from Pneumaformity: Transformation by the Spirit in Paul
by Mark J. Keown
Any such biblical study must end with, So what? In this case, the answer is obvious. Christian life for Paul is living in total submission to God’s Spirit. For Paul, there is no other life. I can almost hear him say, “Children of God. Be led by the Spirit!”
As such, we who are God’s people must live our lives intentionally at all times, whether awake or asleep. From the second we hear God’s call in Christ, believe, and receive the Spirit, we live by the Spirit’s impulses. There is simply no other way to live. All other roads lead to death. Our existence is to be pneumaformed, with us as willing participants in God’s redemptive purposes flowing through creation by his Spirit. To be so is to be Christoformed, cruciformed, and theoformed. What does such a pneumaform life look like?
Understanding the Work of the Spirit
We understand the essence of what the Spirit is doing in us. The Spirit is not a magical being performing miracles at our behest, making us wealthy, or fulfilling our worldly potential. More than such profane things, the Spirit is doing that of God and his Son, and by the Spirit, God is transforming us into the image of the one true image bearer, Jesus Christ. For such a transformation, we have been predestined before the world’s creation, called to believe and be his people, and justified (declared righteous). Ultimately, when our pneumaformation is complete, we will experience his glorification.
As the Spirit is that of Jesus, Jesus is our everything. As such, the Spirit in us will move us to seek him, gain him, be found in him, know him, and participate in the fullness of his experience of being a Spirit-led human, including suffering and death. Like Paul, while we do not seek suffering as we serve God, we delight in participating in suffering—not for its sake but for his sake, giving our mortal existence to his service, rejoicing in persecution, for through it, we are being conformed to his death. We delight in the struggle because we know that our citizenship is in heaven, and here on earth, as we toil in the work of the Lord, our Savior is coming. In the twinkling of an eye, he will transform our humble, decay-ridden bodies into glorious bodies like his.
Heeding the Call of the Spirit
Keeping in step with the Spirit involves hearing the summons of God by the Spirit in and through his creation, his call to us through his Word, and then yielding to it. The first moment may come when a faithful believer preaches the Word. Alternatively and rarely, God might meet us dynamically and decisively by his sovereign power as he did Paul. Either way, true hearers and seers believe in God, his Son, and his Spirit. Believing means yielding to Christ’s lordship, accepting his invitation into his life, gratefully trusting in him to be our Savior, and committing to his service. Such faith is not a one-off moment at an altar call or saying the sinner’s prayer. It is an allegiance and commitment to obedience that, while it may waver at times, holds firm from conversion to the day we meet Jesus face to face. This faith, itself a gift of God, will be sustained by the Spirit in the willing. As such, we must be willing to be willing.[1]
Acknowledging the Spirit
The pneumaform life acknowledges the Spirit’s presence from beginning to end. So, we regularly pause and acknowledge that God, in his mercy and grace, through his Son, has sent his Spirit into our beings and allowed us to share in Christ’s anointing. Doing so, he has sealed us for the day of redemption, and the Spirit is the guarantee and firstfruit of our total transformation when God will complete his mission of cosmic restoration. We acknowledge that in Christ, by the Spirit, we are justified and seek to live righteous lives; cleansed, to live in purity; and sanctified, to be holy as he is holy. We care deeply about who we are, for our bodies are temples of the Spirit, and we behave accordingly. Often, we do this more when we become anxious and fearful. Knowing God is near to hear our prayer, we bring him our anxieties, and he meets us with a peace that surpasses all understanding. He reshapes us and history in conformity with his will, and we have peace.
Living Together with Others in the Spirit
The pneumaformed push against the rampant individualism of the age and acknowledge that when we were redeemed from sin and its horrific consequences, we were swept up into God and his people. We are adopted into his family, and others, whatever ethnicity, gender, and social class, are our brothers and sisters. There is no slave and free; we are all citizens. We show no prejudice. We repudiate stereotypes, sexism, racism, ethnocentricism, and elitism. While there are leaders, we are never comfortable with a clergy-laity divide.
