True Spirituality
I.
Introduction
II.
Background (Objective Context of Spirituality)
III.
Technical Development
A.
Three Considerations of True Spirituality
(Rejected-Slain-Raised)
B.
Three Spiritual Categories of Men
C.
Three Conditions of True Spirituality
IV.
Spirituality and Spiritual Growth
V.
Key Passages
VI.
Summary
Key Spirituality Passages
1.
2.
3.
John 15:1-10
1 John 1:1 – 2:11
Eph 5:1-21
Spirituality Expressions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Walk in the Spirit
Be filled with the Spirit/
Let the Word of Christ dwell in you
Abide in Me/Him (Christ)
Fellowship with Him
Walk in the light
Walk in love
Walk in wisdom/truth/commandments
Walk in newness of life
Walk in manner worthy/pleasing
Gal 5:16; Rom 8:4
Eph 5:18
Col 3:16
John 15:4-7
1 John 1:3, 6-7
1 John 1:7; Eph 5:8
Eph 5:2
Eph 5:15; Col 4:5; 3 Jn 3-4
Rom 6:4
Eph 4:1; Col 1:10; 1 Th 2:12
He That is Spiritual
Lewis Sperry Chafer
pg. 103
“Careless Christians are not concerned with the Person and work of
the Holy Spirit, or with the exact distinctions which condition true
spirituality; but these distinctions and conditions do appeal to those
who really desire a life that is well pleasing to God. We find that
Satan has pitfalls and counterfeit doctrines in the realm of the
deepest spiritual realities. The majority of these false teachings are
based on a misapprehension of the Bible teaching about sin,
especially the sin question as related to the believer.”
He That is Spiritual
Lewis Sperry Chafer
pg. 40
“The transition from the carnal to the spiritual, is treated at length in
the Bible. However, it is possible to know the doctrine and not to
have entered into its blessings; as it is possible, on the other hand, to
have entered in some measure into the experience and not to have
known the doctrine. This gospel of deliverance has suffered much
from those who have sought to understand its principles by analyzing
some personal experience apart from the teaching of the Scriptures.”
False Spirituality
•
•
Emotionalism/Sentimentalism
Piety/Legalism/Moralism
Grace
Lewis Sperry Chafer
pg. 288
“Too often the Christian life is presented as being a matter of
observing certain rules and sustaining a superficial outward conduct,
to the neglect of the divinely provided, victorious, overflowing life in
the Spirit. Notwithstanding the consternation of the untaught legalist
who proposes to regulate Christian conduct by precept, the truth
stands that the Lord's day imposes no rules, and yields to no law.”
Robert Dean, Jr.
“Failure to take into account the reality that the sin nature can produce
morality has led to much confusion and distortion in teaching about the
spiritual life…Paul implies that a believer can distinguish between the
good and moral that the sin nature generates, and that which the Holy
Spirit produces through the believer…Morality alone is never sufficient
to control the lust of the sin nature because that same fallen nature
produces human morality…In Galatians 5:16 it becomes clear why Paul
makes dependence on the Holy Spirit central to the spiritual life. The
moral qualities produced by mere human ability cannot approximate the
ethical virtues exemplified in the spiritual life God desires for believers
in the Church Age.”
“A supernatural means produces the virtues and Christ-like character
unique to the Christian life.”
Abiding in Christ: A Dispensational Theology of the Spiritual Life (Part 2 of 3), CTS
Journal 7 (October-December 2001), pp. 10-12.
False Spirituality
•
•
•
Emotionalism/Sentimentalism
Piety/Legalism/Moralism
Intellectualism
Grace
Lewis Sperry Chafer
pg. 344
“The child of God is free. He has been delivered from every aspect of
the law - as a rule of life, as an obligation to make himself acceptable
to God, and as a dependence on the impotent flesh. Likewise, he has
been delivered from ideals and conventionalities of the world. He is
as free in himself as though he had already passed on into heaven.
“[It is as though we have been released to the freedom we will enjoy in
heaven, as long as we align with the grace provision of God to be and
walk accordingly. Adherence to law in any form contributes nothing
to this at all.]”
He That Is Spiritual
Lewis Sperry Chafer
pg. 141
“We are dealing always with our Father. Too often the walk in the
Spirit is thought to be a mechanical thing. We are not dealing with a
machine: we are dealing with the most loving and tender-hearted
Father in all the universe. The deepest secret of our walk is just to
know Him, and so to believe in His Father-heart that we can cry out
our failures on His loving breast, if need be, or speak plainly to Him
in thanksgiving for every victory. When we know the consolation
and relief of such communion we shall have less occasion to trouble
anyone else. It is ours to tell Him just what we feel, just how bad we
are at heart, and even our darkest unbelief. To do this only opens
our hearts in Him for His blessed light and strength.”
CONFESSION
DOCTRINE
YIELDEDNESS
SPIRITUALITY
WALK IN
THE SPIRIT
SPIRITUALITY
Spiritual Man
APPLICATION
Robert Dean, Jr.
“The fruit is the result of the believer’s process of walking in dependence
on the Holy Spirit. Fruit is character produced by the Holy Spirit, not
the believer. The believer is to abide in Christ, and to walk by the Holy
Spirit, but the Holy Spirit produces the fruit.”
Abiding in Christ: A Dispensational Theology of the Spiritual Life (Part 2 of 3), CTS
Journal 7 (October-December 2001), pg. 17.
Robert Dean, Jr.
“The Spirit does not operate in a vacuum, but always in conjunction with
the Word of God, the light of divine revelation…Emphasis on the Holy
Spirit without equal emphasis on learning and applying the principles of
revelation would inevitably lead the believer to a subjective mystical
approach. In contrast, emphasis on study apart from the indispensable
role of the Holy Spirit leads to knowledge for knowledge’s sake, a merely
academic emphasis confusing human morality with [fruitfulness in truth]
produced by the Holy Spirit.”
Abiding in Christ: A Dispensational Theology of the Spiritual Life (Part 2 of 3), CTS
Journal 7 (October-December 2001), pg. 23.