Seeing Jesus with Paul Miller

Paul, Liz, and Jon continue their conversation, taking this model of the soul and seeing how Jesus uses it in interacting with the Rich Young Ruler.

"There has been a wonderful movement in the church in the last century toward grace. But the downside is that Christians now get nervous about calls to obedience, because they think somehow that negates grace. Jesus is obviously full of grace, and because he's full of grace, he's challenging the Rich Young Man's will with a call to simple obedience. It doesn't negate grace; it's getting to the heart of the issue, literally and figuratively."

"Jesus empties Mark's heart and then fills it again. He's doing both simultaneously. So the emptying is 'give it all away.' And 'come follow me' is the replacement for those goods. And Jesus is a better good."

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their discussion of the soul, widening the conversation to consider how communities function with a kind of "corporate soul."

"The state of the soul is shaped by where it is on the J-Curve. And as it goes down into death, that breaks our pride, which is essentially at our affections level. Our affections are disoriented, or they're rightly oriented. And when they're disoriented, they're proud, and they're worshiping idols. They're turned inward in self-love and/or outward in loving the wrong thing."

"When I came onto staff at seeJesus, it wouldn't surprise me that we'd pray when facing a challenge or difficulty, or after exhausting all our resources, because I always did the same thing in my pastoral ministry at previous churches. That was not abnormal. What struck me more was when we'd be excited together, dreaming and vision-casting. Then someone would catch themselves and remind us to stop and pray. It felt frustrating, like we were cutting off the good part. But that was a way of slowing down, literally having to stop and talk to the Spirit, talk to God. It's actually a very practical thing to do in a group or leadership setting."

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about learning how to be a person by looking at Jesus.

"We've been looking at Jesus' soul, and that's not something that we're used to thinking about. In the church, we sort of generally think of two large categories with Jesus – his deity and then of course his work for us on the cross. So we're actually going to an area that is not well explored by the church. The joy of exploring it is we're looking at what it is to be a person. The big theological word is anthropology."

"When Jesus says to his brothers, 'My time has not yet come. I'm not going to the feast.' That was the tip of the iceberg, and underneath was a soul saturated in the word of God, a soul in step with the Spirit, in prayer. He was doing nothing on his own. He was waiting for his father's time. He was functionally the most dependent being who ever lived, and that's our model for how to do life as Christians."

You can view the chart Paul references on the complete soul (will, affections, mind) here.

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about the structure of the soul, looking at how the Spirit helps our souls.

"If we learn amazing truth at our seminaries but never apply it to our hearts, it's disembodied knowledge. If my will is the steering wheel and my heart is the gas pedal, then it's like never actually putting my foot on the gas or my hand on the wheel. I just aced the written exam but never actually drove."

"Paul says to walk, not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So my soul is not alone. By the Spirit, because He dwells and lives within us, there is absolute power and absolute hope that the flesh can be defeated, not in our own strength, but in His."

You can view the chart Paul references on the complete soul (will, affections, mind) here.

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about what we learn about the soul, sketching out three faculties of the soul (the will, the affections (loves), and the mind) and how they interact.

"The modern word for the soul is the self. But people don't think of the self as a spirit. Our world is Spirit-less, so it's soul-less. Both evangelical and secular scholars say that our world is disenchanted. In 15th century Europe, they couldn't imagine a world without God. And now our modern culture can't imagine a world with God."

"The affections, or the loves of the soul, are the sum total of what we love. And the sum total of what we love is the powerhouse of the soul. The mind is wonderful because it allows us to speak to our soul. The Psalms are full of that! As new creatures in Christ, we are not just slaves to our own desires; we actually have a choice. The mind has the ability to tutor, in a sense, the heart."

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their study of how Jesus lives in the world and what we can learn from him about living as God intended for us to live.

"Because God loves me so much and has the best in mind for me no matter what, then I want to do what he says. When the Circle of Love is working, it is a beautiful love relationship. For example, a husband loves his wife, and then she loves her husband. You can't tell where it begins, even on any given day. It's a continuous thing, but it always begins with one person. For us as believers, at the heart of it is the Father's love for me in Christ."

"Think of this as the Circle of Love: 'And this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave himself for us as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.' We couldn't begin with our own love. We have to begin with our Father's love for us."

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about how Jesus lived, looking at different aspects of the soul and how they relate to one another.

"A common image is the iceberg: getting down to my motivations, which are often opaque even for us. The whole experience of Christian life operates both above and below the waterline."

"Above the waterline is the will. But below the will, below the waterline, is the thing that we love. What loves us and what do we love? What I love shapes what I do and what I want."

Paul, Jon, and Liz explore the beauty of submission and why Jesus, fully submitted to his Father, became more vibrant and free.

"The modern word that is almost anathema to our culture is submission. Jesus' primary driver for his entire life was his submission to his Father, and he would not call us to do anything that he himself had not done."

"Jesus appears to be in bondage since he is so submitted to his Father, but he's freed to love an incredible variety of people. And his brothers, who appear free, are actually in bondage to other people's opinions."

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about Jesus and how he loves. In the podcast, they reference a chart on the four ways Jesus loves that you can view here.

"When Jesus sets up a boundary, it's because people want him to do something that, in the world's eyes, would be way more glorious or easy. He'll put up boundaries to keep to his mission that's actually much harder and more painful. The boundaries he sets up keep him on track to not what the world wants, or even what his friends want, but what his Father wants."

"The act of gentle intrusion is fading away. People are so fearful of triggering someone. What keeps them from loving is their risk assessment, with the result that people's lives are narrowing around the self."

Paul, Jon, and Liz continue their conversation about Jesus, reflecting on one of the ways Jesus loves: receiving what other people bring into his life.

"Selfless openness is simply being willing to let other people intrude into your world. With Mary Magdalene in the garden, Jesus stays in the background. He's the receiver of what's going on. Jesus receives Mary's tears quietly. He leaves space for her. Then with Pilate, Jesus receives his verbal abuse and mocking, which gets worse as the trial goes on. And in the footwashing, he receives the disciples' pride by washing their feet. He absorbs it."

"It's easy to see the seeming 'disorganization' as a problem. Like, Jesus could have benefited from a really good travel agent or team manager. 'He's not able to come help your daughter today, but you can book an appointment using our online form.' But, by design, he's responding to real life unfolding around him. That's something we can learn from him, too."