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COUNSELING IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST:

UNION WITH CHRIST AND THE PNEUMATOLOGY

OF BIBLICAL COUNSELING

__________________

A Dissertation

Presented to

the Faculty of

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

__________________

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

__________________

Lucas Sabatier Marques Leite

December 2024

APPROVAL SHEET

COUNSELING IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST:

UNION WITH CHRIST AND THE PNEUMATOLOGY

OF BIBLICAL COUNSELING

Lucas Sabatier Marques Leite

Read and Approved by:

___________________________________________

Robert D. Jones (Chair)

___________________________________________

Gregg R. Allison

___________________________________________

Jeremy Pierre

Date_______________________________

For Bella, meu presente

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... vii

PREFACE ........................................................................................................................ viii

Chapter

1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1

Thesis ..................................................................................................................2

Methodology .......................................................................................................4

Summary of Research .........................................................................................7

Significance .......................................................................................................12

Argument ..........................................................................................................13

2. PNEUMATOLOGY AND UNION WITH CHRIST IN THE

BIBLICAL COUNSELING MOVEMENT ..........................................................17

Jay Adams .........................................................................................................17

Summary .................................................................................................. 34

David Powlison .................................................................................................35

Summary .................................................................................................. 46

Biblical Counseling Organizations ...................................................................47

Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) ............................ 48

Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF) .................... 52

Institute for Biblical Counseling and Discipleship (IBCD) ..................... 53

Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC) .............................................. 53

Biblical Counseling Coalition (BCC) ...................................................... 56

Summary .................................................................................................. 58

Chapter Page

Conclusion ........................................................................................................59

3. “THAT CHRIST MAY DWELL IN YOUR HEARTS”: THE MISSION

OF THE SPIRIT AND ECCLESIAL PARTICIPATION.....................................61

Divine Persons, Eternal Processions, and Temporal Missions .........................63

Summary .................................................................................................. 75

Inseparable Operations and the Spirit of Christ ................................................76

Summary .................................................................................................. 83

Mystical Union and Participation .....................................................................84

Justification and Sanctification in Christ ................................................. 87

The Forensic Nature of Union ................................................................. 92

The Organic Nature of Union .................................................................. 94

Imitation and Participation ...................................................................... 99

Summary ................................................................................................ 105

Conclusion: Participatory Conversations ........................................................106

4. “WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST”: COUNSELING WITH

WISDOM AND THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH ........................................................108

The Spirit of Truth ..........................................................................................109

Summary ................................................................................................ 123

Spiritual Wisdom ............................................................................................123

Summary ................................................................................................ 131

Spiritual Practical Reasoning for Counseling .................................................132

Summary ................................................................................................ 141

Conclusion ......................................................................................................142

5. “GOD’S LOVE HAS BEEN POURED INTO OUR HEARTS”:

THE WILL REORIENTED BY THE SPIRIT ....................................................144

The Spirit of Love ...........................................................................................146

Summary ................................................................................................ 154

Chapter Page

A Love That Fills ............................................................................................154

Summary ................................................................................................ 166

A Love That Shares .........................................................................................167

Summary ................................................................................................ 177

Conclusion ......................................................................................................178

6. PARTICIPATORY CONVERSATIONS: THE BODY THAT PRAYS

AND COUNSELS ...............................................................................................180

It Takes a Church to Care................................................................................182

Unity, Diversity, and Biblical Counseling ............................................. 190

Relational Organicism in Biblical Counseling ................................................193

Care to Participate? Christian Presence and the Table of

Fellowship ..................................................................................... 199

Life Together and the Principled Methodology of Biblical

Counseling ..................................................................................... 205

Dependence, Prayer, and Biblical Counseling ................................................208

Counseling and Praying in Christ .......................................................... 216

Conclusion ......................................................................................................219

7. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................221

BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 227

vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

BDAG Danker, Frederick W., Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur

Gingrich. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early

Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000

ICR Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Translated by Henry

Beveridge. 4 vols. Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845

JBC Journal of Biblical Counseling

NPNF1 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1. 14 vols. Edited by Philip

Schaff. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature, 1886–1889

NPNF2 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2. 14 vols. Edited by Philip Schaff

and Henry Wace. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature, 1890–1900

RD Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics. Edited by John Bolt. Translated

by John Vriend. 4 vols. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006

ST Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica. Translated by Fathers of the

English Dominican Province. London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1920–

1925

viii

PREFACE

This project is a work of theology for the sake of the church—specifically, for

the sake of biblical soul care within the community of the saints. This dissertation is not,

however, the mere result of my own efforts. The arguments and insights I present here

were birthed in the context of a community of scholars engaged in humble dialogue and

fertile conversations. And so, my gratitude extends to many. Robert Jones has been a

gentle mentor, providing a kind orientation for my research, teaching, counseling, and

Christian life in general. Jeremy Pierre has challenged me to think deeply about

theological methods and scriptural application to human experience. Gregg Allison has

pointed me to the broader historical context of systematic theology, particularly

strengthening my understanding of the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, and the church. Stephen

Wellum has presented me with an intellectual yet faithful approach to theology, and his

works have rekindled in me a love for Christ and the glories of the incarnation and

atonement. I am grateful for other professors I have had the privilege of assisting and

from whom I have learned much, such as John Henderson, Lilly Park, and Stuart Scott. I

am thankful for the professors and mentors I had earlier in life, such as Steve Viars,

Robert Green, Brent Aucoin, Sacha Mendes, and Robert Kellemen, who have inspired me

to pursue further studies in biblical counseling by showing me be the beauty of this

ministry in the local church.

Accomplishing the academic mission of finishing this project while living as

an immigrant in the United States was only possible because of the surrounding

community my family and I found. I am thankful for Colin McCulloch, Joe Hussung, and

Rafael Bello, for their friendship and the many conversations we had about theology and

counseling. I am grateful for Torey Teer, who has read through this dissertation and

offered invaluable insights, as he always does in our personal conversations. Angelia

Dittmeier, Cyndy Lowery, Jacob Denhollander, Jacob Percy, Jared Poulton, Josh Greiner,

Josh Squires, Keith Evans, Nate Brooks, and Wagner Floriani have all contributed to this

project by sharpening my ideas and providing emotional support and spiritual

encouragement to my soul. I must also extend my gratitude to our Third Avenue Baptist

Church brothers and sisters, who have loved my family through some of our most painful

days. Likewise, I thank God for Trevor and Tiffany Murray, who have been like family,

supporting our work in various ways from the very beginning of our seminary life. Thank

you, friends.

My thankfulness for my family is far beyond my ability to express it. My wife,

Bella, with her sacrificial love, has faced these years of my academic enterprise as a

“Team Leite” project, always having my interests above her own while also caring for

our three children, Ana Luisa, Sophie, and Timothy. Her humility and love have been an

inspiration, a constant reminder of God’s grace. Bella, you are truly a gift of God in my

life. I must also thank my parents, Paulo and Vânia, for their constant support and

counsel. What I learned from them since early life concerning Jesus and his salvation

shaped me profoundly as a man and a Christian. Their influence on this project is

immeasurable and worthy of great recognition.

Most importantly, I thank God for his grace in making me a participant in

Christ by his Spirit, allowing me to live by his life, love with his love, and see the truth

with his mind. To Christ—my Head and my Vine—be all the glory forever.

Lucas Sabatier M. Leite

Louisville, Kentucky

December 2024

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Biblical counseling is a spiritual task.

Any ministry that seeks to teach others

to observe all that Jesus has commanded presupposes the Lordship of Christ and thus

cannot be done except in the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:20; 1 Cor 12:3). As an interpersonal

ministry of the Word of God, biblical counseling is ultimately dependent on the work of

the Holy Spirit.

Addressing the hurts and struggles of specific persons, these counseling

conversations revolve around the person and work of Jesus Christ, as they relate to the

particularities of someone’s context. Therefore, the message and speech (Grk. λόγος and

κήρυγμά) of biblical counselors transcend human wisdom (1 Cor 2:2–5, 14).

Biblical

counseling relies fundamentally upon the “demonstration of the Spirit and of power”

(v. 4), as the true faith that it envisions can only rest on the revelation of the wisdom of

“Biblical Counseling” consists of the personal ministration of God’s Word occasioned by a

particular relational problem or personal struggle. While preaching constitutes the public ministry of the

Word of God, biblical counseling ministers God’s Word in private settings with dialogical engagement in

order to address specific problems of one individual (or a few) with suffering and/or sin. See David

Powlison, Speaking Truth in Love: Counsel in Community (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2005),

103–8. “Spiritual” will be used throughout this dissertation as something relates to, depends on, or is

empowered by the Holy Spirit. Any references to a generic spirituality will be pointed out explicitly. See

the framework of three “ages” (the Spirit of the Age, the Age of the Spirit, and the Spiritual Age) utilized in

Gregg R. Allison and Andreas J. Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, Theology for the People of God

(Nashville: B&H Academic, 2020), 235–36.

For more on biblical counseling as an interpersonal ministry of God’s Word, see David

Powlison, “Counsel and Counseling: Christ’s Message and Ministry Practice Go Together,” JBC 32, no. 1

(2018): 6–7; Robert D. Jones, Kristin L. Kellen, and Rob Green, The Gospel for Disordered Lives: An

Introduction to Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2021), 9–20. For the

“absolute necessity” of the Holy Spirit, see Bob Kellemen and Jeff Forrey, eds., Scripture and Counseling:

God’s Word for Life in a Broken World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), “Appendix B: The Confessional

Statement of the Biblical Counseling Coalition” (p. 397).

See Robert Jones, “The Christ-Centeredness of Biblical Counseling,” in Kellemen and

Forrey, Scripture and Counseling, 109. Jones argues that counseling is “biblical” when it highlights “the

Bible’s central figure, Jesus,” that is, when it “is fixed on Jesus and propelled by Him.”

God.

Accordingly, faithful biblical counseling requires spiritual people (Grk.

πνευματικοὶ; cf. 1 Cor 2:15; see also Gal 6:1), that is, those who have received the “Spirit

who is from God” (1 Cor 2:12) and thus are enabled to discern and communicate spiritual

truths (v. 13).

From the beginning of the biblical counseling movement (BCM), it has

remained uncontroversial that the Spirit is necessary.

But the query that follows is

“necessary for what?” If not carefully approached, this question can be misleading. That

is, when not properly contextualized within a broader pneumatology that accounts for the

biblical revelation of the Spirit’s person and mission, the question “What is the role of the

Holy Spirit in biblical counseling?” can result in reductionistic conclusions—such as

seeing the Holy Spirit as a passive co-participant in the counseling process and,

consequently, divesting him, even if unintentionally, of his divinity. Instead, a healthy

pneumatology of biblical counseling must first and foremost recognize that counselors,

being in Christ, are the ones who participate in the Spirit’s mission.

Thesis

Seeking to prevent such reductionism, this dissertation will present the

foundations of a pneumatology of biblical counseling—one that contextualizes

counseling as a ministry of the Word of God within the mission of the Holy Spirit, which,

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations come from the English Standard Version.

See also Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, rev. ed., New International Commentary on

the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014), 100. Commenting on 1 Cor 2:4, Fee writes,

In Paul the terms “Spirit” and “power” are at times nearly interchangeable (cf. 5:4). To speak of the

Spirit is automatically to speak of power (cf. Rom. 15:13, 19). The combination here is probably very

close to a hendiadys (the use of two words to express the same reality: “the Spirit, that is, Power”),

hence the NIV’s “the Spirit’s power.” But to what powerful demonstration of the Spirit does this

refer? It is possible, but not probable given the context of “weakness,” that it reflects the “signs and

wonders” spoken of in the next letter (2 Cor. 12:12). More likely it refers to their actual conversion,

with its concomitant gift of the Spirit.

See Jay E. Adams, Competent to Counsel (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), 20; Adams, The

Christian Counselor’s Manual: The Practice of Nouthetic Counseling (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 5;

Heath Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling: The Doctrinal Foundations of Counseling Ministry

(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), 163.

in turn, reflects in time and space the Spirit’s eternal procession. More specifically, I will

argue that a pneumatology of biblical counseling that is attentive to the doctrine of union

with Christ adequately contextualizes the ministry of biblical counselors within the

mission of the Holy Spirit as he empowers them to speak the truth in love, by

participation in Christ, to particular people with specific struggles.

If a goal of biblical counseling is “intentional and intensive discipleship,” and

“it must be directed toward sanctification,” then this type of interpersonal ministry of

God’s Word must be understood in its soteriological context.

Counseling, of course, in

and of itself, does not save. Yet, the divine work of redemption—planned by the Father,

accomplished by the Son, and applied by the Spirit—is heralded and proclaimed in God’s

creation by those who have already heard the saving voice of Christ (1 Pet 2:9). Using the

speech of the church, God brings about saving faith (Rom 10:17), and so, the church

participates in God’s redemptive work.

It is this ecclesial discourse in counseling

conversations that will be the object of attention and theological consideration in this

dissertation.

Because biblical counseling takes place in the context of God’s work of

salvation, a pneumatology of biblical counseling must be especially attentive to the

Spirit’s appropriated works of re-creating and perfecting people.

By his Spirit, Christ

Kellemen and Forrey, Scripture and Counseling, “Appendix B” (pp. 397–98).

I am thankful for my friend Torey Teer, who has argued similarly in Torey Teer, “‘As the

Father Has Sent Me, Even So I Am Sending You’: The Divine Missions and the Mission of the Church,”

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 63, no. 3 (2020): 535–58.

Although much can be said about the Holy Spirit’s transformative operation in the lives of

counselees, this dissertation will primarily focus on the Spirit’s work on the counselor and the theology of

counseling.

For more on appropriations and the divine works that terminate on the Holy Spirit, see

Allison and Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, 284–85. See also Gilles Emery, The Trinitarian Theology of St

Thomas Aquinas, trans. Francesca Aran Murphy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 312–35.

takes hold of his people as they take hold of him by faith.

Since uniting to Christ is at

the heart of the Spirit’s soteriological mission, a pneumatology of biblical counseling

cannot be constructed without adequate consideration of such doctrine. In fact, because

“salvation belongs to the Lord” (Ps 3:8), the focus on the Spirit’s operation in uniting

believers to Christ will ultimately lead to the contemplation and praise of the Spirit’s

divine beauty.

Therefore, a healthy pneumatology of biblical counseling that maintains both

the divinity and the divine work of the Holy Spirit is one that appropriately considers the

doctrine of the believer’s union with Christ. United to Christ by the Spirit, biblical

counselors participate in God’s saving mission as they speak the truth in love to those in

need. And what truth and love can biblical counselors offer if not the truth and love that

flow from Christ and their participation in him (John 15:5)?

Methodology

I will present the case for my thesis in three main methodological steps. First, I

will survey the state of the question regarding the Holy Spirit and union with Christ in the

biblical counseling literature. Second, in chapters 3–5, drawing from biblical exegesis

and theological consideration, I will propose a reflection on pneumatology and union

with Christ as these doctrines relate to the task of biblical counseling. Finally, in chapter

6, I will consider a few resulting theological implications for the praxis of biblical

counseling.

This dissertation is a work of systematic theology. Biblical counseling, as a

spiritual task, is essentially theological.

Moreover, the elaboration of any discourse

involving God the Holy Spirit is, by nature, a theological enterprise. With that in mind,

As John Calvin writes, “The Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually binds us to

himself.” John Calvin, ICR, 3.1.1. See also J. Stephen Yuille, The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety: John

Flavel’s Doctrine of Mystical Union with Christ (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 33.

Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling, 11–17.

the theological method adopted for the advancement of the present argument includes

two basic principles: sola Scriptura and the regula fidei.

First, committed to sola Scriptura, I will develop my argument by relying on

the supreme and final authority of Scripture. Following Paul’s logic in 1 Corinthians 2:11

(that only God knows God in order to reveal God), a pneumatology of biblical counseling

must be first and foremost grounded in special revelation. Accordingly, being divinely

inspired (2 Tim 3:16), Scripture is God’s self-disclosing communicative act.

As such,

Scripture is the ultimate authority on matters of faith, the norma normans. The

construction of a pneumatology of biblical counseling requires, first, listening to the Holy

Spirit’s words so that our thoughts and words are thought and said after God’s.

However, thinking God’s thoughts after him and declaring his self-revelatory words does

not mean the mere repetition of Scripture.

Instead, with Anselm (and others), I approach

the theological enterprise with an attitude of faith seeking understanding.

In other

words, the theological task, as approached in this project, aims to trustingly affirm and

See John Webster, Holiness (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 12–13. Webster defines

“revelation” as “the self-presentation of the holy Trinity. It is the free work of sovereign mercy, in which

the holy God wills, establishes and perfects saving fellowship with himself, a fellowship in which

humankind comes to know, love and fear him above all things.” See also Kevin J. Vanhoozer, The Drama

of Doctrine: A Canonical Linguistic Approach to Christian Doctrine (Louisville: Westminster John Knox

Press, 2005), 63–68.

See John Webster, Confessing God: Essays in Christian Dogmatics II, 2nd ed., Cornerstones

(London: T&T Clark, 2016), 190. Webster states, “The church is therefore not first and foremost a

speaking but a hearing community.”

Stephen J. Wellum, “Retrieval, Christology, and Sola Scriptura,” Southern Baptist Journal

of Theology 23, no. 2 (2019): 36. Wellum helpfully clarifies,

Doing theology minimally involves two steps. First, one must “put together” all that Scripture says

on a specific subject the way that Scripture does so, which involves exegesis and the doing of biblical

theology. Second, building on what Scripture teaches, theology also has a “constructive” element:

“faith seeking understanding.” Theology does not merely repeat Scripture; it seeks to “understand”

what Scripture says in terms of application, logical implications, metaphysical entailments, and so

on.

That, in fact, is how Anselm entitles his Proslogium. See Anselm of Canterbury,

Proslogium, trans. Sidney Norton Deane, in The Major Works of Anselm of Canterbury (Chicago: Open

Court, 1939), 2–3.

understand what Scripture states and what may be deduced from it by good and necessary

consequence.

Second, committed to the “Rule of Faith” (regula fidei), I will advance my

argument with fidelity to the ecumenical creeds and councils of the Christian faith.

Following Gregg Allison and Andreas Köstenberger, my approach seeks to incorporate

the church’s traditional formulations about the Holy Spirit, attributing to this theological

consensus presumptive authority.

As such, the ecumenical creeds possess a secondary

ministerial role in the theological enterprise, for their doctrinal authority is that of a

“ruled rule” (norma normata), standing under the supreme authority of the biblical text.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1996),

I.6. See also Kevin J. Vanhoozer, “May We Go beyond What Is Written after All? The Pattern of

Theological Authority and the Problem of Doctrinal Development,” in The Enduring Authority of the

Christian Scriptures, ed. D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), 747–92.

As Vanhoozer explains,

The Rule of Faith was not an alternative to or correction of Scripture, but simply a distillation of its

message . . . . The Rule of Faith was not an independent standard over against Scripture. It was rather

a brief summary of Scripture’s overall message—the basic truths concerning God and the gospel—

and could therefore serve as the standard of truth itself. One might even say that the Rule of Faith

was an early formulation of the principle of Scripture’s sufficiency. (Kevin J. Vanhoozer, “The

Sufficiency of Scripture: A Critical and Constructive Account,” Journal of Psychology and Theology

49, no. 3 [2021]: 7)

In another place, Vanhoozer clarifies the hermeneutical function of the Rule: “In sum: the Rule is the canon

‘rightly understood,’ a summary of the theo-drama that is the principle of Scripture’s unity, its

interpretative key. The authority of the Rule ultimately derives from its success in directing the reader in

the way of the gospel.” Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine, 203, 207. See also Timothy George, Reading

Scripture with the Reformers (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011), 32. The concept of the Rule of

Faith can be traced back to the early Christian church and is found in the writings of the fathers, such as

Irenaeus and Tertullian. See Irenaeus of Lyon, On the Apostolic Preaching, trans. John Behr, Popular

Patristics (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997), 41; Tertullian of Carthage, The

Prescription against Heretics, trans. Peter Holmes, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the

Fathers down to A.D. 325, vol. 3, Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian. I Apologetic; II. Anti-

Marcion; III. Ethical, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe (Buffalo, NY:

Christian Literature, 1885), 249. See also Tomas Bokedal, “The Rule of Faith: Tracing Its Origins,”

Journal of Theological Interpretation 7, no. 2 (2013): 233–55.

See Allison and Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, 227–28; Gregg R. Allison, “The Corpus

Theologicum of the Church,” in Revisioning, Renewing, Rediscovering the Triune Center: Essays in Honor

of Stanley J. Grenz, ed. Derek J. Tidball, Brian S. Harris, and Jason S. Sexton (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock,

2010), 319–39.

See Allison, “The Corpus Theologicum of the Church,” 325. Also, the Symbol of Chalcedon

exemplifies this relationship between biblical revelation and church tradition as the divines understood that

they must declare their confession in accord with what “the prophets spoke of him from the beginning, and

Jesus Christ himself instructed us, and the Council of the fathers has handed the faith down to us.” Donald

Fairbairn, trans., “The Chalcedonian Definition,” Credo Magazine, February 18, 2021,

https://credomag.com/2021/02/the-chalcedonian-definition/. While revelation is given through the

Moreover, with historical awareness, this project will critically engage in theological

retrieval, approaching exegetical and theological endeavors alongside the company of the

saints of the past.

Writing from a Reformed perspective (predominant in the BCM since

its origins), I will pay particular attention to sources from the Reformed tradition,

especially concerning matters of doctrinal distinction (e.g., soteriology, union with

Christ).

In sum, to establish the foundations of a healthy pneumatology of biblical

counseling, this dissertation will draw from the disciplines of biblical and theological

studies with historical awareness and with a vision for renewal.

In other words, I will

“draw on the fecund resources of Holy Scripture within the context of the catholic church

of the Reformed confession” so that the present church may faithfully respond to current

challenges, especially on matters of soul care, with the biblical wisdom employed by the

saints in Christ through the ages.

Summary of Research

From the very beginning of the BCM, biblical counselors have affirmed the

indispensability of the Holy Spirit for counseling. In the second chapter of Competent to

teachings of the prophets and of Jesus, which enjoy magisterial authority, the creedal confession of the

church has the ministerial function of “handing down” these teachings, and so its authority is derivative.

On “theological retrieval,” see Gavin Ortlund, Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals: Why

We Need Our Past to Have a Future (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 17. As Ortlund defines, theological

retrieval “is better understood as a set of shared loyalties or instincts in theological method—an overall

attitude guided by the conviction that premodern resources are not an obstacle in the age of progress but a

well in the age of thirst.” Or, as Michael Allen and Scott Swain put, theological retrieval is the effort to

“inhabit the classroom of the communion of saints” and “learn from its instruction.” Michael Allen and

Scott R. Swain, eds., Christian Dogmatics: Reformed Theology for the Church Catholic (Grand Rapids:

Baker Academic, 2016), 4. With Wellum, however, I affirm that retrieval must be engaged critically.

Wellum, “Retrieval, Christology, and Sola Scriptura,” 44.

For the origins of the BCM, see David Powlison, The Biblical Counseling Movement:

History and Context (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2010), 3.

The goal of retrieval is renewal—to “chart a catholic and Reformed path forward, then, by

pointing backward.” Allen and Swain, Christian Dogmatics, 5.

Allen and Swain, Christian Dogmatics, 2.

Counsel, considered the seminal work of the BCM, Jay Adams affirms, “Counseling is

the work of the Holy Spirit. Effective counseling cannot be done apart from him.”

Although this declaration occupies a preeminent place in the structure of this ground-

breaking text, what follows reveals an emphasis on counseling methodologies and

techniques. Adams acknowledges that “it might be possible to dip into portions of the

book and get the impression that the Holy Spirit has been supplanted by human

techniques.”

Nonetheless, he warns, “Wherever [the Spirit’s] work has not been spelled

out in detail, it is everywhere assumed.”

Similarly, in Christian Counselor’s Manual,

Adams dedicates the second chapter to writing a four-page description of the Holy Spirit

in biblical counseling.

Even though these chapters are not extensive treatises, their

prominent placement shows that Adams understood the work of the Spirit as

fundamental.

In 1991, during an interview with David Powlison, Jay Adams bluntly stated,

“I don’t have a mystical bone in my body.”

Adams’s avoidance of any mystical

approach was manifest in the pneumatology he embraced for counseling: “The work of

the Spirit is not mystical.”

For him, the Spirit has revealed to us how he works—that is,

through Scripture—and this is sufficient to dispel any mystery related to his work.

Adams, Competent to Counsel, 20.

Adams, Competent to Counsel, 24.

Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 5–8.

Heath Lambert also notes, “Adams typically began his books with a chapter about the Holy

Spirit and the necessity of his work to apply the truth of the gospel and bring about change in the

counselee.” Heath Lambert, The Biblical Counseling Movement after Adams (Wheaton, IL: Crossway,

2011), 121. A thorough description of how Adams understood the work of the Spirit in relation to biblical

counseling will be presented in chapter 2 of this dissertation.

This interview was conducted in Lafayette, Indiana, on October 7, 1991, and is quoted by

Powlison in the published version of his PhD dissertation; see Powlison, The Biblical Counseling

Movement, 11.

Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 186.

Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 186–87.

Moreover, it is worth noting that Adams’s attention to the Holy Spirit was

focused on how people change. He was primarily concerned with how the people

receiving biblical counseling would be empowered to hear and respond to the biblical

truth. As Powlison points out, the Holy Spirit’s present power received a large share of

Adams’s attention, but “at every turn of his writing, Adams sounds the note of change.”

Adams’s goal was not to provide a theological understanding of counseling

contextualized by the divine mission of the Spirit but—more narrowly—to explain

biblical change in people.

Many have offered critiques to various aspects of Adams’s model of

counseling. From a biblical counseling perspective, Powlison himself has offered several

corrections, including brief critiques of Adams’s pneumatology and his view on habits

and change.

Related to habits and change and touching on the work of the Spirit,

Edward Welch has likewise offered his constructive input.

Moreover, some

integrationists have also critiqued Adams’s pneumatology, proposing distinctive views of

the Spirit’s involvement in counseling according to their particular presuppositions.

2002, Edward Decker reviewed a dozen academic articles, published between 1985 and

1999, relating the Holy Spirit to the counseling endeavor—four of which were written by

Powlison, The Biblical Counseling Movement, 126.

Another evidence of Adams’s overfocused connection between counseling and change is his

hesitancy in using the term “biblical counseling” for unbelievers since they do not have the indwelling of

the Spirit and thus cannot change biblically. See Lambert, The Biblical Counseling Movement after Adams,

40. As Powlison highlights, “Adams did ‘problem-oriented’ evangelism or ‘precounseling.’” Powlison, The

Biblical Counseling Movement, 129.

See Powlison, The Biblical Counseling Movement, 127–30.

See Edward Welch, “How Theology Shapes Ministry: Jay Adams’s View of the Flesh,” JBC

20, no. 3 (2002): 16–25.

See, e.g., Errol Royden Wagner, “A Critique of Jay E. Adams’s Theology from a

Pneumatological Viewpoint within Calvinistic Theology” (DTheol diss., University of Durban-Wesville,

1995). Moreover, for a constructive proposal toward a pneumatology of counseling from a Pentecostal

perspective, see Haley R. French, “Counselling in the Spirit: The Outworking of a Pneumatological

Hermeneutic in the Praxis of Pentecostal Therapists,” Practical Theology 10, no. 3 (July 2017): 263–76.

Sian-Yang Tan, who has motivated interest in this area among integrationists.

Tan has

also published a book titled Disciplines of the Holy Spirit (1997) and has given much

attention to the Holy Spirit in his later work of integration, Counseling and

Psychotherapy (2011).

In 2016, the publication of A Theology of Biblical Counseling by Heath

Lambert (then the executive director of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors),

renewed the interest of the BCM in its doctrinal foundations, including pneumatology.

However, Lambert has maintained the emphasis on how the Spirit works in counselees

through counseling conversations (i.e., theory of change) and not as much on

pneumatological aspects involving the counselor and the counseling ministry itself.

The doctrine of union with Christ remains underdeveloped in biblical

counseling circles. Adams’s works highlighted the representative aspect of being in

Christ to the neglect of the organic aspect. The language of “union” is almost non-

existent.

In the few instances in which “union” appears, it is either accompanied by the

qualifier “representative” or followed by an explanation of the declarative aspect of

justification.

Subsequent biblical counselors sought to bring comfort to the sufferer and

address heart issues by using the doctrine of union with Christ to depict the believer’s

Edward E. Decker Jr., “The Holy Spirit in Counseling: A Review of Christian Counseling

Journal Articles (1985–1999),” Journal of Psychology and Christianity 21, no. 1 (2002): 21.

Siang-Yang Tan and Douglas H. Gregg, Disciplines of the Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 1997); Sian-Yang Tan, Counseling and Psychotherapy: A Christian Perspective (Grand

Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011).

Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling.

See Adams, Competent to Counsel; Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling: More than

Redemption (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010); Adams, How to Help People Change: The Four-Step

Biblical Process (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010).

In these instances, the language of “reckoned” or “declared” righteous or “attributed”

righteousness commonly follows. See Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 162–63; Adams,

Romans, I and II Thessalonians, and Philippians, Christian Counselor’s Commentary (Hackettstown, NJ:

Timeless Texts, 1995), 49.

new individual identity.

Moreover, the theme of union with Christ has been explored in

association with spiritual disciplines and formation through the concept of “abiding”

found in John 15.

However, no systematic notion of organic (or ontological)

participation in Christ has been developed or emphasized in the BCM—much less its

implications for biblical counseling.

In recent years, a flood of resources on the doctrine of union with Christ from a

Reformed perspective has been published.

Interacting with much of this new

scholarship, Christian psychologist Eric Johnson has dedicated unprecedented emphasis

to the doctrine of union with Christ and the Holy Spirit’s work in his theological

treatment of soul care. Union with Christ and the Spirit’s work appear in close connection

to each other in six of the ten strategic principles that constitute the backbone of

The best treatise associated with the BCM on this theme is Elyse Fitzpatrick, Found in Him:

The Joy of the Incarnation and Our Union with Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013). See also Timothy S.

Lane and Paul David Tripp, How People Change, 2nd ed. (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2008), 55–

72, 167–76; David Powlison, “Brother, Where Is Your Identity?,” The Gospel Coalition, November 19,

2015, http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/brother-where-is-your-identity. David Maddox has also

specifically written a chapter on union with Christ and its implications for counseling; see David Maddox,

“Union with Christ: The Implications for Biblical Counseling,” in Introduction to Biblical Counseling: A

Basic Guide to the Principles and Practice of Counseling, ed. John F. MacArthur Jr. and Wayne A. Mack

(Dallas: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 116–30. However, this chapter was later excluded from the re-edited

volume; see John F. MacArthur Jr. and Wayne A. Mack, Counseling: How to Counsel Biblically

(Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005).

Robert Cheong and Heath Lambert, “The Goal and Focus of Spiritual Formation,” in Christ-

Centered Biblical Counseling: Changing Lives with God’s Changeless Truth, ed. James MacDonald, Bob

Kellemen, and Steve Viars (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2013), 285–96.

See, e.g., Michael Horton, Covenant and Salvation: Union with Christ (Louisville:

Westminster John Knox Press, 2007); Mark A. Garcia, Life in Christ: Union with Christ and Twofold

Grace in Calvin’s Theology (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2008); J. Todd Billings, Calvin, Participation,

and the Gift: The Activity of Believers in Union with Christ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008);

Billings, Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (Grand Rapids: Baker

Academic, 2011); Robert Letham, Union with Christ: In Scripture, History, and Theology (Phillipsburg,

NJ: P&R, 2011); Constantine R. Campbell, Paul and Union with Christ: An Exegetical and Theological

Study (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012); Marcus Peter Johnson, One with Christ: An Evangelical Theology

of Salvation (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013); Robert A. Peterson, Salvation Applied by the Spirit: Union

with Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014); Rankin Wilbourne, Union with Christ: The Way to Know and

Enjoy God (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2016); Michael J. Thate, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, and

Constantine R. Campbell, eds., “In Christ” in Paul: Explorations in Paul’s Theology of Union and

Participation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018); Grant Macaskill, Union with Christ in the New Testament

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018); Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ: Paul’s Gospel and

Christian Moral Identity (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019).

Johnson’s counseling model.

Much of his comprehensive doctrinal presentation can and

should be considered by those in the BCM. And yet, there is more that must be

researched and said—especially concerning the intersection of these themes and a

theological understanding of the task of biblical counseling itself.

To date, there has been no construction of a pneumatology of biblical

counseling that closely relates mystical union with Christ with the operation of the Spirit.

Since Adams was a Calvinist (as are most of those who followed him in the BCM), it

seems that an internal critique of his system will not end in the rejection of the basic

premises of the BCM. On the contrary, by bringing together classical pneumatology and

a Reformed understanding of mystical union with Christ, this project will provide an even

more solid theological foundation for the biblical counseling model.

Significance

Although there has been a strong recognition of the necessity of the Holy Spirit

for the biblical counseling task, since the beginning of the BCM, no whole-book

pneumatology of biblical counseling has been published. As pointed out above, some

chapters have appeared in biblical counseling works addressing the Holy Spirit in

counseling, but limited by space and with practical concerns, these chapters are

insufficient. Moreover, biblical counseling works on the doctrine of union with Christ

have mainly focused on matters of identity and theory of change, without giving much

attention to how it relates to biblical counselors and their ministerial activity.

This dissertation aims to begin providing a pneumatological justification for

the ministry of biblical counseling.

As a work of theology, this project seeks to follow

Eric L. Johnson, God and Soul Care: The Therapeutic Resources of the Christian Faith

(Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2017), 16–17.

Note that it is not the aim of this dissertation to provide a complete pneumatology of

counseling. That would require more space than I have for this project. Instead, it is my hope that this work

will stimulate further dogmatic thinking about biblical counseling, particularly regarding pneumatology and

union with Christ.

Powlison’s vision to “rebalance truth for the sake of comprehensiveness.”

By framing

biblical counseling within the context of the Holy Spirit’s work (and not restricting the

dogmatic analysis to the Spirit’s work in the biblical counseling context), my goal is to

offer some corrections of emphasis so that the BCM may engage in more balanced

speech about God the Holy Spirit in biblical counseling. It is my hope to see biblical

counseling practitioners increasing in awareness of their dependence on the Holy Spirit as

God, viewing their ministerial work within the context of the divine missions.

Argument

The argument of this project will be demonstrated in four major acts.

Following this introduction, in the first act, chapter 2, I will expand the survey on the

state of the question regarding the Holy Spirit, union with Christ, and biblical counseling.

I will engage with the major theological works published by the leaders associated with

the BCM—especially Jay Adams and David Powlison.

I will also research and compare

how different biblical counseling organizations refer to the Holy Spirit and his work of

union with Christ in their confessional documents. Holding to classical trinitarianism, I

will briefly evaluate the surveyed material, highlighting points of emphasis or neglect,

strengths or weaknesses, and the corrections and developments that took place within the

BCM.

David Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 33. Here,

Powlison notes the impossibility of emphasizing everything all the time, especially in the context of

ministry: “Ministry ‘unbalances’ truth for the sake of relevance; theology ‘rebalances’ truth for the sake of

comprehensiveness.”

See Lambert, The Biblical Counseling Movement after Adams, 47. In his work surveying the

history of the BCM, Lambert refers to Adams as the leader of the “first generation” of biblical counselors

and to Powlison as the leader of the “second generation.” This dissertation will follow Lambert’s lead in

identifying Adams and Powlison as historical leaders of the BCM, although I will prefer the terminology of

“phases” instead of “generations” in order to avoid the impression of a complete substitution or

replacement in such intellectual leadership. Also, for the purposes of this project, I will not consider the

third phase of the BCM around any one single leader. Instead, following the trend brought up by the

Biblical Counseling Coalition (BCC), I will consider the diversity of views among the main biblical

counseling organizations.

In the second act, chapter 3, I will present the initial movement of this

pneumatological construction for biblical counseling. To properly contextualize biblical

counseling within the divine mission of the Holy Spirit, one must first establish the work

of the Spirit as it reflects his eternal procession. Accordingly, as an exercise in

theological theology, my argument will begin with the divine mission of the Spirit as a

fitting expression in time of his eternal procession from the Father and the Son.

Second,

I will explore how the operations of the Spirit occur inseparably from the Father and the

Son—with particular attention to how the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ who indwells

believers. Third, I will discuss the nature of union with Christ as effected by the Holy

Spirit. It is by virtue of this mystical union with Christ that the ministry of biblical

counseling belongs to the church, and only by derivation—it is first and foremost the

redeeming work of God himself. The priesthood of the church is participatory, entailing

more than mere co-laboring. It involves “participatory conversations,” in which the saints

speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15) by cognitive and volitive participation in Christ,

brought about by the Spirit’s operation.

See Thomas Aquinas, ST, 1.43.1–2. The sending of the Holy Spirit “reflects his eternal

procession. The mission of the divine person is, so to say, an outflowing in time of his eternal procession.”

Gilles Emery, The Trinity: An Introduction to Catholic Doctrine on the Triune God, trans. Matthew

Levering (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2011), 183. See also Allison and

Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, 274–76; Robert Letham, Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway,

2019), 121–22; Christopher R. J. Holmes, The Holy Spirit, New Studies in Dogmatics (Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 2015), 26–28. For more on “theological theology,” see Webster, Confessing God, 11–31;

Webster, The Domain of the Word: Scripture and Theological Reason (London: T&T Clark, 2012), 128–

29.

Following the father of Puritanism, William Perkins, I adopt a bipartite view of the soul. For

Perkins, “God, in framing the soul, placed in it two principal faculties: understanding and will.” William

Perkins, “A Discourse of Conscience,” in The Works of William Perkins, vol. 8, ed. J. Stephen Yuille

(Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2019), 7. According to J. Stephen Yuille, Perkins’s twofold

view of psychological faculties (which include the affections under the category of the will) is paradigmatic

for the Puritan movement. J. Stephen Yuille, ed., preface to The Works of William Perkins, vol. 8, xii.

Jonathan Edwards follows a similar view: “The will, and the affections of the soul, are not two faculties;

the affections are not essentially distinct from the will, nor do they differ from the mere actings of the will

and inclination of the soul, but only in the liveliness and sensibleness of exercise.” Jonathan Edwards, The

Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, Religious Affections, ed. John E. Smith and Harry S. Stout, rev. ed.

(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 97. For more on the psychological faculties of the soul, see

Paul Helm, Human Nature from Calvin to Edwards (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2018),

79–110.

In the third act, chapters 4 and 5 will develop the theme of the biblical

counselor’s participation in Christ’s knowledge and love, respectively. In chapter 4, I will

contend that in uniting them to Christ, the Spirit brings biblical counselors to participate

in the knowledge—and then the contextualized proclamation—of the divine words of

truth. First, I will underscore the association of the Holy Spirit with truth and the mind of

Christ in Scripture: the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13)

and communicates the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:6–16). Second, because the Holy Spirit is

the Spirit of wisdom and understanding (Isa 11:2; Eph 1:17), I will explore the

essentiality of his work of illumination toward a practical knowledge. Third, I will

examine how the Christ-oriented witness of the Holy Spirit who allows for practical

knowledge empowers counselors to wisely interpret people’s particular experiences. In

this chapter, it will become clear that biblical counselors must first see the truth so that

they can point it out to others; they must first hear it so that they may speak it; they must

have the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16). It is because the Spirit’s work empowers

knowledge and wisdom that specific life experiences and the scriptural text can meet in

the counseling room.

In chapter 5, I will argue that in giving of himself to believers with the

outpouring of the Spirit of Christ, God loves Christians and fills them with love (Rom

5:5) so that they can love him and love others. True love for God and neighbor, therefore,

requires participation in Christ by the Spirit (John 15:5–10). In the first movement, I will

explore the Holy Spirit’s close association with love as he proceeds from Father and the

Son (Rom 5:5; 2 Cor 13:14). Second, I will defend the notion that the presence of the

Holy Spirit is the decisive factor for the reorientation of the will and the satisfaction of

the soul in Christ, freeing biblical counselors to give themselves to the loving assistance

of others in their difficulties and struggles. Third, I will articulate a vision for biblical

counseling that is built on a pneumatology of love: the church is, by sharing in the divine

nature (2 Pet 1:4) and participating in the Spirit of Christ (Phil 2:1–8), a community

devoted to love—not by mere imitation of Christ but by being ontologically re-created

(i.e., regenerated) in Christ.

In the fourth and final act, chapter 6 will outline some theological implications

for the praxis of biblical counseling by considering the impacts of a greater awareness of

the reality of union with Christ. First, I will observe that biblical counselors are

insufficient in themselves: As any ministry of the Word, biblical counseling is dependent

on the Spirit and supported by the church. Second, I will argue that participation in Christ

by the Spirit entails the rejection of formulaic approaches to biblical counseling, favoring

instead an emphasis on the relationality of counseling interactions. Third, I will reflect on

the essentiality of prayer for biblical counselors as they seek to speak the truth in love to

others.

To conclude, in chapter 7, I will restate the thesis of this dissertation and

provide a brief overview of the main arguments and conclusions of each chapter. I will

then comment on possible areas for future research in biblical counseling as it relates to

the Holy Spirit and union with Christ.

CHAPTER 2

PNEUMATOLOGY AND UNION WITH CHRIST IN

THE BIBLICAL COUNSELING MOVEMENT

Biblical counselors have written much on the Holy Spirit and his foundational

role in biblical counseling, especially his work of revealing the truth. Less ink has been

invested, however, in exploring the implications of the doctrine of union with Christ in

various aspects of the counseling task. This chapter will survey how these doctrines—of

the Holy Spirit and union with Christ—have been understood and addressed throughout

different moments of the BCM, seeking to identify particular emphases and uses as they

relate to the biblical counseling ministry. I will engage with the major theological works

associated with Adams and Powlison, the historical leaders of the BCM.

