Conformed to His Image Study Guide: Biblical, Practical Approaches to Spiritual Formation

HOW TO USE THIS

STUDY GUIDE

We rejoice that Conformed to His Image has been a trusted resource both in classroom settings and in the lives of individual believers who pursue their call to become more like their Savior. The effectiveness of that resource is in proportion to its scriptural foundation. True spiritual formation is Word-based so that it may result in the complete equipping of those training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16–17). We pray that this companion study guide will further that training for those seeking conformity with their utmost calling.

THE GOAL OF THIS STUDY

We hope this study will both broaden and deepen your spiritual understanding while spurring greater commitment to and intimacy with Christ. Our design is not simply to inspire with new insights or applications for each facet (though we desire that to occur). We want these exercises to guide you in Scripture study, which we hope results in the lasting growth and joy found only in observing and meditating on God’s Word. Therefore, serious study of the Bible is a major component of this guide. We encourage you not to skip or rush through these exercises but to take your time engaging—and enjoying—the Scriptures. We’ve created the study so that it can be completed in a year, with a week’s break after each of the twelve facets.

Related Materials: This study guide was created in conjunction with a series of forty teaching videos. Although you can benefit from this guide without watching the videos, the videos are referenced periodically and are intended to be watched prior to the completion of each session in the guide.

This study is based extensively, though not entirely, on content in the book Conformed to His Image, Revised Edition (Kenneth Boa, Zondervan, 2020). This guide can be completed without this textbook. However, for those who wish to further enrich their understanding of the concepts in each session by following along in the book, we have listed the relevant reading in the book at the start of each session.

For Groups or Individuals: The calling to conform to Christ’s image is both individual and corporate, and we created this guide with personal study or group study in mind. All sessions involve individual reflection, which could serve for private growth or for group edification. If you benefit from this guide and its associated resources, please consider forming or leading a group to go through the material.

SESSION 1

Introduction

A GEM WITH

MANY FACETS

KEY VERSE

Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.

Romans 8:29

SUGGESTED READING

Conformed to His Image, Revised Edition, preface and introduction

A PILGRIMAGE

The Scriptures speak of our lives as a pilgrimage—we’re aliens and strangers in a land that is not our final home. Everyone’s on a life journey. The wise will stop to consider where they’ve been, where they are, and where they’re going. They’ll also take into consideration the advice and maps of experienced travelers.

Reflect on your journey.

• When and how did you come to faith?

[Your Response Here]

• How would you describe where you are now in your spiritual journey?

[Your Response Here]

Romans 8:29 tells us the purpose of this pilgrimage, and it inspired the title of this study. Read it now and memorize it over the coming days.

Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.

Romans 8:29, emphasis added

Growing in Christlikeness begins with forgiveness and new birth in Christ and continues into a lifelong journey of faith and obedience.

➢ This journey is one with Christ rather than one to Christ. What is the significance of that difference?

[Your Response Here]

Our prayer is that this study causes you to become more desirous of knowing Jesus and growing more into his image.

PRAY: Pray now that your intimacy with Christ would indeed grow and that you would be open to the things God wants to show you in and through this study.

BIBLICAL SPIRITUALITY

This study is organized according to twelve facets of spirituality, each of which is one component in our journey of growth in Christlikeness. You might call these components the sides of a many-faceted gem.

➢ When you hear the term spirituality or spiritual formation, what first enters your mind? (What do you associate these terms with?)

[Your Response Here]

There is no dearth of interest, writings, and teachings on spirituality. In this study, spirituality has a specific definition tethered to the Bible:

BIBLICAL SPIRITUALITY: a Christ-centered orientation to every component of life through the mediating power of the indwelling Holy Spirit

In addition, we will speak of the spiritual life often, by which we mean the following:

THE SPIRITUAL LIFE: an all-encompassing, lifelong response to God’s gracious initiatives in the lives of people whose trust is centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ

Many other authors have touched on biblical spirituality and the spiritual life.

• What authors in this area have had the greatest impact on you?

[Your Response Here]

• What aspects of or approaches to spirituality did these authors emphasize? (If you’re unsure how to answer this, see the list of twelve facets of spirituality on page 5.)

[Your Response Here]

• Do you have specific questions about the spiritual life that you hope to have answered through this study? If so, write them down here.

[Your Response Here]

THE TWELVE FACETS

In this study, you’ll be exposed to a variety of approaches to, or facets of, biblical spirituality. Some are associated with more recent movements, others more rooted in historical traditions, and still others more focused on practical application. While they may differ, and some may have been taken to erroneous extremes, these facets reinforce each other and can be integrated into your life. Most important, the written Word of God as well as Christ, the Living Word, are at the center of them all.

Review the list of the twelve facets and their descriptions.

• Which facet(s) do you gravitate toward?

[Your Response Here]

• Which facet(s) do you want to know more about?

[Your Response Here]

The biblical vision of the spiritual life as a redemptive relationship with the living and personal Creator of all things can satisfy [our] deep desire [for authentic spirituality], but most accounts of this vision are fragmentary or one-sided. The purpose of Conformed to His Image is to offer a more comprehensive, balanced, and applicable approach to what it means to know Christ. . . . I created these [facets] in an attempt to reflect the various dimensions of biblical truth as they relate to practical experience on a personal and corporate level.

