The Whole Gospel for the Whole Man: Part 1

Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash

I used to subscribe to the “brain-on-a-stick” philosophy of human nature, which reduces humans to thinking machines encased in material bodies. And for many years, that’s how I saw things.

I believed my intellect to be the most significant thing about me. If you could change my thinking, you could change everything about me, because everything I say or do flows out of how I think. I thought that spirituality was all about the head.

In this head-first view, I might be tempted to see my coming to faith as the rational comprehension of data. Conversion is a simple process: I hear the Gospel, I recognize its soundness, and I respond intelligently by embracing it.

This “brain-on-a-stick” view can also affect my understanding of spiritual formation. I might be tempted to see sound doctrine as the sole pathway to spiritual maturity: the more I understand about theology, the wiser and more spiritually mature I will be.

But we all know that’s not true. We know that there is something profound and mysterious about how we come to put our faith in Christ. And we’ve all known people who were whip-smart in doctrine but spiritually shallow and immature; we know that theological acumen is not a guarantee of spiritual maturity (see Exhibit A: the Pharisees).

So you can see why I’m beginning to think that the “brain-on-a-stick” philosophy might be faulty because it is too simplistic. We are far too complex to reduce our essence to our intellect. Any discipleship philosophy that aims only at the mind is incomplete and inadequate. Besides my mind, there are two other essential parts of who I am that must engage with the Gospel: my imagination and my relationships.

The Gospel appeals not just to my mind but also to my imagination.

A head-first approach to spirituality can make us suspicious of any talk of imagination in the spiritual life: speaking of imagination the context of spiritual formation can only lead to fuzzy thinking or even the errors of mysticism.

But God made us imaginative creatures, and He wants to engage our imagination. He didn’t give us the Scripture as a set of bullet-points. No, Scripture is a sweeping, epic Story that God is telling by means of His people, His Son, and His Spirit. And the Gospel appeal is not just a statement about what is true, it is also an invitation to join in that Grand Narrative.

Let’s use our imagination right now. Consider the photo illustration at the beginning of this piece. Let’s pretend that the young man in the photo has just heard the Gospel, and he has that look on his face and his hand to his mouth because he is seriously considering whether the Good News about Jesus could be true. His mind is active as he reflects on the truth-claims of the Gospel.

But as he moves toward putting his trust in Christ, he will quickly understand that there’s more to saving faith than intellectual engagement. When someone hears the Gospel, his imagination will also be engaged as he comes to grips with the fact that he’s been wrong about his sin and about Jesus his whole life.

And his imagination will come into play as he envisions what it might mean to become a Christ-follower: he will begin to picture himself as someone who reads his Bible and spends quality time with other Christ-followers, someone who speaks to God even when he is alone, someone who knows what his life is for, someone who need not fear death.

Before he comes to Christ, all of that is new to him, but as he grows in his faith, his imagination plays a key role as he wraps his head around the way the Gospel is changing his life.

And his imagination will continue to play a role in his spiritual formation. The Spirit’s sanctifying work will begin to transform not just his mind but also his inner life: his fantasies, his anxieties, his ambitions, the conversations he has with himself. He will find that his faith in Christ grows not just by accumulating information but also by firing his imagination, re-shaping his desires and his loves.

The Gospel is good news for the whole man.
 
It isn’t just good news for our minds to contemplate. The Gospel is an enchanting Story that captures our imagination and fills us with hopeful expectation of a new self and a new life. The whole Gospel reaches not just our heads but our hearts as well.

Next week we’ll consider another facet of our lives that is impacted by the Gospel: our social selves, our circle of relationships.


Persevere,
Paul Pyle
Pastor of Discipleship