Moreover, I

will consider the present stances adopted by prominent biblical counseling organizations

in their confessional documents and the works of their leaders. At the end of each section,

I will offer a summary to underscore points of emphasis and neglect, strengths and

weaknesses, as well as the developments that took place within the BCM.

Jay Adams

Jay Adams (1929–2020) was the precursor of what is known today as the

BCM.

His writings on counseling were born to counter the adoption of secular humanist

See Heath Lambert, The Biblical Counseling Movement after Adams (Wheaton, IL:

Crossway, 2011), 47. As already noted, Lambert’s use of the language of “generations” refers to different

“moments” or “phases” of the BCM, not to subsequent leadership, and does not entail a complete

substitution or replacement. Adams and Powlison have worked and taught as contemporaries, both having

passed away just recently—2020 and 2019, respectively. To avoid confusion, this dissertation is

intentionally avoiding the use of such terminology.

For more on the history of the BCM, see David Powlison, The Biblical Counseling

Movement: History and Context (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2010); Lambert, The Biblical

Counseling Movement after Adams. See also Eric L. Johnson, Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian

Psychology Proposal (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2007), 106–25.

approaches in pastoral care. He intended to offer an alternative to the mental health

system that was intellectual, methodological, institutional, and—above all—biblical.

More than baptizing secular anthropological views, Adams desired to develop a

counseling model based on biblical presuppositions.

Coming from within the Reformed

tradition, influenced by nineteenth-century American Presbyterianism and persuaded by

certain elements of Dutch Calvinistic philosophy, Adams viewed the autonomous attempt

of secular counseling models as a flat out rebellion against God.

For Adams, such

rebellion implied the denial of human depravity and the affirmation of innate human

goodness, undercutting the need for grace and Christ’s atoning work and, hence, being

inconsistent with Adams’s Reformed beliefs.

In his propositive project, Adams presents the Spirit of God as essential for

counseling to be Christian. Contrasting with the emphasis on autonomy present in the

secular humanist model, Adams defends a counseling model ultimately dependent on

God. In his seminal work Competent to Counsel, Adams notes with striking emphasis,

“Counseling is the work of the Holy Spirit. Effective counseling cannot be done apart

from him.”

Because change cannot rightly take place apart from the Spirit, Adams

See Jay E. Adams, Competent to Counsel (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), xviii; Powlison,

The Biblical Counseling Movement, 5.

See Adams, Competent to Counsel, xxi.

See Powlison, The Biblical Counseling Movement, 3; Jared Scott Poulton, “Reforming

Counseling: The Adaptation of Van Tilian Concepts by Jay Adams” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist

Theological Seminary, 2024). Adams sought to apply the presuppositional model of apologetics he learned

from Cornelius Van Til to the field of counseling, rejecting any approaches built on secular theory and

therapy instead of on Scripture as well as recognizing the need for the biblical reinterpretation of facts

observed in the practice of secular psychology. See Jay Adams, John Bettler, and David Powlison, “25

Years of Biblical Counseling: An Interview with Jay Adams and John Bettler,” JBC 12, no. 1 (Fall 1993):

10. For a critical evaluation from a classical Reformed perspective of Van Til’s apologetics model, its

influence, and its impact on other fields, such as counseling, see J. V. Fesko, Reforming Apologetics:

Retrieving the Classic Reformed Approach to Defending the Faith (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019),

106–20. For a specific account of Van Til’s influence on the BCM, see Johnson, Foundations for Soul

Care, 610–18.

Adams, Competent to Counsel, 20.

Adams, Competent to Counsel, 22. See also Jay E. Adams, The Practical Encyclopedia of

Christian Counseling (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 142.

insists against the “humanistic assumptions of man’s autonomy” present in the secular

counseling models he combated.

Christian counseling is, therefore, necessarily

dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit, the true source of life and power for change.

The foundational importance of the Holy Spirit in Adams’s proposed

counseling model reflect his belief that the Spirit is truly God. As such, the Spirit is holy

by nature, and so all holiness in human actions can only stem from him.

To counsel

toward holiness is to counsel by the Spirit, as he is the “source of all genuine personality

changes that involve the sanctification of the believer.”

He is the “principal Counselor”

who came to direct and empower Christians.

Accordingly, the Holy Spirit is not an

impersonal force or a law but a person.

He is the third Person of the Trinity, God in

us.

When dealing with theology proper and trinitarian matters, however, Adams’s

writings give preference to economic language, lacking meaningful reflection on

theological ontology. Affirmations about the divinity of the Holy Spirit quickly move

into considerations of the divine nature of his operations. For example, the language of

transcendence/immanence Adams employs seems to obscure categories of ontology and

taxis: “The transcendence of God the Father is balanced nicely by His immanence as

Adams, Competent to Counsel, 20.

See Jay E. Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual: The Practice of Nouthetic Counseling

(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 6.

Adams, Competent to Counsel, 21.

See Adams, Competent to Counsel, 20; Adam, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 5–6;

Adam, The Practical Encyclopedia of Christian Counseling, 100. Elsewhere, Adams uses the title of

“principle Counselor” for God, denoting his belief in the divinity of the Spirit. Jay E. Adams, Critical

Stages of Biblical Counseling, ed. Donn R. Arms, 2nd ed. (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies,

2020), 114.

See Adams, Competent to Counsel, 22.

See Jay E. Adams, Update on Christian Counseling, 2 vols. (Grand Rapids: Ministry

Resources Library, 1981), 1:78; Adam, Competent to Counsel, 22. In 2010, at Redeemer Presbyterian

Church, Adams dedicated a whole Sunday School lecture to argue for personality of the Holy Spirit. See

Jay E. Adams, “Holy Spirit & You #1” (lesson delivered at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Moore, SC,

March 14, 2010), http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?m=t&s=3281014282610.

Holy Spirit.”

This type of imprecision can lead to theological confusion, implying some

separation of the operations of the divine persons, which threatens the Christian

affirmation of God’s oneness. As it will be later demonstrated, the language of

“missions” and “appropriations” better reflects who the triune God is in himself,

grounding the divine work in the created order more solidly.

God’s oneness, nevertheless, is seen in Adams’s affirmation that the Holy

Spirit is the Counselor. He is “another [Counselor] of the same kind” (cf. John 14:16)

after Jesus, who has done the work of guiding, instructing, rebuking, encouraging, and

teaching his disciples. In the person of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ invisibly indwells his

church.

According to Adams, “Counselor” is the natural translation for παράκλητος,

particularly difficult word to translate (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7).

More specifically,

Adams argues that there is good reason in the textual context of John 14–16 to believe

Jay Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling: More than Redemption (Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 2010), 55.

Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 5.

See Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 6. For his translation of these passages, see

Jay E. Adams, The Gospel of John and Letters of John and Jesus, Christian Counselor’s Commentary

(Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 154, 156, 164, 167. D. A. Carson corroborates the

difficulty in translating this term while confirming some of Adams’s legal emphasis but also applying this

legal emphasis more generically:

The word Paraclete, as I have indicated, is notoriously difficult to pin down. Etymologically the word

seems to refer to “one who is called alongside”; but etymology by itself rarely determines the

meaning of a word. It is related to a verb which means “to encourage” or “to exhort”; so it is possible

that a Paraclete is one who encourages or exhorts. The word is found in legal contexts: a Paraclete

may be a legal advisor or counselor, or perhaps on occasion a prosecuting attorney. This legal usage

of the term predominates in extrabiblical literature.

The fact of the matter is that virtually all of these functions are explicitly ascribed to the Holy Spirit

in the Farewell Discourse; and that is probably why the term Paraclete is used. The word boasts a

wide range of meaning; but it is rightly applied to the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete sent from the Father,

because he is engaged in a wide range of activity on behalf of Jesus’ disciples. We shall see that the

Holy Spirit, as prosecuting attorney, exposes the sin of the world. He helps the believers in their

witness, and strengthens and comforts them by his presence. He further explains the significance of

Jesus’ person and ministry, functioning as the agent of revelation. In all of these ministries the Holy

Spirit is shown to be actively engaged (14:16, 17, 25, 26; 15:26; 16:7–15). (D. A. Carson, The

Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus: An Exposition of John 14–17 [Grand Rapids: Baker

Book House, 1988], 50–51)

The variety of translations adopted in popular modern English versions of the Bible attests to

this difficulty: παράκλητος appears as “Comforter” (KJV), “Counselor” (CSB), “Helper” (ESV, NASB),

and “Advocate” (NIV, NRSV).

παράκλητος refers to the Holy Spirit “being a counselor-at-law, a lawyer.”

Commenting

on John 16, Adams writes,

The Spirit would not be inactive when He came. He would supply them with all the

help they needed to face and defeat their persecutors. Indeed, He would turn the

tables on them. They would haul the disciples up before their courts, but in those

days, the Holy Spirit would be their Counselor-at-law and convict their enemies of

their crimes (vv. 7, 8).

The Spirit would be the disciples’ Counselor-at-law when they were dragged before

courts and unjustly accused, and he would convict the disciples’ accusers, inverting the

dynamics at play to put the world and culture that opposes Christ on trial.

The work of the Holy Spirit, for Adams, involves no mystery or doubt. As the

divine person present with the disciples after Christ’s ascension, the Spirit works by

means of his Word—and that, according to Adams, removes all vagueness. As Adams

states, “The work of the Spirit is not mystical. The Holy Spirit’s activity often has been

viewed in a confused and confusing manner. There is no reason for such confusion. The

Holy Spirit Himself has plainly told us how He works. He says in the Scriptures that He

ordinarily works through the Scriptures.”

To ground this argument, Adams turns to the

doctrine of inspiration:

The Bible is the Holy Spirit’s book. He inspired it. He moved its authors to write

every wonderful word that one reads there. This is His book; the sharp tool by

which He accomplishes His work. He did not produce the book only to say that it

could be laid aside and forgotten in the process. Godliness does not come by

osmosis. Human ideas and efforts will never produce it. There is no easier path to

Adams, The Gospel of John and Letters of John and Jesus, 154.

Jay E. Adams, Fifty Difficult Passages Explained (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic

Studies, 2020), 46.

Adams, The Gospel of John and Letters of John and Jesus, 167. παράκλητος is translated in

various ways; see footnote 17 above.

Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 186; Adam, A Theology of Christian

Counseling, 244–45.

godliness. It always requires the prayerful study and obedient practice of the Word

of God.

Therefore, the work of the Spirit is intimately associated with Scripture and its prayerful

study and practice. In other words, the Spirit’s work of counseling is performed through

the ministry of his Word.

Fundamentally, counseling dependently on the Spirit is

counseling based on Scripture:

To be led by the Spirit (Galatians 5:18), for instance, should be understood not as

being led apart from, but rather by means of the Scriptures. The word “led” does not

refer to inner feelings or hunches, or to visions or extra-biblical revelations. The

point that needs to be made is that since the Holy Spirit employs his Word as the

principal means by which Christians may grow in sanctification, counseling cannot

be effective (in any biblical sense of that term) apart from the use of the Scriptures.

The fact of the Holy Spirit in counseling, therefore, implies the presence of the Holy

Scriptures as well. This fundamental relationship in itself should be decisive for any

Christian who carefully thinks through the counseling situation. Counseling without

the Scriptures can only be expected to be counseling without the Holy Spirit.

Christian counseling, as Adams taught it, essentially recognizes the Holy Spirit as the

“real Counselor” and thus points to and faithfully administers the text that he inspired and

through which he works.

The work of the Holy Spirit as Counselor is accomplished today as the church

uses his special revelation in her preaching, reading, explaining, and applying.

general, Adams recognizes that the Spirit works in the church through the various means

of grace—not only the ministry of the Word but also the sacraments, prayer, and the

fellowship of the saints.

But since Adams’s main concern is counseling, he devotes

special attention to the Spirit’s activity being fundamentally associated with the ministry

Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 186; Adam, A Theology of Christian

Counseling, 244–45. One particular emphasis in how Adams approached the work of the Holy Spirit is

noted here, namely, his attention to human agency’s conditioning the Spirit’s work and cognitive change. I

will return to these elements later in this section.

Adams, Competent to Counsel, 23.

Adams, Competent to Counsel, 23–24.

Adams, Critical Stages of Biblical Counseling, 28.

Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 8.

Adams, Competent to Counsel, 21–22.

of Scripture—that is, preaching and counseling, the two sides of the “same ministry of

the Word to the same people to meet the same problems and needs.”

Following this rationale, Adams sees the Holy Spirit as the great Preacher just

as much as the great Counselor. For both aspects of the ministry of Scripture, the Spirit is

“God’s Applier of truth.”

As such, Adams identifies four concerns of the Spirit in the

work of the “inspired preaching” of the apostles, which serves as an example for

preachers and, by consequence, counselors.

First, concerning the content, the Spirit

guaranteed the right thing to say (the “what”). The apostles’ consistency in clearly

articulating and emphasizing the gospel from a Christological understanding of the Old

Testament was not the fruit of their own interpretative abilities but due to the work of the

Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 16:13).

Second, the Spirit provided the right words to

communicate his message (the “how”). The precision of the apostolic message was the

result of the Spirit’s gifting them with the right language to use (Matt 10:19–20; Mark

13:11; Luke 12:11–12).

Third, the Spirit ensured the wise manner of the apostolic preaching (the

second “how”). As Adams explains, the manner of presenting a message flows from the

speaker’s relationship with his audience. Thus, wisdom in the manner of preaching refers

to the proper relationship between these three elements: the preacher, the message, and

the listening congregation. And it is the Spirit who graced the apostles with wisdom for

Jay E. Adams, Acts, Christian Counselor’s Commentary (Cordova, TN: Institute for

Nouthetic Studies, 2020), v.

Jay E. Adams, Truth Applied: Application in Preaching, Jay Adams Library (Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 1990), 57.

Jay E. Adams, Preaching According to the Holy Spirit (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic

Studies, 2020), 11; Adams, Committed to Craftsmanship in Biblical Counseling, Jay Adams Collections

(Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2019), 81.

Adams, Preaching According to the Holy Spirit, 15–16, 23–32.

Adams, Preaching According to the Holy Spirit, 39–51.

that ministry of the Word (Luke 21:13–15).

Fourth, the Spirit warranted the timeliness

of the apostolic preaching (the “when”). Jesus promised his disciples not only that they

would be given the right message in the right words and manner but also that these would

be granted at the right time—“in that [very] hour” (Matt 10:19; Mark 13:11; Luke

12:12).

Adams does not argue that the church’s preaching today is inspired. In his

words, “Nothing we ever say in this life will come even close to the inspired preaching of

the apostles. They truly were unique.”

Nonetheless, Adams encourages ministers to

seek more and more to assimilate what the Bible teaches about preaching into their own

ministries so that, to some extent, they may “begin to approximate the preaching of the

apostles.”

However, in contrast to the apostles, who were called to relinquish any

attempt to prepare beforehand (Luke 21:14), Adams affirms the present necessity of

practice and preparation for preaching (cf. 1 Tim 4:15), since preachers today have no

promise that the Spirit will take control of their speech, giving them “instant messages.”

This preparation relies most foundationally on looking at the apostolic preaching in

Scripture as an example, seeking to incorporate and imitate the elements that constituted

the Spirit’s concerns: content, language, manner, and timeliness. This imitation in

preaching, however, is not fulfilled through mere self-effort. Accordingly, Adams

encourages preachers today to be dependent on the Spirit, and rightly so:

While you do not have the inspiration of the Spirit to enable you to preach as he did;

nevertheless, you are fully dependent on the Spirit. It is He Who provided the

message, He Who gave you the life, calling, opportunity and gifts to proclaim it. It

is He Who molds and sanctifies you to make you fit to address God’s people. It is

He Who illumines you to understand the Scriptures. It is He Who enables you to

Adams, Preaching According to the Holy Spirit, 18–20, 59–67.

Adams, Preaching According to the Holy Spirit, 75–84.

Adams, Preaching According to the Holy Spirit, 9.

Adams, Preaching According to the Holy Spirit, 9, 100.

Adams, Preaching According to the Holy Spirit, 100–101.

improve your preaching. On and on we could go. In the final analysis, all preaching

that honors God and blesses His people is the product of the Spirit. There is no place

for personal pride—only for gratitude (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:1).

It is also clear that, for Adams, preaching is not purely self-performed and represents no

reason for pride. On the contrary, because any good fruit of non-apostolic preaching

should be attributed to the Holy Spirit, gratitude to God is the proper attitude of the

minister.

Remarkably, Adams ends up giving indirect attention to the Spirit’s

providential work here. The Holy Spirit gives life, calls, sovereignly allows for

opportunities, distributes gifts, and enables the improvement of skills—all of which are

not directly associated with his work through Scripture. Certainly, Adams also points out

that the Spirit is the one providing the message in Scripture and illumining the

understanding. Here, however, he does not refer to the four concerns of the Spirit in

apostolic preaching. Thus, the question remains: Does the Holy Spirit, to any degree,

continue to provide preachers with the right (specific) message, the right words, the right

way, and the right timing, in their preaching, in a way that is more than merely

exemplary?

When it comes to counseling, Adams adopts a similar approach. For him,

counselors, like in preaching, must be concerned with the development of skills,

preparation, and practice. The counselor, as he puts it, “cannot be sloppy about the way in

which he counsels, expecting the Holy Spirit to do his work regardless of how the

counselor does his.”

According to Adams, “The Holy Spirit works in conjunction with

the proper exercise of the gifts he has given.”

Here, Adams’s emphasis lies on the

human agency of the counselor, which is presented in a somewhat “competitive” way

Adams, Preaching According to the Holy Spirit, 96.

Adams, Competent to Counsel, 22.

with that of the Spirit, who works depending on the proper use of the gifts he provides. In

a similar fashion, Adams, in a more general reference to Christian change, writes, “The

Holy Spirit gives help when His people read His Word and then step out by faith to do as

He says. He does not promise to strengthen unless they do so; the power often comes in

the doing.”

Although this very last sentence can give the impression of a sophisticated

compatibilism, the context denounces a confusing conditionality: the Spirit strengthens

people if they read his Word and step out in faith. Perhaps, the confusion lies in the lack

of immediate reference to how the Spirit providentially and internally orients people to

the truth of Scripture and energizes their faith. In any case, little to no attention is devoted

to how the Spirit concurrently energizes the act of counseling itself.

As a result, one can notice a second emphasis concerning the Holy Spirit

evident in Adams’s model. Adams devotes special attention to the work of the Spirit in

changing and transforming the counselee but dedicates little theological reflection about

the Spirit’s work in the counselor and the counseling act itself. Even though he sees the

Spirit as the giver of gifts to the counselor, it is the proper use of those gifts that prompt

the Spirit’s work to cause the ministered Word to be properly apprehended and applied in

the counselee’s life. If counseling, as a form of speech, is to be divided into three acts

(i.e., locution, illocution, and perlocution), then Adams’s focus is mostly restricted to the

last one. Even when he discusses illumination, his emphasis is on how the counselee

intelligibly apprehends the truth ministered to him or her. That is not to say, however,

that Adams rejects the Spirit’s work in the counselor, even as he is counseling. For

example, Adams writes, “The Holy Spirit . . . is at work in your ministry. He is the one

who counsels through you, by you and with you. You never need to counsel alone.”

Nevertheless, direct statements like this, connecting the work of the Spirit with that of the

Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling, 245.

Jay E. Adams, The Big Umbrella: And Other Essays and Addresses on Biblical Counseling

(Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1972), 28.

counselor, do not abound (likely due to Adams’s assumption of it as a pre-condition) and

quickly redirect the reader into more extensive sections on the Spirit’s action to change

the counselee.

There is yet a third noteworthy emphasis concerning the work of the Holy

Spirit that can be drawn from Adams’s writings. The Spirit’s four concerns that Adams

highlights—the right thing, the right words, the right way, the right time—reveal

particular attention to the cognitive properties of homiletic and counseling discourses.

Statements placing the Spirit’s work in the intellect are common: “The Spirit works not in

some non-intellectual area called the spirit, but in the mind—i.e., He renews us

intellectually so that we begin to think God’s thoughts after Him (cf. Col. 3:10; Isa. 55:7–

9).”

The Spirit grants scriptural insight, wisdom, and discernment.

Adams does not deny the Spirit’s work on the will and the orientation of its

loves. For example, based on Romans 5:5, he is clear to state that the Spirit enables the

believer “to love God and his neighbor.”

Yet, because counseling essentially entails the

communication of content, of truth, Adams’s cognitive emphasis is rather

understandable—although it does not justify his lack of attention to the affections of the

will. Moreover, it is worth observing once again that even as he discusses the Spirit’s

work in the intellect (and will), he does so in general reference to his model of change,

but not primarily to the counselor’s disposition in the counseling process.

See, e.g., Adams, The Big Umbrella, 28–29.

Adams, Update on Christian Counseling, 2:51.

See Adams, The Big Umbrella, 29; Adams, Committed to Craftsmanship, 81–82.

Adams, The Practical Encyclopedia of Christian Counseling, 100. See also Jay E. Adams,

Christian Living in the World (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 64–65; Adams,

Winning the War Within: A Biblical Strategy for Spiritual Warfare (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic

Studies, 2020), 13–14.

When it comes to the doctrine of union with Christ, Adams tends to emphasize

its judicial, declarative aspect, giving little attention to the organic quality of that union.

In fact, while the language of “in Christ” is abundant in many of Adams’s works, the

terminology of “union” is rarely used. In many of Adams’s main works, the language of

“union with Christ” does not appear at all.

In one of these rare appearances, Adams

describes union with Christ as a reason for motivation: “The mercies of God have been

manifested in the high calling of the Christian who bears the name of Christ and who by

virtue of his union with Christ has become a risen son of the living God. That should

stand as high motivation in counseling. All counselors should explore and utilize the

many implications of the fact.”

Union with Christ is certainly the greatest motivation

for change, and yet it provides the fundamental internal mechanism for transformation

and gospel application. As it will be made clear in the next chapter, a theory of change

that limits its treatment of union with Christ to an external motivation falls short of the

glory ascribed to such theme in Scripture.

In the other few instances in which Adams employs “union” terminology,

these uses are accompanied by the qualifier “representative” or an explanation of the

declarative aspect of justification. In these instances, the language of “reckoned” or

“declared” righteous or “attributed” righteousness commonly follows.

For example,

The lack of reference to the doctrine of union with Christ was not an exclusive characteristic

of Adams. The first direct treatment of this doctrine in relation to counseling in the BCM was offered by

David Maddox; see David Maddox, “Union with Christ: The Implications for Biblical Counseling,” in

Introduction to Biblical Counseling: A Basic Guide to the Principles and Practice of Counseling, ed. John

F. MacArthur Jr. and Wayne A. Mack (Dallas: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 116–30. Yet, in the re-edited

version of this work, Maddox’s chapter was omitted; see John F. MacArthur Jr. and Wayne A. Mack, eds.,

Counseling: How to Counsel Biblically (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005).

See, e.g., Adams, Competent to Counsel; Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling;

Adams, How to Help People Change: The Four-Step Biblical Process (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010).

Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 164 (italics added).

See, e.g., Jay E. Adams, Sanctification and Counseling: Growing by Grace, Jay Adams

Collections (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 24–27; Adams, Romans, I and II

Thessalonians, and Philippians, Christian Counselor’s Commentary (Hackettstown, NJ: Timeless Texts,

1995), 49; Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 162–63; Adams, Winning the War Within, 39–40.

reflecting on Colossians 3, Adams states that “to be identified with Christ by being united

with Him through Spirit baptism, means that God reckons all that has transpired in the

life of the God-man as having happened to you as a believer.”

The conclusion that

follows also underscores the “status” acquired: “If your status before God is that of one

who has been resurrected and raised to the right hand of God (in Christ), the interests you

pursue ought to be those having to do with the heavenly kingdom.”

The positional,

representative aspect takes the forefront of Adams’s view of union with Christ.

Here is another example. Commenting on Romans 6, Adams stresses that to be

baptized into Christ is to be united with Christ, to be in Christ. He compares this union to

a bean put in a pot: “Wherever the pot goes the bean goes too because it is in the pot.”

Adams does not explicitly describe in detail this baptism into Christ, or this union with

Christ. The reason for the “bean in the pot” illustration is to logically explain the

attribution of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection to believers, not to highlight the

communication of life or virtue. Adams’s emphasis here, again, falls on the “reckoning”

of Christians in Christ’s story, on “counting” them dead to the past and raised to newness

of life.

Even though Adams largely adopts a representative, positional emphasis for

his dealings with the doctrine of union with Christ, he recognizes that there is more to it.

Considering Romans 6:5, Adams acknowledges that there is a change of nature

associated with the union mentioned by the apostle Paul such that the believer no longer

has a wicked heart but one filled with the Spirit of God to love God and neighbor as

Jay E. Adams, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon, Christian Counselor’s

Commentary (Stanley, NC: Timeless Texts, 1994), 154 (italics added).

Adams, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon, 154 (italics added).

Adams, Romans, I and II Thessalonians, and Philippians, 49.

See Adams, Romans, I and II Thessalonians, and Philippians, 49–51.

Scripture commands.

In this rare instance, Adams focuses on the ontological

transformation of the Christian: “He not only is looked upon differently, he is

different.”

Moreover, Adams points out elsewhere the eschatological dimension of this

transformed reality—that the Christian’s identification with Christ is not yet apparent. In

Adams’s words, “Your spiritual life flowing from your union with Christ is not yet

apparent; it is hidden by God. People do not know that God Himself dwells in you in the

Person of the Holy Spirit. But when Christ returns, and it is manifested who is/is not of

God, your identification with Him will be made apparent.”

This quote raises some

important questions about Adams’s understanding of the nature of that union. Does

Adams mean that this identification is not yet perfectly apparent, or does he view it as not

apparent at all? Does this tension between the already and the not-yet reflect his emphasis

on justification (already) instead of transformation (not yet)?

Perhaps one way to consider these questions is by examining Adams’s

common references to Christians as those “in Christ.” Adams generally uses the language

of “in Christ” to identify Christians as those who were justified and, therefore, can

receive biblical instruction and grow. For example, reacting to various streams of secular

psychology that highlight the troubles of an identity crisis, Adams responds:

For a man to live peacefully, he must find the only identity in this life that has

worth: that of the child of God. When he knows that he has been regenerated by the

Spirit of God, is a member of the family of God, is forgiven of all iniquity, counted

as righteous as Jesus Christ through identification with Him, and destined for an

eternal inheritance in the presence of God, that is identity enough for any man! Such

identity has been given freely to those who are in Christ.

See Adams, Romans, I and II Thessalonians, and Philippians, 50.

Adams, Romans, I and II Thessalonians, and Philippians, 50.

Adams, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon, 155.

Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 145.

While Adams does not present a clear definition for “identity,” it seems that he employs

it to mean self-perception, how one sees and understands oneself. For him, the Christian

identity in Christ is more closely associated with the righteous status received in

justification than with an organic reality in which the believer receives Christ’s power

and righteousness for sanctification. The positional takes priority over the ontological.

Another indication of this prioritization is found in Adams’s reflections on

sanctification, which reveal a strong emphasis on effort and perseverance.

With this

approach, Adams seeks to reject the determinism defended in the humanistic ideologies

of his time and to compensate any passive disposition for sanctification—such as the “let

go and let God” view of Keswick theology.

Adams was solemn and unapologetic in

calling Christians to perseverant obedience to God, underscoring the clarity of the divine

commandments.

For him, any theology that teaches that “what one is to do . . . in a

rather hazy, undefined manner” constitutes “nuances of mysticism” and must be

rejected.

Adams’s emphasis on human effort is also stressed by his peculiar view of the “flesh”

(sarx). See Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling, 160–63. Adams’s view was later critiqued and

rejected in the second phase of the BCM. As Edward Welch explains, “Adams has often been accused of

sounding like a Christian behaviorist. His view of the flesh is one theological commitment that leaves him

vulnerable to such charges. The language of reprogramming, the emphasis on practice, and the lack of a

robust model of the inner life have analogies to present day behavioral and cognitive-behavioral

approaches.” Edward Welch, “How Theology Shapes Ministry: Jay Adams’s View of the Flesh,” JBC 20,

no. 3 (2002): 22. For an exegetical critique of Adams’s view, see also George M. Schwab, “Critique of

‘Habituation’ as a Biblical Model of Change,” JBC 21, no. 2 (2003): 67–83. For a more recent critique of

and constructive proposal on habit formation for biblical counseling, see Colin McCulloch, “Sanctified by

the Spirit: Applying John Owen’s Concept of Spirit-Infused Habitual Grace to Divergent Models of

Sanctification within the Biblical Counseling Movement” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological

Seminary, 2022). See also Brian A. Mesimer, “Rehabilitating Habituation,” JBC 34, no. 2 (2020): 53–79.

See Adams, Sanctification and Counseling, 47–50. For more on the passive disposition for

sanctification in Keswick theology, see Andrew David Naselli, Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis

of Keswick Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2010).

See also Jay E. Adams, “A Certain Inheritance,” in John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion,

Doctrine, Doxology, ed. Burk Parsons (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust, 2008), 187–89.

See Adams, The Gospel of John and Letters of John and Jesus, 159–60.

Indisputably, Adams recognizes the need for the internal work of the Holy

Spirit for sanctification to take place. For such, however, he prefers to refer to the

believer’s “relationship” with Christ instead of “union”:

Paul’s exhortations to be what you are have meaning and potential only to those

who already are what they may be. Only those who legitimately can “consider”

themselves dead to sin, alive to God, risen with Christ and “in Christ” know what

they must become. Moreover, only such persons, who by virtue of their relationship

to the living Christ (who in the person of the Holy Spirit indwells them), have the

power to become what they are. That is why evangelism is a prerequisite to the

counseling of unbelievers.

All the terminology for proper construction and application of the doctrine of union with

Christ seem present here: “in Christ,” “Holy Spirit,” “indwells,” and “power.” And yet,

Adams’s focus on human agency in sanctification prevents him from a deeper

presentation of such doctrine. Accordingly, in Adams, by looking at Christ and his

righteousness, which was imputed for their justification, believers know what to pursue in

sanctification, “what they must become.” The standard to strive for is what they are

declared to be “in Christ.” Thus, after justification, believers should pursue Christ-

likeness by the power of the Holy Spirit—and that is the aim of the guidance offered in

biblical counseling.

Adams’s radical rejection of the aforementioned “nuances of mysticism” does

not necessarily imply a complete rejection of the organic aspect of the believer’s union

with Christ—traditionally referred to as “mystical union” in Reformed theology—even

though it is not the object of his focus. In fact, commenting on Galatians 2:20, Adams

speaks of the Holy Spirit’s operation in the believer in a way that gets him close to

Calvin’s teachings on mystical union:

When Christ died, it was reckoned to you, believer, that you (instead of Him) were

dying on the cross, bearing the punishment for your sins. He died in your place,

bearing the wrath of God you deserved. In Christ, you died to your old ways. The

old you (that old “I” mentioned here) no longer lives. The past is gone so far as the

record goes. And the record also shows that Christ’s righteousness is attributed to

Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 163; see also 191, 204–12.

you as though you lived a perfect life. But, something more is true. Christ, in the

person of the Holy Spirit, has taken up residence in you. Paul says He lives in me.

That makes his illuminating and strengthening power available to you. And the life

you (that is the new you) now live, you live by faith. And this faith is “from God’s

Son.” It is a gift. It is He Who gives faith, increases faith, Who by means of His

indwelling presence enables you to draw upon His truth in the Bible by faith in

order to live for God as you should. The life you now live depends not upon keeping

the law in your strength, but upon faith in Christ, Who alone enables you to do so.

Here, Adams admits that having Christ living in the believer means more than just having

been justified, reckoned righteous. It means to be indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, who

empowers the believer for a life of faith and sanctification—which implicitly includes the

believer’s ministry. Unfortunately, Adams did not extend, apply, or develop this

reflection to an argument that deeply roots the task of counseling in the fact of “being in

Christ.”

Perhaps what prevents Adams from further reflecting on union with Christ as

he addresses matters of counseling is the mystery that characterizes this notion of an

organic yet differentiated oneness with Christ. While the ideas of enablement and

empowerment by the Spirit are very much present in Adams’s writings, the notion of

participating or partaking in the divine holiness through an organic union with Christ is

lacking. Corroborating this thought, in his translation of 2 Peter 1:4, Adams opts for an

indefinite article in the expression “partakers of a divine nature.” Most modern English

translations of Scripture (except for YLT) use the definite article

(“partakers/sharers/participants of the divine nature”), implying that the partaking is in

God’s own divine nature. Commenting on this passage, Adams explains that the

partaking of a divine nature means the “renewal of the image of God” in man, which

enables him to love God and his neighbors. Thus, Adams does not tie the righteousness

“gained” in the process of sanctification back to participation in God’s own holy nature.

Adams, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon, 22 (emphasis added).

See Jay E. Adams, Hebrews, James, I and II Peter, and Jude, Christian Counselor’s

Commentary (Woodruff, SC: Timeless Texts, 1996), 306.

Overall, however, it cannot be concluded with certainty that Adams rejects the

mystical union of the believer with Christ and its organic aspect. He surely sees the Holy

Spirit as Christ’s representative, indwelling and empowering Christians, and this as a

conditio sine qua non for sanctification. Yet, because Adams’s emphasis is on the human

effort for the actualization of what one is declared to be in Christ, it appears that his view

of union with Christ is more closely tied to the justified status of the believer than to any

idea of impartation for sanctification. The organic aspect of participation in Christ is, at

least, underdeveloped.

Summary

Contrasting with the humanistic autonomy that characterized secular

counseling, Adams’s model is one that essentially entailed dependence on the Holy

Spirit. He views the Holy Spirit as indispensable for biblical counseling. In his reflections

on the divinity of the Holy Spirit, Adams focuses on economic descriptions and

distinctions rather than considerations of ontology, of God’s life in himself. In these

theological reflections, Adams emphasizes that the Holy Spirit works primarily and

ordinarily through the Word he inspired—with little consideration given to the Spirit’s

creational and providential work. Accordingly, preachers and counselors should be

attentive to the Spirit’s four concerns in the apostolic preaching: the content of the

message, the language, the manner, and the timeliness.

Counterbalancing deterministic ideologies and theologies, Adams emphasizes

human responsibility and agency. At times, Adams seems to condition the work of the

Spirit on the adequate use of his gifts and provisions. In counseling matters, Adams

emphasizes the work of the Spirit in changing and transforming counselees, but he does

not grant the same consideration to the Spirit’s work in the counselor and the counseling

act itself. Moreover, while emphasizing the Spirit’s illuminating work in human

understanding, with the enabling of the intellect and the provision of scriptural wisdom

and insight, Adams does not develop much on the Spirit’s work in the human will and its

affections.

Although not explicitly brought together in his writings, Adams’s

pneumatology and understanding of union with Christ intersect in that he recognizes the

Holy Spirit to be the Spirit of Christ who indwells his people. Nonetheless, the doctrine

of union with Christ is underdeveloped in Adams’s writings, which discuss it mostly in

relation to the doctrine of justification. In reference to sanctification, union with Christ in

Adams is generally viewed as a motivation for the believer’s effort and perseverance,

lacking a deeper account of an organic union or participation.

David Powlison

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as Adams transitioned out from his roles at

the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF), an organization he co-

founded in 1968 alongside John Bettler, a new group of counselors in the BCM began to

rise.

Led by David Powlison (1949–2019), counselors of the second phase of the BCM

primarily focused on dealing with heart issues instead of external behavior.

The idols of

the heart became a common theme in biblical counseling circles.

The approach to

human change in the Christian life shifted from an emphasis on behavioral effort and

rehabituation, typical in the first phase, to a deeper analysis of the inner man—the

See Lambert, The Biblical Counseling Movement after Adams, 44–45. Besides Powlison,

who became the chief-editor of JBC and later CCEF’s executive-director, Edward Welch and Paul David

Tripp played a crucial role in the BCM’s developments that followed the first generation. Powlison, Welch,

and Tripp’s model was cohesive and sufficiently distinct to deserve examination as a separate and

recognizable theory and practice of counseling, as noted by Brad Hambrick, who names such a model

“Worship Psychology.” See Brad Hambrick, “A Conceptual Analysis of the Counseling Theory and

Practice of David Powlison, Ed Welch, and Paul Tripp” (EdD diss., Southeastern Baptist Theological

Seminary, 2019). For the purposes of this dissertation, Powlison’s writings are taken as representatives of

this model.

See Lambert, The Biblical Counseling Movement after Adams, 80.

This theme was most famously presented in David Powlison, “Idols of the Heart and ‘Vanity

Fair,’” JBC 13, no. 2 (1995): 16.

internal beliefs and motives that drive external actions and responses.

Also, while

counselors of the first phase focused on the confrontation aspect of biblical counseling,

counselors of the second phase began to devote more attention to the task of comforting

the sufferer. Counselees, as fellow sufferers and sinners, needed to be addressed

compassionately and in love.

In his doctoral work, later republished as The Biblical Counseling Movement:

History and Context, Powlison astutely notices some of the unique features of Adams’s

pneumatology, especially as it relates to the process of rehabituation. As Powlison

observes, “Adams’s emphatic and detailed discussion of behavioral habituation

represented a theological innovation and was closely linked to another idiosyncrasy in his

view on sin and ‘the flesh.’ He gave great emphasis to the physical body as the locus of

sin that needed to be changed through counseling.”

The goal of counseling was to help

rehabituate these sinful habits that had been programmed into the physical body, a

process that could only happen under the influence of the Bible and the Holy Spirit.

For

this reason, Powlison underscores that Adams’s great attention to the Holy Spirit was due

to the fact of his ever-resounding note on change.

Aware of Adams’s strengths and weaknesses, Powlison’s writings reflect the

new tones he thought necessary for the development and growth of the BCM into

theological and theoretical maturity. Unlike Adams, however, Powlison never wrote a

specific book with a systematic presentation of his theology of biblical counseling. In

fact, Powlison’s primary means of communicating his thought was not through books but

For more, see Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp, How People Change, 2nd ed.

(Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2008), 91–108.

See Lambert, The Biblical Counseling Movement after Adams, 96–99.

Powlison, The Biblical Counseling Movement, 103. See also footnote 59 in this chapter.

See Powlison, The Biblical Counseling Movement, 103–4.

See Powlison, The Biblical Counseling Movement, 126.

through essays. In his many appearances in The Journal of Biblical Counseling, the

CCEF publication he led as chief editor, Powlison was able to offer new insights and

influence new tendencies in the BCM. Similar to how he viewed Paul’s epistle to the

Ephesians, Powlison’s writings merit classification as practical theology—not systematic

theology.

In his words, “Systematic theology organizes the whole of the Bible with a

philosophical logic, but we must do more than catechize people with the heads of

doctrine if we are to minister to them.”

His practical, pastoral, and personal concerns

were, nonetheless, deeply theological, permeated with his dogmatic presuppositions

concerning the Holy Spirit and union with Christ.

The Holy Spirit, as Powlison explains, binds believers to Christ as God’s

personal property.

This binding happens not as if the Holy Spirit was a distant agent,

completely differentiated from Christ. On the contrary: “the Lord Jesus Christ wraps your

life—our lives—into His own.”

The presence and work of the Spirit are, therefore,

intimately associated with the presence and work of Christ: “Know the power and

presence of the Holy Spirit, Christ in your hearts.”

To be in the Spirit is to have Christ;

to be in Christ is to have the Spirit.

In his study of Ephesians, an epistle he considered a

key to using the rest of Scripture, Powlison notices a movement in God’s economy of

salvation toward greater and greater intimacy of power, that is, the divine power that

See David Powlison, “Counsel Ephesians,” JBC 17, no. 2 (1999): 4. This article also appears

in David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition through the Lens of

Scripture (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2003), 17–34. Elsewhere, Powlison claims to prioritize what he calls a

“systematic practical theology.” See David Powlison, “Cure of Souls (and the Modern Psychotherapies),”

JBC 25, no. 2 (2007): 13–14.

Powlison, “Counsel Ephesians,” 4.

See David Powlison, “Who Is God?,” JBC 17, no. 2 (1999): 12. This article also appears in

Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes, 35–58.

Powlison, “Who Is God?,” 12.

Powlison, “Who Is God?,” 17.

See David Powlison, Power Encounters: Reclaiming Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids:

Baker Books, 1995), 22.

awakens faith.

The indwelling of this divine power in believers, individually and

collectively, entails intimacy with Christ and the Holy Spirit.

This power is not a

mysterious spiritual energy but a personal one that acts in real-time history, events, and

people. It is the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, who personally lives in and with

believers and continues to work wonders.

It is him, Jesus Christ, who gives from his

seat of power “the long-promised Holy Spirit, who animates us, seals us into Christ, and

works His presence and will into us.”

By his Spirit, Christ continues to work. Christ

indwells and rules his people by the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in the

church and the believer’s heart.

The divine power given to believers through the Spirit works in the inner

man.

The Holy Spirit opens the minds and hearts of believers to divine matters

otherwise incomprehensible. Very naturally, Powlison affirms the doctrine of

illumination: the Spirit of Truth who inspired the scriptural text empowers its reading by

giving light to the eyes of one’s heart. His work and presence are effective in renewing

the mind.

As Powlison writes, “The prophecies, the songs and prayers, the

commandments and principles, and the stories of the Old Testament become super

charged with the presence, power, and glory of the Holy Spirit by whom Jesus Christ

indwells and rules His people.”

And he adds, “God must give us a ‘spirit of wisdom and

of revelation . . . that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened’ to understand the very

Powlison, “Counsel Ephesians,” 5; Powlison, “Who Is God?,” 20.

See Powlison, “Who Is God?,” 20.

See Powlison, “Who Is God?,” 20–21.

See Powlison, “Who Is God?,” 21–22.

Powlison, “Counsel Ephesians,” 4–5.

See David Powlison, Good and Angry: Redeeming Anger, Irritation, Complaining, and

Bitterness (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2016), 120; Powlison, “Who Is God?,” 12.

