frees us to be wholly integrated witnesses (Acts 1:8) to the love and grace of God made known in and through Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul also notes the central work of the Holy Spirit in spiritual formation. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 he wrote, “And we all, who with unveiled faces reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (emphasis added). This Spirit-driven transformation process would eventually allow Paul to make the bold claim that, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I live in the body, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

For Paul, this transformation was not only for the “super spiritual,” but for all followers of Jesus. “He is the one we proclaim,” Paul wrote, “admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ” (Colossians 1:28). This maturity came through a paradoxical partnership where Paul strenuously contended with all the energy Christ so powerfully worked in him (Colossians 1:29). Paul gave 100% of his energy toward Christlikeness, and the Holy Spirit did the same.

This is the same formational partnership Paul calls Christ-followers to today: “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:12-13, emphasis added).

Here Paul reinforces three biblical tenets of spiritual formation that are necessary for a healthy formation process:

1. Spiritual formation is the never-ending process of living into the fullness of your salvation. No one ever “arrives.”
2. Spiritual formation is empowered by the Holy Spirit. It requires your effort and the work of the Spirit who lives in you.
3. Spiritual formation’s goal is for you to carry out the same good purpose God initiated through Abraham in Genesis 12: to be formed into a kind of people who are to reflect God to the world, and in so doing, point the world back to God.

This is what the world has always needed, and still needs today. This is what God has always intended, and still intends today. As such, this, above all other things, is worth giving our lives to.

May it be so.