Our pattern is that of Christ, who emptied himself for the world despite being God the Son, the clergyman of all clergy people. We commit to other believers, for Jesus has given his life for them. We recognize that we are a people first and individuals second. By the Spirit, we commit to engaging with other Christians, being involved in church (despite the pain that can bring), and working with our gifts to see God’s family, the body of Christ, the temple of the Spirit, grow. We push against denominationalism and factionalism, the brokenness that pervades God’s family. We expose injustice, oppression, and elitism in our church by seeking humility and Spirit-impelled service of others. We seek out the marginalized and bring them in. We remember the summons of the Spirit for the “strong” to curb their liberty out of love for the “weak.” We thus expose injustice and oppression and, in humility, esteem others above ourselves. Always living out of the gospel and where need be, defending it, we work for unity with love.
Praise by the Spirit
We constantly pause, especially during our busy days, yield afresh to the Spirit’s yearning toward God, and join the Son and Spirit’s intercession for the world. We self-consciously quiet ourselves and allow God’s Son, by the Spirit, to lead us in worship, praise, gratitude, confession, prayer, song, and supplication. We move beyond such things as church political intrigue; “Corinthianizing” by following this or that preacher, theologian, or tradition; the overemphasis on singing or the style of song; the supposed deficiencies in denominational expressions of the sacraments; problems with the lectionary; liturgical imbalances; concerns at the decline of the church; minor theological disagreements; and our previous hurts from immature Christians or because of our immaturity at the time.
Instead, by the Spirit, we do what we were created to do: praise and adore our Triune God. We love God—Father, Son, and Spirit. We delight in worship, hunger for more prayer, rush to prayer meetings, thank God even in suffering, and rejoice in the Lord always. We dispense with those idols stealing our hearts and time, connecting by the Spirit to the one who created us. As we leave the physical church, we continue to worship in our service, pouring ourselves out as drink offerings on the sacrifice of others. We come together again in homes, church buildings, prayer meetings, and more to be replenished in worship again.
Not by the Flesh but by the Spirit
Being formed by the Spirit, as we seek conformity with Christ, we determine to live by the Spirit and not the flesh and its wicked allies—evil spirits, the corporate evil of the fallen world. Knowing God loves us as his children, unafraid and yearning for his discipline, we ask God, in Christ, by the Spirit, to reveal our fleshliness. We want him to expose aspects of our life that are corrupted. We want the Spirit to make us aware of the sins and additions that developed within us as a result of our experiences in a broken and, at times, hostile world. We determine never to grieve or quench the Spirit with fleshly immaturity. We pray fervently, in and by the Spirit, that he will give us victory over these works of the flesh, our selfishness, and our desire for our way and that he cultivates in us the fruit of the Spirit. We ask him to expose false ideas and keep us in line with the gospel. We never give up on joyfully and gratefully entering into this process day by day. However, we don’t take this struggle on alone; we seek fellowship with others, prayer, and Spirit-led counseling, unafraid to humble ourselves so that we can be the people God created us to be. We do all this because “it requires ongoing attention, discernment, and commitment to continue to lay aside what is not from the Spirit and to take up what is.”[2]
To read more, preorder a copy of Pneumaformity: Transformation by the Spirit in Paul, or pick up a copy on Tuesday, September 17!
[1] I heard this in a sermon in my earliest days of my faith. It was by an African preacher I would acknowledge if I could.
[2] DeSilva, Transformation, 54. He rightly notes it takes the perseverance of an athlete, as in the case of Paul (1 Cor. 9:24–27).
This post is adapted from Pneumaformity: Transformation by the Spirit in Paul by Mark J. Keown This title is set to be released on September 17, 2024. If you are interested in adopting this book for a college or seminary course, please request a faculty examination copy. We will also consider requests for your blog or media outlets.
According to Paul, it is by the Spirit, through Christ, that God transforms people, communities, and the cosmos
Prominent recent studies elevate the themes of “Christoformity” and “Cruciformity” in Paul, but few sufficiently account for how a believer is actually transformed into the image of Christ. Pneumaformity fills the gap in Pauline studies by surveying Paul’s letters for teachings on the Spirit’s agency in the life of God’ people. This study aptly demonstrates that the Holy Spirit is the instrument through whom such radical living is possible. This study dives into Paul’s teachings on the following aspects of the Spirit’s agency and more:
- the Spirit’s participation in conversion
- the Spirit’s role in forming Christian character
- the Spirit’s integrating work within the Christian community
- the Spirit and missional engagement
- the Spirit’s place in the believer’s final eschatological transformation
Keown shows how Paul infuses his christological language with pneumatological realities, offering readers a fuller understanding of the Spirit’s work in individuals, the church, and the world.