See David Powlison, “What If Your Father Didn’t Love You?,” JBC 12, no. 1 (1993): 3.

Powlison, “Counsel Ephesians,” 5.

things printed on the page in front of us! God must enable us to ‘know the love of Christ

that surpasses knowledge,’ or we remain in a stupor.”

Here, it is worth noting that the

understanding the Spirit gives, for Powlison, is related to the knowledge of Christ’s love.

This emphasis on love intertwined with knowledge represents an important development

from the pneumatology of the previous phase in the BCM.

Powlison’s accent on heart change revolves around the origination of new

loves in the inner man. The divine work in moving the hearts of people is not restricted to

the revelation of truth but essentially entails the pouring out of God’s love through the

Holy Spirit, creating a new powerful internal dynamic.

This powerful and intimate work

of the Spirit communicates not only God’s words but also his presence and love into the

heart.

Intimacy with God—an intimacy “of the highest order” and “of the deepest

depths”—flows out of the “stupendous miracle” of faith, by which the Spirit brings

sinners to marvel at, delight in, and be attracted to the divine light that he made shine in

their hearts.

The Spirit is the “animating author” of believers’ faith, and his power

makes his message a joy in the hearts of those to whom he gives ears to listen.

And so,

“people change when the Holy Spirit sheds the love of God abroad in their hearts through

the Gospel.”

In pouring out his love through the Holy Spirit, God recreates people by

Powlison, “Counsel Ephesians,” 9.

See Powlison, “What If Your Father Didn’t Love You?,” 2; Powlison, “Anger Part 1:

Understanding Anger,” JBC 14, no. 1 (1995): 41; Powlison, Speaking Truth in Love: Counsel in

Community (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2005), 64.

See David Powlison, God’s Grace in Your Suffering (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 28.

David Powlison, “Intimacy with God,” JBC 16, no. 2 (1998): 4.

David Powlison, Safe and Sound: Standing Firm in Spiritual Battles (Greensboro, NC: New

Growth Press, 2019), 36. See also Powlison, “Intimacy with God,” 4.

See Powlison, “What If Your Father Didn’t Love You?,” 5.

leading them to learn to love.

His Spirit’s powerful work makes scriptural truth—which

reveals and commands love—alive in one’s life.

Another pneumatological emphasis found in Powlison’s writings is his concern

with the particularities of people’s experiences. The Holy Spirit does not reveal the truth

of Scripture in a manner isolated from the peculiarities of one’s life. Instead, “to those

who have ears, the Holy Spirit speaks through the Word to argue with and reinterpret life

experience.”

In his work of recreation, the Spirit recontextualizes the whole of a

believer’s particular experience with the drama of Scripture. As Powlison writes,

Your appropriation of [a biblical] passage reveals how God himself does the

applying. He meets you before you meet him. The passage arrested you. God

arranged your struggle with sin and suffering so that you would need this exact help.

Without God’s initiative—“I will write it on their hearts” (Jer 31:33)—you would

never make the connection. The Spirit chose to rewrite your inner script, pouring

God’s love into your heart, inviting you to live in a new reality. He awakens your

sense of need, gives you ears to hear, freely gives necessary wisdom. Application is

a gift, because wisdom is a gift.

The Spirit “rescripts” the believer’s life now by teaching who God is and how he works,

thus putting all human experience, general and—most importantly—particular, in proper

perspective.

Moreover, it is worth noting that this new reality the Spirit invites believers

to live in is not one merely experienced through cognitive capacities but through new,

awakened “senses of need” as God’s love is poured out into one’s heart. The Holy Spirit

uses Holy Scripture as an MRI of the heart, denouncing specific ruling desires that

produce particular sins, and reorients the inner man toward genuine, contextualized

See Powlison, “Anger Part 1,” 41.

See Powlison, Safe and Sound, 45.

Powlison, “What If Your Father Didn’t Love You?,” 3.

David Powlison, “How the Bible Gets Personal,” JBC 29, no. 2 (2015): 3.

See Powlison, “How the Bible Gets Personal,” 2–3.

love.

By loving and creating love, Jesus meets his people in their particularities, as the

Spirit makes his words personal. Powlison summarizes elsewhere,

Because people and circumstances are not clones, there is no boilerplate in his

conversations, friendships, or preaching. No distilled formula. No abstract

generalizations. No “Just do x” sort of advice. Because situations and persons come

unscripted, fluid, and unpredictable, Jesus engages each person and situation in a

personalized way. It is not truism to say that Jesus really does meet you where you

are. Always. Scripture does the same. No boilerplate. The Holy Spirit makes words

personal.

100

The personalized way Jesus meets and engages believers in their various circumstances is

through the Spirit’s personal use of scriptural words.

101

By the Spirit, Christ personally

relates to those who belong to him—and he does so in their specific contexts with

particular purposes.

102

Regarding the task of biblical counseling, Powlison views it as obviously

spiritual—even though he has never provided a thorough and overt systematic description

with a pneumatological emphasis. Powlison understands biblical counseling to be the

interpersonal ministry of God’s Word, and he commonly refers to it by using the phrase

“speaking the truth in love.”

103

For him, counseling at its core is love in action; it is a way

of loving another person by means of ministering what is true, constructive to a particular

person at a specific time.

104

For this reason, God gives the church people with gifts of

See David Powlison, Making All Things New: Restoring Joy to the Sexually Broken

(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 117; Powlison, Good and Angry, 135.

100

David Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 15

(emphasis added). The central ideas presented in this book appeared earlier in a series of articles: David

Powlison, “How Does Sanctification Work? (Part 1),” JBC 27, no. 1 (2013): 49–66; Powlison, “How Does

Sanctification Work? (Part 2),” JBC 27, no. 2 (2013): 35–50; Powlison, “How Does Sanctification Work?

(Part 3),” JBC 31, no. 1 (2017): 9–32.

101

See David Powlison, “Counsel and Counseling: Christ’s Message and Ministry Practice Go

Together,” JBC 32, no. 1 (2018): 2–3; Powlison, Speaking Truth in Love, 34.

102

See also David Powlison, “What Is Your Calling?,” JBC 28, no. 3 (2014): 82.

103

Powlison, Speaking Truth in Love, 5, 103–4.

104

See Powlison, Speaking Truth in Love, 5–6.

love and truth to shepherd and teach his flock.

105

He fills his people with his Spirit so that

their language may be “alive to God” in daily conversations with others, resulting in

“psalm-like and psalm-informed” social interactions.

106

Accordingly, Powlison is

categorical in affirming that “the Spirit and the Word create the church of Jesus Christ,

and that the people of God should provide the personal, social, and institutional loci for

speaking the truth in love.”

107

Speaking truth in love, therefore, can only take place in a

community of people spiritually alive, empowered to compassionately transmit the truth

and love they have received from God himself. And this spiritually alive community is

composed of those whom the Spirit binds to Christ as God’s personal property.

108

binding believers to Christ, the Spirit also binds them to one another as Christ’s body—in

such a way that they come to share their struggles and sufferings with one another.

109

Together, they are united to triune God, who is himself their inheritance.

110

Despite Powlison’s new emphasis and the many developments he introduced

in the pneumatology of the BCM, the doctrine of union with Christ continued to lack a

thorough systematic presentation in his thought. In trying to address the internal realities

of the person, Powlison did, in fact, point more explicitly to the believer’s union with

Christ. And yet, the presentations of such doctrine were often done in association with the

theme of individual identity formation. In Christ, the believer enjoys a new, stable, and

unchanging identity, which leads to fruitfulness despite the circumstances. As Powlison

105

See Powlison, “Who Is God?,” 20. See also Powlison, “What If Your Father Didn’t Love

You?,” 3.

106

Powlison, “Counsel Ephesians,” 6.

107

David Powlison, “Affirmations and Denials: A Proposed Definition of Biblical

Counseling,” JBC 19, no. 1 (2000): 21; Powlison, Speaking Truth in Love, 173.

108

See Powlison, “Who Is God?,” 12.

109

See David Powlison, “A Personal Liturgy of Confession,” JBC 29, no. 2 (2015): 51;

Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?, 109.

110

See David Powlison, “Getting Oriented,” JBC 30, no. 1 (2016): 5; Powlison, “Who Is

God?,” 23; Powlison, “Intimacy with God,” 2–3.

writes, “When your core identity is in Christ, you bear fruit whether he calls you to serve

as a leader or to serve as a servant.” And he adds, “Consider that all your present callings

will someday come to an end. When you grow old, frail, and helpless, you will become

someone else’s charge and responsibility. But your true identity is imperishable. You will

still abide in Christ. And when he appears, you will appear with him in glory (Col.

3:4).”

111

United with Christ, believers receive a fresh, multifaceted identity—“you are

essentially Child, beloved of the one Father,” “Wife to Jesus Christ,” and “Slave to the

Lord.”

112

In the second phase of the BCM, this new identity that results from union with

Christ has been commonly portrayed in terms of the consequent blessings—“you are

forgiven,” “you are chosen,” “you are loved,” “you are blessed.”

113

These truths are

evident comfort to those suffering and struggling. This new identity, however, has been

prevalently understood in terms of perception (how one views oneself or is viewed by

others) rather than ontologically (who one is). Accordingly, the conceptual spotlight was

on God’s objective act of declaring sinners righteous. Thus, the doctrine of union with

Christ became more strictly associated with the doctrine of justification rather than

sanctification. At most, the connection between justification and sanctification has been

underscored in terms of a motivating memory—what is gained in being justified becomes

a new, glorious motivation for change.

114

However, no notion of organic participation or

partaking of Christ’s holiness for sanctification through union with him has been

developed or emphasized.

111

David Powlison, “A Man’s Identity,” JBC 34, no. 1 (2020): 82.

112

David Powlison, “The Fear of Christ Is the Beginning of Wisdom: Ephesians 5:21–6:9,”

JBC 17, no. 2 (1999): 50.

113

See, e.g., Elyse Fitzpatrick, Found in Him: The Joy of the Incarnation and Our Union with

Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 189.

114

See Fitzpatrick, Found in Him, 187.

The prevalence of this approach to sanctification—“just remember the

cross”—was one of the catalysts that led Powlison to write on the topic of

sanctification.

115

In How Does Sanctification Works?, Powlison argues against the

temptation to uphold “monochromatic, singular, one-size-fits-all messages” about how

one can grow in grace and knowledge of Christ.

116

For Powlison, “both Scripture and

personal testimony teach us that there is no single formula for the kinds of problems that

call for sanctification.”

117

Among the formulas that Powlison warns against is the isolated

use of rehearsing and reminding of one’s new identity in Christ and union with Christ as

the anchor of one’s salvation.

118

Instead, for him, sanctification is a five-dimensional

process that occurs through the interplay of various factors: God, Scripture, other people,

life circumstances, and the human heart.

119

Powlison’s references to identity, however, reveal primarily an epistemological

rather than ontological concern. For him, identity involves six realities: (1) one’s true

identity is who God says one is; (2) one’s true identity inseparably connects one to God;

(3) who God is correlates with how one expresses one’s core identity in various roles of

life; (4) because of the fall and the subsequent suppressing of knowledge of God, one’s

instinctive sense of identity is skewed; (5) a true and enduring identity is a complex and

gracious gift of Christ that will have its climax in seeing Christ face to face, when full

self-knowledge will take place; and (6) one’s new and true identity connects one to God’s

other children in a common calling. Notably, in terms of identity, what is skewed with sin

and restored with seeing Christ is one’s sense or perception of self in relation to God.

115

See Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?, 53.

116

Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?, 24.

117

Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?, 20.

118

See Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?, 24.

119

See Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?, 63–69.

Most basically, therefore, Powlison’s concept of identity has to do with the act of

knowing oneself.

120

While the believer’s new identity is a gift of grace, the Spirit makes that

identity a living reality over a lifetime.

121

Accordingly, when describing the fundamental

reality of God’s work of sanctification, Powlison appeals to the fact that believers have

been raised in Christ, highlighting his immediate and personal presence through the Holy

Spirit:

First, and foundational to all, God himself changes you. . . . He intervenes in your

life, turning you from suicidal self-will to the kingdom of life. He raises you in

Christ when you are dead in trespasses and sins. He restores hearing when you are

deaf (you could not hear him otherwise). He gives sight when you are blind (you

could not see him otherwise). He is immediately and personally present, a life-

creating voice, a strong and strengthening hand. All good fruit in our lives comes by

the Holy Spirit’s working on scene. Jesus said it was better if he went away, because

the Holy Spirit would come (John 16:7). The Holy Spirit continues to do the things

that Jesus does—continually adding to the number of books that could be written.

The stories I’ve told thus far are not just about what has happened to me and what

I’ve done. They are about what Jesus Christ has done as he goes about saving and

sanctifying me through all my days.

122

Hence, Powlison’s warning against methodological formulas that attempt to guarantee

growth by highlighting one isolated aspect (or a few) of the gospel is based on his deep

conviction that God is the one ultimately doing the work.

123

More broadly, he sees

salvation as the work of God, who dispenses his grace in three tenses: past, present, and

future.

124

Different than implementing key formulas for growth that are universally

applicable, Powlison sees God as using different truths from Scripture, other people, and

life circumstances (i.e., suffering and struggles) to transform the believer.

125

120

See Powlison, “A Man’s Identity,” 82.

121

See Powlison, “A Man’s Identity,” 82.

122

Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?, 64.

123

See Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?, 29.

124

See Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?, 30.

125

See Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?, 63.

It is hard, however, to miss the fact that the only explicit mention of “union

with Christ” in Powlison’s book about sanctification appears in reference to the concept

of identity and in a warning against the mere remembrance of such truth. He admits, of

course, that union with Christ is true and good and that it highlights one facet of the many

splendors of the gospel.

126

Nonetheless, one could further the argument that the doctrine

of union with Christ, when elaborated in all its aspects, is a powerful way to avoid a

shallow understanding of the sanctifying dispensing of God’s grace throughout the life of

the believer—not as a formula but as a comprehensive theological foundation of

sanctification. Because believers partake in the divine nature by virtue of their union with

Christ, the impartation of his righteousness is perceived in the growing fruitfulness of

their lives as they respond to the circumstances, other people, and the truth of Scripture.

Union with Christ is the Christian life. Oneness with him, not only federally but also

organically, is the very basis for how sanctification works through the five-dimensional

interplay that Powlison underscores. Thus, a more thorough treatment of this doctrine

would have only strengthened Powlison’s case against formulaic approaches to

sanctification.

Summary

Powlison brought important developments to the pneumatology of the BCM.

His attention to the human heart as the source of human behavior leads to an accent on

the Spirit’s work in the believers’ love, not only in their understanding. He repeatedly

highlights that through the Holy Spirit, God’s love has been poured out into believers’

hearts, reorienting disordered loves toward love for God and neighbor. This is the source

of all godly change: the Holy Spirit’s binding believers to Christ, making his work and

words personal to them in their contexts.

126

See Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?, 25.

Powlison also recognized the Spirit’s work in gifting the church with

shepherds and counselors who speak the truth in love to sufferers and sinners in their

particularities. His focus on counseling and practical theology, however, led him to never

publish a systematic presentation of his pneumatology or the doctrine of union with

Christ. Nonetheless, his writings reveal a more robust and comprehensive understanding

of the Spirit’s work than that of his predecessors in the BCM, especially concerning the

Spirit’s activity in binding believers to Christ—even though the language of “union” has

been neglected and the doctrine addressed mostly in its federal aspect.

Biblical Counseling Organizations

Over the years, with the dissemination of biblical counseling resources and the

diffusion of its principles and practices, the number of organizations committed to

providing education and/or certification for biblical counselors increased. Different

locations and practical emphases, among other reasons, led to the existence of a wider

variety of organizations. While the National Association of Nouthetic Counseling

(NANC)—renamed in 2013 as the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors

(ACBC)—and CCEF continued to be the most significant organizations, they were no

longer alone in advancing the BCM.

127

In 2011, the leaders of various church ministries

and parachurch organizations convened together to found the Biblical Counseling

Coalition (BCC) with the goal of creating collaborative relationships to continue the

progress of the BCM.

128

Hence, the latest phase of the BCM is not marked by one distinct

leader but by the cooperation of many. In this light, to establish the current state of the

127

See Heath Lambert, “From NANC to ACBC,” Association of Certified Biblical Counselors,

October 16, 2013, https://biblicalcounseling.com/resource-library/articles/from-nanc-to-acbc/.

128

See Bob Kellemen, “The State of the Biblical Counseling Coalition,” Biblical Counseling

Coalition, March 5, 2014, https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/2014/03/05/the-state-of-the-biblical-

counseling-coalition/; Biblical Counseling Coalition, “Our Mission, Vision, and Passion Statement,”

accessed March 4, 2022, https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/mission-statement/, also published in

Bob Kellemen and Steve Viars, eds., Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling: Changing Lives with God’s

Changeless Truth, 2nd ed. (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2021), “Appendix A: The Mission, Vision, and

Passion Statement of the Biblical Counseling Coalition” (pp. 427–28).

question regarding union with Christ and the pneumatology of the BCM, this section will

survey the confessional documents of prominent biblical counseling organizations—BCC

included—and some authors generally associated with them.

Association of Certified Biblical

Counselors (ACBC)

In 2016, ACBC adopted and implemented its Standards of Doctrine in its

present wording.

129

While ACBC’s Standards of Conduct includes in its twelve articles

only a single mention of the Holy Spirit as the initiator of change, the Standards of

Doctrine delineates ACBC’s pneumatology more explicitly.

130

The only ontological

description presented in Article IV, dedicated to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, affirms,

“The Holy Spirit is the eternal third member of the Trinity.”

131

While Jesus is presented

as “the eternal Son of God” and “the second member of the Trinity,” the description of

the Spirit merges the adjective of the first (“eternal”) and the noun of the second

(“member”): the Spirit is the “eternal third member.”

132

While the affirmation of the

eternality of the Spirit is laudable, the use of “member” instead of “person” conveys

orthodox truth with less precision.

133

Noticeably, however, ACBC’s doctrinal document

does confess the Trinity, under the heading of the doctrine of God, using the traditional

129

I am grateful to Dale Johnson, executive director of ACBC, for the clarifications provided

about the history of ACBC’s institutional documents through private email correspondence on March 5,

2022. Moreover, for the purpose of transparency in this work, it is fitting to clarify that I am a biblical

counselor certified through ACBC.

130

See Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC), “Standards of Conduct,”

accessed March 4, 2022, https://biblicalcounseling.com/about/beliefs/positions/standards-of-conduct/, art.

VIII.

131

Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC), “Standards of Doctrine,” accessed

March 4, 2022, https://biblicalcounseling.com/about/beliefs/positions/standards-of-doctrine/, also published

in Heath Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling: The Doctrinal Foundations of Counseling Ministry

(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), 330–35.

132

See ACBC, “Standards of Doctrine,” art. III (“The Doctrine of Jesus Christ”).

133

A “member” entails a whole to which it belongs as a part. One can argue that the use

“member” instead of “person” regarding the Trinity could unwittingly detract from the doctrine of divine

simplicity.

language of “persons”: “This one God exists eternally in three distinct fully divine

persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

134

The description of the economy of the Spirit in article IV is more detailed. The

Holy Spirit (1) convicts of sin, (2) indwells Christians, (3) regenerates, (4) empowers the

Christian life, (5) empowers to understand the Scriptures, (6) empowers to worship

Christ, (7) equips with gifts, and (8) continues the work of Jesus, the Wonderful

Counselor. For all this, the Spirit is essential to the change biblical counseling seeks.

135

He is the divine person who “applies the work of Christ to all who believe, creating the

gift of faith in their hearts”; he is the one who “keeps them in faith forever.”

136

A careful

reading of this article reveals the absence of reference to the Holy Spirit’s work on love

and affections as well as the lack of any connections with union with Christ—which will

be addressed in chapter 5. These absences, however, are somewhat remedied in article IX

on the doctrine of regeneration: “Regeneration is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit

where he transforms the hardened heart of a sinner into the soft heart of a believer, who

loves God and obeys his Word. It is what makes the new life in Christ possible.”

137

Since

regeneration is included under the heading on the Holy Spirit (item 3), one can argue that

all that is contained in article IX is also in article IV. But it is possible for one to interpret

this statement on regeneration as restricted to the initial work of the Spirit, as punctiliar,

as not including his ongoing empowering and vivifying work.

138

In any case, however,

the point here is about emphasis: Like in Adams, so in ACBC’s Standards of Doctrine,

134

See ACBC, “Standards of Doctrine,” art. II (“The Doctrine of God”).

135

See ACBC, “Standards of Doctrine,” art. IV (“The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit”).

136

See ACBC, “Standards of Doctrine,” art. V (“The Doctrine of Divine Grace”).

137

See ACBC, “Standards of Doctrine,” art. IX (“The Doctrine of Regeneration”).

138

See also Robert Jones, “The Christ-Centeredness of Biblical Counseling,” in Scripture and

Counseling: God’s Word for Life in a Broken World, ed. Bob Kellemen and Jeff Forrey (Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 2014), 120–22. Though not working from the idea of union with Christ, Jones rightly stresses

the ongoing presence and power of Christ for spiritual strength and help through the indwelling of the Holy

Spirit.

the cognitive aspect of the Spirit’s work is brought to the forefront, whereas his work on

Christian affections and the doctrine of union with Christ remain rather underscored.

Heath Lambert, ACBC’s executive director at the time of implementation of

the Standards of Doctrine, has employed significant effort to emphasize biblical

counseling as essentially a theological discipline.

139

Lambert’s major work A Theology of

Biblical Counseling seeks to systematically present the doctrinal foundations that

underlie the practice of counseling the church should embrace. This systematic

presentation, however, reveals very similar tones to that adopted in ACBC’s doctrinal

standards. For example, even though he recognizes that the doctrine of the Trinity “could

be meaningfully explored for [its] impact on the task of biblical counseling,” Lambert

intentionally does not include a discussion on such doctrine.

140

In his chapter on the Holy Spirit, Lambert also refers to the Spirit as “the

eternal third member of the Trinity.”

141

His focus, however, is predominantly on six

elements of the Spirit’s “crucial role in counseling.”

142

The Spirit works in (1) convicting,

(2) indwelling, (3) teaching, (4) empowering, (5) gifting, and (6) glorifying.

143

Like in

ACBC’s Standards of Doctrine, very little is said in this chapter on the Spirit’s work of

reorienting one’s loves and affections or uniting to Christ. Lambert does state that the

Spirit empowers Christians to obey, which is proof of their love for Jesus, and to know

Jesus’s love for them.

144

Again, a bit more is said under the rubric of regeneration in

Lambert’s chapter on soteriology: “Regeneration is the sovereign and invisible work of

God the Holy Spirit transforming us from people who are opposed to him to people who

139

See Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling, 11–17.

140

See Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling, 105.

141

Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling, 175.

142

Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling, 161.

143

See Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling, 161–75.

144

See Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling, 169, 171.

love him.”

145

Lambert recognizes that this re-creation of the heart that takes place at the

moment of the new birth is foundational for any outward change. As he argues,

regeneration happens without human cooperation, in a monergistic way, contrasting with

his view of sanctification, which is a synergistic process.

146

This means his presentation

on the Spirit’s work on creating new loves is relatively restricted to a general, positional

condition.

A similar issue is evident in Lambert’s only categorical mention of the doctrine

of union with Christ in his chapter on Christology. He writes,

Counselees in themselves do not deserve access to any of God’s goodness. The

grace of God and the comfort of God’s presence—and much more—come only

through Jesus Christ. They require what theologians have called “the doctrine of

union with Christ.” The doctrine of the believer’s union with Christ teaches that

God considers to be true of those who trust in Jesus Christ all that is true of Christ

himself. When a person comes to have faith in Jesus, God views them as though

they lived his life and earned his benefits.

147

Although Lambert proceeds to explain the implications of this reality in counseling,

pointing out the counselee’s need for forgiveness, power to obey, and comfort, his

definition of the doctrine of union with Christ focuses exclusively on the federal sense of

such union. In restricting his definition of this doctrine to how God “considers” or

“views” believers, Lambert (even if unintentionally) ends up distancing Christ from

believers, as if this union was a mere matter for consideration, not an organic oneness or

continual empowerment. Had he explored the doctrine of union with Christ under his

treatment of the Holy Spirit, or at least in connection to pneumatology, Lambert’s

presentation of its implication for counseling would have been less puzzling, as it would

approximate the divine Son to the Holy Spirit as well as believers to both. In the divine

145

Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling, 281.

146

See Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling, 281, 291.

147

Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling, 149–50 (emphasis added).

oneness lies the power and comfort that believers need and are brought to enjoy by

participation in Christ by the Spirit.

Christian Counseling and Educational

Foundation (CCEF)

While affirming the unique authority of Scripture, CCEF chose not to develop

its own doctrinal statement but to subscribe to the historic creeds of the early church—the

Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed—and of the Reformation—such as the

Westminster Confession of Faith, the London Baptist Confession (without clear

specification), and the Heidelberg Catechism. With this, CCEF made a statement to value

what is common about these confessional documents, demonstrating their aim to minister

to and from a range of theological perspectives in humble and winsome ways. Committed

to serving the visible church of many denominational associations, CCEF viewed the

justification for such commitment in the facts that “God’s saving work in Christ Jesus

creates a people for his own possession” and that “there is one Body and one Spirit.”

148

Accompanying this emphasis on unity, CCEF accented the relational aspect of the

Christian life in their “Philosophy”: “Ultimately, the Bible points us to a relationship with

a person—Jesus Christ. The Bible was given to reveal Christ as the one who is able to

make all things new. We believe real and lasting change occurs when people know

themselves and their problems within a living and vital relationship with Jesus Christ.”

149

With no explicit mention of “union,” their “Model of Care” meaningfully emphasizes the

concept: “We believe that Jesus is our faithful Redeemer who enables us to persevere in

the midst of our problems. Therefore, we understand that change is often slow and hard.

148

Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF), “Beliefs, History, and Model of

Care,” accessed March 4, 2022, https://www.ccef.org/about/mission-beliefs-history/beliefs-history-model-

of-care/.

149

Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF), “Philosophy,” accessed March

4, 2022, https://www.ccef.org/counseling/philosophy/.

Jesus promises no instant panacea. He abides in us as we abide in him.”

150

References to

the Holy Spirit, however, are significantly absent from CCEF’s statements on their

beliefs, philosophy, and model of care.

Institute for Biblical Counseling

and Discipleship (IBCD)

Some organizations opted for brief doctrinal statements, such as the Institute

for Biblical Counseling and Discipleship (IBCD), founded by George Scipione in 1982

and first named CCEF West.

151

Now a separate institution from CCEF and operating

under a new name, IBCD maintains a beliefs statement composed of eight

straightforward clauses, with the Spirit mentioned in four of them. First, they affirm that

the one God eternally exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Second, they

believe that regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for the salvation of lost

sinners. Third, they confess that the present ministry of the Spirit, with his indwelling of

Christians, enables a godly life. Finally, they affirm the spiritual unity of believers in

Christ and his church—assuming “spiritual” refers to the work of the Holy Spirit in

uniting them.

152

Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC)

The Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC) chose to not develop its own

doctrinal statement but to adopt the Doctrinal Statement and the Confessional Statement

of the BCC—which will also be an object of this study.

153

ABC’s training material,

150

CCEF, “Beliefs, History, and Model of Care.”

151

Institute for Biblical Counseling and Discipleship (IBCD), “About Us: The History of

IBCD,” accessed March 9, 2022, https://ibcd.org/about-us/.

152

Institute for Biblical Counseling and Discipleship, “About Us: Our Beliefs,” accessed

March 9, 2022, https://ibcd.org/about-us/.

153

I am grateful to Shauna Van Dyke, executive director of ABC, for answering my questions

on their doctrinal stances through electronic correspondence on February 4, 2022, and for providing me

ABC’s training material.

written by John Henderson, includes relevant statements about the Holy Spirit and the

doctrine of union with Christ. Teaching on soteriology, Henderson places union with

Christ in a prominent place: “The Holy Spirit imparts new life by joining the believer to

Jesus Christ, which brings abundant life in the present age and eternal glory in the

next.”

154

By this union with Christ, God’s promise in 2 Peter 1:3 is fulfilled: “Through

true knowledge of Himself and union with Jesus Christ, God gives us ‘everything

pertaining to life and godliness.’”

155

Relying on 1 Corinthians 2:12–13 and 2 Timothy

1:7, Henderson clarifies that Christians are given the Spirit of “power, love, and a sound

mind, . . . which means His presence in our hearts moves us toward greater sanity and

maturity over time.”

156

In this, the Spirit works progressively to sanctify believers—a

process that involves “continual unification with Christ and His body.”

157

Acknowledging his lists to not be exhaustive, Henderson provides

comprehensive descriptions of the Spirit’s work and fruit in believers. In the Christian

life, the Spirit works by (1) helping; (2) baptizing and indwelling; (3) uniting to Christ;

(4) regenerating; (5) sealing and guaranteeing; (6) illumining and teaching;

(7) comforting; (8) interceding; (9) strengthening in service, righteousness, and hope; and

(10) gifting.

158

Among the results of this manifold work of the Holy Spirit is love, which

does not come from believers themselves but from God.

159

As Henderson remarkably

states, “The Spirit we are given is the author of sound thoughts, loving affections, and

154

John Henderson, Equipped to Counsel: A Training Course in Biblical Counseling: Leader

Notebook, 2nd ed. (Bedford, TX: Association of Biblical Counselors, 2019), 73.

155

Henderson, Equipped to Counsel, 51(italics added).

156

Henderson, Equipped to Counsel, 75, 83.

157

Henderson, Equipped to Counsel, 74–75.

158

See Henderson, Equipped to Counsel, 81–82.

159

See Henderson, Equipped to Counsel, 83.

power to live for Christ and His kingdom.”

160

And he summarizes, “We have the life of

Christ because the Holy Spirit has joined us to Him, and in Him is the life.”

161

Henderson’s teachings on the Holy Spirit’s work reveal the prominent place the doctrine

of union with Christ occupies in his pneumatology. He underscores both the Spirit’s

activity in empowering the knowledge of truth and Christ-like love. Moreover,

addressing counselors, he remarks that the Spirit “helps [them] speak the truth in love,”

for which reason “counseling ministry should be full of prayer.”

162

The brevity of

Henderson’s addressing of counselors on these matters, however, does not allow for

significant reflection on how union with Christ by the Spirit continually relates to the task

of counseling itself.

Jeremy Lelek, president of ABC, has stressed some of the same

pneumatological tones. The plan the Father has planned was fulfilled by the Son and is

now executed by the Spirit. In this light, “the third person of the Trinity has claimed the

terrain of human flourishing.”

163

The Spirit brings forth the Father’s will and actuates

spiritual life within dead hearts. This new life entails a psychological transformation that

begins with the eternal love that is in the Trinity. This divine, intratrinitarian love is

shared through the Spirit, thus empowering people to fulfill their design as image-bearers

with intensifying longings for God and his glory. The Spirit rescues believers from the

inertia of self-love, rewiring their loves aright in such a way that their minds are

increasingly consumed by a passion for loving God and others.

164

In other words, “the

Holy Spirit opens believers’ eyes to see truth and transforms them into the likeness of

160

Henderson, Equipped to Counsel, 83.

161

Henderson, Equipped to Counsel, 81.

162

Henderson, Equipped to Counsel, 66.

163

Jeremy Lelek, Biblical Counseling Basics: Roots, Beliefs, and Future (Greensboro, NC:

New Growth Press, 2018), 122.

164

See Lelek, Biblical Counseling Basics, 95–96.

Jesus so that they may love the truth they see.”

165

This transformational process reorients

believers so that they may image the perfect mind of Christ more and more. For Lelek,

this is the path to genuine, grace-driven mental health.

166

Biblical Counseling Coalition (BCC)

With the creation of the BCC, the BCM found the opportunity to have a

unified doctrinal confession. With different organizations and leaders creating and

subscribing to the BCC’s Doctrinal Statement, the BCM vocalized in unison what it

believes concerning the central doctrines of the Christian faith.

167

Although the statement

claims to not be exhaustive, it provides a theological framework more comprehensive

than any other document produced in the BCM. For example, the BCC’s Doctrinal

Statement includes an exclusive clause for the Trinity, affirming the belief in one God

who eternally exists as three equally divine persons who are “distinct in their relations to

one another.”

168

Unlike other BCM statements, it offers some ontological description

regarding the relations in the life of the Trinity. Moreover, concerning the Holy Spirit, the

BCC Doctrinal Statement confesses that “he imparts new life to believers, placing them

into the Body of Christ,” and that “he provides the power to understand and apply God’s

truth in love.”

169

In their Confessional Statement, a different document in which the

theological basis for biblical counseling practice is laid out, the BCC states with dazzling

clarity, “Biblical counselors know that it is impossible to speak wisely and lovingly to

bring about true and lasting change apart from the decisive, compassionate, and

165

Lelek, Biblical Counseling Basics, 122.

166

See Lelek, Biblical Counseling Basics, 96.

167

Biblical Counseling Coalition (BCC), “Doctrinal Statement,” accessed March 4, 2022,

https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/doctrinal-statement/.

168

BCC, “Doctrinal Statement.”

169

BCC, “Doctrinal Statement.”

convicting work of the Spirit in the counselor and the counselee.”

170

Here, both the

person offering counseling and the one receiving it are addressed, highlighting the

necessity of the work of the Spirit for both speaking the truth (“wisely”) and doing so in

love.

The doctrine of union with Christ first appears in the BCC’s Doctrinal

Statement under the rubric of salvation and redemption, which affirms that every salvific

blessing and gift of God is “a glorious facet of union with Christ.”

171

However, the

second mention of such doctrine, under the heading of sanctification, treats it exclusively

as part of the “past aspect” of sanctification, that is, “positional or definitive

sanctification.”

172

This leads one to question whether the salvific blessings flow from

union with Christ merely by way of consequence, as fruit of the federal, representative

relation between Christ and the believer. The last mention of union with Christ, in the

statement about the church, approximates it to the Holy Spirit: “Every true believer is

baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ and thus united in Christ to one

another.”

173

Nevertheless, this approximation is insufficient to clarify the organic aspect

of union with Christ effected by the Spirit in the process of sanctification of believers.

A couple of years after its foundation, the BCC published a multi-authored

book with the intention of providing a practical theological foundation for biblical

counseling.

174

In this volume, Justin Holcomb and Mike Wilkerson approach the work of

170

Biblical Counseling Coalition, “Confessional Statement,” accessed March 4, 2022,

https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/confessional-statement/.

171

BCC, “Doctrinal Statement.”

172

BCC, “Doctrinal Statement.” See also Steve Viars and Rob Green, “The Biblical

Counseling Ministry of the Local Church,” in Kellemen and Viars, Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling,

223; Kevin Carson, “The Personal, Private, and Public Ministry of the Word,” in Kellemen and Viars,

Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling, 256.

173

BCC, “Doctrinal Statement.”

174

See Bob Kellemen and Steve Viars, “Introduction: In Christ Alone,” in Kellemen and

Viars, Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling, 17.

the Holy Spirit and counseling ministry with a question similar to the one of this project.

For them, “rather than asking about the role of the Holy Spirit in counseling, we should

be asking about the counselor’s role in the Holy Spirit’s counseling.”

175

Their focus on

the Spirit’s personal presence, agency, and efficacy in counseling leads them to speak of

counseling as a trialogue: A biblical counseling conversation takes place between

counselor, counselee, and the Holy Spirit, as the last actively and directly works on the

counselor and the counselee and through each for the sake of the other.

176

In this

trialogue, the goal is “to promote communication between the Spirit and the

counselee.”

177

The desire of biblical counselors in this process is, therefore, “to intend

what the Spirit intends and to participate in what the Spirit means to accomplish.”

178

Holcomb and Wilkerson continue to emphasize, as a result of their argument, the

importance of prayer and of Spirit-filled skills for counseling.

179

Yet, even though

Holcomb and Wilkerson’s approach advances how the Spirit’s work must be viewed in

biblical counseling, the accent on cognitive aspects of the Spirit’s ministry and the

absence of any connections to union with Christ are worth noting.

Summary

As the BCM developed further, biblical counselors have found their expression

through a variety of leading organizations and voices, all of which have firmly

maintained the divinity of the Holy Spirit and the necessity of his work for salvation, in

general, and for the task of biblical counseling, in particular. As in the work of Holcomb

and Wilkerson, the primacy of the Spirit’s work has been highlighted, with the ministry

175

Justin Holcomb and Mike Wilkerson, “The Ministry of the Holy Spirit,” in Kellemen and

Viars, Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling, 49.

176

Holcomb and Wilkerson, “The Ministry of the Holy Spirit,” 50.

177

Holcomb and Wilkerson, “The Ministry of the Holy Spirit,” 51.

178

Holcomb and Wilkerson, “The Ministry of the Holy Spirit,” 52.

179

Holcomb and Wilkerson, “The Ministry of the Holy Spirit,” 53–57.

of biblical counseling finding its place within this broader pneumatological work. Also,

Henderson’s attention to the Spirit’s work on Christian love and union with Christ has

uniquely contributed to the maintenance of the language Powlison also used.

Nonetheless, such emphasis seems to not yet be the norm in the BCM. The doctrine of

union with Christ has often been attached to the doctrine of justification to the neglect of

its organic aspect in sanctification worked out by the Holy Spirit.

Moreover, when present, trinitarian formulations have focused on matters of

economy rather than ontology, occasionally employing imprecise, non-traditional

language. Although the oneness of God is ever affirmed, one is left to wonder about the

nature of that oneness and its impact on a pneumatology of biblical counseling. Finally,

while biblical counselors have now devoted some attention to the Spirit’s work on the

affections, especially in discussions about regeneration, there is still a need to further

develop this pneumatological aspect in the act of biblical counseling itself, particularly

the impartation of divine love by the Spirit in the counselor’s will and affective

formation.

Conclusion

The divine Spirit and his absolute necessity for the work of biblical counseling

have been confessed and affirmed since the origins of the BCM. Since Adams, biblical

counselors have cohesively held that the ministry of God’s Word is dependent on the

Holy Spirit. Accompanying this central belief came an emphasis on the cognitive aspect

of the Spirit’s work, particularly regarding counselees, as it pertains to their process of

change. New attention was given to the will and its affections in Powlison’s writings, as

he associated the pouring out of God’s love with the Holy Spirit. Yet, Powlison’s accent

has not been appropriated as the norm in treatments of pneumatology in the BCM, nor

has it sufficiently addressed the love formation by the Spirit in counselors themselves.

Moreover, the doctrine of union with Christ, when addressed, has been generally

associated with positional justification to the neglect of its organic aspect in the

sanctification operated by the Holy Spirit.

More broadly, the study of this chapter reveals a general emphasis on practical

theology—as would be expected from a movement that seeks to apply theology to life.

As a result, reflections on the economic Trinity have far outweighed considerations of

divine ontology. The problem here, as Powlison noted, is that ministry unbalances truth

for the sake of relevance.

180

And this surveying chapter has revealed another three

unbalances in the pneumatology of the BCM: (1) a focus on the Spirit’s work on the

spiritual transformation of the counselee over the spiritual participation of the counselor,

(2) an emphasis on the Spirit’s work on cognitive aspects over affective aspects, and

(3) the preeminence of federal and positional aspects of union with Christ over its organic

element in sanctification. It is, therefore, necessary to step back to engage in theological

reflection in order to rebalance truth for the sake of comprehensiveness.

181

And this is

precisely the goal of this project: to provide a theological reflection, beginning with God

in himself, on the doctrines of the Holy Spirit and union with Christ, with a vision to

properly contextualize the theology—and ministry—of biblical counseling. The next

chapter will begin addressing the first and third imbalances listed above. Chapters 4 and 5

will continue this endeavor by narrowing down on aspects of the second imbalance.

180

Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?, 33.

181

Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?, 33.

CHAPTER 3

“THAT CHRIST MAY DWELL IN YOUR HEARTS”:

THE MISSION OF THE SPIRIT AND

ECCLESIAL PARTICIPATION

The life of the church is not self-originated, self-derived. It is, rather, a divine

gift, as God, who is the only ever-abounding source of life, communicates his own life to

his people in Christ through the Spirit. Like in the divine work of creating and sustaining

human life, the life of the church is given and sustained by the divine power of the

gracious Giver of Life. God not only grants life to his church, but he also sustains and

preserves the life he gives. In the same fashion, the ministry of the church is not self-

determined. Neither is the ministry of the church a mere order given by a lord who, after

uttering his command, retreats to the comforts of his chambers, having no direct

engagement with the required activity except the expectation of its accomplishment. The

church’s ministry, as with the church’s life, is given and sustained by the triune God, who

is on mission himself.

As an exercise of theological theology, this chapter will offer a theological

reflection that is determined by the very object of its study, that is, the Holy Trinity.

God

must be the organizing principle of any theological discourse, including any ministry of

See Tom Greggs, “Proportion and Topography in Ecclesiology: A Working Paper on the

Dogmatic Location of the Doctrine of the Church,” in Theological Theology: Essays in Honour of John

Webster, ed. R. David Nelson, Justin Stratis, and Darren Sarisky (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), 90. In

Greggs’s words, “Ecclesiology must understand the church as a creaturely reality which stands under the

metaphysics of grace.” See also John Webster, God without Measure: Working Papers in Christian

Theology, vol. 1, God and the Works of God (London: T&T Clark, 2018), 181–88.

See John Webster, “Reading Theology,” Toronto Journal of Theology 13, no. 1 (1997): 53–

64; Webster, The Domain of the Word: Scripture and Theological Reason (London: T&T Clark, 2012),

128–29, 145; Webster, Confessing God: Essays in Christian Dogmatics II, 2nd ed., Cornerstones (London:

T&T Clark, 2016), 11–31. See also Michael Allen, “Theological Theology: Webster’s Theological

Project,” in A Companion to the Theology of John Webster, ed. Michael Allen and R. David Nelson (Grand

Rapids: Eerdmans, 2021), 21–44.

the church. I will present here, therefore, what must be the initial movement of a theology

of biblical counseling, namely, a reflection on God’s life ad intra and its consistency

revealed in his work ad extra. To understand biblical counseling theologically is to

understand it in light of the triune God. More specifically, to understand biblical

counseling pneumatologically is to understand it in light of the Holy Spirit who eternally

proceeds from the Father and the Son—an ad intra procession that extends and is

reflected ad extra in the Spirit’s mission. The Father and the Son who eternally breathe

forth the Spirit also sent the Spirit in these latter days to dwell with and in the people of

the triune God.

