We are called to be ambassadors for Christ, which includes modeling how he expressed truth and compassion. Some people will respond to the evidence we present; others won’t. We still share, we still love, and we still defend. Don’t let potential negative outcomes keep you from sharing the truth with compassion. Be like Jesus.

I’d been preparing my argument for six months, and now it was time to deliver. I was precise, winsome, and articulate. Honestly, my delivery couldn’t have gone better. The conversation went back and forth as I continued to make point after point. My opponent had no ground to stand on, and I had tactically and tactfully shown him just that. To my surprise, he still did not want to change his mind. How could this happen? I had done everything right.
There are times when we are prepared, respectful, and gentle with our apologetic approach, yet it still doesn’t convince or convert. Although the goal of every conversation is to put a stone in someone’s shoe—to leave that person with something to think about—it would be nice if our well-executed arguments were received and believed.
When we face this common problem, it’s comforting to know that Jesus himself encountered the same thing.
In John 5 and 9, there’s a contrast between the two different men Jesus heals. These two men respond to Jesus in opposite ways.
The first man (John 5:1–18) had been sick for thirty-eight years and was completely helpless. He couldn’t move quickly and had no one to help him with his ailments. Jesus asks him, “Do you wish to get well?” The man replies that he doesn’t have anyone to help him into the pool of Bethesda, which he believes has healing powers. Jesus then says, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” The man is miraculously healed and obeys what Jesus said.
This is great. The miracle shows that Jesus is the healer, not the “magical” water. Jesus does the work, not the quickest person into the pool. Jesus expresses compassion and love toward the helpless. He reveals the truth about who God is to this man. You would think Jesus’ method of communicating and evidencing the truth would compel this man to believe in him. Sadly, no.
After being healed, the man is peppered with questions from his fellow Jews.
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Second Timothy 3:16–17 calls us to handle the truths of Scripture in a way that results in a constant pattern of personal self-examination that leads to honest and humble confession, which produces a commitment to repentance, resulting in a life of increasing spiritual maturity and joyful obedience. Not just your thinking is being changed, but every area of your life is being brought into greater and greater conformity to the will of the one who created you and recreated you in Christ Jesus.

The Word is a Gift of Grace
The doctrines of the word of God were not intended just to lay claim on your brain, but also to capture your heart and transform the way you live. Those doctrines are meant to turn you inside out and your world upside down. Biblical doctrine is much more than an outline you give confessional assent to. Doctrine is something you live in even the smallest and most mundane moments of your life. Biblical doctrine is meant to transform your identity, alter your relationships, and reshape your finances. It’s meant to change the way you think and talk, how you approach your job, how you conduct yourself in time of leisure, how you act in your marriage, and the things you do as a parent. It’s meant to change the way you think about your past, interpret the present, and view the future.
The doctrines of the word of God are a beautiful gift to us from a God of amazing grace. They are not burdensome, life-constricting beliefs. No, they impart new life and new freedom. They quiet your soul and give courage to your heart. They make you wiser than you had the natural potential to be, and they replace your complaining heart with one that worships with joy. God unfolds these mysteries to you because he loves you. He is the giver of life, and every doctrine in his word plants seeds of life in your heart. And as those seeds take root and grow, you too grow and change.
God isn’t just after your mind; he’s after your heart. And he’s not just after your heart; he’s after everything that makes up you. His truths (doctrines) are the ecosystem in which the garden of personal transformation grows.
No passage captures this better than 2 Timothy 3:16–17: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” This passage is so important for understanding how the truths (doctrines) of Scripture are meant to function in our lives. It gives us not only four ways that Scripture (and each of its doctrines) is meant to function in our lives but, more importantly, it provides a process by which Scripture is meant to function. Here are the four steps in the process.
1. Teaching: The Standard.
The truths of the Bible are God’s ultimate standard. They establish for us who God is, who we are, what our lives were designed to be, what is true and what is not, why we do the things we do, how change takes place, what in the world has gone wrong, and how in the world it will ever get corrected.
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As you pursue spiritual formation, please don’t wait for mountaintop experiences or voices from heaven to initiate change in your life. God has already spoken by his Son (Heb 1:1–3), and the apostles took great care, at times upon pain of death, to write it down for our assurance. If you want to hear the voice of God, all you need to do is open the book and read. See and hear your Master within these pages.

“I need to hear a voice from heaven.”
That’s what Robert, an atheist, told me after we met together to read the Bible for most of an academic year. We had studied John, Romans, and selections of the Old Testament to examine both the claims of Christ to be the Savior of the world and his resurrection from the dead to vindicate those claims. In the end, Robert refused to believe, asserting it was nothing but a cleverly devised myth.
Now it’s one thing when an atheist approaches the Bible this way with respect to converting to Christ. But surely true followers of Jesus wouldn’t approach the Bible that way with respect to their spiritual formation. They wouldn’t require a voice from heaven before repenting of sin or conforming to Christlike character. Right? … Right?
Consider Jonathan, rejecting counsel to refrain from sexual sin because he hadn’t yet heard an inner voice from God telling him to stop. Or Claudia, desperately wanting to share the gospel with her unbelieving roommate, but crippled with fear until the Holy Spirit tells her precisely when and how to do so. Or Anderson and Samantha, hopping from church to church, attending conference after conference, waiting for God to speak audibly and do something miraculous to restore the joy in their marriage. Or Nathaniel, investigating monastic orders under the impression that only there could he escape the world’s defilement and draw near to Christ.1
The apostle Peter heard a voice from heaven during his mountaintop experience. And he concluded that the spiritual formation of Christ-followers relies not on repeating such an experience but on something even more certain.
Let’s look at how 2 Peter 1 reveals both our desperate need for the knowledge of Christ to shape us and the priority of the Book to form us.
Our greatest need
Peter writes his second letter to the second generation of Christ-followers who would have to carry forward the true faith without direct intervention or direction from the apostles. Upon assuring them that their faith is every bit as legitimate as his own (2 Pet 1:1), he expresses his chief wish: that God’s grace and peace would take the form of ever-increasing knowledge of God and Jesus (2 Pet 1:2).
What Peter wants for generations of Christians after him is nothing short of “entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 1:11)—which will take place at Jesus’ “coming” (2 Pet 1:16, 3:4, 3:12). And entrance into this future kingdom is provided now for those who practice the qualities (2 Pet 1:10) that supplement faith: virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love (2 Pet 1:5–7).
Please note that Peter’s focus is on the future. He is not talking about how to “get saved”; he’s talking about how God is shaping his people so they may enter his eternal kingdom on the day of judgment.
Spiritual formation does not itself cleanse us from our sin. It is the direct result of having already been cleansed of sin (2 Pet 1:9). Having been saved by grace through faith (the starting point in 2 Pet 1:5), we are made partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4b) and grow in Christlike character (2 Pet 1:5–8). Practicing these qualities is thereby something of a dry run for our entry into the eternal kingdom when Christ returns (2 Pet 1:10-11)—a kingdom where only righteousness can dwell (2 Pet 3:13). This complete process is what it means to multiply the knowledge of Jesus Christ (2 Pet 1:8), which is our greatest need (2 Pet 1:2).
In short, Peter wants subsequent generations of believers to be ready for the kingdom of righteousness when it fully arrives. In order to get there, they must know Jesus Christ more every day and become like him. Peter took great pains to ensure we could find this very knowledge after he was gone (2 Pet 1:12–15), especially since he knew detractors would rise up (2 Pet 1:16, 2:1–3).
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