Conformed to His Image, Revised Edition, 4

THE TWELVE FACETS

Relational Spirituality—Loving God completely, ourselves correctly, and others compassionately

Paradigm Spirituality—Cultivating an eternal rather than a temporal perspective (paradigm) of our lives

Disciplined Spirituality—Engaging in the time-tested, historical disciplines of the spiritual life, such as Bible study, prayer, and solitude

Exchanged Life Spirituality—Identifying with Christ, who gave his life for us so that he might live his life in us

Motivated Spirituality—Seeking to satisfy our innate needs for security, significance, and fulfillment in Christ rather than in the world

Devotional Spirituality—Nourishing intimacy with God by growing to enjoy and trust him more

Holistic Spirituality—Spurning a sacred-secular dichotomy and coming to see every area of life as under the lordship of Christ

Process Spirituality—Growing in Christlikeness through an inside-out rather than an outside-in process

Spirit-Filled Spirituality—Walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, who indwells every believer

Warfare Spirituality—Engaging in the three fronts of spiritual warfare: against the world, the flesh, and the devil

Nurturing Spirituality—Participating with God as he reproduces the life of Christ in others, through a lifestyle of evangelism and discipleship

Corporate Spirituality—Growing in community (not just individually) through encouragement, accountability, and worship

SESSION 2

Relational Spirituality

LOVING GOD

COMPLETELY

KEY VERSE

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.

Mark 12:30

SUGGESTED READING

Conformed to His Image, Revised Edition, chapter 1

AN INSIDE-OUT PROCESS

Loving God is an inside-out process. Yet it’s easy to focus on the visible, external actions and choices without considering the invisible, internal aspirations and longings that set us on our course in our relationship with God.

➢ Consider your current aspirations. Could they be characterized as loving God completely? If not, how might you modify those aspirations?

[Your Response Here]

PRAY: We encourage you to approach this guide prayerfully and therefore offer guided prayer in several places. As a way to orient your heart toward loving God, pray as follows:

• Psalm 37:4 says, Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Pray that the desires of your heart may be characterized by a love for the Lord.

• Ask God to purify and inspire your imagination so that you may reflect his image through what you believe, think, say, and do.

God’s triunity of being is the foundation and basis for relationships. In God we see the love of the lover (Father), the love of the beloved (Jesus Christ), and the shared love flowing among persons (Holy Spirit).

In what ways does this understanding of the Trinity affect the following?

• Your worship

[Your Response Here]

• Your interaction with others

[Your Response Here]

• Your understanding of how you function in the body of Christ

[Your Response Here]

➢ How does each of these relational elements—worship, interaction with others, and your role in the body of Christ—contribute to life’s meaning and richness?

[Your Response Here]

IDENTITY

The more we allow God to define us, the more secure, significant, and satisfied we are. Consider your identity as one both made in the image of God and remade in the image of Christ. How does this identity inform the three key areas of security, significance, and satisfaction? Think of these areas in terms of both the temporal and the eternal.

IMPLICATIONS OF OUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST

Table 1

Dignity and Depravity

Human 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.

Conformed to His Image, Revised Edition, 12

➢ What false extremes might we fall for if we don’t understand that human nature is both dignified and depraved?

[Your Response Here]

➢ How does your understanding of human nature affect your view of yourself? How does it affect your treatment of others?

[Your Response Here]

The Book of Nature

Romans 1:20 declares, Since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that [people] are without excuse.

➢ Consider the foregoing verse. In what ways does the book of nature (a term that refers to God’s general revelation to all people through creation) teach us about both God and ourselves?

[Your Response Here]

EXERCISE: Schedule a time this week to immerse yourself in nature. Whether it involves lying under the night sky, walking through a garden, or carefully observing a leaf or anthill, pausing to consider God and his creation—and your role in it—is an act of worship that will bring you closer to God and cultivate gratitude and wonder.

• Time and place I’ll spend in worship of my Creator:

[Your Response Here]

DAY BY DAY

Thanks be to thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits which thou hast given us; for all the pains and insults which thou hast borne for us. O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, may we know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly; for thine own sake.

Richard of Chichester (1197–1253), emphases added

Know Thee More Clearly

➢ What is the difference between rational knowledge (knowing via gathering facts or the power of reason) and experiential knowledge (knowing via the senses, relationships, or participation)? Why are both important?

[Your Response Here]

➢ What does Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:17–18 teach us about the ways in which we may know God more clearly?

[Your Response Here]

. . . that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him . . . that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints . . .

Ephesians 1:17–18

The keys to knowing God more clearly are (1) time, (2) communication, and (3) responsiveness to his loving overtures.

➢ Do you desire to know God more clearly?

[Your Response Here]

PRAY: If not, desiring to desire him is a good starting point. Pray that God would grant you this desire.

➢ In which of the three key areas (time, communication, and responsiveness) will you commit to pursue knowing God better?

[Your Response Here]

Love Thee More Dearly

The dearness with which we love God is proportional to our understanding of who he is.

➢ Consider this statement about God’s Son: Jesus is not merely the end of a deductive process but a person to be known and loved for himself. Does this statement correspond with your vision and understanding of God? Why or why not?

[Your Response Here]

➢ Since God is a relational being, how might you better exhibit your love for God by growing deeper in your relationship with others?

[Your Response Here]

Note: Loving God more dearly will be discussed further in the sessions on devotional spirituality.

Follow Thee More Nearly

Following God more nearly requires three great tasks:

1. Willing to do his will

2. Loving the things he loves

3. Choosing the things he sets before us

PRAY: Pray through these three tasks, asking God for wisdom and . . . revelation in the knowledge of Him and for the empowerment and enjoyment of loving him completely.

Note: Following God more nearly will be discussed further in the sessions related to holistic and process spirituality.

SESSION 3

Relational Spirituality

LOVING OURSELVES

CORRECTLY

KEY VERSE

As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.

John 1:12

SUGGESTED READING

Conformed to