The aim of this chapter, therefore, is to ground the ministry of biblical

counseling in who God is as Trinity and how he works, underscoring the necessity of it

being carried out by those who are in Christ by the uniting Spirit. In the end, it should be

clear that biblical counseling exists as “participatory conversations,” that is, the mutual

speaking of truth in love that takes place within the life of the church because of the life

of Christ communicated by the Spirit. The people caught up in the life of God—in Christ

by the Holy Spirit—address one another in their particular experiences with the divine

knowledge and love by which they were addressed by God. Accordingly, the overarching

line of argumentation of this chapter resembles an exitus-reditus structure: all is from

God and returns to God (cf. Rom 11:36). Biblical counseling takes place because God

gives and sends of himself, causing people to return to him with supernatural knowing

and loving—and speaking!

The exodus-reditus theme, Gilles Emery explains, was a central theme in Thomas Aquinas’s

trinitarian theology. See Gilles Emery, The Trinitarian Theology of St Thomas Aquinas, trans. Francesca

Aran Murphy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 36, 377–78. The same theme can be found in the

very structure of Augustine’s Confessions, as he narrates his life story in light of divine grace. See Matthew

Levering, The Theology of Augustine: An Introductory Guide to His Most Important Works (Grand Rapids:

Baker Academic, 2013), 89. In Robert McMahon’s words, the exitus-reditus scheme “enacts the ‘return to

the Origin’ by ascending reflectively to principles always logically prior and, therefore, ontologically

higher.” Robert McMahon, “Book Thirteen: The Creation of the Church as the Paradigm for the

Confessions,” in A Reader’s Companion to Augustine’s Confessions, ed. Kim Paffenroth and Robert P.

Kennedy (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), 213.

Three steps are necessary here. First, I will establish the foundations by

drawing the line between eternal processions and temporal missions, with special

consideration about the person of the Holy Spirit. Second, I will explore the proper work

of the Spirit and how the Spirit operates inseparably with the Father and the Son—with

particular attention to how the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ who indwells believers.

Third, I will argue that the mission of the Holy Spirit terminates in the church as he unites

her to Christ, communicating his divine life and righteousness organically to her and

causing and contextualizing her truthful and loving speech by participation. In the

conclusion, I will then define “participatory conversations,” a concept that will be

expanded in the next chapters.

A few passages of Scripture provide the grounds for this theological reflection.

First, the Farewell Discourse in John 14–17 contains Jesus’s promises to send the Holy

Spirit as well as descriptions that have allowed the church to confess both his unity of

essence with the Father and the Son and his real distinction as a divine person. Second,

the Pauline prayer in Ephesians 3:14–19 (in parallel with Galatians 4:4–7) provides the

trinitarian framework that grounds the church’s peculiar unity described in chapter 4 of

the same epistle, a unity also pursued in the ecclesial act of “speaking truth in love”

(4:15). Finally, concerning participation, 2 Peter 1:4 must be considered in its teaching of

the Christian partaking of the divine nature.

Divine Persons, Eternal Processions,

and Temporal Missions

If action flows from being and economy follows ontology, then trinitarian

theology is a gift of revelation received by the church, not an ecclesial, confessional

construct. The church’s confession of the Trinity is the outcome of God’s active

manifestation of himself to the world and the church’s perception of his self-disclosing

display.

Only by looking at the works of God and their attestation in Scripture is the

church authorized to think and speak about God’s very being, his life ad intra.

“Trinitarian theology describes the connection between the economy of salvation and the

eternal God who is its author and perfecter, its arche and telos,” as Fred Sanders

describes.

In other words, the economy of divine works in creation and salvation reveals

the very being of the one performing these works.

God acts as the triune God he is. His being grounds the mission of the Son and

the Spirit. As Christopher Holmes puts it, “God’s inner life is encountered, revealed, and

disclosed in God’s outward life, God’s saving acts. It is these acts that point us to their

origin, that teach us of a profound unity of being between the Father, Son, and Spirit.”

his actions, particularly in the sending of the Son and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit,

God reveals himself to be triune, leading the church to confess the one God as subsisting

in three divine persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

See Augustine of Hippo, The Trinity, ed. John E. Rotelle, trans. Edmund Hill, vol. 5 of The

Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, pt. 1, Books, 2nd ed. (Brooklyn: New City

Press, 2015), 4.20.28 (Hill, 181).

See Fred Sanders, The Triune God, New Studies in Dogmatics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,

2016), 23, 27.

Sanders, The Triune God, 28.

Sanders teaches elsewhere that the doctrine of the Trinity and the Christian doctrine of

salvation

arise together from scriptural testimony, because the Bible consistently speaks of salvation and of

God together. In particular, the revelation of the triunity of God is tightly bundled with the

fulfillment of God’s promises in the gospel, and it is the Father’s sending of the Son and the Holy

Spirit that accomplishes at the same time the revelation of God as Trinity and the particular salvation

accomplished by these three as one. (Fred Sanders, Fountain of Salvation: Trinity and Soteriology

[Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2021], 1)

Christopher R. J. Holmes, The Holy Spirit, New Studies in Dogmatics (Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 2015), 19–20.

As Emery puts it, “Faith in the Trinity rests on God’s revelation of himself in the economy of

salvation. We do not have access to the Trinity outside what God revealed to us by sending his own Son

and giving us his Holy Spirit.” Gilles Emery, The Trinity: An Introduction to Catholic Doctrine on the

Triune God, trans. Matthew Levering (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2011),

But what does it mean to confess the Holy Spirit as a “divine person”? The

scriptural witness presents the Spirit as divine, ascribing to him attributes and works that

are only be ascribed to God. The Holy Spirit is eternal (Heb 9:14), omnipresent (Ps

139:7–10), omniscient (Isa 40:13–14; John 16:13; 1 Cor 2:10–11), and omnipotent (cf.

Luke 1:34–37). The Spirit’s work is seen in creation (Gen 1:2), providence (Job 33:4; Pss

33:6; 104:27–30), redemption (John 3:5–6; Rom 8:9–10; 1 Cor 6:11; Gal 4:6–7; Eph

5:26; 2 Thess 2:13; Titus 3:3–7; 1 Pet 1:1–2), and consummation (Rom 8:10–17; Eph

1:13–14). In the Gospels, the Spirit is the agent of the salvation accomplished in and by

Jesus (Matt 1:18–20; Mark 1:9–13; Luke 1:35). In Acts, it is the Spirit who procures the

church and empowers her expansion (Acts 1:8; 2:1–4, 33, 38; 13:2–4; 20:22; cf. Matt

10:19–20; Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11–12). Also in Acts, to lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to

God (Acts 5:3–4, 9; cf. Exod 17:2–7; Deut 6:16).

Yet, the biblical account introduces a tension between its clear monotheistic

attestation (e.g., Deut 6:4) and its testimony of the Son’s and the Spirit’s divinity.

Scripture, the oneness of God is not threatened by the “anotherness” presented in the

works of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (e.g., John 14:16; 16:7–8; cf. Matt 28:19; 2 Cor

13:13; Eph 3:14–17). On the contrary, “the ‘threeness’ derives from, exists in, and serves

the ‘oneness,’” as Herman Bavinck explains.

This mysterium trinitatis, a mystery of

progressive revelation, was hidden in times past but is now revealed in these final days so

that the church would know, proclaim, love, and worship God in his triunity.

In the

words of Holmes, “The Trinity is a mystery that wills to be known, loved, served, and

See also Gregg R. Allison and Andreas J. Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, Theology for the

People of God (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2020), 239–40; Scott Swain, The Trinity: An Introduction,

Short Studies in Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 89–90; Emery, The Trinity, 37–38.

For a defense of the divine oneness as God’s foundational perfection, see Katherine

Sonderegger, Systematic Theology, vol. 1, The Doctrine of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015), 3–45.

Herman Bavinck, RD, 2:306.

Sanders, The Triune God, 42–46.

spoken of as that mystery truly is. The Trinity is a knowable mystery. The Trinity would

have us talk of the Trinity as the Trinity truly is.”

And so, to faithfully speak about and

profess the God who discloses himself in Scripture as one and in “anotherness,” the

church adopted a trinitarian grammar: one nature (ousia), three persons (hypostases).

This divine, internal “anotherness” was then identified as personal, or

hypostatic. According to the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one and the same

thing: one nature. And yet, without being a different thing, the Father is not the Son, the

Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. As Gilles Emery

explains, the Father is “another” than the Son and the Holy Spirit, but they are not a

“different thing.”

Emery takes this distinction from the fourth-century writings of

Gregory of Nazianzus, from his first letter to Cledonius: “We have ‘others’ in order not to

confuse the subjects or hypostases, but not other things: the three are one and the same

thing qua Godhead.”

Similarly, Augustine affirmed, “The Spirit is other than the Father

and the Son because He is neither the Father nor the Son. I say, ‘other than,’ not

‘different from,’ because, equally with them, He is the simple, unchangeable, co-eternal

Good. This Trinity is one God.”

Hence, the church began confessing the three-in-

Holmes, The Holy Spirit, 20.

Emery, The Trinity, 87.

Gregory of Nazianzus, On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters

to Cledonius, ed. John Behr, trans. Frederick Williams and Lionel Wickham, Popular Patristics (Crestwood,

NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2002), 157.

Augustine of Hippo, The City of God: Books VIII–XVI, trans. Gerald G. Walsh and Grace

Monahan, Fathers of the Church: A New Translation (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of

America Press, 2008), 11.10 (Walsh and Monahan, 202). Augustine roots God’s oneness in the doctrine of

divine simplicity:

Although it is a Trinity, it is none the less simple. For, we do not say that the nature of this good is

simple because the Father alone shares in it, or the Son alone, or the Holy Spirit alone. Nor do we say

with the Sabellian heretics that it is but a nominal Trinity without subsistent Persons. Our reason for

calling it simple is because it is what it has—with the exception of the real relations in which the

Persons stand to each other. (Augustine, City of God, 11.10 [Walsh and Monahan, 202])

oneness of God by acknowledging the divine persons as distinct but not different from

each other.

Christians thus confess that the one God eternally subsists in three persons.

The use of “person” in the Nicene tradition, however, requires clarification, especially

considering its semantic developments in modern times.

In Western culture, following

the thought of John Locke and René Descartes, the notion of “person” has become

psychologized: a person is one who thinks as a distinct center of consciousness and

will.

According to this definition, the distinction of the Holy Spirit as a person could be

sufficiently concluded from the fact that he is described with personal characteristics in

Scripture (i.e., intelligence, emotions, will; cf. Isa 63:10; 1 Cor 12:11; Eph 4:30; Heb

See also Vidu, The Same God, 313–14.

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Conclusion: Participatory Conversations

Biblical counseling can be viewed as “participatory conversations.”

Participatory conversations are interactions that happen by virtue of union with Christ by

the Spirit, from which flow the very knowledge of the truth spoken and the love that

orients the disposition of biblical counselors to care for others as they respond to specific

contexts of crisis. Because union with Christ is personal and corporate, participatory

conversations take place within the particularities of human experience, as the saints in

Christ, by the Spirit, minister truth in love through biblical counseling, which is attentive

to the heart and emphatic in its remedying offer of the gospel.

In a real sense, these participatory conversations take place within the context

of the directionality of divine missions. “The divine humility of the missions overcomes

our pride and invites us to participate, as creatures, in unity of the glorious processions,”

Levering remarks, echoing Augustine.

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The Spirit’s mission creates a new reality by his

mere divine sanctifying presence, which communicates that which the Son has received

from the Father. By the Spirit, the church is caught up to participate in the directionality

of the divine missions. And so, as the church shares in the divine blessings, particularly in

the knowledge and love of God, she is oriented outward toward another. That is precisely

the mindset attributed to Christ in his incarnation—a mindset that believers are called to

imitate and that is theirs already (Phil 2:4–7). By virtue of that mysterious union, they

have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16).

The next two chapters will expand the concept of participatory conversations

as it pertains to biblical counseling, contextualizing the church’s speaking truth in love in

the mission of the Spirit who unites to Christ. Particularly, chapter 4 will explore the

participation of saints in divine knowledge, and then chapter 5 will address believers’

participation in divine love. This logical order—a knowledge that leads to and expresses

172

Levering, The Theology of Augustine, 160–61.

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itself in love—reflects the divine missions: “The formality of the Spirit’s mission is love

and the Son’s mission is knowledge,” for “love cannot come before knowledge.”

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One

can only love that which is known. For sure, one must not confuse the logical order

described here with a linear process for theological or ministerial enterprises. Both

enterprises entail relationships (with God and neighbor), and so knowledge and love

function together and inseparably as the heart responds in those interpersonal contexts.

There is, however, a certain kind of knowledge that sparks up love: “To talk about

knowing God without loving God is to detach the Word from the Spirit, the love of the

Father for the Son and the Son for the Father. Just as the intellectual and affective are one

in God, may they be one in us. The one God is Word and Spirit.”

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The Spirit of Truth,

who is essentially love, has come, elevating believers to be one with Christ and, thereby,

participants in God’s knowledge and affections.

173

Vidu, The Divine Missions, 50. Holmes elucidates, “There is not any competition between

knowledge and love, but there is an order. Knowledge is ordered to love and never the reverse.” Holmes, A

Theology of the Christian Life, 135.

174

Holmes, A Theology of the Christian Life, 129.

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CHAPTER 4

“WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST”: COUNSELING

WITH WISDOM AND THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH

Biblical counselors speak the truth they know by virtue of their union with

Christ by the Spirit. As participatory conversations, biblical counseling happens as

Christians speak out of the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16), in which they participate, to

guide their counselees in their specific critical contexts and model to them God’s way of

seeing and living in the world. It is the Holy Spirit who grants them to partake in the

mind of Christ, for he who indwells believers is himself the Spirit of Christ. The

discourse of the church, including counseling, is based on truth supernaturally known. In

Christ, biblical counselors speak with knowledge only available to them by faith as the

indwelling Spirit illuminates their rational capacities. The nature of this knowledge

imparted by the Spirit is such that the natural knowledge is not discarded or nullified but

recontextualized in divine wisdom. Wise biblical counsel, therefore, occurs as the light of

that spiritual knowledge reinterprets one’s life, connecting the truth of faith to the

particularities of human experience.

This chapter will contend that the Spirit, uniting biblical counselors to Christ,

brings them to participate in the knowledge of the divine truth, empowering them to its

wise proclamation to each person in the context of his or her particular needs. My

argument will follow in three parts. First, I will highlight the association of the Holy

Spirit with truth and the mind of Christ in the believer, looking specifically to John’s

Gospel (especially 14:17; 15:26; 16:13) and 1 Corinthians 2:6–16. Second, because he is

the Spirit of wisdom and understanding (Isa 11:2; Eph 1:17), I will explore the

essentiality of his work of illumination toward practical knowledge. Third, I will examine

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how the Christ-oriented witness of the Holy Spirit that allows for practical reasoning also

empowers counselors to interpret and speak to people’s particular experiences wisely.

The Spirit of Truth

The Spirit of Christ is the “Spirit of Truth.” In his Upper Room Discourse,

Jesus highlights the Spirit’s association with truth by referring to the Spirit using this title

(see John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13). Jesus’s promise in John 14:16–17 is that he would ask the

Father to give his disciples another paraclete to be with them forever, that is, the Spirit of

Truth. This promise is accompanied by a second one: that Jesus would not leave his

disciples orphans (14:18) but instead that his disciples would live based on Jesus’s own

life—a life shared with the Father and one that Jesus would share with them in mutual

indwelling (14:19–20).

This knowledge of a shared life with Jesus constitutes an

essential part of the truth that the Spirit teaches and reminds of (14:26). By pointing to

Jesus’s teachings and the reality he inaugurates in the disciples, the Spirit empowers an

awareness of their life in Christ.

Clive Bowsher argues that this mutual indwelling of the Son and believers, this

“in-one-anotherness,” exhibits considerable similarity to the in-one-anotherness enjoyed

by the Father and the Son.

That is, when John in his Gospel presents a case for the

divinity of the Son by stating his oneness with the Father (10:30, 38; 17:11, 22), the

evangelist also underscores the relational union believers would come to enjoy in and

with Christ. Accordingly, Bowsher approximates the concept of eternal life to the

relational participation that takes place in this in-one-anotherness with Christ. In this

intimate union, Christ’s disciples share in the Son’s life, work, character, and love. This

sharing extends also to knowledge, as John 15–16 portrays.

See Clive Bowsher, Life in the Son: Exploring Participation and Union with Christ in John’s

Gospel and Letters (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2023), 32.

See Bowsher, Life in the Son, 3–4.

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After identifying himself as the true Vine from whom a fruitful life flows

(15:1–10), Jesus again focuses on the promised coming of the Holy Spirit (v. 26). This

time, Jesus presents himself as the sender of the Spirit from the Father. As the Spirit of

Truth, the Spirit would come to bear witness about Jesus to the disciples. The disciples, in

turn, sent by Jesus, would also bear witness about him (v. 27). The Spirit’s work of

pointing to Christ brings the disciples to participate in that same work as they go into a

world that hates them and their Master. With the indwelling of the Spirit in believers, the

Son-Spirit link becomes the Son-Spirit-believer link. The Father sends the Son who,

together with the Father, sends the Spirit who bears witness about the Son, leading

believers to know the Father through the Son and to bear witness about that Son who

reveals the glory of the Father (cf. 1:14). Scott Swain explains this trinitarian dynamic:

While initially focused on the Eleven (cf. 15:26), the Spirit, in a secondary sense,

fulfils similar roles in believers today. He illuminates the spiritual meaning of Jesus’

words and works both to believers and, through believers, to the unbelieving world.

In all of these functions, the ministry of the Spirit remains closely linked with the

person of Jesus. Just as Jesus is everywhere in John’s Gospel portrayed as the Sent

One who is fully dependent on and obedient to the Father, the Spirit is said to be

“sent” by both the Father and Jesus (14:26; 15:26) and to focus his teaching on the

illumination of the spiritual significance of God’s work in Jesus (14:26; 15:26;

16:9).

Jesus underscores the work of the Spirit in John 16:7–15 in a similar trinitarian

fashion. Jesus’s going away (to the Father; cf. v. 10) was for the advantage of his

disciples, for the sending of the Holy Spirit was dependent on the Son’s departure: “If I

do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you”

(v. 7). Jesus then describes the Spirit’s work toward the world as convicting (ἐλέγχω)

them of sin, righteousness, and judgment (vv. 8–11). The exact meaning of these verses is

difficult to determine. Discussions on how to best translate ἐλέγχω involve ambiguity in

English terminology. Some scholars use the basic sense of “exposing” to translate

Andreas J. Köstenberger and Scott R. Swain, Father, Son and Spirit: The Trinity and John’s

Gospel, New Studies in Biblical Theology (Nottingham: IVP Academic, 2008), 98–99.

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ἐλέγχω, while others argue for a deeper form of “convincing.” Still others (myself

included) prefer “convicting” in order to convey a judicial tone to the work of the

Paraclete.

In any case, what is undeniable in this description of the Spirit’s work is that

he is responsible for the revelation of truth concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Jesus’s justification for the Spirit’s work also revolves around himself: The necessity of

the Spirit’s revealing work follows the facts that the world does not believe in Christ

(v. 9) and that Christ, who perfectly embodies divine righteousness, would no longer be

visibly present (v. 10), having already judged the ruler of this world (v. 10). The Spirit

works the revelation of truth to a world incapable of that knowledge apart from him.

Nonetheless, turning to his disciples, Jesus then promises that the Spirit would

guide them in all truth, speaking a truth that does not originate in himself as the Spirit but

that is received from the Son, who shares it with the Father (16:13–15; cf. 8:26). The

Spirit would reveal the “many things” Jesus still had to say to them. Even in Jesus’s

physical absence, the Spirit would orient the disciples and teach the truth of Christ to

them: “Whatever he hears he will speak” (16:13). Coming after the death, resurrection,

and ascension of Christ, the Spirit fleshes out “the implications of God’s triumphant self-

disclosure in the person and work of his Son,” as D. A. Carson puts it.

Historically, this

guidance of the Spirit involves his inspiration for the formation of the New Testament

canon, wherein the accomplishments of Christ are described and explained along with the

proper implications for the life of the disciples in Christ.

For a full discussion on the translation and understanding of ἐλέγχω, see D. A. Carson, The

Gospel According to John, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1991), 534–

35. See also Friedrich Büchsel, “Ἐλέγχω, Ἔλεγξις, Ἔλεγχος, Ἐλεγμός,” in Theological Dictionary of the

New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids:

Eerdmans, 1964), 473–76.

Carson, The Gospel According to John, 540–41.

See also Köstenberger and Swain, Father, Son and Spirit, 98; Michael Horton, Rediscovering

the Holy Spirit: God’s Perfecting Presence in Creation, Redemption, and Everyday Life (Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 2017), 130. See, e.g., Herman Bavinck’s use of John 16:13 in association with canon formation

and scriptural authority in Herman Bavinck, RD, 1:429–30.

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Furthermore, Jesus’s description of himself as the Truth accompanies the

association of the Spirit with truth in John’s Gospel. Jesus is the Truth, so the Spirit of

Christ is also the Spirit of Truth.

The work of the Spirit in testifying about the Son sent

by the Father reflects his own sending (missio) from the Son and the Father, which in turn

reveals his eternal procession within the unity of the Godhead. In his Homily 99 on John

16:13, Augustine explains,

And so we must take what is said about the Holy Spirit—For he will not speak from

himself, but whatever he hears he will speak—in such a way as to understand that he

is not from himself. Only the Father, in fact, isn’t from another, for the Son is born

of the Father and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, whereas the Father is

neither born nor proceeds from another. It should certainly not on that account occur

to human thought that there is any inequality in that most high Trinity, for the Son is

equal to him from whom he is born and the Holy Spirit to him from whom he

proceeds. . . . For he will not speak from himself, then, because he is not from

himself, but whatever he hears he will speak; he will hear it from the one from

whom he proceeds. For him, to hear is to know, but to know is to be, as was

discussed previously. Because, then, he isn’t from himself but from the one from

whom he proceeds, his knowledge is from him from whom his being is, and so his

hearing is from him, because that is nothing else than knowing.

The fact that the Spirit speaks not on his own accord does not diminish the glory of his

work. On the contrary, because the Spirit reveals the knowledge of God (which is

knowledge from God and not merely about God), we have in that very act the evidence of

his divinity. The Spirit’s making God’s knowledge known to man is thus a work of divine

grace.

Moreover, when the Spirit declares “the things that are to come” (16:13), he

does so not only by providing a revelation of future stages of the kingdom but also by

unpacking the depth of the significance of events past, that is, the implications of Jesus’s

whole life and work.

In Carson’s words, “what is yet to come refers to all that transpires

See also Carson, The Gospel According to John, 539–40.

Augustine of Hippo, Homilies on the Gospel of John 41–124, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald, trans.

Edmund Hill, vol. 13 of The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, pt. 3, Homilies

(Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2020), Homily 99 (pp. 378–79).

For more on the connection between scriptural inspiration, apocalyptic revelation, and the

work of the Spirit within inseparable operations, see Brandon D. Smith, “Revelation,” in The Trinity in the

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in consequence of the pivotal revelation bound up with Jesus’ person, ministry, death,

resurrection and exaltation.”

In other words, what the Spirit of Truth reveals aims to

contextualize the history of Jesus’s disciples between the conquest of salvation through

the work of Christ and the consummation of his kingdom. The Spirit orients them within

the history of God’s saving work, pointing them back to Christ’s sufficient work and

future to Christ’s established eternal reign.

Thus, the Holy Spirit is Jesus’s emissary, the Spirit of Truth. He brings to

remembrance all that Jesus taught his disciples (14:26). He bears witness about Jesus, the

Son who has sent him (15:26). He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment

(16:8–11). He guides and orients Jesus’s followers in all truth, fleshing out the

significance of Christ’s accomplished work and disclosing their guaranteed future in

Christ (16:13–15). Therefore, the Gospel of John portrays the Spirit as sent by the Father

and the Son to reveal and illuminate the spiritual significance of God’s salvation through

Christ.

Now, the knowledge of God and the being of God cannot be separated. For

God, to know is to be—as Augustine puts it in the quote above. God’s self-disclosure in

the Spirit’s work of revelation is itself an act of self-giving. The pouring out of the Spirit

entails the pouring out of the divine knowledge from the Father, through the Son, by the

Spirit. This trinitarian dynamic in the church’s learning of the truth reflects that exitus-

reditus sequence in which knowledge originates in God, the uncaused cause of all

knowledge, and is then shared as God graciously carries out the return to the truth of

those who have strayed away from it (Rom 1:18). Therefore, sinners are saved in truth as

the Spirit of Truth unites them to Christ, who is the Truth himself.

Canon: A Biblical, Theological, Historical, and Practical Proposal, ed. Brandon D. Smith (Brentwood,

TN: B&H Academic, 2023), 356–58.

Carson, The Gospel According to John, 540.

See Köstenberger and Swain, Father, Son and Spirit, 99.

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The renewed life in the Spirit is thus the life of knowledge of the truth. To live

spiritually is to know the spiritual reality of God and all things in relation to God—not

exhaustively but truly. The new birth from above, that is, the birth of the Spirit (John 3:5–

8), makes true worship of God possible, worship in the Spirit and in truth (John 4:24; cf.

NIV and CSB). True worship is spiritual because it reflects the nature of the God who is

worshiped, and he is spirit. Yet, spiritual worship is only made possible by the power and

presence of the God’s Spirit. Carson explains,

There are not two separable characteristics of the worship that must be offered: it

must be “in spirit and truth,” i.e. essentially God-centered, made possible by the gift

of the Holy Spirit, and in personal knowledge of and conformity to God’s Word-

made-flesh, the one who is God’s “truth,” the faithful exposition and fulfillment of

God and his saving purposes. . . . The worshippers whom God seeks worship him

out of the fullness of the supernatural life they enjoy (“in spirit”), and on the basis of

God’s incarnate Self-Expression, Christ Jesus himself, through whom God’s person

and will are finally and ultimately disclosed (“in truth”); and these two

characteristics form one matrix, indivisible.

By the Spirit’s presence and power, his life, which is the life of and in Christ, flourishes

in the knowledge of truth (cf. Phil 1:9–11), for one cannot love, much less praise, that

which is unknown. And the Spirit is the principal cause of that knowledge. As John

Owen argues, “The principle efficient cause of the due knowledge and understanding of

the will of God in the Scripture is the Holy Spirit of God himself alone.”

And he

continues, “For there is a special work of the Spirit of God on the minds of men,

communicating spiritual wisdom, light, and understanding unto them, necessary unto

their discerning and apprehending aright the mind of God in his word, and the

understanding of the mysteries of heavenly truth contained therein.”

Hence, the

necessity of spiritual rebirth indicates the human need for a relational knowledge of God

Carson, The Gospel According to John, 225–26.

John Owen, “The Causes, Ways, and Means of Understanding the Mind of God,” in The

Complete Works of John Owen, vol. 7, The Holy Spirit—The Helper, ed. Andrew S. Ballitch (Wheaton, IL:

Crossway, 2023), 223. See also John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 4, The

Work of the Spirit (“Pneumatologia—Continued”) (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1862), 124.

Owen, “Understanding the Mind of God,” 7:223.

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through union with him by the Holy Spirit. He is the only way to think after God and live

according to his will and purposes.

The remembrance and guidance the Spirit offers believers involve outward

revelation and inward illumination. Outwardly, the Holy Spirit perfects general revelation

as he perfects creation.

The divine work of creation that terminates with the operation

of the Spirit testifies about the nature of the Creator and his eternal power (Rom 1:20),

declaring, proclaiming, and revealing the glory of God (Ps 19:1–4). Also outwardly, the

Spirit speaks—specially—through the Scripture he inspires (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:21). Yet,

the Spirit’s work in outward revelation does not happen in isolation from the Spirit’s

inward work of the illumination. In other words, the Spirit who reveals outwardly is the

Spirit who enlightens inwardly; the Spirit who provides the revelatory scenes and words

is the same Spirit who gives the eyes and the mind to apprehend and appreciate that

revelation.

Different from the natural, unspiritual person (ψυχικὸς ἄνθρωπος), the person

spiritually enlivened by the Holy Spirit (ὁ πνευματικὸς ἄνθρωπος) has the mind of Christ

(1 Cor 2:14–16). Gordon Fee carefully stresses this point: “For Paul it [πνευματικὸς] is

an adjective that primarily refers to the Spirit of God,” and “when Paul uses πνευματικός

in its several polemical contexts in [1 Corinthians] (2:6–3:1; 12:1–14:40; 15:44–46), it

refers almost exclusively to God’s people as πνευματικοί, or to various activities and

realities as belonging especially to the sphere of the Spirit.”

The apostle Paul uses the

adjective πνευματικὸς twenty-four times in his New Testament writings, fifteen of which

occur in the first letter to the Corinthians. In four of these instances, Paul uses the

Gregg R. Allison and Andreas J. Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, Theology for the People of

God (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2020), 290, 296–301.

Gordon D. Fee, God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul (Grand

Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009), 30, 32. For more, see Craig S. Keener, The Mind of the Spirit: Paul’s

Approach to Transformed Thinking (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019), 189–90; Allison and

Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, 123; John M. G. Barclay, “Πνευματικὸς in the Social Dialect of Pauline

Christianity,” in The Holy Spirit and Christian Origins: Essays in Honor of James D. G. Dunn, ed. Graham

Stanton, Bruce W. Longenecker, and Stephen C. Barton (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 157–67.

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adjective to refer to “Spirit people” (1 Cor 2:13, 15; 3:1; 14:37).

Paul identifies the

church in association with the Spirit to establish the fact the Corinthian believers shared

in a kind of knowledge that the natural person did not but instead took it as foolishness

(1:18). The type of knowledge Paul announces comes from God (2:10), a wisdom that is

secret and hidden in God from eternity (2:7) and revolves around Christ and his work

(2:2). Paul, here, takes the focus from the messenger (Paul, Apollos, Cephas; see 1:12)

and points to the message itself. He focuses on Jesus Christ and him crucified. In him,

sinners find righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1:30). To have the

knowledge of him “who became to us wisdom from God” (1:30) is evidence of being

spiritually alive, of having the mind of Christ (2:16).

The Spirit who comes from God (2:12) takes what is God’s and imparts it to

those whom he indwells.

The natural person does not accept these things because she

does not have in her the One who comes from God and is God himself (2:14).

Only

those in whom the Spirit lives have the mind of Christ and are competent to assess truth

and able to judge all things (2:15–16).

Those without the Holy Spirit cannot adequately

understand or evaluate truth from the divine perspective.

Commenting on this passage,

Gregg Allison and Andreas Köstenberger observe,

Those who fail to appreciate Paul’s message are unspiritual. It takes the work of the

indwelling, illuminating Spirit to resonate with the spiritual nature of the gospel of

the crucified Christ. Thus Paul here affirms both the reality of divine revelation

Barclay, “Πνευματικὸς in the Social Dialect of Pauline Christianity,” 161.

See also Keener, The Mind of the Spirit, 180–81, 195.

In Sinclair Ferguson’s words, “As flesh, men and women cannot see (i.e. experience, Jn.

3:36; 8:51) or enter the kingdom of God (Jn. 3:3, 5). To be flesh is to be blind and insensitive to the

realities of the Spirit-governed kingdom of God, and to fail to understand and accept the nature of spiritual

reality (cf. 1 Cor. 2:14.” Sinclair Ferguson, The Holy Spirit, Contours of Christian Theology (Downers

Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1997), 120.

See also Keener, The Mind of the Spirit, 184–85, 198.

See also Keener, The Mind of the Spirit, 173.

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through the Holy Spirit and also the illumination of that revelation by the Holy

Spirit.

The reception of divine knowledge requires the Spirit’s work of truth—teaching, guiding,

remembering—which is objective and subjective, external and internal to man.

Herman Bavinck argues in a similar way: “In the spiritual realm, for us to

know God in the face of Christ, the Spirit has to be added to the Word, the internal

calling to the external calling, and illumination to revelation.”

For Bavinck, the

continual work of the Holy Spirit connects the external and internal dimensions of this

sharing of the divine knowledge:

It not only was inspired but is still “God-breathed” and “God-breathing.” Just as

there is much that precedes the act of inspiration (all the activity of the Holy Spirit

in nature, history, revelation, regeneration), so there is much that follows it as well.

Inspiration is not an isolated event. The Holy Spirit does not, after the act of

inspiration, withdraw from Holy Scripture and abandon it to its fate but sustains and

animates it and in many ways brings its content to humanity, to its heart and

conscience. By means of Scripture as the word of God, the Holy Spirit continually

wars against the thoughts and intentions of the “unspiritual” person (ψυχικος

ἀνθρωπος).

The Spirit breathes out scriptural truth into the heart and conscience of the regenerated

person. Thus, illumination and regeneration go together.

The person born of the

Spirit—that is, regenerated, recreated by the Spirit—is the person empowered by and to

the knowledge of God and all things in relation to him.

Allison and Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, 122.

Herman Bavinck, RD, 4:102.

Bavinck, RD, 1:439–40.

Bavinck further explains,

Lutheran theologians spoke of “the gift of spiritual life,” “a generous bestowal of the powers of

believing and of saving faith,” or “the illumination of our mind and the arousal in our heart of trust,”

and the Reformed express themselves along similar lines. But they stressed even more vigorously

that not just the actions and not even the faculties alone but also the whole person with all one’s

capacities, soul and body, heart, intellect, and will, is the subject of regeneration. Regeneration,

therefore, consists in dying to the “old man” that must not only be suppressed but also killed and in

the rising of a totally new person created in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

(Bavinck, RD, 4:72)

As Horton notes,

Apart from regeneration, we cannot even repent and believe in Christ (John 3:5, 6:44); even faith is a

gift (Eph 2:8–9). The Spirit does not enter hearts that prepare him room or sweep the floor and dust

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However, what is most striking in 1 Corinthians 2 is the attribution of the

“mind of Christ” to the spiritual people. “Those who have God’s Spirit have the mind of

Christ,” as Craig Keener puts it.

But what does it mean to have the “mind of Christ”?

Objectively, having the mind of Christ is to have one’s reason aligned with Christ’s as

revealed in Scripture. Through the God-breathed truth of Scripture, one is led to think

after God’s thoughts disclosed in the biblical text. As G. K. Beale writes, “How do we

gain access to the ‘mind of Christ’ and his ‘wisdom’? We gain it through the Scriptures,

which gives us the mind of God and of Christ.”

Beale goes on to conclude with a

warning:

Believers will find the “wisdom” of Christ and “the mind of Christ” by learning

what is “written” in Scripture and “not [going] beyond what is written.” Some

Christian leaders depend too much on seeking “wisdom from psychology or

principles of business management to manage the church, but, while these sources

may provide some help, the Scripture are the central source for finding “wisdom” in

leading the church. We must seek the “wisdom” in God’s Word before seeking

wisdom from other sources to guide our lives. And any wisdom we find in sources

outside of Scripture must be evaluated by Scripture itself before we accept it.

God’s thoughts for man are specially revealed in Scripture. Therefore, the “mind of

Christ” in spiritual people follows God’s own thoughts in his book.

Yet, the “mind of Christ” does not merely assent to the thoughts of God.

Instead, the “mind of Christ” in believers grasps that knowledge (or, perhaps better, is

grasped by that knowledge) in such a way that human reason itself is caught up in the life

of the all-knowing God. This description resonates with John Webster’s famous saying:

“God is not summoned into the presence of reason; reason is summoned before the

before his arrival (an optimistic set of tasks to expect of the dead); rather, he enters, hovers, infuses

life, gives faith, and begins immediately to renovate the mansion in which he once breathed merely

the natural (i.e., biological) life but now breathes the breath of eschatological—new creation—life.

(Horton, Rediscovering the Holy Spirit, 205)

Keener, The Mind of the Spirit, 173.

G. K. Beale, Union with the Resurrected Christ: Eschatological New Creation and New

Testament Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023), 184.

Beale, Union with the Resurrected Christ, 185–86.

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presence of God.”

Thus, to have the “mind of Christ” is not about accumulating certain

information by the human intellect but about having the mind wholly renewed

(μεταμορφόω; cf. Rom 12:2) in the sight of God and in fellowship with him, through

Christ, by the Spirit.

This conclusion aligns with Keener’s observation about

1 Corinthians 2:16:

In the Spirit believers experience a foretaste of eschatological glory (2:9–10). Paul

speaks of knowing God’s thoughts (2:11); in a Hellenistic context, such language

communicated the idea of actively sharing part of the divine mind. Paul speaks here

of a continuing experience, one that might be described in terms of illumination or

transformation, not exclusively of believer’s initial response of divine wisdom when

they embraced the gospel.

By the Holy Spirit and in Christ, God graciously grants believers to participate in the

unsearchable, inscrutable mind of the Lord (1 Cor 1:16a). Divine wisdom is made

available and accessible.

To have the “mind of Christ” does not replace the human mind. Still, instead, it

indicates the redemption of the human faculty or ability to reason, which suppresses truth

by unrighteousness in its natural, fallen state (i.e., the noetic effects of sin). Swain

explains,

The Spirit who created the human mind and personality does not destroy the human

mind and personality when he summons them to his service. Far from it. The Spirit

sets that mind and personality free from its blindness and slavery to sin so that it

may become a truly free, thoughtful, and self-conscious witness to all that God is for

us in Christ.

Historically, Maximus the Confessor has argued similarly:

The mind of Christ, which the saints receive, according to what was spoken: “And

we have the mind of Christ,” comes about not by virtue of a privation of the

intellectual faculty in us, nor as completing an essential part of our mind, nor as

John Webster, Holiness (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 17.

See also Michael J. Gorman, Participating in Christ: Explorations in Paul’s Theology and

Spirituality (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019), 220–21.

Keener, The Mind of the Spirit, 198–99 (italics added).

Scott R. Swain, Trinity, Revelation, and Reading: A Theological Introduction to the Bible

and Its Interpretation (London: T&T Clark, 2011), 67.

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passing over in substance and in person into our mind; but rather, as enlightening by

his own quality the faculty of our mind and taking it toward the same activity that is

in him. For what “having the mind of Christ” means, I personally think, is to think

like him and to think him through all things.

To have the mind of Christ, therefore, is to have the intellect liberated by the Spirit to

reason appropriately before God and about God and all things in relation to God.

Thus, participation in God’s knowledge comes through external revelation and

internal illumination. The process of learning and knowing spiritual truth is not one of

mere apprehension of the information made available through revelation but one that also

involves a mind that is renewed and enlightened by the Spirit. To have the Spirit of God

is to be united with Christ and share in his mind and knowledge. Keith Johnson helpfully

clarifies this dynamic:

[Jesus Christ] shows us the truth about God and his plan for history by making us

participants in God’s wisdom and partners in this plan. . . . The act of learning how

to think and speak rightly about God is an act of faith and obedience that involves

our participation in the mind of Christ and our partnership with Christ by the power

of his Spirit.

By the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, those whom he indwells participate in Christ,

who is Truth himself, and are empowered to think and speak about God in faith.

Johnson argues that the apprehension of theological knowledge necessitates

having the mind of Christ, and it can only be pursued because of this participatory

reality.

For Johnson, “We know God only as the Spirit gives us a share in Christ’s mind

Maximus the Confessor, Two Hundred Chapters on Theology: St. Maximus the Confessor,

trans. Luis Joshua Salés, Popular Patristics (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2015), 2.83

(Salés, 166). For a similar discussion on the “mind of Christ,” see John Chrysostom, The Homilies of S.

John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the First Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the

Corinthians, Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1839), Homily 7

(pp. 88–91).

See also Swain, Trinity, Revelation, and Reading, 1; John Webster, God without Measure:

Working Papers in Christian Theology, vol. 1, God and the Works of God (London: T&T Clark, 2018),

117.

Keith L. Johnson, Theology as Discipleship (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015), 37.

See Johnson’s entire chapter on “The Mind of Christ” in Theology as Discipleship, 133–54.

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within the context of our life of discipleship to him.”

Johnson develops his description

of the “mind of Christ” in three stages. First, Johnson looks at Paul’s depiction of the

“mind of Christ” to discern what qualities and characteristics those participating in it

should display. Arguing from 1 Corinthians 2 and Philippians 2, Johnson highlights that

those who participate in Christ’s mind through the power of his Spirit will be prompted to

act in the same way that Christ did, with “acts of self-sacrificial humility performed out

of love.”

Those who have the “mind of Christ” are actual participants in the divine life

and thus share in the same holy attitude of Christ:

A person who imitates Christ’s humility and sacrifice lives in the image and

likeness of the triune God, who himself lives an eternal life of mutual self-giving

love as Father, Son and Spirit. . . . God makes us participants in this life when the

Father sends the Son to unite himself to us and the Spirit pours God’s love into our

hearts so that we can love others (Rom 5:5; 1 Jn 4:12).

The logic is simple and straightforward: God reveals himself in Christ, and the Spirit

enables the understanding of this revelation through participation in Christ’s mind. This

dynamic happens in such a way that Christians know the truth of God because they share

in the life of God by the Spirit of Christ, who transforms them. Johnson then concludes,

We know God rightly when we know Christ, and we acquire this knowledge as we

live together with Christ by the Spirit. Because life with Christ is characterized by

acts of humility and sacrificial love, we come to know God within the context of a

life marked by these kinds of actions. We bear witness to our knowledge of God

when we live in humility before others; and we use our knowledge rightly when we

deploy it not for our own benefit but for the benefit of the people around us out of

love for them.

