As Christians, what do we mean when we use “whole” or “wholeness” to describe what we have become in Christ? We sing and talk about how Christ made us whole, but what does this mean, and how does it affect how we live? A whole person is something we already are and are still becoming. Wholeness is coming to know oneness with Christ more and more experientially by grace through faith. It is the freedom to just live and be myself and trust myself because of oneness with Christ now. Wholeness is because of knowing oneness. Wholeness is because I believe what the Bible says about me. Wholeness is because “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Galatians 2:20 (NIV). Wholeness is because I’m no longer controlled by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, because the Spirit of God lives in me = He and His fruit will be the norm now as I just live. See Romans 8:9 NIV. Wholeness is where God is bringing me, by grace through faith. It can be known and experienced in this life far more than we have been led to believe. “Resting in Him as my utmost end.” John Owen
More Felt than Defined
Wholeness is something more felt and experienced by faith than understood and defined by the head. It is a spiritual truth known by the heart more than a rational truth figured out in the head. We have made Christianity and living the Christian life too cognitive. This contemporary emphasis in Western Christianity on the rational versus the spiritual is a fleshy attempt at control and security in reaction to fear and opposition. The church has abandoned “unembarrassed supernaturalism” and is putting its hope in human reason and apologetics. We have all our theological ducks in a row. In the process of lining them up, we have abandoned our first love. The fruit of the Spirit is love. To the degree we have assigned the Holy Spirit a seat in the back of the bus is to the degree we lose our first love. And it is only as they see us truly loving one another supernaturally that the world will believe that the Father sent the Son (John 17:20-23).
A Whole Person is a Free Person
The church and the world need to see and experience Christians who are real people, people who are free and authentic, natural and genuine. Only Christians who know and believe in the control of the Holy Spirit in their lives can be this. The church and the world need Christians who are whole people. Christians are the only people on earth who can be whole persons because Christians are the only people on earth who are indwelt and controlled by the Holy Spirit of God. When I believe that I’m controlled now, not by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit (Romans 8:9), I will begin to become a whole person. This is because if I’m controlled by the indwelling filling Holy Spirit now, which I am, I’m free to just live and be myself and find myself being good at the same time. See Galatians 5:16. A whole person is a free person, because “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17
We Hear Truth, God Works Faith
Spiritual truth is “seen” and understood because God shows it. Romans 8:32. Wholeness is something we already are that needs to be realized and believed. The appropriate question is not “How do I do it?” but “How do I come to believe it and rest in it?” “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17.
We hear it, over and over, and God does the rest. Thus, my book, which you should read slowly, over and over. It is God who works faith as we hear truth. The message of wholeness because of oneness with Christ is a biblical truth we haven’t heard enough.
“We can learn nothing of the gospel except by feeling its truths. Some sciences may be learned by the ear, but the science of Christ crucified can only be learned by the heart.” Charles Spurgeon
“But it is the spirit (Spirit) in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.” Job 32:8
“…he who will ever cling to natural reasoning and ability in his journey to God will not become a very spiritual person.” John of the Cross
Who and What We Already Are, So Just Live
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines whole – “something constituting a complex unity: a coherent system or organization of parts fitting or working together as one.” Because I am now resurrected and one with Christ, because of oneness with Him, because of Him living in me and me living in Him, because I am now “one with him in spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17), because I am a branch joined to the Vine and He flows through me as I just live, I’m a whole person. All of my parts have integrity now – my spirit, my mind, my will, my emotions – because I’m controlled by Him now, so I can begin to be a whole person. Because the Holy Spirit is now indwelling and filling my whole person, I can begin to trust and live by my whole person. I am no longer divided up and splintered.
Jesus coming to live in me has healed me and made me whole. Because I’m controlled by Him now, I’m free to just live and be myself. The norm will be righteousness and fruit as I do so. Wholeness = living by the Spirit(spirit) by faith = just living, because I’m already controlled by Him. (Romans 8:9). Because I’m controlled by Him now, because I no longer live, but He lives in me (Galatians 2:20), I’m free to just live, I’m free to make decisions, move in directions, deal with the hard things in life with a new confidence in my inner workings. Christian, you’re free to work out the salvation you already have with fear and trembling, you’re free to live life, to make hard decisions with confidence, to do hard things and make hard choices with confidence, you’re free to just live, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” Philippians 2:13