Second, Johnson looks at the expressions of theological knowledge in the

actions and practices of Jesus. Those who know God only know him through the sharing

of Christ’s own knowledge of him. And Christ did not use his knowledge to build himself

Johnson, Theology as Discipleship, 134.

Johnson, Theology as Discipleship, 135.

Johnson, Theology as Discipleship, 139.

Johnson, Theology as Discipleship, 141.

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up. Instead, Christ lived a Spirit-filled life of humility and self-sacrificial love. Therefore,

those who share in Christ’s mind are to live like him, using the knowledge of God they

share in Christ to build others up, edify the church, and serve many as Christ’s

representatives.

Is not this the pattern required in 1 John 4:12–13? As the apostle writes,

“If we love one another, God abides in us,” and, “By this we know that we abide in him

and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.”

Third, Johnson closes with an account of theological practice that flows from

participation in Christ’s mind. For Johnson, the task of theology entails thinking after

Christ, that is, shaping one’s thoughts “so that they conform more and more closely to

Christ’s thoughts.”

This conformation proves authentic as one’s speech flows

practically from theological knowledge to acts of humility and a life of sacrificial love.

“Christ overcomes our sin and enables us to think after him by allowing us to participate

in his own life and thoughts,” Johnson states.

The Spirit who renews the mind to

participate in Christ’s mind is the very life who enlivens the soul into holiness.

Knowing God is only possible by the Spirit of God himself. United to Christ

by the Spirit, believers are made participants in the mind of Christ, being thus led to think

after him in a life of discipleship of the mind. The Spirit of Truth reveals and illuminates,

leading finite, fallen humans to enjoy redeemed reasoning and knowledge of their

Creator. He indwells believers and teaches them everything necessary (1 John 2:27). His

active and transforming presence evidences their birth from God. He empowers them to

listen to the truth (1 John 4:6), for “the Spirit is the one who testifies because the Spirit is

the truth” (1 John 5:6).

Johnson, Theology as Discipleship, 149.

Johnson, Theology as Discipleship, 151.

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Summary

The Holy Spirit is the sine qua non foundation for human access to divine

truth. Only God knows God. In God’s work of salvation, his divine self-knowledge is

shared through Christ, who climatically reveals the glory of God in creation. But external

revelation is not all that God has provided. By the Spirit of Christ who indwells them,

believers are granted to share in the mind of Christ, being thus led to think in conformity

to Christ and to live by that knowledge in humility and sacrificial love.

The following section will explore the essentiality of the Spirit’s work of

illumination for wisdom. The life of wisdom understands history and reality, generally

and particularly, in theological context. The mind of Christ in which believers share

allows them to wisely contextualize human experience in the reality created by God and

the history of his saving works.

Spiritual Wisdom

In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom (σοφία) and knowledge

(γνῶσις; Col 2:3). To have the Spirit of Christ is to have the mind in which the riches of

wisdom and knowledge find shelter. As Athanasius teaches, “The Son is Wisdom itself,

and so when we receive the Spirit of Wisdom [Eph 1:17], we possess the Son and become

wise in him.”

By the Spirit, the human mind is not merely loaded with certain

information to know or believe; rather, it is freed and made alive to understand the world

around and discern the life of wisdom. The illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, the

Spirit of wisdom (Isa 11:2; Eph 1:17), allows those in whom he dwells to view and

understand reality and history theologically, thus enabling them to walk in the path of

wisdom. In other words, the type of personal knowledge of God that the Spirit imparts

produces in believers’ minds the aptitude for proper practical reasoning in life.

Athanasius of Alexandria, Letters to Serapion on the Holy Spirit, in Works on the Spirit:

Athanasius and Didymus, trans. Mark DelCogliano, Andrew Radde-Gallwitz, and Lewis Ayres, Popular

Patristics (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2022), 1.19.6 (DelCogliano et al., 83).

124

The description of the Spirit of the Lord and his work in Isaiah 11:2

emphasizes his empowerment for discernment in action. The promised messianic King

would be endowed by the Spirit of the Lord (Isa 42:1; 59:21; 61:1) who, by resting upon

him, would fulfill in him a rule founded in justice and righteousness that transcend what

is apprehended by the senses, that is, beyond what the eyes see and what the ears hear

(11:3).

The Messiah King would rule with extraordinary wisdom and power to execute

his will in absolute allegiance to and harmony with the Lord, for the Spirit of the Lord

who would rest upon him (cf. Matt 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22) is the Spirit of wisdom

and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, that Spirit of knowledge and the fear

of the Lord.

Each one of these three pairs deserves further consideration.

First, the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding.” Other

passages of the Old Testament reveal that wisdom and understanding are judicial and

governmental attributes, essential qualities for ruling.

For example, when Moses

recognized his limitations in judging the many cases of Israel in the desert, he asked the

tribes to choose wise, understanding, and experienced men to assist him (Deut 1:13).

Also, to rule well, Solomon prayed for “an understanding mind to govern” God’s people

(1 Kgs 3:9), and the Lord granted him “a wise and discerning mind” to which no other

See also J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary

(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 123; John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1–39,

New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 279. Furthermore,

it is worth noting that the Holy Spirit did not endow the divine Son incarnate with something that he was

lacking. As Justin Martyr put it in his Dialogue with Trypho, “The Scriptures state that these gifts of the

Holy Spirit were bestowed upon Him, not as though He were in need of them, but as though they were

about to rest upon Him, that is, to come to an end with Him, so that there would be no more Prophets

among your people as of old.” Justin Martyr, The First Apology, The Second Apology, Dialogue with

Trypho, Exhortation to the Greeks, Discourse to the Greeks, The Monarchy of the Rule of God, trans.

Thomas B. Falls, Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press,

2008), 287.

Or, as the NET Bible translates, the divine Spirit “gives extraordinary wisdom,” “provides

the ability to execute plans,” and “produces absolute loyalty to the Lord.”

Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 122.

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king could compare (1 Kgs 3:12–13).

Moreover, Alec Motyer observes that when these

words are put together (“wisdom” [םכח] and “understanding” [ןיב]), the first takes a more

general characteristic, whereas the second denotes the power to see to the heart of issues.

“The former is the reservoir, the latter the judiciously directed outflow,” Motyer

compares.

The Spirit-endowed Messiah would come full of wisdom and would judge

accordingly.

Second, the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of counsel and might.” “Counsel and

might” reappear in Isaiah 36:5 as “strategy and power for war.” Military action requires

determining the best course of action and executing it appropriately.

The messianic

king, in whom the Spirit would rest, would not only govern with wisdom and

discernment but also determine his plan and execute it with clarity and efficiency, seeing

through the conquest of his once-and-for-all victory.

Third, the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”

Here, both “knowledge” and “fear” are subordinate to “the Lord.”

From the personal

knowledge of the Lord, one can live life out of a godly fear of him.

As Motyer

observes, “In its full sense, knowledge is truth grasped and applied to life. Evildoers are

those who ‘do not know’ (Ps. 14:4)—if they had a real knowledge, they would not

behave as they do. Knowing a person involves a life relationship (Gn. 4:1) and when that

person is the Lord, then the life must be religious and moral, conformed to him.”

True,

personal knowledge of God results in a life of reverence and devotion to him. Motyer

The Hebrew wording of 1 Kings 3:12 matches that of Isaiah 11:2: wisdom (םכח) and

understanding/discernment (ןיב).

Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 122.

See Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 122.

For the difference between the godly and ungodly fear of God, see John Bunyan, The Fear

of God (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2018), 23–42.

Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 122.

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goes on to explain that “in relation to the Lord, fear is moral concern (Gn. 20:11); it

motivates obedience (Ex. 20:20) and moulds conduct (Ne. 5:9, 15). It is the spirit of true

loyalty (Ps. 2:11) and worship (Ps. 5:7[8]) and it marked the Spirit-endowed David (2 Sa.

23:2f.).”

The Spirit who was upon the Messiah is the Spirit of the Lord himself who

personally communicates the knowledge of the Lord and thus imprints an ever-present

consciousness of God in all his greatness. Those who know God in Spirit and truth are

those who genuinely fear him.

Commenting on Isaiah 11:2, John Oswalt summarizes the work of the Spirit in

the Messiah by stating that the messianic king would “be able to perceive things

correctly” and “carry out correct decisions because of a correct motivation.”

The

messianic king would live and rule based on “that kind of experiential acquaintance with

God” that yields the “recognition that the supreme reality of life is our accountability to a

just, faithful, holy God.”

Christ, the Messiah, would be the King by excellence,

displaying wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and fear of the

Lord—all this as the Spirit of the Lord himself rested upon him.

Now, when the Spirit of the Lord unites believers to Christ, granting them the

mind of Christ, he works in them wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, and

knowledge and fear of the Lord. Those who have the mind of Christ participate in the

wisdom and understanding of Christ, in his counsel and might, in his knowledge and fear

of the Lord. Again, this description reverberates in the Athanasian saying: “The Son is

Wisdom itself, and so when we receive the Spirit of Wisdom . . . we possess the Son and

Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 122–23.

Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1–39, 279–80.

Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1–39, 280.

See also J. Alec Motyer, Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament

Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 117.

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become wise in him.”

True wisdom—the wisdom that begins with knowledge and fear

of the Lord (Prov 1:7)—is only accessed in Christ, that is, through the Spirit who makes

believers partake of his mind.

Accordingly, to live in the Spirit is to live conscious of God and how all things

relate to him. When the mind awakens to God as the ultimate context of reality and

history, all else is perceived and done with the humble acknowledgment that all is from

him, through him, and for him (Rom 11:36). Causes, processes, and goals are interpreted

theologically, finding in God the principle, the power, and the purpose of all things.

When reality and history are viewed theologically, God becomes the broader context

from which all that is and happens derive their meaning. Those who have the mind of

Christ know the things of God and are empowered by the Spirit for a life of wisdom in

God’s world. The Spirit enables believers who share in the mind of Christ to assess and

evaluate reality.

Since God is the Creator, all reality finds its ultimate context in him. The

nature of all things finds its first origin and sustainability in God, and from him all things

derive their significance. Existence itself is the first effect of God in all things. As

Thomas Aquinas observes, “He who knows the cause that is simply the highest, which is

God, is said to be wise simply, because he is able to judge and set in order all things

according to Divine rules.”

For Aquinas, wisdom transcends the fields of study and

problems to judge and order them in light of first principles, retaining its focus on first

causes—being God the ultimate first cause of all.

Thomas concludes, “Now man

obtains this judgment through the Holy Ghost,” and “it is evident that wisdom is a gift of

Athanasius, Letters to Serapion on the Holy Spirit, 1.19.6 (DelCogliano et al., 83).

See Thomas R. Schreiner, 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale New

Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2018), 86.

Thomas Aquinas, ST, II-II.45.1 resp.

See also Rik Van Nieuwenhove, Thomas Aquinas and Contemplation (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2021), 5.

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the Holy Ghost.”

To be wise is to know God by the Spirit, and that is a gift of divine

grace.

Webster justifies his twofold arrangement of systematic theology—God and all

things in relation to him—by a similar argument.

For Webster, the first body of

theological material is the Trinity. The second pertains to the doctrine of creation, in

which the opera Dei ad extra are contemplated. Within this doctrine of creation, all

things can be measured and studied in the broader context of the Trinity and the divine

works.

Accordingly, nothing is understood properly unless comprehended

theologically. Such a statement is true for all created reality, including people and human

experience, for in God, humans live, move, and have their being (Acts 17:28).

But natural creation does not encompass all of God’s outer works. God’s

works encompass the work of nature (creation and providence) and the work of grace

(redemption planned, secured, and consummated).

In the work of grace, God creates

anew, and in this divine work of redemption, he reveals the truth about created reality. In

the revelation of the Messiah, reality encounters its foundation: in him, all things hold

together (Col 1:17). Johnson explains, “The God who spoke all things into existence is

the same God who saves his people through the incarnate Christ, and so creation must be

seen in relation to Christ and vice versa.”

Created reality is adequately understood in

the light of Christ, in whom God is known as triune. The apprehension of the light of

Aquinas, ST, II-II.45.1 resp.

This twofold conceptualization of theology is not exclusive to Webster. For example,

Bavinck also expresses a similar view: “More precisely and from a Christian viewpoint, dogmatics is the

knowledge that God has revealed in his Word to the church concerning himself and all creatures as they

stand in relation to him.” Bavinck, RD, 1:38. As Nathanial Gray Sutanto highlights, Bavinck is echoing a

classical and Thomistic axiom here. See Nathaniel Gray Sutanto, God and Knowledge: Herman Bavinck’s

Theological Epistemology (London: T&T Clark, 2021), 5.

Webster, God without Measure, 1:117.

See Webster, God without Measure, 1:117.

Johnson, Theology as Discipleship, 49.

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Christ is, nonetheless, a gift—a gracious gift delivered by the indwelling Spirit. Spiritual

wisdom, therefore, includes a theological comprehension of reality, a renewed

perspective that views all things in relation to God.

God’s work of salvation reveals truth not merely about the nature of reality but

also about history. All history—of humanity, in general, and individuals, in particular—

takes place in the context of the history of God’s saving acts. In the incarnation, the Son

“unites the history of our creaturely lives to the history of his eternal life,” as Johnson

puts it.

Johnson goes on to explain,

Christ enters uniquely within creation, breaking into history from the outside in a

miraculous act of God. And in doing so, Christ unveils the content of “the plan of

the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things” (Eph 3:9). Nothing in

creation stands outside the context of this saving plan. Any time we think about

created reality and history, we also have to think about the history of Christ’s eternal

life. To fail to do so is to misunderstand the nature of reality altogether.

God’s saving work in Christ reveals the broader context of history and reality. Only

through Christ do things in creation make sense in their existence and development.

Thus, as Scripture reveals Christ, it does not merely provide a true historical account

(which it does indeed) but also proclaims the true history as it points and directs people to

Jesus, “the one by whom all history is defined.”

At this point, it is worth elaborating on the eschatological nature of the Holy

Spirit’s work. Jesus had promised that the Spirit would declare “the things that are to

come” to his disciples (John 16:13). The Spirit empowers those to whom he grants the

mind of Christ to view their story in between the bookends of the finished work of Christ

and the hope of glory to come. Paul grounds his prayer in Ephesians 1:15–23 on this

belief: the Spirit of wisdom is also the apocalyptic Spirit, that is, the Spirit of revelation

Johnson, Theology as Discipleship, 48.

Johnson, Theology as Discipleship, 50–51.

Johnson, Theology as Discipleship, 106.

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(πνεῦμα σοφίας καὶ ἀποκαλύψεως; v. 17). Those who have their hearts enlightened by

the Spirit know the hope to which they have been called (v. 18). The riches of their

inheritance and the greatness of God’s power toward them has been once and for all

demonstrated in the resurrection and ascension of Christ (vv. 18–20), and such

knowledge guarantees the sure hope of glory.

The epistemological condition for this hope of glory is the Spirit, the primary

object of Paul’s prayer request: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of

glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him”

(v. 17 italics added).

Spiritual wisdom demonstrates the eschatological nature of the

work of the Spirit, who anticipates the consummated glories of an untainted mind. The

Spirit’s testimony builds on the foundation of the work of Christ, pointing to the

continuous, unchanging nature of God’s decisive ruling through Christ that determines

the course of history. Christ was raised to rule over all things and indeed rules today and

will continue to rule into the age to come (v. 21). This glorious truth is disclosed and

unveiled by the Spirit (cf. Eph 3:3–5); it is a mystery that cannot be discovered or solved

by mere human investigation.

Yet, the Spirit gives wisdom and revelation in the context of a personal

knowledge of God. The Father of Glory gives his Spirit, the gift for which Paul prays,

and the Spirit brings about the reality of the eschaton in the life and experience of

believers. The spiritual blessings presented in Ephesians 1:3–14 are realized and known

as facts as the Spirit perfects in believers their very reality. As F. F. Bruce comments,

“[Paul’s] prayer is offered that the ideal set forth in the eulogia may be realized in their

experience—perfectly in the resurrection age but in measure at present through the

See also Fee, God’s Empowering Presence, 662; F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians,

to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids:

Eerdmans, 1984), 269–70.

Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker

Academic, 2002), 256.

131

ministry of the Spirit.”

Paul desires to see divine knowledge appropriated in personal

application within that life of communion with God. Bruce continues,

The goal of this gift of wisdom and revelation is the personal knowledge of God. . . .

This is much more than the bare knowledge of God from his works which was

available to the pagan world (Rom. 1:21); it is that personal knowledge of him in

experience which involves a two-way relation, entered into by those who “have

come to know God, or rather to be known by God” (Gal. 4:9), for “if one loves God,

one is known by him” (1 Cor. 8:3).

God is personally known in the experience created by the Spirit, and human experience is

then apprehended in God, who is its proper context. Thus, comprehending reality and

history in God requires the eschatological inauguration that the perfecting Spirit of God

alone can operate. Christian wisdom substantiates the resurrection of Christ, who is

present by his Spirit.

Summary

The Holy Spirit imparts the knowledge and fear of the Lord and enables those

in whom he dwells to live wisely. The Messiah was endowed with the Spirit and is,

therefore, characterized by wisdom and understanding, determination and power to act

from that knowledge and fear of the Lord. Those in whom the Spirit dwells have the

mind of Christ and are so empowered to know and fear God, judge and discern all things

in relation to him, and execute their counsel in consonance with God’s, as revealed in his

Word. The spiritual mind is conscious of God and, therefore, capable of properly

contextualizing reality and history theologically.

Out of that spiritual mind—the mind of Christ shared by the Spirit—biblical

counselors minister practical wisdom to others. The following section will develop this

theme further.

Bruce, Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians, 269.

Bruce, Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians, 269–70.

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Spiritual Practical Reasoning for Counseling

True wisdom links theology and life. The wise person inhabits the world

conscious of God in her understanding of and interaction with all reality and history. The

mind of Christ that characterizes the people the Spirit indwells gives them the proper

disposition toward reality and orients them within the overall arch of history. Yet,

wisdom may take many forms. Wise living finds different expressions in the lives of

individuals from distinct cultures and social contexts and with particular backgrounds and

personalities. Wisdom can be painted in many colors. Daniel Treier writes, “Wisdom

offers a life of shalom, but that life may take various forms within YHWH’s freedom and

the world’s complexity.”

Wisdom finds its expression in practical reasoning for the

specifics of life. And that is what is required for a counselor to be deemed virtuous.

The wisdom literature of the Old Testament directly connects wisdom to action

in life. God himself is described as acting by wisdom (Prov 3:19–20). Wisdom is the

source of the good life, the life that accomplishes what it was meant to accomplish. As

such, wisdom is “a tree of life to those who lay hold of her” (Prov 3:18). Wisdom brings

stability and shalom, and it produces secure living (Prov 3:2, 16–17).

Conceptually,

wisdom requires discernment, judgment, and prudence to engage in each situation. For

this reason, the wise writer takes the freedom in Proverbs 26:4–5 to provide counsel in

different directions for those answering or ignoring a fool according to his folly.

Presenting both alternatives as possibly wise invites the reader to discern which action

will apply in a particular case.

The New Testament brings the revelation of Jesus Christ as the true Wisdom of

God (1 Cor 1:24; Col 2:3). Yet, Christ is not a substitute for the proverbial Lady Wisdom;

Daniel J. Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God: Toward Theology as Wisdom (Grand Rapids:

Eerdmans, 2006), 35.

See Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God, 33–35.

See Daniel J. Treier, “Wisdom,” in Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible,

ed. Kevin J. Vanhoozer et al. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 845.

133

he is her fulfillment. Pauline ethics, for example, includes prudence. Yet, Paul does so by

stressing that proper practical reasoning is patterned after Christ and empowered by the

Holy Spirit.

In Ephesians 1:8, Paul speaks of the riches of God’s grace that he lavishes

upon the elect in Christ with all “wisdom and prudence” (πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει).

The term paired with σοφία (“wisdom”) is φρόνησις (phronesis). This expression appears

only twice in the New Testament (see also Luke 1:17). It denotes the faculty of

thoughtful planning or the ability to understand with insight, underscoring the practical

side of the human cognitive function.

James is another New Testament example of adopting a practical emphasis

when discussing the theme of wisdom. In his epistle, James interweaves Old Testament

wisdom throughout his arguments. Accordingly, he purposefully highlights the wisdom

motif at the start of his epistle (Jas 1:5), underscoring the necessity of that wisdom for life

in the dispersion. Treier explains this connection:

And wisdom is certainly interwoven with life in the Book of James. There the

vocabulary of blessing appears (cf. Prov. 3:13, 33). There the theme of trusting God

wholeheartedly, refusing to be dubious and lean on one’s own understanding, also

appears (cf. Prov. 3:5–8). There wisdom triumphs over desire (cf. Prov. 3:14–15).

There wise people are known by lives of good deeds, particularly by their uses of

words and wealth (cf. Prov. 3:9–10). They are generous when able to help their

neighbors; they are not merely well-wishers (cf. Prov. 3:27–28). Nor do they plot

against their neighbors. They do not quarrel and fight with them out of self-interest

(cf. Prov. 3:29–30). They do not envy the violent/rich (cf. Prov. 3:31–32), upon

whom the Lord’s curse rests (cf. Prov. 3:33–35). Whether or not James and Prov. 3

are literarily related, surely they are theologically. Proverbial reason is here retained

by the NT.

See Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God, 33–35.

The KJV (both the 1900 edition and the NKJV) and YLT translate φρόνησις as “prudence.”

Other translations opt for “understanding” (CSB, NLT) and “insight” (ESV, NASB, NET, NRSV).

See BDAG, “Φρόνησις, Εως, ἡ.”

Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God, 41.

134

In James, as in the whole New Testament, wisdom manifests itself in the ways of life.

However, the wisdom the New Testament reveals is patterned after Christ and

empowered by his Spirit.

The concept of practical reasoning is not exclusive to Christians. Most

famously, Aristotle included φρόνησις in his list of mental states or qualities by which

truth is apprehended. His list included τέχνη (“technical art”), ἐπιστήμη (“scientific

knowledge”), φρόνησις (“prudence or practical wisdom”), σοφία (“philosophical

wisdom”), and νοῦς (“intelligence or intuitive reason”).

Both τέχνη (“skill”) and

φρόνησις (“prudence”) are forms of practical knowledge, as they refer to that knowledge

of what to do and how to execute it. While the first is exercised in production and

concrete outputs (e.g., skills to build a house), the second discerns what is good or not for

human activity.

Moreover, ἐπιστήμη (“scientific knowledge”) judges things that are universal

and necessary, following from first principles or the things that are highest by nature,

which are grasped by the νοῦς (“intuitive reason”), giving birth to σοφία (“philosophical

wisdom”). In turn, σοφία integrates the two: “philosophic wisdom is scientific

knowledge, combined with intuitive reason, of the things that are highest by nature.”

While σοφία (“philosophical wisdom”) is concerned with universals, φρόνησις

(“prudence or practical wisdom”) is concerned with deliberating well about things

variable, about how action can bring about good. Practical wisdom, φρόνησις, is

This translation of terms is taken from Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, in The Works of

Aristotle, ed. Mortimer J. Adler and Philip W. Goetz, trans. W. D. Ross, 2nd ed., vol. 8, The Great Books

of the Western World (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1990), 1139b.5–9 (p. 388); Treier, Virtue and the

Voice of God, 51. Anthony Kenny translates these terms differently: “skill,” “science,” “wisdom,”

“understanding,” and “insight”—respectively. Kenny uses “wisdom” to translate φρόνησις but uses

“understanding” to translate σοφία. He then explains that “wisdom . . . is concerned with human activity

(praxis).” Anthony Kenny, A New History of Western Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010),

132. In any case, φρόνησις denotes the practical aspect of wise reasoning.

See Kenny, A New History of Western Philosophy, 132.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1141a.15–19, 1141b.1–4 (p. 390).

135

concerned with particulars; it deals with specifics.

Prudent knowledge works as a

regulative virtue of a higher order, discerning the procedures, rules, skills, and virtues

necessary for a particular occasion.

Although there is something to consider in ancient (and modern) philosophy,

no concept of practical reasoning can be embraced by Christians apart from the revelation

of Christ and the biblical text.

Again, the wisdom described in Proverbs is practical. It

includes what Christians refer to as σοφία (in connection to the fear of the Lord), but it

also includes φρόνησις and even τέχνη.

Treier explains,

So technē and phronēsis may take up with sophia wherever in the world wisdom is

found. “Life” has no guarantees, but the One who graciously gives wisdom thereby

gives true shalom to those who fear God. Genesis and Proverbs both acknowledge

mere technē and also phronēsis, but deny them the power to confer life fully upon

their autonomous users.

Human skill and practical knowledge cannot exist in man apart from divine wisdom.

Knowledge of God necessarily connects to φρόνησις and Christian virtue, and this

connection fundamentally requires fixing one’s eyes on Jesus Christ. “For the New

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1141b.5–19 (p. 390).

Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God, 51.

Eventually, Immanuel Kant adopted a critical view of practical reason as a variative concept.

Kant’s system of ethics required a categorical imperative: “Act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at

the same time will that it should become a universal law.” Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the

Metaphysics of Morals, in The Critique of Pure Reason; The Critique of Practical Reason and Other

Ethical Treatises; The Critique of Judgement, ed. Mortimer J. Adler and Philip W. Goetz, trans. Thomas

Kingsmill, 2nd ed., Great Books of the Western World 39 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1990), 268.

Ethical valuation, for Kant, derives from a law that applies universally, without external conditioning.

Although Kant mainly directed his critique toward those whose ethics depended on ulterior goals (i.e.,

utilitarianists and pragmatists), it also rejects the Aristotelian proposal that practical reasoning derives the

particular from what is universal, theoretical. According to Kant, practical reason was formal rather than

material, for his categorical imperative entailed a human will that is objectively determined a priori since

pure reason is already practical. See Giovanni Reale and Dario Antiseri, História da Filosofia, vol. 4, De

Spinoza a Kant, trans. Ivo Storniolo (São Paulo: Paulus Editora, 2004), 376. Kant’s moral theory, therefore,

had a “holy will” that is absolutely good as its starting point. See Kenny, A New History of Western

Philosophy, 581. However, the human will, which is not absolutely good, must act not contingent on

circumstantial conditioning but out of duty and obligation—and only then can man become worthy of

happiness. See Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, 276; Reale and Antiseri,

História da Filosofia, 4:377. The Kantian ethical life becomes one of subjugating the will to that universal

imperative.

See Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God, 44.

See Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God, 45.

136

Covenant involves the Word of sophia becoming flesh, and then pouring out the Spirit of

Wisdom upon all flesh, so that the new humanity is transformed, learning a phronēsis

patterned after Christ,” Treier avers.

Christ is the Wisdom of God given to his people,

and by the Spirit, that wisdom is shared in the renewal of their minds. And yet, the

wisdom that Christ is works both in the universals and the specifics. Wisdom may be

circumstantially relative, but it is never relative in relation to Christ.

Furthermore, Treier offers a Christian perspective of φρόνησις. For him, “there

does seem to be a biblical niche for a concept of prudence or practical reason, as good

sense tailored to contextual particularities.”

Treier observes that φρόνησις must be

characterized as Christian in two important ways: humility (or selflessness) and love.

First, concerning humility, Treier points out that the ancient Greeks did not see it as

virtuous and, therefore, did not include any notion of humble selflessness within the idea

of φρόνησις. The connection between humility and φρόνησις is distinctly Christian. In

fact, the verbal form φρονέω permeates the whole thrust of Paul’s epistle to the

Philippians (2:2, 5; 3:15, 19; 4:2), as Christ’s low-mindedness serves as a pattern for the

Christian call to humility.

Second, while the virtuous Greek heroes act in contexts of

tragedy and conflict, Christian φρόνησις is animated by love instead of violence, for

those who share in the mind of Christ by the Spirit “anticipate an ontology of peace.”

Treier thus concludes that the “New Covenant φρόνησις is a markedly Christian

fulfillment of its Old Covenant counterpart in two ways: its orientation is self-less, and its

criteria are not only situation-specific, but Christocentric.”

Christians think practically

See Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God, 46.

See Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God, 51.

See Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God, 52. For other uses of φρονέω that reinforce this

emphasis, see Rom 12:3, 16; 14:6; 15:5; 1 Cor 4:6.

See Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God, 52.

137

after Christ’s thoughts. Christ is the imperative of human life, and he shares his mind by

his Spirit so whom those he indwells may live out of love for God and others, not by

mere obligation. Christians are spiritually minded, and so their wisdom is humble and

loving in its practice.

Additionally, Treier underscores other distinctions in the nurture of practical

reason, namely, the Word and the Spirit. First, Christian φρόνησις is nurtured by

Scripture. Scripture makes wise the simple (Ps 19:7). It is through Scripture that

sanctification takes place (John 17:17), and that is why its teaching is commanded (1 Tim

4:6; 2 Tim 3:14–17), that it may nourish a certain orientation or habituation of the mind.

Treier explains,

What we know as Scripture does not, in other words, provide a complicated and

comprehensive calculus for scientific, topical application to every judgement.

Rather, Scripture and its derivative healthy teaching are to form us wisely as

Christian persons and communities, enabled by the Spirit (within certain

commanded boundaries) to discern how the “logic” of the gospel fits particular

circumstances.

Christians grow in discernment by studying Scripture, but not in a merely sapiential way.

Christian habits of thinking are nurtured through obedience, as the ability to relate

Scripture to circumstances relies on a moral component—it requires being a certain kind

of person.

Such a moral component seems to resonate with Peter Martyr Vermigli’s

critique of Aristotle:

We raise a doubt also about the way Aristotle seems to attribute so little to

knowledge with respect to the moral virtues, despite the fact that prudence

[phronēsis], which has a place in knowledge, is the ruler, moderator, and guide of

As John Owen describes, “To be spiritually minded is, not to have the notion and knowledge

of spiritual things in our minds; it is not to be constant, no, nor to abound, in the performance of duties:

both which may be where there is no grace in the heart at all. It is to have our minds really exercised with

delight about heavenly things, the things that are above, especially Christ himself as at the right hand of

God.” John Owen, “The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded,” in The Works of John Owen, ed.

William H. Goold, vol. 7, Sin and Grace (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1862), 348. See also Kelly M. Kapic,

Communion with God: The Divine and the Human in the Theology of John Owen (Grand Rapids: Baker

Academic, 2007), 46–50.

See Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God, 54.

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the moral virtues. The answer to this is that prudence does indeed include

knowledge, but not the simple and pure kind, but the kind that depends on appetite,

both higher and lower. For prudence is not only concerned with deliberating about

things that have a goal, but it is also concerned, when the deliberation is done, with

commanding, and commanding effectively that some thing or other be done. For

prudence does not only conclude that something should be done, but it commands

that it be done.

Only the prudence empowered by God’s Spirit has the moral force to command action in

the proper direction. Thus, Treier concludes, from the fact that Paul focuses on the

fruitfulness of the Spirit in believers, that φρόνησις comes as a gift. Christian φρόνησις as

a form of grace stands in contrast—but not in contradiction—to the discipline ingredient

of nurturing. As such, φρόνησις is something Christians pray for and receive by grace (cf.

Eph 1:17; Phil 1:9; Col 1:9).

Therefore, the Spirit nurtures practical reasoning

(φρόνησις) in response to prayer—which implies that this practical wisdom is not a

privilege for a few but a gift for all those inhabited by the Spirit of Christ.

100

Augustine and Aquinas also consider this wisdom for action a gift of the

Spirit.

101

According to Augustine, divine grace grants a wisdom that “is better than our

minds, for by it alone they are made individually wise, and are made judges, not of it, but

by it of all other things whatever.”

102

For Aquinas, the wisdom God gives is more

excellent than wisdom as a mere intellectual virtue, because it attains to God more

intimately and directs people not only in contemplation but also in action.

103

Wisdom for

life is individualized in the person who enjoys the presence of God, in Christ, by the

Spirit, in a mutual abiding that allows for such participation.

Peter Martyr Vermigli, Commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, ed. Emidio Campi

et al., trans. Kenneth Austin et al., Peter Martyr Library 9 (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press,

2006), 330.

See Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God, 54.

100

See Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God, 55.

101

See Aquinas, ST, II-II.45.3 resp.

102

Augustine of Hippo, On Free Will, in Augustine: Earlier Writings, ed. and trans. J. H. S.

Burleigh, Library of Christian Classics (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1953), 159.

103

See Aquinas, ST, II-II.45.3 ad 1.

139

As the Spirit makes wise the simple by sharing with them the mind of Christ,

their thoughts are oriented toward wisdom, as their faith seeks “theo-dramatic

understanding,” to use Kevin Vanhoozer’s language.

104

This new mentality occurs in

Christ as the Spirit instills a new awareness of what the Christian faith requires in specific

situations. Vanhoozer also underscores the importance of practical reason (φρόνησις) for

the deliberation of how one pursues what is good:

To live out the theo-drama in terms of ordinary life ultimately requires good

judgment: not merely common sense but a “canon sense” that discerns the world

sub specie theo-dramatis and a “context sense” that discerns what a given situation

requires of us if we are to bear faithful witness to the world about the new creation

“in Christ.”

105

Vanhoozer then compares theology to Aristotle’s φρόνησις: “Theology yields directions

for deliberating well about what God has done in Christ and about how we are to live in

light of the gospel in order to live well with others before God.”

106

Consequently, he

redefines the term Christianly: “Phronesis is the canonically nurtured ability to say and

do the ‘fit in Christ’ in relatively singular contexts in ways appropriate to their relative

singularity.”

107

Spirit-inspired Scripture is appropriated by those who enjoy the mind of

Christ given by that same Spirit in a way that the person is empowered to interpret and

judge particular circumstances and then determine the right course of action that pleases

God. Vanhoozer further explains,

As deliberation about what to say and do in order to render the “fit in Christ,”

theology attends both to its script and to its particular situation. It is not that the

situation as such exercises authority over theology. The triune God in

communicative action remains the supreme authority for Christian life and thought.

Situations have authority only to the extent that they help determine how to respond

fittingly to the divine directives. The situation does not change our script, but it may

affect the staging. Situations do not themselves have authority, then, but they do

104

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical Linguistic Approach to

Christian Doctrine (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 324.

105

Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine, 324.

106

Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine, 324.

107

Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine, 332.

140

exert a certain influence over how one goes about responding to what is

authoritative—namely, God’s word—in particular contexts.

108

Avoiding the dangers of Aristotle’s limited teleology and Immanuel Kant’s rigid

universals, Vanhoozer explains Christian practical reason based on the

comprehensiveness of Scripture and its contextual application so that human action may

find its proper living expression in Christ and by Christ.

The goal of the disciple of Christ is to display the mind of Christ at every

moment in every situation.

109

The purpose of counseling biblically—here understood as a

subset of the broader category of discipleship—is to stimulate the counselee to display

the mind of Christ in particular circumstances. Together, the counselor and the counselee

evaluate the reality and history of the counselee in the context of God to chart a proper

course of action that fits the Christian life. In other words, when counselees find it

challenging to reason about how to act fittingly in a certain situation, counselors come

alongside them to help with theological discernment. Therefore, the biblical counselor’s

goal (as a disciple of Christ) is to display the mind of Christ at every moment in every

counseling case so that he or she may help the Christian counselee (as a disciple of Christ

also) to display the mind of Christ in the particular hardships and struggles of his or her

life. This ministry is only possible because of the work of the Holy Spirit, who

communicates the mind of Christ to his disciples.

The Holy Spirit enables biblical counselors to share in the mind of Christ and,

therefore, to enjoy the knowledge of God, by which they understand reality and history in

their broader metaphysical context, that is, God himself. They can then reason wisely and

practically the proper path of human action in each situation. None of these aspects

occurs without the necessary revelation, primarily through Spirit-inspired Scripture. And

108

Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine, 325.

109

See Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of

Doctrine (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014), 188.

141

so, the Holy Spirit unites believers to Christ and gives them his mind so that they may

know God and live accordingly, also sharing that knowledge and wisdom for life with

others. It is the Spirit, therefore, who authorizes and empowers biblical counselors, as

part of the church, to speak—and counsel!—in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy

Spirit (cf. Matt 28:19; Acts 1:8). And so, because biblical counselors participate in the

mind of Christ by the Spirit, they can know the truth that they are to proclaim in ministry

and, according to that truth, properly interpret the experience of their counselees. As

Christians, biblical counselors are endowed with that Spirit-enabled φρόνησις that allows

them to fulfill the task of their interpersonal ministry, which is, as Powlison describes, “to

choose, emphasize, and ‘unbalance’ truth for the sake of relevant application to particular

persons and situations.”

110

Summary

Wisdom is a divine gift. And as is proper of God to give his gifts in Christ by

the Spirit, believers receive wisdom by virtue of their union with Christ by his Spirit.

Accordingly, the Christ-oriented witness of the Holy Spirit enables practical reasoning

and thus empowers counselors to wisely interpret the particular experiences of others,

helping them to chart a path forward in a way that is proper to the Christian life. Christian

wisdom, therefore, entails a practical reasoning that flows from a personal, relational

knowledge of God, effectuated by the divine Spirit. As Christians, biblical counselors are

uniquely equipped with this Spirit-given ability to practical reason, this Christian

φρόνησις, which makes them genuinely competent for their ministerial task (Rom 15:14).

Only by the Spirit, biblical counselors can bring the canonical script to bear in the

particular contexts of their counselees’ lives.

110

David Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 34.

142

Conclusion

As the Spirit unites believers to Christ, they are given to share in the mind of

Christ. In that sharing, biblical counselors, as Christians, are brought to participate in the

knowledge of God and all things in relation to him. This participation in the mind of

Christ by the Spirit empowers them to the wise proclamation of God’s truth to the

specific needs of their counselees. That is, the personal knowledge of God that the Spirit

imparts in that union with Christ produces in believers’ minds the necessary ability for

practical reasoning in the various circumstances of life. The personal knowledge of God

empowered by the Spirit equips believers to understand reality and history in relation to

God, both broadly and specifically. Spirit-indwelt counselors, sharing in the mind of

Christ, can, therefore, provide spiritually relevant counsel for wisely living within the

particularities of their counselees’ contexts.

In this way, the operation of the Spirit is foundational for biblical counseling.

More than that, the work of the Spirit is itself the justification for any counseling to be

biblical and established in the church. To counsel dependent upon the Spirit and his

operation involves absolute trust in the Spirit’s Word. Scripture, which displays the

speech of the Spirit, is apprehended by the people indwelt by the Spirit, who gives them

the eyes to see the truth he himself revealed in scriptural pages. Thus, the Spirit works by

the Spirit’s Word in and through the Spirit’s people.

However, the knowledge of God that enables practical reasoning is also the

glorious knowledge that orders love in the heart. As John Murray notes, “Love is fed by

the increasing apprehension of the glory of him who is love, and of him in whom the love

of God is manifested.”

111

Knowledge and wisdom without love is of no gain (1 Cor 13:2–

3). But the gift of Christian wisdom is characterized by an intellectual illumination that

111

John Murray, “Progressive Sanctification,” in Collected Writings of John Murray, vol. 2,

Systematic Theology (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1977), 299.

143

breaks forth in love.

112

After all, united with Christ by the Spirit, believers are united with

God, who is Truth as well as Love. And so, they speak truth in love. Hence, to this aspect

of the work of the Spirit I will now turn.

112

See Aquinas, ST, I.43.5 ad 2. See also Nieuwenhove, Thomas Aquinas and Contemplation,

172.

144

CHAPTER 5

“GOD’S LOVE HAS BEEN POURED INTO OUR

HEARTS”: THE WILL REORIENTED

BY THE SPIRIT

Knowledge without love is vain (1 Cor 13:2). Christians are given to know

God so that they may love him. In love, God is truly known. Knowledge is perfected

within that relational proximity of love (1 Cor 13:12). Without love, knowledge profits

nothing, “for whenever a man has the gift of knowledge, love is necessary by the side of

it, that he be not puffed up,” Augustine notes.

The aim of knowledge, therefore, must be

love. That is the Christian goal of highest priority (Matt 22:36–40).

The same God who gives himself in knowledge also gives himself in love. The

knowledge of God is perfected by the Spirit outwardly and inwardly, that is, through

inspiration and illumination, making his revelation effective. But that is not all. In giving

himself to be known by the Spirit, God is giving of himself, sharing his blessedness, and

the drive for that gracious overflowing is love—the love that he is (1 John 4:8). For this

reason, Augustine asks rhetorically, “What can be more insane than to suppose that the

knowledge which must be subordinated to love comes from God, while the love which

surpasses knowledge comes from man?”

Both knowledge and love are gracious gifts

endowed by the Spirit who makes Christ present in the lives of Christians.

Love, in the Christian life, flows from Christ as a fruit of the Spirit (cf. John

15:5–10; Gal 5:22). Union with Christ, therefore, is essential not only to the knowledge

of God and all things in relation to him but also so that God may be loved and all other

Augustine of Hippo, A Treatise on Grace and Free Will, 19.40 (NPNF1, 5:461).

Augustine, A Treatise on Grace and Free Will, 19.40 (NPNF1, 5:461).

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loves may be ordered in relation to him. To be united with Christ is to be brought

together to him who is love, to experience the trinitarian dynamics of the love that God is

in himself. As Grant Macaskill writes,

The transformation of our lives through the presence of Christ must manifest itself

in the practices of love. He is love, and it is Love that now inhabits us and that we,

in turn, inhabit. Our rendering of new obedience to God is a manifestation of the

Son’s love for the Father but also of the Father’s love for the Son and for those to

whom the Son is united.

In other words, the transformational force of union with Christ expresses the power of the

divine presence, which shares the life of God and thus enables Christians to know and

love God and, by consequence, to know and love neighbor—including the church

community, as they mutually speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15). Biblical counseling,

understood as participatory conversations, derives from the presence of Christ the love in

which it conveys truth to help counselees respond faithfully in their specific challenging

contexts. That is, participatory conversations are marked by the essential virtues of him in

whom the conversants participate, including love.

In this chapter, I will underscore the following truth: In giving of himself to

believers with the outpouring of the Spirit of Christ, God loves Christians and fills them

with love (Rom 5:5) so they may properly love him and others; therefore, the love in

which Christians are called to speak and counsel requires participation in Christ by the

Spirit (John 15:5–10).

Three movements will advance this argument. First, with the help of Augustine

in particular, I will consider the Holy Spirit’s close association with love as he eternally

proceeds from Father and the Son (Rom 5:5; 2 Cor 13:14). Second, I will defend the

notion that the presence of the Holy Spirit is the decisive factor for the reorientation of

the will and the satisfaction of the soul in Christ, empowering biblical counselors for

Grant Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ: Paul’s Gospel and Christian Moral Identity

(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019), 139.

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Christ-like love in their assistance to others. Third, I will articulate a vision for biblical

counseling that is built on a pneumatology of love: The church is, by sharing in the divine

nature (2 Pet 1:4) and participating in the Spirit of Christ (Phil 2:1–8), a community

devoted to love—and that not by mere imitation of Christ but by an ontological recreation

(regeneration) in him.

The Spirit of Love

Love is a divine gift. As with any other gift of God, love is given in the person

of the Spirit. In giving the Holy Spirit, God grants not only power and self-control but

also love (cf. 2 Tim 1:7; Gal 5:22–23; 1 Cor 12:4–11).

Christians love because love was

given to them through the indwelling Spirit, who is love by nature. Through the Holy

Spirit, therefore, the love of God has been poured out in the hearts of believers (Rom

5:5).

God’s love is then a divine gift presented by the Spirit of God.

To receive God’s Spirit is to experience God’s love. And those over whom the

Spirit is poured out enjoy firsthand the relational knowledge of God’s love. As James

Dunn observes, commenting on Romans 5:5,

What is striking about this first reference to God’s love in Romans is that Paul

should speak of it in such vivid experiential terms—God’s love not simply as

something believed in on the basis of the gospel or the testimony of the cross (cf.

even v 8), not simply the certainty of God’s love, but God’s love itself experienced

in rich measure.

Both the NIV and the NET translate πνεῦμα in 2 Timothy 1:7 as a proper reference to the

Holy Spirit. In any case, verse 14 explains that the “good deposit” (i.e., the gospel message) must be

guarded in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, echoing Acts 1:8 and the necessity of the Holy Spirit’s

coming at Pentecost for the missionary task. The power, love, and self-control that characterize the

Christian are not given apart from the gift of the Holy Spirit himself.

The genitive “the love of God” in Romans 5:5 should be taken as a subjective genitive

denoting God’s love for believers, not the believer’s love for God. See James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1–8,

Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 38A (Dallas: Word, 1998), 252; Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans, 2nd ed.,

Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2018), 299; David

G. Peterson, Romans, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press,

2021), 235.

Dunn, Romans 1–8, 252.

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God’s love finds its most intimate expression in the outpouring of the Spirit. For what

does God give in love if not himself? This close association of Spirit and love is also

present in other passages of the Pauline writings.

In Romans 15:30, “the love of the

Spirit” is the basis, along with Jesus Christ, by which Paul invites the believers in Rome

to strive together with him in prayer. In Galatians 5:22, love is the first characteristic

mentioned of the fruit that the Spirit produces. In Philippians 2:1, “comfort from love”

and “participation in the Spirit” are put side by side (along with “encouragement in

Christ”) as the foundation for Paul’s call to unity. In Colossians 1:8, Paul praises the

church’s “love in the Spirit” that Epaphras had witnessed in that local gathering of

believers. In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul highlights the new attitude of love that marks the life of

the Christian because of the indwelling Spirit (cf. 2 Tim 1:14). Finally, in 2 Corinthians

13:14, the Pauline blessing puts together “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” with “the

love of God” and “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,” denoting through this sequence of

phrases God’s attitude of grace and love toward his people through the communion of the

indwelling Spirit. For Paul, therefore, love and Spirit are closely associated. To receive

God’s Spirit is to be loved by him. Consequently, those whom God loves through the

Spirit demonstrate that same love for others.

If God is love and the Spirit is God, then one should not hesitate to affirm that,

in his very essence, the Spirit is love. Augustine, however, raises this association between

the Spirit and love to the level of appropriation when he famously argues that Gift and

Love are proper names of the Holy Spirit. In Augustine’s psychological analogy of the

Trinity, the Son proceeds from the Father as understanding, and the Spirit proceeds from

the Father and the Son in their fruitful mutual-giving love. Augustine insists, however,

that naming the Spirit as Gift and Love is not an extrapolation of the biblical text. He

Dunn, Romans 1–8, 253.

This consequence will be explained later in this chapter.

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searched the Scriptures, looking after the attributed designations of the Holy Spirit,

expecting the divine text to reveal a nomenclature like that used for the Son (e.g., Word

and Light; cf. John 1:1–3). Augustine concluded that the Spirit is the Gift of God who is

Love.

In his homilies on Romans, John Chrysostom expresses a view similar to

Augustine’s. For Chrysostom, the outpouring of the Spirit over God’s people

demonstrates the abundance of his gracious love, which is not founded upon human

merit. God pours out of himself in the person of the Spirit because he loves:

Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. And he does not say is given

to, but is shed abroad in our hearts, so shewing the profusion of it. That gift then,

which is the greatest possible, He hath given; not heaven and earth and sea, but what

is more precious than any of these, and hath rendered us Angels from being men,

yea sons of God, and brethren of Christ. But what is this gift? The Holy Spirit. Now

had He not been willing to present us after our labours with great crowns, He would

never have given us such mighty gifts before our labours. But now the warmth of

His Love is hence made apparent, that it is not gradually and little by little that He

honours us; but He hath shed abroad the full fountain of His blessings, and this too

before our struggles. And so, if thou art not exceedingly worthy, despond not, since

thou hast that Love of thy Judge as a mighty pleader for thee. For this is why he

himself, by saying, hope maketh not ashamed, has ascribed everything not to our

well-doings, but to God’s love.

Just as the sending of the Son takes place by virtue of God’s love (John 3:16), so also the

sending of the Spirit marks God’s unmerited, outreaching love. God gives because he

loves, and the greatest gift he gives is himself, in Christ, by the Spirit.

Other passages in Scripture describe the sending of the Holy Spirit as the

giving of a gift. In Acts 2, Peter urges his audience, “Repent and be baptized every one of

you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the

gift of the Holy Spirit” (2:38). Peter was preaching immediately after the pouring out of

See Augustine of Hippo, The Trinity, ed. John E. Rotelle, trans. Edmund Hill, vol. 5 of The

Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, pt. 1, Books, 2nd ed. (Brooklyn: New City

Press, 2015), 15.17.27–18.37 (Hill, 421–24).

John Chrysostom, The Homilies of S. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on

the First Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Romans, Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church

(Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841), Homily 9 (p. 141).

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the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, which was the fulfillment of the prophecies presented

in Joel 2:28–32: “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.” This outpouring of the Spirit had

also been promised in Ezekiel 36:25–27:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your

uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new

heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone

from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you,

and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (italics added)

Ezekiel uses the Hebrew verb ןתנ (“to give”) in regard to both the new heart and the new

Spirit, the Spirit of God, emphasizing that both are gifts. The gift of the new heart and the

gift of the Spirit are interdependent, for it is by the Spirit given within that the new heart

is enlivened and recreated to righteous obedience. Commenting on this passage, Daniel

Block observes,

Concomitant with the heart transplant, Yahweh will infuse his people with a new

spirit, his Spirit. On first sight, the present juxtaposing of rûaḥ and lēb in such

precise, if chiastic, parallelism suggests that “spirit” and “mind/heart” should be

treated as virtual synonyms. However, the synonymity is seldom exact in Hebrew

parallelism, and here the terms are associated with different prepositions. The new

heart is given to (nātan lĕ) the Israelites, but the spirit is placed within (nātan

bĕqereb) them. This distinction is confirmed by the manner in which vv. 26b–27

elaborate on the two statements. The provision of the new heart involves a removal

of the petrified organ and its replacement with a heart of flesh, the source of which

is unspecified. But the new spirit placed inside Israel is identified as Yahweh’s rûaḥ

(v. 27), which animates and vivifies the recipients.

The most significant promise prophesied by Ezekiel is, therefore, the gift of the

indwelling Spirit. By giving the Holy Spirit to dwell within believers, God grants them

new hearts in the place of their old, spiritually insensitive hearts of stone.

Acts 10:45 also describes the Holy Spirit as a gift when he was poured out on

the Gentiles who were listening to Peter. The believers accompanying Peter were amazed

that “the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.” Contextually, the

genitive clause denotes that the gift identifies the Holy Spirit himself. What surprised

Daniel Isaac Block, The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 25–48, New International Commentary

on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 356.

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Peter’s Jewish companions was that the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God would

also take place in Gentiles. This event was the “Pentecost of the Gentile world.”

The

fact that Gentiles also received the gift of the Spirit underscores again the gracious nature

of such a gift.

As John Barclay teaches, grace is at the essence of gift-giving.

For

Barclay, we can speak of “divine gifts as superabundant or absolutely prior without

implying that they are also incongruous with the worth of the recipient.”

Since in giving

the Holy Spirit God gives of himself, and no one is deserving of such divine gift, then the

Spirit of God is the most perfect of all gifts. He is the living water Jesus promises to give

his spiritually thirsty disciples after his glorification (John 7:38–39; cf. “the gift of God”

in John 4:10). And it is no accident that the Holy Spirit is responsible and sovereign for

the distribution of spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:11). In other words, the Holy Spirit distributes

the spiritual gifts because he is himself the greatest gift, and so the spiritual gifts manifest

his active presence in the church. The appropriation to the Holy Spirit of giving spiritual

gifts is most naturally understood when the Spirit is seen as the greatest gift himself.

As mentioned, Augustine argues that Gift is a proper name of the Spirit based

on many biblical passages cited above.

For him, just as the Word of God, the Son, is

distinctly called Wisdom of God without excluding the fact both Father and Spirit are

also wisdom, so also is the Spirit distinctively called Gift, or even Holy, without limiting

Darrell L. Bock, Acts, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids:

Baker Academic, 2007), 400.

See also John M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 390–91.

Barclay points out six perfections of a gift/grace: (1) superabundance in scale or

permanence, (2) singularity of benevolence, (3) generous priority, (4) incongruity (or unconditionality),

(5) efficacy, and (6) non-circularity (that is, without necessary recompense). See Barclay, Paul and the

Gift, 69–74.

Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 75–76.

Augustine, The Trinity, 15.18.33–35 (Hill, 425–28). See also Matthew Levering, Engaging

the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit: Love and Gift in the Trinity and the Church (Grand Rapids: Baker

Academic, 2016), 59–60.

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Father and Son in their sharing of such attributes.

And, in a similar fashion, Augustine

argues that the Spirit is distinctively called Love—even though Father and Son, being one

God, are love by essence.

For Augustine, no gift of God is more excellent than love. In his own words,

Love, therefore, which is of God and is God, is especially the Holy Spirit, by whom

the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by which love the whole Trinity dwells

in us. And therefore most rightly is the Holy Spirit, although He is God, called also

the gift of God. And by that gift what else can properly be understood except love,

which brings to God, and without which any other gift of God whatsoever does not

bring to God?

Augustine’s justification for calling the Holy Spirit Love comes primarily from 1 John 4

(although he also appeals to Rom 5:5).

John commands mutual love based on the fact

that love is from God, and those who love are born of God because God himself is love

(1 John 4:7). Love is from God, and love is what God is: “Love is God and from God.”

Augustine proceeds to ask, then, which person of the Three should be appropriately

named Love. The Father is excluded, for the Father proceeds from no one; he is not God

from God. While the options are reduced to Son and Spirit, Augustine concludes that it is

proper to call the Spirit Love, for in giving of his Spirit, God brings believers to abide in

him, just as he abides in them—and whoever abides in love abides in God and vice-versa

(1 John 4:13, 16).

The God who abides within is God the Holy Spirit, and so he

Augustine, The Trinity, 15.17.29 (Hill, 422).

Augustine, The Trinity, 15.17.31 (Hill, 423).

Augustine, The Trinity, 15.18.32 (Hill, 424).

Contrasting with the view presented above, also predominant in modern commentators,

Augustine seems to interpret “the love of God” in Romans 5:5 as an objective genitive, meaning the

believer’s love for God. See Augustine, The Trinity, 15.17.31 (Hill, 424); see also Gregg R. Allison and

Andreas J. Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, Theology for the People of God (Nashville: B&H Academic,

2020), 266–67.

Augustine, The Trinity, 15.17.31 (Hill, 424).

See also Levering, Engaging the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, 56.

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appropriately merits the name of Love. Gregg Allison and Andreas Köstenberger

helpfully summarize Augustine’s argument (with references to 1 John 4):

• Love is of God (v. 7).

• Love is God (v. 8).

• Therefore, love is “God of God.”

• Two divine persons can be called “God of God”: the Son and the Holy Spirit.

• God manifested his love by sending his Son as the atonement for our sins (vv. 9–10).

• In turn, we should love one another (v. 11).

• In so doing, God dwells in us, and his love matures in us (v. 12).

• We can know that God dwells in us when we love one another, and the way we love

is by God’s gift of the Holy Spirit (v. 13).

• Therefore, “God of God” is the Holy Spirit whom God has given.

• Conclusion: The Holy Spirit “is the gift of God who is love,” and the two names

“Love” and “Gift,” implying each other, are proper names of the Holy Spirit.

Christian love, in 1 John 4, is presented as evidence of the God who dwells in Christians

because the abiding God is the abiding Love.

Augustine’s exegesis of 1 John 4 fits his theological account of the Trinity. For

him, the Holy Spirit enjoys the same unity and equality of substance as Father and Son.

Augustine views the Spirit as “that by which the two [Father and Son] are joined each to

the other, by which the begotten is loved by the one who begets him and in turn loves the

begetter.”

That unity enjoyed in the Trinity is “not in virtue of participation but of their

own being, not by gift of some superior but by their own gift.”

The Spirit as the bond

between Father and Son, however, is not a temporal reality: “This too [the procession of

the Spirit from the Son] was given the Son by the Father—not given to him when he

Allison and Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, 265–66.

Augustine, The Trinity, 6.5.7 (Hill, 210).

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already existed and did not yet have it; but whatever the Father gave to his only-begotten

Word he gave by begetting him,” writes Augustine.

He adds, “He so begot him then

that their common gift would proceed from him too, and the Holy Spirit would be the

Spirit of them both.”

The fact that the Son shares in the origin of the eternal procession

of the Holy Spirit is a gift given by the Father in the Son’s eternal begetting—a gift that

essentially binds them in a loving unity.

Gift and Love as names of the Spirit must be understood together in Augustine.

Nevertheless, not everyone is convinced by Augustine’s exegetical argument. Allison and

Köstenberger, for example, praise Augustine for his faith-oriented approach to

hermeneutics, but they embrace only the name “Gift” for the Holy Spirit as acceptable.

Allison and Köstenberger find difficulty in Augustine’s interpretation of 1 John 4.

Yet,

the problem lies in the proper naming of the third person. What is undeniable, and made

evident by Augustine’s discussion, is the close association of the Holy Spirit and the love

of God. No one can love apart from the empowering presence of divine love through the

person of the Holy Spirit, for, as Augustine puts it, “man has no capacity to love God

except from God,” and so, “it is God the Holy Spirit proceeding from God who fires man

to the love of God and neighbor when he has been given to him, and he himself is

love.”

Love is fructified by the Spirit in the lives of those he indwells, uniting them with

Christ and making them participants of the divine life of the Trinity who is love.

Augustine, The Trinity, 15.17.29 (Hill, 422–23).

Augustine, The Trinity, 15.17.29 (Hill, 423).

Thomas Aquinas adopted a view similar to Augustine’s. For Thomas, the Spirit is personally

Love because he proceeds as the Love by which the Father and the Son love each other. More specifically,

Thomas identified the Spirit as “Love proceeding,” emphasizing the substantial commonality of love in the

divine Trinity but also underscoring the Spirit as the Love that comes forth from the divine communion.

See Thomas Aquinas, ST, I.37.1; Levering, Engaging the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, 91; Christopher R. J.

Holmes, The Holy Spirit, New Studies in Dogmatics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015), 87–88.

See Allison and Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, 269.

Augustine, The Trinity, 15.17.31 (Hill, 424).

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Summary

The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of Love. The Spirit is God and is given by God

out of gracious love. He is, therefore, God from God, given in love to be with and in

believers. By the Spirit, God abides in believers and believers abide in God. The Spirit is

the bond, therefore, that unites believers to God in Christ, making them participants of

the divine nature, including the love that God is by essence. In the pouring out of divine

love in the person of the Spirit, the sharing of the love of God empowers Christians to

love. Love, therefore, marks the Christian life because of God’s antecedent love that he

poured out in believers’ hearts by the Spirit.

A Love That Fills

The presence of the Holy Spirit is the decisive factor for reorientating the will

and the satisfaction of the affections in Christ. The heart satisfied in Christ by the Spirit is

then empowered to love appropriately. Union with Christ by the Spirit is, therefore, a sine

qua non condition for biblical counselors to love with Christ-like affection in their

assistance to those in need of care.

By the Spirit, biblical counselors can love with the love of Christ—or, with the

“affections of Christ,” as the apostle Paul puts it in Philippians 1:8. Paul begins his epistle

to the Philippians with thanksgiving to God for their partnership in the gospel (1:3–5). He

was certain about God’s ongoing work in their lives and confident that he who began the

good work in them would finally complete it on the day of Christ (v. 6). His confidence

came from this: Both Paul and the believers in Philippi were partakers of the same grace

(v. 7). And so, he yearned for the Philippian believers with “the affection of Christ Jesus”

(σπλάγχνοις Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ; v. 8). The word σπλάγχνον, commonly translated as

“affection,” primarily refers to the inward parts of man, especially the viscera, the

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bowels, the entrails.

This term was “the most expressive term available to indicate the

source of human emotion.”

Also, it was common in the ancient world to use the inner

body parts of man for psychological reference (another example is καρδία, “heart”).

And so, such lexical choice adds ontological weight to Paul’s affirmation. As Chrysostom

comments,

He does not say “love,” but uses a still warmer expression, the bowels of Christ, as

though he had said, “of him who has become as a father to you through the

relationship which is in Christ.” For this imparts to us bowels of affection warm and

glowing. For He gives such bowels to His true servants. “In these bowels,” saith He,

“I love you,” as though one should say, “with no natural bowels, but with more

ardent ones, namely, those of Christ.”

Paul wanted to demonstrate the source (Christ) and the sort (Christ-like) of his affection

for the Philippian church.

His love for the Philippians was not self-oriented, as if his

interest was only in having them continue supporting him through imprisonment and

trials—which he certainly appreciated. Paul’s affection for them was selfless and Christ-

like because Christ was its primary source.

The love of Christ for Christians in Philippi

was the love by which Paul loved them. The love of Christ was operative in him, so Paul

loved them with a love that was not primarily his but Christ’s.

See Gerald F. Hawthorne, Philippians, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 43 (Dallas: Word,

2004), 29.

Moisés Silva, Philippians, 2nd ed., Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005), 48.

BDAG, “Σπλάγχνον, Ου, Τό.” See also James Leo Garrett Jr., Systematic Theology:

Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical, vol. 1, 4th ed. (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014), 505.

John Chrysostom, The Homilies of S. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on

the Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, A Library of Fathers

of the Holy Catholic Church (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1843), Homily 2 (p. 18).

See J. Harold Greenlee, An Exegetical Summary of Philippians, 2nd ed. (Dallas: SIL

International, 2008), 28.

See Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians, Homily 2 (p. 18). See also F. F. Bruce,

Philippians, Understanding the Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011), 35.

Gordon D. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, New International Commentary on the New

Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 95.

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Loving with Christ’s affections is only possible in the presence of Christ

mediated by the Spirit. United with Christ, the Christian can love with Christ’s love. For

Herman Bavinck, Philippians 1:8 is evidence that the Spirit of God brings Christ to

indwell in believers (see Phil 1:21).

Christ living in Paul leads him to love with Christ’s

love (see also 2 Cor 5:14–15). And the very presence of those Christian affections

demonstrates that blessed union. In the words of the Scottish theologian William Milligan

(1821–1893), “Union, by its very nature, supposes in the case of living persons an

internal movement, a movement of the heart of man towards Christ, and a

communication to some extent at least of the affections of Christ to man.”

By union

with Christ, therefore, the Spirit not only presents Christ’s affections for those in whom

he dwells but, as a result, also empowers them to love others with the affections of Christ.

But how? In what way does union with Christ cause love for others in

believers? Perhaps this question can be answered using the traditional fourfold

categorization of causes. First, the efficient cause of all Christian love is the Spirit of

Christ, who indwells believers. Second, the formal cause of Christian love is the humble

habit of satisfied hearts, which characterizes those who accept the gospel call to die to

self and find their fulfillment in Christ. Third, the material cause is the sacrificial, other-

oriented activity in the life and ministry of believers. Fourth, the final cause is the glory

rendered to God in the beautiful mirroring of his loving character. For now, the first two

deserve further consideration.

First, Christian love derives from and is sustained by the presence of Christ

through the Spirit. The Spirit of Christ is the efficient cause of love in believers. Because

of his divine nature, love is essential to him. Since humanity and divinity are perfectly

brought together in the person of Christ and since fallen humanity is redeemed as the

Herman Bavinck, RD, 2:278–79.

William Milligan, The Ascension and Heavenly Priesthood of Our Lord, The Baird Lecture

1891 (London: Macmillan, 1892), 344.

157

Spirit unites them to the human-divine Christ, applying to them the benefits of Christ’s

works, those who are naturally unable to love God and love neighbor properly become

empowered to do so in Christ. They become the branches through which the love of the

vine flows (John 15:4, 9–10). To be in Christ is to abide in love. As believers abide in

him, they are enabled to love because they enjoy a life-giving connection to the source of

all love. As Bruce Demarest states, “Fruit-bearing is not a natural outworking of unaided,

human nature. Rather, it is enabled by the infusion of supernatural life brought about by

spiritual union with Christ, the source of new life.”

Love comes with the divine life of

Christ communicated to and in believers by the Spirit, who unites them with him. God,

who is love, overflowed his abundance of love in both creation and recreation and now

makes himself present within the redeemed to perfect them in the sharing of that same

love. Love is the fruit of the Spirit within (Gal 5:22).

Second, the formal cause of Christian love is the habit infused by the Spirit in

believers. In regeneration, the Spirit infuses habitual grace, a new principle of spiritual

life that orients believers toward God and, consequently, toward neighbor. According to

Adonis Vidu, “Love is the form in our soul through which we are disposed to enjoy God

and the third person specifically. Our participation in the divine nature takes place

precisely through the formality of the divine gifts of love, wisdom, and so on.”

That

disposition or orientation to love God is a gift that accompanies regeneration. As the

Spirit breathes in his divine life within the soul, the affections are awakened to God, that

is, they are inclined toward him.

Christian love, therefore, must be understood not only in outward actions of

love but also as the orientation of character that precedes those actions. Christian love is

Bruce A. Demarest, The Cross and Salvation: The Doctrine of Salvation, Foundations of

Evangelical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1997), 341.

Adonis Vidu, “The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit as Love,” in Love, Divine and Human:

Contemporary Essays in Systematic and Philosophical Theology, ed. Oliver D. Crisp, James M. Arcadi,

and Jordan Wessling (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2021), 170.

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an orientation of the soul produced by the Spirit through the infusion of his habitual

grace. Although some magisterial Reformers hesitated to use the language of “infused

habits,” later theologians of the Reformed tradition, such as John Owen and Herman

Bavinck, were more than willing to include such terminology in their theological

presentations.

In fact, question 77 in the Westminster Larger Catechism differentiates

justification from sanctification, explaining that the first happens by the imputation of

Christ’s righteousness, while the second takes place by the infusion of grace by the

Spirit.

And as the soul receives this infused grace by the Spirit, the character of the

redeemed is renewed, made alive to love in devotion to God.

The idea of Spirit-infused habitual grace occupies a central place in Owen’s

doctrine of sanctification.

For Owen, sanctification is the “immediate work of the Spirit

of God on the souls of believers . . . renewing in them the image of God, and thereby

enabling them, from a spiritual and habitual principle of grace, to yield obedience unto

God . . . by virtue of the life and death of Jesus Christ.”

Without the Spirit’s sanctifying

infusion of habitual grace, no one may live or act in holiness. Owen explains, “There is

an immediate work or effectual operation of the Holy Spirit by his grace required unto

every act of holy obedience, whether internal only in faith and love, or external also; that

is, unto all the holy actings of our understandings, wills, and affections, and unto all

duties of obedience in our walking before God.”

Habitual grace is necessary for

Vidu, “The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit as Love,” 184–85.

The Westminster Larger Catechism: With Scripture Proofs (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos

Research Systems, 1996), q. 77.

See Michael Allen, Sanctification, New Studies in Dogmatics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,

2017), 250–52. For a discussion on applying Owen’s view of habitual grace for biblical counseling, see

Colin McCulloch, “Sanctified by the Spirit: Applying John Owen’s Concept of Spirit-Infused Habitual

Grace to Divergent Models of Sanctification within the Biblical Counseling Movement” (PhD diss., The

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2022), 132.

John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 3, The Holy Spirit

(“Pneumatologia”) (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1862), 386 (italics added).

Owen, The Holy Spirit, 472.

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Christian love—a grace communicated only by the presence of the Spirit of Christ. In this

sense, the Spirit of Christ is the author of sanctification and, by implication, of Christian

love, for “the Holy Spirit, as the author of our sanctification, worketh also in us all

gracious acts of faith, love, and obedience.”

The grace of the divine presence is what

produces and sustains Christian love.

The Spirit does not act despite the human will.

Instead, he communicates a new principle of spiritual life to the will, inclining it to what

is good and away from evil.

Bavinck supports a similar view of sanctification. For the Dutch theologian,

regeneration consists in “a spiritual renewal of those inner dispositions of humans that

from ancient times were called ‘habits’ or ‘qualities.’”

Bavinck goes on to carefully

differentiate the Holy Spirit (the efficient cause) from the habits he effects (the formal

cause):

These new “habits” are distinguished, on the one hand, from the Holy Spirit, who

effects them but does not coincide with them; they serve, on the other hand, as

intermediaries between the essence (or substance) of the human soul and body and

the activities that, as people mature and receive the enlightenment of Scripture and

the guidance of the Spirit, spring from those “habits” in the intellect, the emotions,

and the will. Hence, though these are new qualities that regeneration implants in a

person, they are nevertheless no other than those that belong to human nature, just

as health is the normal state of the body. They are “habits,” dispositions, or

inclinations that were originally included in the image of God and agreed with the

law of God and whose restoration liberates the fallen, sinful human nature from its

darkness and slavery, its misery and death.

As the Holy Spirit infuses and confers new qualities in and to the soul of man, the person

is liberated to act in reflection of God’s character. Habitual grace finds its stability in the

Owen, The Holy Spirit, 536.

Vidu, “The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit as Love,” 185–86.

Owen, The Holy Spirit, 356.

Herman Bavinck, RD, 4:94.

Bavinck, RD, 4:94.

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fellowship of the Spirit, whose presence serves as an eschatological seal (Eph 1:13).

That is, the Spirit’s continuous presence points to the new origin of the believer in God

and his new life in Christ. “For this [spiritual] life is essentially distinct from all natural

life. It is born of God, flows down to us from the resurrection of Christ, and is from the

beginning effected, maintained, and confirmed in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,”

Bavinck explains.

Thus, although habitual grace entirely depends on the presence of the

Holy Spirit, the infused habit that formally causes Christian love must not be confused

with the Spirit of Christ himself as the efficient cause. Whereas the Spirit efficiently

communicates the source of all love through union with Christ, the spiritual habit he

infuses shapes the form of the soul, inclining the will to love appropriately.

Now, the person recreated by the Spirit manifests her renewal in faith by

accepting the gospel call to die to self and find satisfaction in Christ. The heart that longs

for redemption, however, is not left starving. On the contrary, those united to Christ by

the Spirit have their inclinations reoriented through satisfaction. In other words, the most

profound longings of man are satisfied in the presence of Christ through the Spirit so that

the human heart is filled and freed to love selflessly. In Christ, there is no reason left for

the human heart to seek its own fulfillment in other things. The heart is liberated to

overflow the life it has received from God in sacrificial love for others. The habitual

grace infused by the Spirit is marked not only by love but also by joy and peace, thus

demonstrating the contentment and satisfaction brought about in Christ.

The themes of joy and peace appear not only in Galatians 5:22, explicitly

presented as fruit of the Spirit, but also at the end of Philippians, as the apostle Paul

expresses his persevering contentment in every situation (Phil 4:12–13). Paul’s call to

Bavinck, RD, 4:94.

Bavinck, RD, 4:95.

Bavinck, RD, 4:132.

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Christian joy (v. 4) and gentleness (v. 5a) finds its strong foundation in the fact that the

Lord is near (v. 5b).

To this God who is close, Christians can prayerfully present their

anxieties (v. 6), and the “peace of God” guards their hearts and minds “in Christ Jesus”

(v. 7). The Lord at hand is the God of peace, the God of shalom (wholeness,

completeness), who is with his people (vv. 5, 9). “It is not only the peace of God but the

God of peace himself who will overshadow us with his care,” Moisés Silva comments.

In God’s presence, by the person of the Spirit, the soul is guarded in peace and is satisfied

toward joy—and this happens in Christ.

God supplies every need according to his

glorious riches in Christ (v. 19). The joy and peace of the Spirit allow Paul to live with

contentment in whatever situation; he is in Christ, and that is sufficient.

Whether in

abundance or in need, Paul is filled by the God who is present.

Joy and peace, however, do not appear in Pauline theology disconnected from

love—also a quality of spiritual fruitfulness in Galatians 5:22. In Philippians, love is the

basis for all fruitfulness. Silva again explains, “Genuine Christian joy is not inward-

looking. It is not by concentrating on our need for happiness, but on the needs of others,

that we learn to rejoice.”

Paul grounds his call to joy upon love: “Let your gentleness be

known to everyone” (Phil 4:5 NIV). Thus, believers rejoice as they act in the interest of

others and regard others as more important than themselves (2:3, 4). This selfless, humble

orientation marks the life of believers because it also characterizes the attitude of Christ

in whom they are (2:5). Because Christ is sufficient, their interests are not necessary for

“The Lord is at hand” can imply nearness in both place and time. F. F. Bruce explains, “If

time alone were in view, then it might be thought that the assurance is more valid for those living only a

short time before the unknown date of his advent than for those living a longer time before it; but in the

sense that Paul’s words probably bear here the Lord is always equally near his people, continually ‘at

hand.’” Bruce, Philippians, 142–43.

Silva, Philippians, 198.

See Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 177.

See Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 186–87.

Silva, Philippians, 194.

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their joy. God’s presence, in Christ, by the Spirit, fills them, grants them shalom beyond

their cognitive powers, and brings them to wholeness and satisfaction.

They are filled

with grace, having all their sufficiency in that very grace; therefore, they can abound in

every good work of love (2 Cor 9:6).

The English Puritan preacher Jeremiah Burroughs (1599–1646) famously

taught on contentment, using Philippians 4:11 as the foundational passage. Paul “learned

to be content.” His contentment was not the result of something achieved on his own self-

sufficiency (cf. 2 Cor 3:5). Instead, Paul’s contentment was a consequence of the grace of

Christ in him. Burroughs conceives Paul’s explanation: “I find a sufficiency of

satisfaction in my own heart, through the grace of Christ that is in me. Though I have not

outward comforts and worldly conveniences to supply my necessities, yet I have a

sufficient portion between Christ and my soul abundantly to satisfy me in every

condition.”

In Christ, believers enjoy “that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of

spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every

condition.”

For Burroughs, this description defines Christian contentment. The inner

man, particularly the affections of the will, is brought to rest, quietness, and peace. By the

Spirit of the Good Shepherd, believers lack nothing. In union with them, Christ leads

them to green pastures beside still waters, restoring the soul and into the paths of

righteousness (Ps 23:1–3); his comforting presence is sufficient to drive fear away, even

in the worst and most shadowy circumstances (v. 4).

It is worth noting that in Burroughs’s definition, Christian contentment does

not depend on the circumstances. Paul learned to be content in whatever situation (Phil

4:11). Contentment, therefore, is not contingent on the outward context. Instead,

See Silva, Philippians, 196; Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 176.

Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (Carlisle, PA: Banner of

Truth, 1964), 18.

Burroughs, The Rare Jewel, 19.

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Christian contentment depends on that new principle of life infused by the Holy Spirit,

that is, that new state of the soul enlivened in Christ, who strengthens the saints (v. 13; cf.

vv. 7, 19). For Burroughs, the foundation of Christian contentment is in the fact that “we

are one spirit with God and with Christ, and one spirit with the holy Ghost; therefore, we

should have a spirit that might manifest the glory of the Father, Son, and holy Ghost in

our spirits: that is the spirit of a Christian.”

Murmuring is inconsistent, therefore, with

the life in Christ, for believers “stand in relation to Christ, not only as a spouse, but as a

member . . . bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.”

Christian contentment is not only

worthy of the gospel in an external way; it is also the manner of life consistent with the

presence of Christ in believers. Therefore, those whom the Spirit indwells are empowered

to contentment as they receive in Christ the fulfillment of all their deepest longings

(1:27–28).

In the Gospel of John, the Holy Spirit is the living water that quenches the

soul’s thirst.

During the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus invited any thirsty soul to come to

him and drink. His invitation was followed by the promise that those who believed in him

would overflow with living water (John 7:37, 38). John explains that this promise

referred to the Holy Spirit yet to be given until Jesus was glorified (v. 39). The water

metaphor was appropriate to the Feast of Tabernacles, which included a rite of water-

pouring. According to Carson, “These ceremonies of the Feast of Tabernacles were

related in Jewish thought both to the LORD’s provision of water in the desert and to the

Burroughs, The Rare Jewel, 148.

Burroughs, The Rare Jewel, 145–46.

This view of the Spirit as the living water is common in the writings of the church fathers.

See, e.g., Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies, in The Writings of Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts and

James Donaldson, trans. Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambaut, vol. 2, Ante-Nicene Christian Library

(Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1868), 5.18 (p. 105); Ambrose of Milan, On the Holy Spirit 3.20.155–57 (NPNF2,

10:156).

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LORD’s pouring out of the Spirit in the last days.”

Jesus’s audience knew, from the

prophets, what he was offering: the gift of the Holy Spirit. Joel prophesied that God

would “pour out” his Spirit (Joel 2:28, 29). Ezekiel also prophesied that God would not

hide his face anymore but would one day “pour out” his very Spirit (Ezek 39:29). Isaiah

prophetically explained that the outpouring of that Spirit would transform the wilderness

into a fruitful field and a forest (Isa 32:15). That is, the pouring out of the Spirit on the

descendants of the Lord’s Servant would be like water poured on dry ground so that it

would spring fruitfully (Isa 44:3, 4; cf. 41:18–20). The dry ground, the wilderness, are

those who have forsaken the Lord, “the fountain of living waters,” and tried to build

cisterns that could not hold water (Jer 2:13). And yet, God would send an invitation:

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters . . . for you shall go out in joy and be

led forth in peace” (Isa 55:1, 12). Jesus’s invitation in John 7:37 revealed himself as the

fulfillment of all those prophecies (cf. 2 Cor 1:20).

As Jesus offered living water—the Holy Spirit—he was affirming himself to

be the source of that water.

Coming to Christ means to thirst never again (John 6:35).

He gives the living water that satisfies forever (4:10, 14) and thus enables fruitful

worship (4:23, 24). From Christ, the fountain of living water, believers receive the Spirit

who gives life (6:63). The life of the Spirit flows in believers like a river of living water,

producing his fruit of righteousness and freeing them to love (7:38). John Calvin supports

this very truth when he writes that “by his secret watering the Spirit makes us fruitful to

bring forth the buds of righteousness.”

For Calvin, grace is granted in the pouring out of

D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester:

Inter-Varsity Press, 1991), 322.

Carson, The Gospel According to John, 322–23.

Jesus’s offer of living water in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies also serves as a self-

statement of his divinity. God alone can pour out the Spirit as water in the wilderness.

John Calvin, ICR, 3.1.3.

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the Spirit who “restores and nourishes unto vigor of life.”

The living water is the Spirit

who produces life in the wilderness, for “when the grace of the Spirit enters into the soul

and takes up its abode there, it gushes forth more abundantly than any fountain and does

not cease, nor become exhausted, nor stand still,” as Chrysostom preaches in his Homily

51 on the Gospel of John.

Or, as Kelly Kapic and Justin Borger observe, “To experience

the Spirit as an abundant supply of nourishing water is to grow up and flourish in the

freedom of giving one’s self away.”

The Spirit who seals believers as God’s property,

as God’s people, also frees their affections for proper functioning: to love God and

neighbor, to true worship and sacrificial humility, to joy and peace. Participation in the

Spirit results in these dispositions (cf. Phil 2:1–4). That participation was announced and

brought about by Jesus, who gives the Spirit who rested upon him without measure (John

3:34; cf. Ezek 4:16).

The giving of the Spirit demonstrates God’s abundant generosity. The love that

drives God to send his Son (John 3:16) is further revealed in the giving of the Spirit in all

his fertile abundance. Kapic and Borger stress this point: “The disciples thought that the

coming of the Messiah was the final act of God’s giving himself and ushering in his

kingdom on earth. While Christ is certainly the central point and person of all history, the

coming of the Spirit is another instance where God defies our expectations and

overwhelms us with his generosity.”

From the abundance of God, shared in Christ by

the Spirit, believers are made whole, satisfied with joy, and freed to love. The love

Calvin, ICR, 3.1.3.

John Chrysostom, Commentary on Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist: Homilies 48–88,

trans. Thomas Aquinas Goggin, Fathers of the Church 41 (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of

America Press, 1959), Homily 51 (p. 36).

Kelly M. Kapic and Justin L. Borger, The God Who Gives: How the Trinity Shapes the

Christian Story, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2018), 141.

See Allison and Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, 71.

Kapic and Borger, The God Who Gives, 141.

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poured out in the human heart through the Holy Spirit empowers man to love God and

neighbor. The revelation of the Spirit, as Bernard of Clairvaux writes, “not only

communicates the light of knowledge, but also enkindles the flames of love.”

Or, again,

as Augustine states, “It is God the Holy Spirit proceeding from God who fires man to the

love of God and neighbor when he has been given to him, and he himself is love.”

Those who are in Christ, by the Spirit, are filled with love, and thus they overflow with

righteous love for God and others as rivers of living water (John 7:38).

Summary

The will cannot affect that which the mind does not know. The Spirit of God

reveals God not only as worthy to be known but also as worthy to be loved. And so, as

Christopher Holmes (almost prayerfully) states, “To talk about knowing God without

loving God is to detach the Word from the Spirit, the love of the Father for the Son and

the Son for the Father. Just as the intellectual and affective are one in God, may they be

one in us.”

As the intellect is illumined to know God, the will is reoriented toward love

for God—a love that is wholly met with the satisfactions of human longings. Therefore,

the affections are brought to rest not by their extinction but by their fulfillment in Christ.

This fulfillment, nevertheless, takes place through the pouring out of God’s living water,

namely, the Holy Spirit, given by Jesus Christ to all who embrace him by faith so that the

thirsty soul may never thirst again. And so, joy and peace characterize the heart the Spirit

brings to rest in Christ. Once the heart is made whole, it finds itself free in a new Spirit-

infused habitual disposition to overflow the abundance of love received and generously

share life with others. This sharing of life in the church context is called “ministry.”

Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Canticle of Canticles, trans. a priest of Mount

Melleray, vol. 1 (Dublin: Browne and Nolan, 1920), 62.

Augustine, The Trinity, 15.17.31 (Hill, 424).

Christopher R. J. Holmes, A Theology of the Christian Life: Imitating and Participating in

God (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021), 129.

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A Love That Shares

The outpoured Spirit fills and satisfies, orienting the person he indwells to

overflowing love. This love marks the path of discipleship and takes many forms in the

Christian life. It is of particular interest here to develop a vision for biblical counseling

that is built on a pneumatology of love: the church is, by sharing in the divine nature and

participating in it through the Spirit of Christ, a community devoted to love and thus led

to counseling conversations and the ministry of care. Since this participation happens not

by mere imitation of Christ but by an ontological re-creation (i.e., regeneration) in Christ,

counseling conversations convey truth as a form of love and love as the evidence of the

Truth within.

The foundation of Christian love is the Spirit, who communicates the very

nature of God to those he indwells. He terminates and perfects God’s movement of

giving himself to his people in love: from the Father, in the Son, by the Spirit. That

perfecting work of the Spirit takes place as he unites believers to Christ and, in that

union, reveals truth and enkindles love. The outward expressions of truth and love

demonstrate an interior state that has been renewed by the Spirit and brought to

participate in the knowledge and love of the divine. Such participation, therefore, must be

understood not as a matter of mere imitation—yet nothing less than that, of course—but

also of a preceding transformation of being. Holmes states, “We are united to God, joined

to God through love, not simply by our loving but by the Spirit, who is love.”

For one

to love Christianly, one must be in Christ.

The Christian ministry is to build up the body of Christ in love toward the

unity of faith and knowledge of Christ (Eph 4:12–16).

The church grows, and

Christians mature as they mutually minister the truth they have come to know in the love

they have come to share. They have the mind of Christ by the Spirit and have also come

Holmes, A Theology of the Christian Life, 74.

The next chapter will further develop the exegesis of Ephesians.

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to love with the affections of Christ. The unity believers enjoy centers on Christ, who is

not only the object of their faith but also the source of their love. This love is of a

spiritual kind, and it is upon this love that the Christian community grows. In his famous

proposal for life together in a Christian community, Dietrich Bonhoeffer underscores the

uniqueness of Christian love, distinguishing spiritual love from emotional love:

Spiritual love, however, comes from Jesus Christ; it serves him alone. It knows that

it has no direct access to other persons. Christ stands between me and others. I do

not know in advance what love of others means on the basis of the general idea of

love that grows out of my emotional desires. All this may instead be hatred and the

worst kind of selfishness in the eyes of Christ. Only Christ in his Word tells me

what love is. Contrary to all my own opinions and convictions, Jesus Christ will tell

me what love for my brothers and sisters really looks like. Therefore, spiritual love

is bound to the word of Jesus Christ alone. Where Christ tells me to maintain

community for the sake of love, I desire to maintain it. Where the truth of Christ

orders me to dissolve a community for the sake of love, I will dissolve it, despite all

the protests of my emotional love. Because spiritual love does not desire but rather

serves, it loves an enemy as a brother or sister. It originates neither in the brother or

sister nor in the enemy, but in Christ and his word. Emotional love can never

comprehend spiritual love, for spiritual love is from above. It is something

completely strange, new, and incomprehensible to all earthly love.

Christ is the pattern as well as the origin and power of Christian love. As Paul reveals in

the description of his love in Philippians 1:8, yearning with the affections of Christ for

those to whom he was writing, the mutuality of Christian love is a three-way bond, with

Christ at the center.

Being in Christ results in a life of love patterned after Christ,

empowered by Christ, and having Christ as its very origin.

These three elements of Christian love—origin, power, and pattern—attest to

Christ’s divinity, for all things, including love, are from God, through God, and for God

(Rom 11:36). The apostle John appeals to these elements in his first epistle, establishing

their proper relationship, which can be summarized as follows: Christian love is patterned

after Christ because it is empowered by the presence of Christ who, being himself love in

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, trans. Daniel W. Bloesch, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works

(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015), 17 (italics added).

See Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 94.

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essence, is the origin of all love. Whereas John wrote his Gospel so that his readers would

believe that Jesus is the Christ and thus have life in his name (John 20:31), he wrote his

first epistle to those who do believe so that they may know that they have eternal life

(1 John 5:13). In John, to have the Son is to have life: The life God gives is the life of his

Son (1 John 5:11–12). Now, just as hate is evidence of death (1 John 3:14b, 15), so also

love is evidence of life in the Son: “We know that we have passed out of death into life,

because we love the brothers” (1 John 3:14a). And so, the love John speaks of is the love

found in the life of the Son who is himself God (cf. John 1:1, 4; 1 John 1:2). The love that

comes from God (origin) is revealed to believers (pattern) and sustained within them

(power) by the Spirit of Christ who abides in them and in whom they enjoy life. To sum

up, to have life in the Son is to experience the love that comes through the Son by the

Spirit—love is from God (1 John 4:7). Also, life in the Son entails the Son’s operating his

love within (1 John 4:12–13; cf. John 15:4–6, 9–10). And, finally, having the life of the

Son should naturally result in an outward life of love like the Son’s. Hence, the pattern of

Christ’s love characterizes Christian love because of Christ’s presence in believers. By

the Spirit, believers are called and empowered to love with Christ’s affection given the

new life they are given in him, who is the source of all life and love.

Union with Christ, therefore, provides a solid foundation for biblical

counseling ministry. The truth and love that must characterize counseling conversations

are patterned after Christ because of his very presence by the Spirit. Christian exhortation

and comfort—both nouthetic and parakaletic aspects of wise counseling—derive their

force not only from the imitation of Christ and the replication of his truth and love from a

distance but in fact from the very Christ who makes himself present in and through the

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saints in whom he dwells by the Spirit.

Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley describe well this

reality of Christian ministry:

A minister’s heart must be open so the church may see the affections of Christ

moving us to action. We are not making a display of ourselves; we are displaying

the humanity and compassion of Christ to His people, His sense of our great need

and His sorrow for our sins. Because of our union with Christ, Christ’s sufferings

and death abound in us, so that His life is manifested in us, and brings comfort to

others in their sufferings (2 Cor. 1:3–6; 4:8–12). The display of Christ’s suffering in

us as ministers is a profound mystery, but it is also powerfully real.

Ministry, including biblical counseling, must be Christ-like because of the Christ with

whom ministers and counselors are united. Their ministry in truth and love outwardly

displays Christ and his glories within their hearts.

Now, the love of God was manifested in that he sent the Son into the world to

give life through his death (1 John 4:9; cf. Eph 5:2, 25; Gal 2:20). God’s love in Christ

was voluntary, non-contingent, and sacrificial (1 John 4:10). As Colin Kruse comments,

“The demonstration of God’s love was not a mere sending of his one and only Son into

the world; it was the sending of his Son into the world ‘that we might live through

him.’”

So, by participation in Christ, the same love is manifested in the church,

particularly in counseling conversations: Biblical counselors do not minister out of

compulsion or because of something they can earn; they share their lives, entering the

story of their counselees and sacrificing their resources for the good of others. In

embracing their counselees in their concrete, particular sins and sufferings, biblical

counselors make evidence of the presence of Christ.

Although Jay Adams has been known for his use of “nouthetic” to qualify his counseling,

Robert Kellemen has stressed that biblical counseling should also be “parakaletic.” While the first term

denotes orientation for the battle against sin, the second emphasizes comfort for enduring suffering. See

Robert W. Kellemen, Gospel Conversations: How to Care Like Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015),

89, 103.

Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, “Authentic Ministry: Servanthood, Tears, and

Temptations,” Puritan Reformed Journal 4, no. 1 (January 2012): 271.

Colin G. Kruse, The Letters of John, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids:

Eerdmans, 2000), 170.

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Analogously, Christian ministry takes the form of the incarnation: entering the

world of another in order to bring about redemption.

To be emphatic—that can only be

said analogously. Although God indeed calls Christians to enter into the suffering and

struggles of one another (Rom 12:15; 1 Cor 12:26), the use of “incarnational”

terminology must be nuanced so as not to promote dogmatic confusion. The Christian

love that drives ministerial cooperation in life hardships and battles against sin is never

salvific in itself. Biblical counselors—or any minister of Christ—cannot engage in

substitutionary suffering. Todd Billings warns,

While certain aspects of “incarnational ministry” are commendable, this chapter

critiques its basic assumption: that the incarnation is a model for ministry such that

Christians should imitate the act of the eternal Word becoming incarnate. To the

contrary, at the center of the Christian gospel is a claim that the incarnation of the

Word in the person of Jesus Christ is a unique and unrepeatable event. As such, the

incarnation is not an “ongoing process” to be repeated or a “model” to be copied in

Christian ministry. Instead, the incarnation should set our focus directly upon Jesus

Christ, the servant, to whom Christians have been united. Moreover, the ministry

outcomes sought by “incarnational ministry” can be realized and refined through

seeing that the imperative to have “the same mind” as “Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5) fits

within Paul’s matrix of union with Christ.

Union with Christ and participation in him offers a stronger doctrinal foundation for

Christ-like love in ministry. Jesus’s work in the incarnation was more than exemplary; its

unique nature preserves all redemption power necessary in Christ. And yet, because

Christ is in his people by the Spirit, the church ministerially works as a channel of that

power with truth and love. Billings explains,

As ones united to Christ, we participate in the Spirit’s ongoing work of bearing

witness to Christ and creating a new humanity in which the dividing walls between

cultures are overcome in Christ. Thus, today’s church should replace its talk of

See, e.g., Kellemen, Gospel Conversations, 111; Robert D. Jones, “The Counseling Process,

Step One: Enter Their World,” in The Gospel for Disordered Lives: An Introduction to Christ-Centered

Biblical Counseling, by Robert D. Jones, Kristin L. Kellen, and Rob Green (Nashville: B&H Academic,

2021), 161–63.

J. Todd Billings, Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church

(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), 124.

172

“incarnational ministry” with the more biblically faithful and theologically dynamic

language of ministry as participation in Christ.

Although Billings would seem to prefer to rid away with any use of

“incarnation” for references to ministry, his emphasis on union with Christ does not

exclude the pattern of Christian love seen in the work of the incarnate Son. On the

contrary, union with Christ is what drives Christ-like love in believers. Biblical

counseling, therefore, shows a love analogous to the love demonstrated in the incarnation

as Christ’s body, the church, makes itself present in the specific context of those who

need help. Entering another’s world with serving humility marks the work of Christ and

then of Christ in the church (Mark 10:43–45; Phil 2:5; 2 Cor 8:8–9)—which makes the

analogy a good and fitting one because of union with Christ. The analogy, however, must

preserve the great conceptual distance between, on the one hand, the work of the biblical

counselor entering a counselee’s world to demonstrate redemptive love and bring the

redemptive message and, on the other hand, the unique work of the divine Son taking up

humanity to redeem it.

Union with Christ is also the foundation for the true care of souls in the view

of Martin Bucer (1491–1551). For the Reformer, union with Christ defines the nature of

the church and, as a result, her ministry: “The church of Christ is the assembly and

fellowship of those who are gathered from the world and united in Christ our Lord

through his Spirit and word, to be a body and members of one another, each having his

office and work for the general good of the whole body and all its members.”

In Christ,

Christians are joined and held together in the highest love.

They have total and perfect

unity as one body because they partake of one Spirit, the Spirit of Christ:

Billings, Union with Christ, 124.

Martin Bucer, Concerning the True Care of Souls, trans. Peter Beale (Carlisle, PA: Banner

of Truth, 2009), 1.

Bucer, Concerning the True Care of Souls, 3.

173

For what fellowship and community could be more united in hear, mind, words and

every activity than that which is nothing other than the body of Christ itself, than

those who live only by the Spirit of Christ, with no-one seeking his own interests

but everyone seeking Christ the Lord alone, when no-one but Christ counts for

anything?

For Bucer, the fellowship Christians enjoy is not only the closest and most united but also

“the truest and keenest, with everyone demonstrating to the highest degree adroitness and

zeal in advising and assisting one another in all things, with everyone regarding the need

of others as in the fullest and most real sense his own and taking it to his heart.”

Because believers are united to Christ in one body, they are united to each other as

members of that body. So, everyone in Christ is always affected by the experience and

feeling of another, a dynamic that is only possible because of the presence and operation

of the Spirit of Christ in them.

Bucer thus concludes, “Christians are to look after one

another most faithfully not only in spiritual but also in temporal matters, so that no one

among them should lack any truly good thing.”

Because they are together in Christ,

Christians care for each other.

Therefore, the mutual love of believers consistently reveals the nature of their

community, which is formed by the Spirit through that blessed union with Christ.

Christian love, for Bucer, characteristically marks the process of sanctification and the

presence of the indwelling Spirit, confirming the faith as its corollary.

Teaching on

Bucer’s pastoral theology, Andrew Purves points out love as a prominent theme:

“Christian love is a love that always turns away from oneself and towards others; because

the Christian is, by definition, secure in Christ, he or she need take no heed for himself or

Bucer, Concerning the True Care of Souls, 5.

See Bucer, Concerning the True Care of Souls, 5.

Bucer, Concerning The true Care of Souls, 6, 211.

Andrew Purves, Pastoral Theology in the Classical Tradition (Louisville: Westminster John

Knox Press, 2001), 82.

174

herself. As such, however, Christian love is not mere altruism, but is the good work

towards and for others that is God’s will for them.”

The all-satisfying presence of Christ

by the Spirit frees the soul to the care of another.

Purves explains elsewhere that Christian ministry is the result of union with

Christ, taking a cruciform shape as that union involves dying to self in order to be raised

with and in Christ.

For Purves, the church’s ministry is not a separate ministry from that

of Christ. As the church shares in the mission of Jesus Christ, he establishes his presence

through her: “Wherever Christ is, there is the church and her ministry.”

Christian

ministry, therefore, “takes its essential form and content from the servant-existence and

mission of Jesus.”

In his book Reconstructing Pastoral Theology, Purves argues that the

practice of the church in speaking forth and living out the gospel brings to expression the

meaning of life in union with Christ.

His emphasis on union with Christ in ministry

derives from his perception that without this doctrine, “all pastoral work is cast adrift

from the actuality of God’s ministry.”

100

For Purves, “Jesus Christ as the mission of God

to and for us is the ground of and the basis for the church’s ministries of care.”

101

Without

union with Christ, the ministry of the church is empty—and so is biblical counseling.

Purves, Pastoral Theology in the Classical Tradition, 82.

See Andrew Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry: Surrendering Our Ambitions to the Service

of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2007), 100–121. Philip Ryken has also written on the

essentiality of union with Christ in ministry and its cruciform-shaping impact: “Enlivened and empowered

by our crucified and risen Lord, we carry every aspect of pastoral ministry in union with Christ.” Philip G.

Ryken, “Union with Christ,” in Theology for Ministry: How Doctrine Affects Pastoral Life and Practice,

ed. Chad Van Dixhoorn, William R. Edwards, and John C. A. Ferguson (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2022),

172.

Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry, 11.

Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry, 110.

See Andrew Purves, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox

Press, 2004), xx.

100

Purves, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology, xxi.

101

Purves, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology, xviii.

175

Now, the sharing in the mission of Christ happens as the result of God’s

sending the Son and the Spirit in demonstration of his eternal love.

102

There is no doubt:

It is the Holy Spirit who joins believers to Christ and thus brings them to share in his

ministry.

103

Hence, apart from union with Christ by the Spirit, the church is left without a

ministry: “Outside of abiding in Christ, we have no ministry,” declares Purves.

104

Nothing can be done apart from Christ, the Vine into which believers are engrafted,

leaving no room for human autonomy in ministry.

105

Thus, ministers lovingly engage

because they are in union with Christ, a participatory reality that is itself a manifestation

of God’s love, mercy, and grace.

106

God’s act of love in uniting believers to Christ by the

Spirit transforms their minds, converts their wills, and amends their lives externally.

107

Therefore, love in Christian ministry is the outward expression of the internal

determinative influence of the love received from God, which is operative and efficient in

believers.

For Purves, being in Christ implies knowledge of God and a new relationship

with him. Looking at 1 John 4:8, Purves sees love as the criterion for Christian faith and

life in union with Christ. There is no righteousness received or true knowledge of God if

love for him is not present.

108

According to Purves, divine love defines the relationship of

Christ with the Father, and through union with him, believers share in that love. God’s

actions to save are a movement that, through union with Christ by the Spirit, joins

believers to God so that they may share in the eternal love of the Trinity. The love of God

102

See Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry, 113–15, 117.

103

See Purves, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology, 1, 4.

104

Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry, 119.

105

See Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry, 118–19.

106

See Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry, 120.

107

See Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry, 120–21.

108

See Purves, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology, 93.

176

is a love that shares. Thus, Purves concludes, “Sharing in Christ’s love of the Father

means sharing in what that love led him to do and taking up our cross daily and following

him.”

109

Ministers love because their new life in communion with the Trinity is a life of

love.

Purves also highlights how in the ministry of care love is manifested through

presence. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus continues to be Immanuel, God with us.

110

Since

ministers act in union with Christ, they make themselves present to comfort the suffering

and to strengthen the weak.

111

Thus, the work of pastoral care involves the mediation of

God’s comfort amid affliction and guidance in the admonitions of the Lord.

112

Yet, this

competence for consolation and exhortation is a gift (cf. 2 Cor 3:6): “Ministerial

competence is both charismatic and covenantal: it is a gift given by God, and it operates

in such a way that attention is directed away from the minister to its ground and source in

the promise, faithfulness, and act of God that are given in, through, and as Jesus

Christ.”

113

The ability to care found in the church is not a fruit of self-development but

primarily a gift of grace received in Christ by the Spirit. In him, true love is possible, and

true love shares life.

Biblical counseling is the work of ministry found in the interpersonal speech of

believers as expressions of their loving orientation toward another in the midst of a

personal or relational problem. As such, biblical counselors effectively work from their

union with Christ not only as they communicate the truth of the knowledge of Christ,

which is received in him, but also as they exteriorize the love in which they abide and

that abides in them. When Christ by the Spirit dwells in believers—biblical counselors, in

109

Purves, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology, 94.

110

See Purves, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology, 193, 211.

111

See Purves, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology, 193–94.

112

See Purves, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology, 204.

113

Purves, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology, 208.

177

this case—they speak in love. They outwardly care because they care inwardly. The

suffering of others draws them to action and speech in order to alleviate their pain by the

divine power that works within themselves. Others’ struggles with sin invite them to

minister the grace of the gospel that exonerates conscience and transforms persons, a

grace they have received themselves and continue to enjoy in Christ. As biblical

counselors are present with truth and love in the hardships and struggles of their

counselees, Christ is present in them with his grace that rescues and redeems. That is,

biblical counselors participate in the life of Christ before they take up the task of

participating in the life of their counselees. These participations are of different natures—

the first drives the second. That is, participation in Christ drives biblical counselors to

share in the world of their counselees in a Christ-like, Christ-filled way. And this is

because Christ is present in them, in love, by his Spirit.

Summary

Christ is the life of Christians. In him, by the Spirit, love is received

abundantly, as believers are caught up in the dynamics of the trinitarian life. The Spirit

unites believers to Christ, and consequently, they fructify with love, overflowing the love

they have received from God and continue to experience in Christ. This sharing of love

drives any ministry of care, including biblical counseling. Biblical counselors are

identified not only by the ministerial activity in which they engage within the church but

most fundamentally by the Spirit of Christ, who renews them to speak in the love of

Christ to the people Christ redeemed. Thus, biblical counseling takes place as an

expression of pneumatological love. As participants of the divine nature, biblical

counselors come to love with the affections of Christ. So, the speech and the love that

characterize their counseling have Christ himself as the origin and abundant fountain for

continual care. Thus, biblical counseling is participatory not only in truth but also in love.

178

Conclusion

Love must permeate any ministry that strives to be Christian. “If pastoral

ministry is anything at all, it’s a ministry of love,” Harold Senkbeil describes.

114

The best

ministers have to offer Christ’s flock does not come from themselves but from Christ. His

love operates effectively in the church and reaches his goals as biblical counselors—and

Christians, in general—extend the love they have received and continue to experience in

Christ by the Spirit. Ministry is the work of Christ with and through his ministers whom

his Spirit indwells.

115

Union with Christ, therefore, is the spiritual reality that lies at the

center of the creation of the church and her ministerial responsibilities. Hence, there is no

biblical counseling, no speaking in love, apart from union with Christ.

In sum, any ministry of the church happens in Christ by the Spirit. The Holy

Spirit, who was poured out in love over the church, unites believers with Christ, bringing

them to participate in the divine love, thus empowering them to overflow with that same

love. Love is essentially a pneumatological reality, a spiritual fruit produced by the

operative action of the indwelling Spirit of Christ. He communicates Christ’s virtues to

those in whom he abides. And so, the question that summarizes the Johannine appeal to

love sounds all the louder: “If he who is love abides in you—and you say you abide in

him—how can you not love?” Biblical counseling must happen in love if it is worthy to

be called biblical or even Christian. If Christ is present, then love is manifested. United to

Christ, biblical counselors must love with the affections of Christ, and that does not come

from them but from Christ himself by his Spirit. Biblical counseling is participatory both

in the truth that it speaks and in the love that contextualizes and drives the church’s

speech.

114

Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart (Bellingham, WA:

Lexham Press, 2019), xx.

115

See also Senkbeil, The Care of Souls, 7.

179

The next chapter will explore the implications of seeing biblical counseling as

participatory conversations. Specifically, it will expand on how this theological portrayal

of biblical counseling from union with Christ underscores the insufficiency of individual

counselors, the inadequacy of formulaic methodologies, and—most importantly—

counselors’ need for a life of dependence and prayer.

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CHAPTER 6

PARTICIPATORY CONVERSATIONS: THE BODY

THAT PRAYS AND COUNSELS

Participatory conversations are dialogical interactions that happen by virtue of

the truth of Christ and the love of Christ in which conversants participate. Those whom

the Spirit indwells engage each other with a discourse that is Christian in speech and

attitude. They do so because of the Spirit of Christ, who enables them to participate in the

very perfections of Christ through that blessed union with their Savior. In Christ, by the

Spirit, they hear and receive truth in love. As a result, they know the truth of God and

discern wisdom with Christ’s mind. They also have their wills satisfied and reoriented

toward God and others with the affections of Christ. And so, having heard from God,

they speak and listen to each other in Christ, thus manifesting that profound reality they

enjoy by his Spirit.

Biblical counseling constitutes participatory conversations because it happens

only by union with Christ through the Spirit. The truth and love that biblical counselors

offer their counselees in order to help them respond faithfully to specific problems are not

theirs properly but shared in Christ by the Spirit. As such, biblical counseling is a type of

participatory conversation in which a Christian shares the truth and love partaken in

Christ by the Spirit with a counselee, aiming to discern heart motivations, model wisdom,

and guide godly responses to circumstantial challenges through the remedying message

of the gospel of Christ, who is himself present in those conversing. The participatory

Gregory of Nazianzus summarizes this goal: “The scope of our art [as physicians of the heart]

is to provide the soul with wings, to rescue it from the world and give it to God, and to watch over that

which is in His image, if it abides, to take it by the hand, if it is in danger, or restore it, if ruined, to make

Christ to dwell in the heart by the Spirit: and, in short, to deify, and bestow heavenly bliss upon, one who

belongs to the heavenly host.” Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 2.22 (NPNF2, 7:209).

181

reality of union with Christ by the Spirit allows counselors to discern, minister, and

model wisdom in the particulars of their counselee’s problems.

This chapter will outline the theological implications for the praxis of biblical

counseling as participatory conversations. More specifically, the goal is to consider how a

greater awareness of the reality of union with Christ impacts the attitude and practice of

those offering biblical counseling. First, looking at Ephesians 4:1–16, I will consider how

a theological view of biblical counseling that understands the relevance of union with

Christ results in a greater understanding of the insufficiency of the individual counselor

and the necessity of ecclesial involvement. Second, by considering Ephesians 5:18–21,

and with the help of Gregory the Great and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I will explore how the

organic aspect of union with Christ counters any formulaic view of biblical counseling

methodologies and underscores the need for a relational approach to counseling

interactions within the context of the church community. Third, beginning with

Ephesians 6:18 and following the New Testament teaching on prayer, and also in

conversation with John Calvin and Grant Macaskill, I will address the themes of

dependence and prayer in counseling as the natural manifestation of participatory

awareness. If truth and love come to the counselor from Christ by the Spirit, then the

practice of biblical counseling requires dependence exercised through prayer. By the end

of this chapter, it should become clear that understanding biblical counseling as

participatory conversations will lead counselors to greater collective engagement for the

task of care in the church, to deepen their investment in organic relationality, and to

express their persevering dependence through constant prayer. Attention to union with

Christ in the practice of biblical counseling provides counselors the proper perspective of

their ministerial task within the church context, of their methods, and of their need to

pray.

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It Takes a Church to Care

When biblical counseling is embraced from the perspective that any ministerial

task happens by virtue of union with Christ, the collective aspect of care takes on new

relevance. In other words, the individual biblical counselor, standing on the sufficiency of

Scripture, recognizes his or her own limitations, natural and spiritual, and thus yields

space to the activity of other members of the body of Christ in the ministry of care. The

counselee is not only a patient but also a brother or sister who belongs to the same body

as a member who needs care through the gifts the Spirit distributes to the church (Rom

12:5–8). Moreover, the activity of counseling is itself insufficient since the life of the

church takes form both publicly and privately. The conceptualization of biblical

counseling as participatory conversations helps contextualize this ministry within the

broader mission of the whole church, composed of members who are in Christ by the

Spirit who endows them with manifold gifts useful in various contexts of care.

The argument of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4 stresses this ministerial

development of the church in light of her unified identity. In his prayer (Eph 3:14–21),

Paul asks that God may grant the Ephesians to be strengthened in their inner being by the

Holy Spirit so that, by faith, Christ may dwell in their hearts (3:16–17a). And love, as

Calvin states, is the fruit of Christ’s dwelling within.

So, the indwelling of Christ grants

believers to be “rooted and grounded in love” (3:17b), and, with love, he communicates

to them his wisdom—for, again as Calvin comments, “the love of Christ contains within

itself the whole of wisdom.”

It is this foundation of love received in Christ by the Spirit

that enables the collective comprehension—“with all the saints”—of Christ’s love, which

John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians, trans.

William Pringle, Calvin’s Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 262. Calvin

further explains: “Paul desires that it should be rooted and grounded,—thoroughly fixed in our minds, so as

to resemble a well-founded building or deeply-planted tree. The true meaning is, that our roots ought to be

so deeply planted, and our foundation so firmly laid in love, that nothing will be able to shake us. It is idle

to infer from these words, that love is the foundation and root of our salvation” (263).

Calvin, Commentaries on Galatians and Ephesians, 264.

183

fills them with “all the fullness of God” (3:18–19). “By picturing love as the root system

of the believer’s tree and as the foundation of the believer’s building, Paul prays that love

will secure the integrity and growth of the believer’s life in Christ,” Constantine

Campbell explains.

And yet, that life in Christ is lived out in the church community, as

Paul highlights next.

Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14–21 concludes a larger section of his epistle in

which he describes the church’s identity (Eph 1–3).

Most fundamentally, the church

consists of those who are in Christ by faith (Eph 1:1, 3; 2:6, 10, 13; 3:6, 11–12).

Ephesians 4, Paul transitions his discourse to call the church to live according to that

identity.

To live in a manner worthy of being in Christ means to live in harmony with the

knowledge and love for which Paul had prayed at the end of chapter 3. The church’s call

is to live with humility and gentleness, mutual patience and love, and eagerness to

maintain and display the Spirit who binds them together in peace (4:2–3). Paul’s

justification for this calling is simple: In Christ, the church exists as one. The church is

one because she is a single organism, a single body of Christ, united by the single Spirit

of God (4:4). This oneness extends in that the church is subject to the authority of one

Lord, holding one faith and baptism and clinging as children of the one and the same

Father (4:5). It is, therefore, no surprise that the church has historically confessed one,

holy, catholic, and apostolic church.

Constantine R. Campbell, The Letter to the Ephesians, Pillar New Testament Commentary

(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2023), 154.

See Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker

Academic, 2002), 502; Clinton E. Arnold, Ephesians, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New

Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 228.

For the interpretation of “faithful in Christ” in Ephesians 1:1, see Campbell, The Letter to the

Ephesians, 37.

Frank Thielman refers to this shift as a “movement from theology to ethics.” Frank Thielman,

Ephesians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010),

251.

184

Now, Paul’s initial emphasis on oneness serves as the ground for his

exposition on the variety of functions and offices exercised in the service of the body of

Christ.

There is one body but many members (cf. Rom 12:4–5; 1 Cor 12:12–14).

According to his grace, Christ gives gifts to the church—apostles, prophets, evangelists,

shepherds and teachers—so that in that diversity the whole one body may be equipped for

their common work of ministry (Eph 4:7–12). The aim of the work of ministry is further

explained as the building up of Christ’s body (4:12b), and this is the work of all

Christians.

Therefore, the church grows in maturity as she finds unity in faith and

knowledge of the Son (4:13) and also in love (4:16). In that context, Paul summarizes

that the church is to grow into maturity in Christ as her members serve each other with

truth and love (4:15).

Two elements in this passage are worth highlighting for the sake of this

project’s argument. First, the essential unity of the church sustains her diversity in

ministerial action. Paul summarizes this reality in 4:16 when he states that the church’s

growth comes from Christ, in whom believers are joined together as each member does

his or her work.

In Campbell’s words,

The body metaphor is Paul’s primary image in this letter for depicting the unified

people of Christ, and it is a key motif in this section (4:1–16). It is a brilliant

metaphor that underscores the essential importance of unity, while also demanding

diversity—a body must be unified to function properly, and it depends on its

diversity of parts (cf. 1 Cor 12:12–31). Immediately after the “oneness list,” Paul

Campbell, The Letter to the Ephesians, 166.

For a detailed presentation of the possible interpretations of the prepositional phrases in

Ephesians 4:12, see Hoehner, Ephesians, 547–51. Given the theological context, Hoehner’s conclusion

seems most plausible:

This view proposes that the first preposition (πρός) gives the purpose to the main verb ἔδωκεν (v.

11), the second preposition (εἰς) depends on the first preposition, and the third preposition (εἰς)

depends on the second preposition. . . . The progression indicates, therefore, that he gave gifted

people for the immediate purpose of preparing all the saints with the goal of preparing them for the

work of the ministry, which in turn has the final goal of building up the body of Christ. (548–49)

For a similar conclusion, see Campbell, The Letter to the Ephesians, 181–82.

See Campbell, The Letter to the Ephesians, 166; Arnold, Ephesians, 270; Thielman,

Ephesians, 286–87.

185

turns his attention to the vital importance of diversity for building and strengthening

the unity of the body (4:7–16).

The beauty of the body of Christ is most visible in the unity maintained in harmonic

diversity.

Just like oneness, diversity also constitutes a gift of grace: Christ gives

diverse people to bless the church in leadership (4:11) and in the basic functioning of the

body (4:16).

Different cultures and ethnicities, different gifts and abilities, different

personalities and personal histories—no matter the differences, what unites the body is

more fundamental than what distinguishes the members. In Christ, diversity exists and

cooperates in oneness.

Such diversity is not only beautiful to contemplate as a miraculous reality but

also necessary for the work of ministry. As Campbell puts it, “The diversity of the body

is essential for its ongoing unity and growth.”

The differences are necessary in the

church, just as the members of the body need each other. The ministry work of other

church members is not a mere possibility but a necessity. From Christ, the church grows

as each member works properly (4:16), according to the measure of grace received.

Clinton Arnold explains this reality:

The source of supply by which each member of the body serves the others

ultimately comes from Christ himself, who powerfully works in and through the

various members. . . . The expression “in accordance with the powerful working”

(κατʼ ἐνέργειαν) points to divine enablement, not to any inherent power and ability

possessed by the individual members.

Divine enablement is like the life that flows from a head to the members, and the

nourishment it dispenses in each part is vital for the whole. In the words of Calvin, “All

the life or health which is diffused through the members flows from the head; so that the

Campbell, The Letter to the Ephesians, 166.

See Hoehner, Ephesians, 522.

See Campbell, The Letter to the Ephesians, 177.

Campbell, The Letter to the Ephesians, 162.

Arnold, Ephesians, 271.

186

members occupy a subordinate rank.”

Accordingly, Calvin concludes, “By the

distribution made, the limited share of each renders the communication between all the

members absolutely necessary.”

Therefore, diversity in ministry is necessary, for the

body functions as each part accomplishes its work properly, as God’s grace redeems in

Christ all personal differences and, by the Spirit, empowers diverse individuals to use

their particularities for his glory.

The unity in diversity of the body of Christ attests to the priesthood of all

believers. The doctrine of the priesthood of all believers is a declaration of identity and

position. In Christ, all believers are God’s priests. Commenting on 1 Peter 2:9, Martin

Luther is direct: “When St. Peter says here: ‘You are a royal priesthood,’ this is

tantamount to saying: ‘You are Christians.’”

Or, as Uche Anzor and Hank Voss affirm,

“Being a priest is at the core of what it means to be a Christian. It is an identity, not

simply a set of lofty but optional tasks one might perform should he or she choose.

Priesthood connotes a dignity before God and a responsibility to creation.”

Thus, the

priesthood of the church is an essential part of her new identity as a people in Christ, and

this identity is lived out collectively and individually in diverse oneness. The fact that the

church exists in Christ while also residing in the present world provides her with a

strategic position for such representative functioning, enabling the work of ministry.

Christ, the perfect High Priest, is the source and the power of the priestly work that the

church ministerially executes as one in him, each member working by the Spirit

according to the measure of his gifting. As such, the priesthood of all believers is a

participatory reality.

Calvin, Commentaries on Galatians and Ephesians, 288.

Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, vol. 30, The Catholic Epistles, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan and

Walter A. Hansen (Saint Louis: Concordia, 1999), 64.

Uche Anizor and Hank Voss, Representing Christ: A Vision for the Priesthood of All

Believers (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2016), 15.

187

The second element worth highlighting is that truth and love are not items on

opposite sides of a scale. Instead, they are intrinsic qualities of God that are increasingly

manifested in the church’s maturing process, having Christ as the source. In Ephesians

4:15, the verbal participle ἀληθεύοντες complemented by the prepositional clause ἐν

ἀγάπῃ explains how the church is to build herself up into the headship of Christ: truthing

in love.

Although the translation of ἀληθεύοντες has been debated, given the fact that

the English language does not have a verbal form that directly corresponds to the Greek

term, the majority of modern English translations of the Bible have decided for the use of

“speaking the truth” (NIV, CSB, ESV, NASB, KJV, NLT, NRSV). Some exceptions are

the NET, which uses “practicing the truth,” and the YLT, which opts for “being true.”

The textual context suggests a contrast between ἀληθεύοντες and the immature children

who are carried about by doctrinal error and deceitful schemes (4:14). In light of this

context, Arnold argues, in yet another way, that “‘confessing the truth’ is a better

translation . . . ; it conveys the more specific sense of accepting the truth of the gospel,

speaking it out loud in the corporate gatherings of worship, talking about it with fellow

believers, and upholding it firmly.”

Harold Hoehner goes further to defend that in

Ephesians, the idea of “being truthful” makes the best sense of the word, as it emphasizes

the transparent reality of the character of believers in conduct and speech in contrast to

those who suppress the truth (Rom 1:18) through cunning and deceit.

Hence,

ἀληθεύοντες seems to indicate more than a general speaking—a confession that is

affirmed and embodied for all its transformative and ethical force. After all, the argument

that follows in the epistle is grounded on “learning Christ” and being “taught in him,” for

Arnold, Ephesians, 269; Thielman, Ephesians, 285.

Arnold, Ephesians, 269.

See Hoehner, Ephesians, 565.

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“the truth is in Jesus” (Eph 4:20–21).

He is the transformative truth that renews being. It

is from that empowering truth that lives within that Christians speak truth in love.

The truth of Christ is to be not only confessed and communicated but also

followed after and lived out in love. The coherence of the Christian faith is displayed in

that those who confess the gospel live with all humility, gentleness, patience, and mutual

love—a lifestyle worthy of the calling the church received (Eph 4:1–2). Christ is the

source and pattern of that love, just as of truth. The body that grows in Christ is the body

that grows in love; the temple built upon Christ is built on the foundation of the love that

continues to abide in it. Campbell explains the temple-body metaphor Paul uses (cf.

4:12): “The effect of the mixed metaphor is to remind us that the body of Christ is also a

temple in which God dwells by the Holy Spirit, built on the foundation of the apostles

and prophets (cf. 4:11). But this temple is not static or fixed; it is a living, dynamic bodily

entity.”

In verses 15 and 16, Paul stretches the metaphor to highlight Christ as the

source and pattern for the growth the church must seek through truth in love. Again,

Campbell is helpful here:

In Ephesians 4:15–16, Paul again manipulates the body metaphor to create yet new

meaning. It is striking that he exhorts the body to grow into Christ, the head, while

also affirming that the body grows from Christ. Clearly he is stretching the metaphor

beyond its anatomical limits, and does so for the sake of conveying certain concepts.

To speak of growing into the head likely refers to growing in conformity to Christ.

Growing from Christ reinforces the fact that Christ is the source of his body (see

also Col 2:19). He establishes the church and stimulates its growth. The image that

the reader is caused to visualize is somewhat absurd—a head with a body growing

out of it, which simultaneously is growing into it—but the affect is to spur a

See Hoehner, Ephesians, 594. Similarly, Michael Gorman teaches,

This phrase, pregnant with meaning, communicates one of the fundamental obligations believers

have to one another. For this letter, of course, the truth is “in Jesus,” as 4:21 will say. Truth is

ultimately the revelation of God’s eternal plan in Christ, as this letter has repeatedly emphasized. To

practice truth in love is to bear witness to Jesus, in all of life, including speech (cf. 4:25), in a manner

shaped by his cruciform love (cf. 5:2). (Michael J. Gorman, Apostle of the Crucified Lord: A

Theological Introduction to Paul and His Letters [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003], 598)

Campbell, The Letter to the Ephesians, 182.

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profound, new thought about the body, in which its goal for growth (conformity to

Christ) and its source for growth are underscored.

This conformity stressed by Paul is measured by love: to imitate God is to walk in love as

Christ did (Eph 5:1–2; cf. 5:25–27). In turn, that love shows its origin in its divine

uniqueness. And so, Christ is identified as both the pattern and source of Christian love.

He is the example and fountain of the love that the members of his body are to display to

each other.

Therefore, the unity of the church is found in Christ. In him, the members of

the church cooperate toward organic growth, for the life of Christ is in them by the Spirit,

full of loving grace and truth (cf. 1:14). As the church ministers with truth in love, she

does not enable participation, for that is the work of God’s Spirit. And yet, because the

ministry of the church is one of truth in love by participation in Christ, she is the peculiar

place for one to hear and receive the good news that makes one wise through

participation in the changeless wisdom of Christ and thus the peculiar place for one to

experience the love that has been poured out through the Spirit.

As John Murray

explains, “Love is fed by the increasing apprehension of the glory of him who is love,

and of him in whom the love of God is manifested,” and so “the growth of the individual

does not take place except in the fellowship of the church as the fellowship of the

Spirit.”

As a masterpiece of God, the church—the whole church—is necessary. As one

organism, the body of Christ acts in oneness with its head. The totus Christus, head and

body, manifests to the world in diverse oneness the truth of the love of God in Christ,

which is heard and received by the Spirit, leading to an essential transformation of

Constantine R. Campbell, “Metaphor, Reality, and Union with Christ,” in “In Christ” in

Paul: Explorations in Paul’s Theology of Union and Participation, ed. Michael J. Thate, Kevin J.

Vanhoozer, and Constantine R. Campbell (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 71.

See Christopher R. J. Holmes, A Theology of the Christian Life: Imitating and Participating

in God (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021), 152.

John Murray, “Progressive Sanctification,” in Collected Writings of John Murray, vol. 2,

Systematic Theology (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1977), 299.

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sinners—a new creation that happens by incorporation into Christ.

In that body, the

members need each other, and all need their head.

Unity, Diversity, and Biblical Counseling

Speaking the truth in love is the task of all Christian ministry and discipleship,

not only counseling. The efforts of biblical counselors for the work of ministry cannot

stand alone but, instead, require a comprehensive ecclesial involvement. This

comprehensiveness involves the ministry of other Christians with different competencies

as well as other liturgical celebrations of the collected gathering (e.g., worship services,

small groups). These two dimensions unfold the unity and diversity of the church in both

private and public settings, and they allow counselees to be exposed to truth and to

experience love by people other than their counselor. Awareness of union with Christ

increases the confidence of biblical counselors to encourage this engagement in other

circles outside the counseling room. Christ’s life flows in his whole church, filled with

truth and love. Of course, biblical counselors must exercise discernment to help their

counselees get involved in healthy ecclesial environments. However, awareness of the

body’s union with Christ keeps counselors attentive to opportunities to expose counselees

to the sound ministry of Christ’s faithful church. That ministry of the church as a whole is

necessary if union with Christ is of any ecclesiological relevance. In union with Christ,

counselors recognize their limitations and insufficiencies, encouraging their counselees to

hear from a variety of voices, receive a variety of cares from other members, and engage

Augustine conceptualized the totus Christus, the whole Christ, as the organic composition of

head and body in that union of Christ and his church. In his words, Christ can be understood and named “in

some manner or other as the whole Christ in the fullness of the Church, that is as head and body, according

to the completeness of a certain perfect man (Eph 4:13), the man in whom we are each of us members.”

Augustine of Hippo, Sermons 341–400, ed. John E. Rotelle, trans. Edmund Hill, vol. 10 of The Works of

Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, pt 3, Sermons (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press,

1992), Sermon 341.1 (Hill, 1). It is worth noting, however, that a Protestant affirmation of the totus

Christus must preserve the distinction between Christ and the church to guard against any confusion of

natures.

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in a variety of worship experiences, for they are conscious of the glories of the redeemed

diversity in the church. These cited varieties require further elaboration.

First, biblical counselors who understand their union with Christ will allow and

encourage other voices in the care process. The proverbial multitude of counselors

communicates wisdom (cf. Prov 11:14; 15:22)—especially when that wisdom is

understood in the light of Christ and his indwelling presence by the Spirit. For many local

congregations, this variety of voices begins with a governance constituted by a plurality

of elders. But even in small congregations, the priesthood of all believers in union with

Christ permits a general affirmation of spiritual competence for the ministry of truth in

love (Rom 15:14). Union with Christ would, therefore, strengthen Jay Adams’s defense

of the believer’s unique competence for counseling against other views that privilege

professionalization.

Nonetheless, while union with Christ strengthens the argument for an ecclesial

universal competency, it guards against an expectation of uniformity of skill. In union

with Christ by the Spirit, the church derives its universal competency from that which is

common in them: Christ and the communications of his virtues by the Spirit. Yet, the

reality of the indwelling Christ does not erase differentiations. Instead, the Lord redeems

personal distinctives and puts them to his service. More practically, the different stories

and testimonies, the different influences and personalities, as well as other aspects of

diversity can play particular roles in God’s greater transforming work in an individual’s

life. Different voices may be distinguished through their unique timbres. Some timbres

may sound better to one person, while others may be most deeply moved by listening to

another. This diversity of timbres, in Christ, becomes a glorious choir that harmoniously

sings one and the same message.

See Jay E. Adams, Competent to Counsel (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), 59–62.

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Second, biblical counselors must recognize that union with Christ unfolds into

a variety of care in the church. The unity enjoyed in Christ brings members together.

They weep with those who are weeping because the pain of one member is the pain of the

whole body (Rom 12:15). They rejoice with those who are rejoicing because the blessing

to one part is a blessing upon the whole organism to which they belong. In the words of

John Fesko,

If Christ indwells all believers, and all believers are a part of Christ’s body, then no

believer who suffers should ever suffer alone. . . . If we had the opportunity to

minister to Christ in His suffering, would we not have jumped at the chance? Yet,

because all believers are united to Christ by faith through the indwelling presence of

the Holy Spirit, we have that opportunity now.

The unique ability of the church to minister comfort flows from her life in Christ. Thus,

awareness of union with Christ drives the culture of care that must characterize healthy

churches.

Additionally, the church offers comfort in various ways as her members pass

on the comfort they have received from God in their particular experiences (2 Cor 1:3–4).

The Pauline logic—that God comforts his people so they can comfort others with the

comfort they received—shines most brightly when the bond through which this comfort

is shared from one member to another is the Spirit of Christ himself. Just as the church

shares in the sufferings of Christ, so also the church shares, together and abundantly, in

the comforts of Jesus (2 Cor 1:5). The whole church is, therefore, empowered to comfort

because of her union with Christ and communion with the triune God. Only those who

experience the comfort of and in the Three-in-One can offer a comfort that transcends the

reality of pain and the struggle of this era. Through her Spirit-empowered presence with

truth in love, the church comforts the weary by “re-presenting” the gospel of

reconciliation and peace. Yet, being present with truth in love may take the form of

John V. Fesko, Romans, Lectio Continua Expository Commentary on the New Testament

(Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2018), 122.

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individual counseling, financial help, hospitality, health assistance, and many others. If

care is dispensed “in the name of Jesus” (Matt 10:42; cf. Matt 25:35–40; Mark 9:41),

then the gospel is being acted out and re-presented with truth in love as the church

participates in Christ.

Third, deep awareness of union with Christ strengthens biblical counselors in

their emphasis on the importance of participating in local church gatherings. If the church

is an organism that only exists by virtue of union with Christ, then the different contexts

in which a local church gathers to worship liturgically give concrete form to that life-

sharing communion with God. Participation in these gatherings is not optional for the

member. To be a member is to be a part of that body that collectively bows its knees in

reverence and praise. The church communes with God as its members gather to sing,

pray, and hear God speak through his Word. Hence, biblical counselors should not

hesitate to require participation in the gatherings of the church precisely because these

gatherings display the united participation of the congregants in Christ. In fact, biblical

counselors who are aware of the church’s reality in Christ will have even more reason to

encourage worship participation and stimulate involvement in all service activities, for

when the body is gathered, members are nourished by the truth and love from others and

God. The same benefits can be affirmed regarding participation in the ordinances—

baptism and the Lord’s Supper—as well as prayer meetings and small groups.

The

active life of the church reveals the relational organicism of her nature: Members live as

they relate to one another and, together as a body, to God.

Relational Organicism in Biblical Counseling

Union with Christ allows for a relational proximity in the church and, thus,

enables biblical counselors to particularly minister in the lives of individuals and

The next section will develop this point further.

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families. As participatory conversations, the interactions between biblical counselor and

counselee are not events isolated from the larger scheme of God’s providence. Instead,

they are important means that God uses in the life of his children so that they may view

and face struggles and trials in their lives according to his will revealed in Scripture. Such

help through biblical counseling takes place through an organic relationality that both the

counselor and the Christian counselee enjoy. They hear and speak from their position in

Christ, who is the source of truth and wisdom to both. Their speech and listening are

spiritual on account of the new disposition in Christ that the Spirit produces by

dispensing his habitual grace in them. The relational connection of love and trust

necessary for counseling finds its stronger foundation in their union with their Savior,

who brings them together: “There is one body and one Spirit, . . . one Lord, one faith, one

baptism” (Eph 4:4–5).

The truth and love believers enjoy in Christ are manifested forward in the

organic context of their relationships (Eph 5:1–6:9). What believers receive from Christ

leads them not only to delight in but also to share his blessings with others. What do they

share? The truth of Christ in the love of Christ. From him, Christ, the whole body grows

(4:16). Christians, therefore, speak honestly with their neighbors (4:25), communicating

what builds them up and is beneficial to them (4:29). They do so with kindness and

compassion, because that is how Christ treats them (4:32; 5:1–2) and because that Christ

rules in their hearts (Col 3:15). Thus, being filled by the Spirit (Eph 5:18), they can walk

wisely (5:15) and in accordance with God’s will (5:17) as they speak to one another out

of a worshipful heart (5:19), driven by gratitude (5:20), in mutual submission (5:21).

The participles that follow the imperative “be filled by the Spirit” in Ephesians 5 can be

interpreted as participles of result or means. Hoehner argues for the first option: “The resultant

characteristics suggest visible manifestation of one filled by the Spirit.” Hoehner, Ephesians, 706. In

contrast, Arnold advocates for participles of means while also explaining that such interpretation would not

entail a mechanistic approach to being filled with the Spirit. See Arnold, Ephesians, 352. S. M. Baugh

seems to present a lighter proposal by describing the connection between the participles and the imperative

as “close, explanatory relations.” S. M. Baugh, Ephesians, Evangelical Exegetical Commentary

(Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 443–44. In any case, the Spirit is essential for the manifestation

and execution of the ministries that follow.

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Ministry in the body of Christ takes place as the saints address each other to express their

heart of worship, gratitude, and humility. These three elements deserve unpacking as they

relate to biblical counseling.

First, biblical counseling is an expression of and an invitation to communal

worship. Believers who are controlled by the Spirit engage in a God-oriented ministry of

mutuality as they speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, which they

sing with their hearts (Eph 5:19). To be “filled by the Spirit” (5:18; cf. CSB, NET) means

to be “completely controlled and stamped by the powers which fill him,” as Hoehner puts

it, “for the one who is filled is characterized by that which fills him, whether of

unrighteousness or righteousness (Phil 1:11).”

According to Hoehner, “the Holy Spirit

is the means by which believers are filled with Christ and his will.”

Therefore, the

correspondent description in Colossians 3:15–16 seems to parallel “be filled by the

Spirit” with “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” and “let the word of Christ dwell

in you richly.” And so, “addressing one another” (Eph 5:19) also parallels “teaching and

admonishing one another in all wisdom” (Col 3:6), which, considering slight differences

of emphasis, is to be accomplished with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

The Spirit

who controls believers is the Spirit of Christ, who brings about in them the peace of

Christ by his witness of the word of Christ, thus leading them, together, to a worshipful

disposition in their ministry of mutuality. Believers speak to one another out of the

abundant glories of the indwelling Christ who makes them sing. As Campbell beautifully

describes, “As believers overflow with spiritual songs of praise, their worship is not solo.

Hoehner, Ephesians, 703. Whereas Hoehner advocates for a view of “filling” as pointing to

“being controlled by” and the Spirit as a means, Arnold argues that there is good reason to affirm the

popular view that “the Holy Spirit is the content of the filling.” Arnold, Ephesians, 350. It is important to

highlight, however, that although these views differ in their exegetical analysis, the different interpretations

are not inconsistent with the broader pneumatological reality of the presence of the Spirit that empowers

fruitfulness.

Hoehner, Ephesians, 704.

See also Hoehner, Ephesians, 707; Michael Allen, Ephesians, Brazos Theological

Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2020), 130.

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Nor is it addressed solely to the Lord. It is, rather, a communal activity. Believers ‘speak’

the content of such songs to one another, even as they direct their praise to God.”

The

ministry of believers in biblical counseling, therefore, is an invitation for others to join

them in acting out their song of worship, as biblical counselors make every effort to

remind their counselees of the proper directionality of their adoration: Godward.

Second, biblical counseling is driven by relational gratitude. While

drunkenness from wine leads to debauchery and dissipation (5:18), being filled with the

Spirit of Christ leads to collective gratitude (5:20; cf. Col 3:16–17). Gratitude for what?

Most English editions of the Bible translate ὑπὲρ πάντων as “for everything” (see NIV,

CSB, ESV, KJV). The NET, however, opts to translate that phrase as “for each other,”

underscoring the mutual aspect of that gratitude. The exact meaning is difficult to

determine given the ambiguity of the presented form, since πάντων could be either neuter

or masculine: The gratitude encouraged by Paul could be for “everything” or

“everyone.”

While “everything” certainly encompasses “everyone,” Paul emphasizes in

his letter to the Ephesians the relational aspect of this gratitude. In 1:16, for example, the

apostle highlights the fact that he did not cease to give thanks for the Ephesian believers,

remembering them in his prayers. Another possibility raised by S. M. Baugh is to

translate ὑπὲρ πάντων as “on behalf of all,” since Paul uses ὑπὲρ in Ephesians mainly to

express a shared representative reality (3:1, 13; 5:2, 25; 6:19).

In this case, the relational

aspect of such gratitude would be emphasized through a sharing in thankfulness, but the

object of that gratitude would not remain clear—which may not be a problem since the

psalms and hymns and spiritual songs also remain unjustified in these verses. In any case,

what is uncontroversial is that such gratitude is relational in nature: Believers are thankful

Campbell, The Letter to the Ephesians, 240.

See Hoehner, Ephesians, 714; Baugh, Ephesians, 458–59.

Baugh, Ephesians, 458.

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for and with each other. Just as they speak to one another (5:19) and they subject

themselves to one another (5:21), so also they express their thankfulness together and for

all things in their ministry of mutuality (5:20). The shared gratitude of a Christian

encourages the gratitude of another. Biblical counselors execute their ministerial task out

of gratitude for all that God has given them, for their brothers and sisters in Christ

(including their Christian counselees), and for everything God is doing in their lives and

community.

Third, biblical counseling expresses Christian humility in mutual subjection as

counselors employ their resources for the help of their counselees. Being filled with the

Spirit, Christians submit to one another and find their unity through humility (5:21).

Only by the Spirit one can fructify with Christ-like humility.

Christians subject

themselves mutually out of fear of and reverence for Christ. As the Spirit of the fear of

the Lord rests upon them in union with Christ (Isa 11:2), bringing them to delight in

fearing the Lord (Isa 11:3; cf. Jer 32:39–40), they are led to mutual submission, humbly

considering the interests of others before their own (Phil 2:3–4) and honoring one another

in mutual love (Rom 12:10; Gal 5:13). Thus, biblical counselors employ their time and

resources to enter their counselees’ world and help them walk so as to accomplish the

mission God gave them in pursuing godliness. Biblical counselors, united with Christ by

the Spirit who fills them, submit their lives for the good of their counselees, making

every effort to see them grow and mature in Christ (Col 1:28–29).

Thus, considering that oneness in Christ finds its expression in the context of

the church through communal worship, relational gratitude, and humility with mutual

While Ephesians 5:21 calls for Christian mutual submission in principle, the expressions of

such principle find specific form in each particular type of relationship: wives and husbands (5:22, 25),

parents and children (6:1, 4), servants and masters (6:5, 9). For more on the textual structure of the epistle

to the Ephesians and the meaning of “submission” on 5:21, see Hoehner, Ephesians, 716–17; Baugh,

Ephesians, 460; Thielman, Ephesians, 373.

Hoehner, Ephesians, 717.

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subjection, biblical counseling—as an interpersonal ministry of God’s Word—takes place

primarily as a relational work. As such, biblical counseling is not the mere application of

general techniques and formulas to promote change and comfort. Instead, as a physician

responds according to the symptoms and test results of each patient, the counselor who is

spiritually proximate to the counselee must address each case according to its

particularities of context and personal characteristics. Addressing spiritual matters

specifically requires spiritual relationality in Christ. If the church is the context of human

change into Christ-likeness and the church is a body of those gathered in Christ, then

change in the right direction blossoms in the environment of relationships marked by

worshipful, thankful, and humble intentionality. And such intentionality works in the

particulars.

Gregory the Great (504–604)—whom Calvin deemed the last good pope—

compared pastoral work to that of a physician in order to stress the need for specificity in

the care of people.

For Gregory, the discourse of pastors “should be adapted to the

character of his audience so that it can address the specific needs of each individual.”

Responses vary according to the person being cared for, which Gregory thoroughly and

extensively explores in his Book of Pastoral Rule.

Such a form of pastoral care requires

not only dedication but also an adaptive creativity that molds the administration of the

essential remedies to the soul. For this reason, Gregory affirms the care of souls to be

“the art of arts.”

This attention to personal details and particularities in the work of soul care

transcends Gregory. Concluding his historical survey of pastoral theology in the classical

See Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule, ed. John Behr, trans. George E.

Demacopoulos, Popular Patristics (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2007), 1.1, 1.9,

3.Prologue (Demacopoulos, 29, 43, 87). See also John Calvin, ICR, 4.7.

Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule, 3.Prologue (Demacopoulos, 87).

Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule, 3.1 (Demacopoulos 88–89).

Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule, 1.1 (Demacopoulos 29).

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tradition of the church, Andrew Purves offers a reflection that carries the same argument:

“Person and circumstance must shape the pastoral response. What is helpful for one may

be hurtful for another. A pastoral response that is correct at one time may be

inappropriate at another. A pastor must thus develop a discerning wisdom in order to

know what remedy to apply in each case. Pastoral work is not formulaic.”

Purves goes

on to argue that the pastor who is conscious of this responsibility will also be aware of his

need to reflect and pray.

Engaging in the art of soul care requires the pursuit of possible

aids through reflective consideration in prayerful dependence. By his Spirit and Word,

God empowers those in Christ with spiritual phronesis to help others who are also in

Christ. Such divine empowerment attends not only those in leadership positions but also

all members of Christ’s body in their ministries of mutuality. And so, the life in Christ is

a life lived together: “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”

(Ps 133:1).

Care to Participate? Christian Presence

and the Table of Fellowship

That adaptive creativity for the care of souls is better learned and applied in the

organic proximity of the members’ relationship in Christ. During a time of war that

greatly challenged the unity of the church in Germany and its ability to care, Bonhoeffer

(1906–1945) raised his voice in Life Together (1939) to stress the communal reality of

being in Christ.

According to Bonhoeffer, “Christian community means community

through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. There is no Christian community that is more

than this, and none that is less than this.”

Union with Christ is what forms and sustains

Andrew Purves, Pastoral Theology in the Classical Tradition (Louisville: Westminster John

Knox Press, 2001), 119–20.

Purves, Pastoral Theology in the Classical Tradition, 120.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, trans. Daniel W. Bloesch, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works

(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015).

Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 5 (italics added).

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the Christian community. Jesus is the uniting bond of the church. And so this reality is of

immeasurable significance—namely, “we belong to one another only through and in

Jesus Christ.”

The members of Christ’s body enjoy a mutual belonging by their

common belonging to Christ. All scriptural instruction for the collective life of the church

rests on this reality.

For Bonhoeffer, unity in Christ means three things. First, it means that

Christians need each other for the sake of Christ: “The goal of all Christian community is

to encounter one another as bringers of the message of salvation.”

Second, it means that

Christians come to each other only through Jesus: “Christ opened up the way to God and

to one another. Now Christians can live with each other in peace; they can love and serve

one another; they can become one. But they can continue to do so only through Jesus

Christ. Only in Jesus Christ are we one; only through him are we bound together.”

Finally, it means that Christians have been chosen in Christ from eternity, accepted in

time to be united forever. In Bonhoeffer’s words,

When God’s Son took on flesh, he truly and bodily, out of pure grace, took on our

being, our nature, ourselves. This was the eternal decree of the triune God. Now we

are in him. Wherever he is, he bears our flesh, he bears us. And, where he is, there

we are too—in the incarnation, on the cross, and in his resurrection. We belong to

him because we are in him. That is why the Scriptures call us the body of Christ.

According to the German theologian, the Christian united with Christ is also united with

the church in an eternal community: “We have one another only through Christ, but

Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 5, 8 (italics added).

See Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 7.

Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 6.

Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 7.

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through Christ we really do have one another. We have one another completely and for

all eternity.”

To be in Christ is to live in relational proximity to others who are in him.

Ministry requires presence. The ministry of believers to one another depends

on the undergirding reality of their unity in Christ, and it manifests that reality through

their presence in the lives of others, carrying truth and conveying love. To be present as a

Christian for the help of another is to make Christ’s gracious presence visible. As

Bonhoeffer puts it, “the nearness of a fellow Christian” is “a physical sign of the gracious

presence of the triune God.”

Bonhoeffer’s context of imprisonment and isolation caused

by war put him in a privileged position to recognize the value of the physical presence of

other Christians. For him, the presence of a faith-filled companion is “a source of

incomparable joy and strength to the believer.”

Yet, the regular enjoyment of such

presence can be accompanied by the temptation to disregard its immeasurable value.

Life in the presence of brothers and sisters in Christ is an extraordinary gift of God’s

grace that should not be taken for granted.

Accordingly, Christian presence is a pneumatological reality that displays and

communicates scriptural truth and spiritual love. The Christian community, for

Bonhoeffer, is not an ideal to be realized but a reality in which believers participate—a

reality created by God in Christ by the Spirit.

This pneumatological community is

grounded on the truth of the Word of God revealed in Christ, and the bright love of

fraternal service rules it.

The blessed presence of another Christian carries truth and

Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 9.

Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 3.

See Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 4.

See Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 4–5.

See Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 13.

See Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 14–21.

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love as he or she points to Christ in the context of humble service. Furthermore, just as

the presence of another individual Christian is a source of great encouragement because it

points to the presence of Christ himself, full of truth and love, so also is the collective

gathering of the church as a body. When believers gather cooperatively, they display the

organic relationality they enjoy with each other and God (1 Cor 11–12). They come

together to be present with God and each other, thus enjoying the life of Christ as a body.

Again, the public gathering of the church involves a collective dialogue with God. In a

liturgical conversation, the church prays and sings to God, who speaks to the church in

the exposition of his Word. Therefore, the gathering of the church in local meetings to

worship, pray, and preach manifests the covenantal relationship that its members

communally enjoy with God.

Also, the celebration of the ordinances points to and nourishes the reality of

that organic union in a covenantal relationship. While baptism marks the believer’s

incorporation into Christ (Rom 6:3–4) and, consequently, into Christ’s body (Acts 2:41),

the Lord’s Supper provides a sign of the spiritual reality that forms the church as

members of Christ’s body, as those whom his blood has washed (1 Cor 10:16–17). And

so, individual Christians are brought together to feast on the bread and the cup,

collectively dramatizing the unity of their participation in Christ and his accomplished

work—a reality that answers Paul’s rhetorical questions in 1 Corinthians 10:16 with an

emphatic (and expected) “Yes!”

Thus, as a means of grace, the Table portrays the

relational sharing of the head, Christ, with his body, the church. In the words of Baptist

theologian Richard Barcellos, “Koinonia of the blood and body of Christ means spiritual

nourishment is brought to souls. It is present participation in the present benefits of

Christ’s death for those properly partaking. In other words, the Lord’s Supper is a means

Commenting on 1 Corinthians 10:16, Thomas Schreiner observes, “At the Supper a

believer’s relationship and communion with Christ are deepened, and the solidarity between believers and

Christ is attested.” Thomas R. Schreiner, 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale New

Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2018), 210.

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of grace.”

If participation happens by virtue of union with Christ as a work of the Spirit,

then the Supper is an instrument by which the Spirit nourishes the church into that very

union. As Baptist theologian and historian Michael Haykin states, “Baptism and the

Lord’s Supper are means of grace in the hands of the Holy Spirit.”

By the Spirit, the

church enjoys and celebrates the glorious presence of her Beloved at baptism and the

Supper.

Todd Billings remarks that the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is directly

related to the doctrine of union with Christ. He stresses three connecting elements

between the Table and that blessed union: remembrance, communion, and hope. Billings

underscores remembrance, because Jesus ordained, “Do this in remembrance of me”

(1 Cor 11:24–25); communion (or fellowship), because the Table is to be celebrated when

the church family comes together (1 Cor 11:33; cf. 10:17); and hope, because the Table

attests to the resurrection of Christ as it ongoingly proclaims his death until the day of his

sure return (1 Cor 11:26; cf. Matt 26:29). Those three elements point to the past, to the

accomplished work of Christ; to the present, to the fellowship in Christ; and to the future,

to the eschatological outcome conquered and guaranteed by Christ and sealed in the

church by his Spirit.

The reality of union with Christ parallels those three aspects of the

Table. Billings’s words are worth quoting extensively:

At the feast of remembrance, communion, and hope, the Spirit enables the church to

enact its true identity as people constituted by the life, death, and resurrection of

Jesus Christ. In their remembrance, dying and rising with Christ become a present

experience of the community. In communion at the Supper, the Lord Jesus Christ

offers his own person, his very presence, to his people, those who are hopelessly

incomplete without him. In hope, God’s people enjoy a foretaste of heavenly mana,

Richard C. Barcellos, The Lord’s Supper as a Means of Grace: More than a Memory

(Scotland: Mentor, 2013), 53. For a more detailed overview of the Particular Baptist view of the Lord’s

Supper as a means of grace, see Michael A. G. Haykin, Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands: Recovering

Sacrament in the Baptist Tradition (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2022), 1–28.

Haykin, Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands, 120.

J. Todd Billings, Remembrance, Communion, and Hope: Rediscovering the Gospel at the

Lord’s Table (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 107–12.

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a taste that deepens our hunger and focuses our desires on the kingdom that only

Jesus Christ can bring.

Remarkably, the communion that flows from union with Christ, celebrated at the Supper,

is loving and altruistic: “Communion at the Lord’s Supper is other focused, entailing a

dual encounter with Christ and with others around the table.”

As Billings writes

elsewhere,

This love emerging from the Lord’s Supper is not a “unilateral gift” that implicitly

disregards reciprocity. Rather, the rich communion and fellowship that are

experienced in the partaking of Christ are given a horizontal dimension, unifying

believers with a spiritual bond as Christ’s Body. Indeed, the “sacrifice of praise”

that takes place in the Lord’s Supper includes “all the duties of love.”

Thus, as believers participate in Christ and enact this participation at the Table, they

display the love of Christ in which they share by the Spirit with one another.

They all

share in one loaf and one love (1 Cor 10:17).

The life of the church derives from her union with Christ. It flows organically

through the members of the body, enlivening and nourishing each part, as the body

cannot exist apart from her head. Therefore, the members of Christ find themselves in an

interdependent whole in which each member needs the other. The body thus grows

organically through the relational ministry of the truth and love in which members

participate. The presence of Christians makes the truth and the love of Christ visible and

materially accessible to other believers. And so biblical counseling as participatory

conversations happens organically as believers address one another in their particular

challenges with adaptive creativity to communicate the truth of Christ and embody his

affections. Biblical counseling is home when it happens in the context of the church.

Billings, Remembrance, Communion, and Hope, 137.

J. Todd Billings, Calvin, Participation, and the Gift: The Activity of Believers in Union with

Christ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 142.

See Billings, Remembrance, Communion, and Hope, 139–41.

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Life Together and the Principled

Methodology of Biblical

Counseling

Counseling is relational by nature. Relationships are organic, especially in the

context of the community gathered in Christ. Yet, that organicism is not without order or

intentionality. Instead, because that collective organism exists in Christ, it has its order

and intentionality established and empowered by Christ as its source. As a conversation

between two persons, counseling involves the communication of some content in the

context of some form of trust. Counselors care about counselees and their story, tending

to them so that a predetermined good may be produced. That outcome varies according to

the underlying philosophy of counseling adopted by each practitioner, and it shapes the

methodology used in the counseling room. The more immediate the goal, the greater the

temptation to rely on formulaic guidance.

Biblical counselors, however, work with ultimate goals in mind. They seek to

see Christ formed in their counselees (Col 1:28–29), and the path to attaining this goal

involves an organic relationality that is natural to those united with and in Christ. Biblical

counseling consists of communicating God’s truth centered in Christ in the context of

Spirit-empowered love. The nature of the counseling relationship developed in the church

transcends the sociological and is rooted in the Spirit of Christ. Biblical counselors,

because of their union with Christ, make Christ present in the lives of their counselees,

bringing with them the truth and the love of Christ himself. In the context of that organic

relationality, God performs his change in counselees, instrumentally using his people.

Therefore, biblical counseling is fundamentally relational, not formulaic. It aims at

faithfulness in the formation of Christ in others. Yet, the outworking of Christ-likeness in

the life of each counselee will differ proportionally to the personal diversity of the body.

Indeed, organic relationality does not invalidate the usefulness of techniques

and skills completely. Biblical counselors can learn to ask better questions. They can

grow in their ability to perceive and understand non-verbal forms of communication.

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They can be more creative and efficient in assigning homework. Other examples could be

added to this list. However, the use of counseling skills and techniques always tends to a

more immediate goal that motivates counselors but cannot accomplish the ultimate end

biblical counselors must intend. The argument here is this: Because of union with Christ,

biblical counselors are to grow and develop their skills and techniques for the sake of

their counselees and of Christ so that the truth and the love of Christ may be presented

and represented in complete dependence upon the Spirit. Biblical counselors who

maintain awareness of their union with Christ and their Christian counselees will be

better guarded against the temptation of trusting their techniques and skills to produce

ultimate change. In other words, biblical counseling methodology is grounded in

principles and not rigid rules. Those principles find their foundation in Scripture, but they

became visible in the person of Christ, who dwells in believers by the Spirit. Hence,

biblical counselors, united with Christ, share in his life-giving, righteous virtues,

embodying his truth and love in their methodology, which is principled in Christ.

Paul David Tripp’s proposal in Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hand illustrates

the argument here. Tripp’s fourfold principled methodology includes loving, knowing,

speaking, and doing.

Tripp urges biblical counselors to follow the Wonderful

Counselor, doing the work of an ambassador who represents the message of the King, the

methods of the King, and the character of the King.

For Tripp, “Being an ambassador

means following the example of the Wonderful Counselor in our words and responses,

wherever and with whomever we are.”

Helping other people biblically, according to

Tripp, requires a goal of heart change and a disposition to follow after Jesus’s example.

And so, personal ministry is ambassadorial as it involves those four elements: love,

See Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change

Helping People in Need of Change (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2002), 108–12.

See Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, 107.

Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, 107.

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know, speak, and do. “Love,” for Tripp, stresses the importance of relationships in the

journey of change. Relationships are the workrooms in which God works his change in

people.

“Know” highlights the necessity of understanding counselees and their

circumstances. Yet, knowing people involves a more profound assessment—it requires

knowing their heart as far as possible.

“Speak” points to the need to bring God’s truth to

individuals within their specific context. Counselor speak to help friends see life more

clearly in the light of God’s Word, reminding them of the resources provided in Christ.

Finally, “do” underscores the reality that truth must accompany practical obedience. In

other words, biblical counselors work as Christ’s ambassadors as they help others not

only know the truth but also obey it, responding to Christ in a personal way.

Tripp’s proposal is not formulaic. Instead of outlining steps and techniques that

could produce an objectively measured outcome, Tripp is conscious that the spiritual goal

of Christ-likeness requires a methodology that transcends the natural means. He appeals,

therefore, to the example of Christ. Biblical counselors are to work as Christ’s

representatives, loving as he loves, seeking to know and understand as Christ knows and

understands, speaking truth as Christ speaks, and helping others to obey as Christ helps

believers toward obedience.

However, although Tripp’s model clearly aligns counselors’ conduct with

Christ’s patterns, it emphasizes the imitation aspect of Christian conduct over its

participatory dimension. When biblical counselors embrace union with Christ by the

Spirit, they perform their work by imitating Christ and being conscious of their

participation in him (John 15:5; Gal 2:20; Col 1:29; 2 Pet 1:3). In fact, the human need to

Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, 110.

Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, 111.

Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, 111–12.

Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, 112.

See Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, 107.

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imitate God must be not restricted to acts but extended to being. Christians are being

restored to reflect the being of God, and such imitation of being is only possible through

this participatory union with Christ by the Spirit.

Participation will then take the shape

of imitation.

Biblical counselors, by the Spirit of Christ, can minister confidently and

personally to their counselees as they love them with the affections of Christ and as they

know and understand them with wisdom from above, which they receive by sharing in

the mind of Christ. Thus, they speak gospel truth and apply it to the specifics of their

counselees’ life, being present to help them practice God’s will in Christ’s power by the

indwelling Spirit. Union with Christ, therefore, strengthens counseling methodologies

derived from scriptural principles. To be aware of this participatory reality is to be

conscious of the power of the Spirit that enables ministry and change. Biblical counseling

is spiritual—or even biblical—if, and only if, it is done in Christ and by his Spirit.

Dependence, Prayer, and Biblical Counseling

Awareness of union with Christ ultimately invites dependence. Christians who

live conscious that Christ is in them by the Spirit, as the source, power, and purpose of

everything that is good and pleases God, will acknowledge their dependent condition by

their lifestyle. They will not see themselves as independent fountains of righteousness,

nor will they work by the strength of their own hands, bearing in mind self-established

goals. Instead, being mindful of the reality of union with Christ allows them to

consciously rest in the Good Shepherd, in whom they find all they need, partaking of his

virtues and power to accomplish his will in their lives and ministries. And so, a profound

dependence derives from an awareness of union with Christ. That dependence is

eventually translated into prayer, for “to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his

Holmes explains that “not just our acts but our very being is to imitate God, and so to enjoy

a degree of participation in him.” Holmes, A Theology of the Christian Life, 121.

Holmes, A Theology of the Christian Life, 121.

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might” entails “praying at all times in the Spirit” (Eph 6:10, 18). By the Spirit, dependent

prayer is possible.

Ministry happens by virtue of union with Christ (cf. Eph 4:15–16; Col 1:28–

29). Every blessing and victory of Christian service, every speech of truth, and every act

of love finds its source, power, and purpose in Christ. Apart from Christ, no proper

ministry can be accomplished (John 15:5). Yet, through the indwelling Spirit, Christ

reigns over and rules in the church, collectively and individually. As Grant Macaskill

puts it, “The Spirit realizes the victory of Christ within us. Each act of faith, each act of

obedience, however small, is a participation in this reality; one little victory is, in truth, a

manifestation of the presence of divine goodness in our lives, which is both affirmed and

carried forward by hope.”

Hope, for Macaskill, is not something Jesus brings. Jesus

himself is the hope of Christians. As Christ dwells in believers by the Spirit, their lives

are no longer limited by their natural capacity for goodness and love but by the

perfections and prospects constituted by this other person in them, namely, Jesus Christ.

Jesus does not merely exemplify the right moral life; he is the one in whom the moral life

of discipleship takes place as the Spirit realizes within believers the identity of the Son

(Gal 2:20).

Macaskill concludes, “We cannot, then, think about the Christian moral life

as something ‘I’ do, assisted in some sense by the Spirit. It is something that Christ-in-me

does; he is as much the acting subject of my verbs of obedience as I am.”

Macaskill is

careful to observe that one must not reject moral effort or the formation of good habits in

the Christian life. Yet, he insists that Christian work, though active, must be

See Hoehner, Ephesians, 857.

Grant Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ: Paul’s Gospel and Christian Moral Identity

(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019), 116.

See Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ, vii.

See Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ, 1–2.

Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ, 56.

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accomplished with proper awareness of the Christ within.

Thus, believers live and

minister with “rolled sleeves and bent knees,” as I like to picture the Christian posture of

dependent activeness. The presence of Christ by his Spirit brings about change and

enables the godly life and ministry.

Biblical counseling is, therefore, dependent counseling because it is offered by

virtue of union with Christ and with awareness of that blessed participation. In Christ,

biblical counselors find the truth and love that characterize their ministry—that is,

Christ’s operation in them is what empowers their proclamation and compassionate

witness even in interpersonal contexts (Col 1:28–29; cf. Acts 1:8). Biblical counselors’

awareness of their union with Christ thus leads not only to dependence for the knowledge

of spiritual truths and practical wisdom for life but also to a perseverant attitude of

humility and love toward their counselees, which allows them to continually inhabit the

world of those for whom they are seeking to care. Unless God works in them, as

counselors, they will work in vain (Ps 127:1; 1 Cor 2:1–5; 15:9–10; Col 1:28–29; 2 Tim

4:16–17). Moreover, biblical counselors who are aware of the necessity of union with

Christ for moral renewal recognize their limits in the spiritual reorientation of their

counselees’ hearts. “Those who know him trust him to do what only he can,” as James

Hamilton puts it.

For that transformation, biblical counselors are fundamentally

dependent, for the ultimate goal of their ministry is one that only God can complete in

those receiving care. Once again, unless God works in their counselees—in Christ, by the

Spirit—their work as counselors will be vain (Ps 127:1; John 15:5–7; Phil 2:12–13; Heb

13:20–21).

Now, prayer properly translates the dependence of one’s awareness of union

with Christ. Biblical counselors who admit to not being their own source of knowledge

See Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ, 57.

James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, vol. 2, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary

(Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 402.

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and wisdom, or of love and humility, turn to God in search of that which he alone can

offer, that is, God himself, in all his blessedness, in Christ, full of grace and truth. They

know that every good gift comes from God (Jas 1:17), but they also know that their

petitions are often doubtful, short-sighted, and inappropriate (Jas 1:6; 4:3). Hence, they

turn to God, crying out for wisdom (Jas 1:5). They also seek God so that they may grow

and abound in love, thus embracing the excellent things as their treasure (Phil 1:9–11)

and living in a manner worthy of their gospel calling (Eph 3:17; 4:1–3).

Godly prayer manifests the participatory conformation to Christ operated by

the Spirit. Christians pray in the power of that Spirit (Eph 6:18). They also pray in the

name of Jesus, as Christ promised that whatever his disciples asked in his name, he

would do it (John 14:13–14; 15:16; 16:23–24).

And just as Christ himself asked the

Father to give the Holy Spirit to his disciples and promised that the Father, in Jesus’s

name, would send the Spirit (John 14:16–17, 26), so also Jesus’s disciples approach the

Father in Jesus’s name and the Father, too, answers prayers in his name. By the Holy

Spirit, Christ’s disciples are brought into this trinitarian dynamic and thus have their wills

conformed to God’s in such a way that they ask for things of eternal value. They do not

pray for things that would serve their selfish pleasures, which God graciously refuses to

answer (Jas 4:3). Instead, praying in Christ’s name, they ask for those things Christ

stands for.

They pray according to God’s will—and not by mere deference but out of a

transformed desire that is harmonious with God. Thus, those who abide in Christ can ask

whatever they wish, and Jesus promised it would be done (John 15:7).

For John Owen, to pray in Jesus’s name is to pray in union with him, as one who belongs to

him and manifests forth Jesus as the Son of God. See John Owen, A Commentary, Critical, Expository, and

Practical, on the Gospel of John (New York: Leavitt & Allen, 1861), 343.

See Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, New International Commentary on the

New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 596; D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, Pillar

New Testament Commentary (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1991), 497.

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The treasuring of God’s commandments marks the lives of those who abide in

Christ (John 15:10), and so they have the confidence to approach the Father and ask him

for provision in the fulfillment of their purpose to please him (1 John 3:21). They desire

what God desires, and so they pray not out of selfishness but out of a God-oriented

disposition of heart (1 John 5:14). As D. A. Carson observes, “A truly obedient believer

proves effective in prayer, since all he or she asks for conforms to the will of God.”

They pray, “Thy will be done” because they long for it (Matt 6:10).

And the Father is

pleased to positively answer those prayers that reflect the worthiness of the name by

which they are entreated (Matt 7:7–11; Luke 11:9–13). In Christ, believers approach the

throne of grace with the confidence that they will receive mercy and grace in their time of

need (Heb 4:16).

Prayer, therefore, is the core dynamic of participation in Christ, for it is offered

in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Eph 6:18).

Prayer is not spiritual merely

because of an independent inner inclination but because the Spirit empowers its offer. In

Ephesians 6:18, Paul does not refer to prayer “in the human spirit” but “in the Holy

Spirit.”

The Spirit empowers prayer as a participatory reality: The Spirit indwells

believers who are made the temple of God and so become a house of prayer.

In prayer,

believers participate in the will of God, even when in their weakness they do not entirely

comprehend their petitions, for the indwelling Spirit aligns their wills to God’s will (Rom

Carson, The Gospel According to John, 517.

As Carson importantly observes, “If my heart hunger is that God’s will be done, then

praying this payer is also my pledge that, so help me God, by his grace I will do his will, as much as I know

it!” D. A. Carson, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World: An Exposition of

Matthew 5–10 (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1999), 72.

See Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ, 116.

See Hoehner, Ephesians, 857; Baugh, Ephesians, 558–59; Thielman, Ephesians, 433.

See Baugh, Ephesians, 558.

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8:26, 27).

In Macaskill’s words, “In prayer the dual subjecthood of our new identity is

embodied: we are the ones who pray, the acting subjects of the verbs of prayer, but our

prayers are co-testimonies with the Spirit or intercessions by him.”

Christians pray

because, by the indwelling Spirit, they share in the sonship of Christ even as they await

the full realization of that adoption with the redemption of their bodies (Rom 8:18–25).

And so, Christians “are not inert victims of providence” but “prayerful participants

because of the reality of the Spirit.”

By the Spirit, prayer is a participation in God’s

providential activity: Christians pray in Christ by the Spirit.

Macaskill’s proposal would not be strange to John Calvin. In his Institutes,

Calvin dedicates a lengthy section to discuss prayer.

His chapter on prayer appears in

Book 3, the same volume in which Calvin deepens his analysis of union with Christ as

the way by which Christians receive his grace and benefits.

Calvin’s concept of the

duplex gratia, the double grace, grounds his theology of prayer.

The first aspect of this

grace, justification, is an act of God by which he brings believers to participate in Christ’s

righteousness by imputation, declaring sinners to be righteous in union with Christ.

100

The second part of this grace, namely, regeneration and sanctification, also relates to

oneness with Christ. Engrafted in Christ, believers are adopted as sons and daughters and

See Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ, 119.

Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ, 124.

See Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ, 118–19. For a similar argument, see Andrew

Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry: Surrendering Our Ambitions to the Service of Christ (Downers Grove,

IL: IVP Books, 2007), 116.

Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ, 119.

See Calvin, ICR, 3.20.

Billings points out that Calvin’s chapter on prayer is the only one to appear in all editions of

the Institutes and, by the final edition, becomes the longest chapter in the whole work. See Billings, Calvin,

Participation, and the Gift, 108–9.

See Calvin, ICR, 3.11.1. See also, Billings, Calvin, Participation, and the Gift, 106–8.

100

See Calvin, ICR, 3.11.10.

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partake of his righteousness for the process of moral transformation.

101

For Calvin, this

double grace contextualizes prayer. The double grace underscores the human need for

God and summons man to recognize his need in a prayerful child-Father conversation.

102

The duplex gratia underscores this reality: What man lacks, God abounds in. And that

divine abundance is manifested and made available in the person of Christ, upon whom

Christians are invited to depend with full expectation.

103

Thus, Christians draw from the

overflow of Christ as they actively reach those riches by the benefit of prayer.

104

Dependence finds its voice in prayer.

Thus, biblical counselors who are conscientious of their union with Christ

express their dependence through prayer. They pray for these elements persistently,

vigilantly, and at all times (Eph 6:18; cf. Col 4:2; 1 Thess 5:17), and so they pray before,

during, and after their counseling meetings.

105

They pray for their own lives and

character. They pray for their counseling and ministry. And they pray for their

counselees. They pray because only God can make them to be what they are to be in

Christ. They pray because the execution of their ministry task requires divine

empowerment by the Spirit of Christ. And they pray because only God, by the Spirit who

unites believers to Christ, can bring about the ultimate goal for which they engage in

counseling conversations, namely, the heart transformation and consolation of their

counselees. Prayer is an essential part of their life in ministry; it is a natural rhythm of

101

See Calvin, ICR, 3.15.6.

102

See Calvin, ICR, 3.20.2. See also, David B. Calhoun, “Prayer: ‘The Chief Exercise of

Faith,’” in A Theological Guide to Calvin’s Institutes: Essays and Analysis, ed. David W. Hall and Peter A.

Lillback (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2015), 349.

103

Calvin, ICR, 3.20.1.

104

See Calvin, ICR, 3.20.1–2. It is worth noting that although Calvin’s theological system has

a thick dimension of human passivity (e.g., receiving the gifts of faith, the inability for independent

fructification), Christian prayer is not a passive waiting that cultivates laziness. See also Calvin, ICR,

3.20.5; Billings, Calvin, Participation, and the Gift, 114–16.

105

For Baugh, these three adjectives translate the Greek participles that Paul uses in Ephesians

6:18 to stress the fervency of Christians in prayer. See Baugh, Ephesians, 558.

215

their spiritual life in Christ as their dependence translates into supplication and

thanksgiving. They express their dependence with prayers of supplication for themselves

and other saints in their struggles and sufferings (Eph 6:18; Phil 4:6; Jas 5:13, 16). And

they also manifest their dependence by the gratitude they are quick to express before the

Lord in prayer (Phil 4:4, 6; Col 4:2; 1 Thess 5:16, 18). Again, supplication and gratitude

are appropriate at any time, for they express to God biblical counselors’ absolute

dependence, in and outside the presence of their counselees.

Dependence on God is a gift. If faith is a gift God gives by his Spirit (Eph 2:8),

then dependence on God is a sign of maturity. Contrary to the natural dynamic of

biological life, in which a child grows up to be independent of others, the children of God

mature as they grow more dependent upon him. Dependence derives from the recognition

of one’s own needs and limitations. And to be human is to have limitations, not only due

to the fallen condition but also to the nature of creation. God created man limited and,

therefore, dependent upon him and his gifts. As Julie Canlis describes, “Adam and Eve’s

only ‘superpower’ was trust in God’s word. They were limited. Limitation was written

into their perfection, because limitation put them in a proper relationship with the

Creator. Their humanity was not a problem for God, or something He put up with. It was

their greatest gift.”

106

The human need for salvation by grace and also natural sustenance

in human limitations point to the same reality: all human life and activity depend on God.

Those who recognize this condition approach God in prayer, for he alone is the source of

all necessary provisions.

107

As they find these provisions in abundance in God, through

Christ and by the Spirit, their petitions become praise in his presence.

106

Julie Canlis, A Theology of the Ordinary (Wenatchee, WA: Godspeed Press, 2017), 16.

107

Christa McKirland argues that a “second-personal relation to God” is a human fundamental

need. Dependence is a gift as humans find their needs provided in and by God as they enjoy a personal I-

thou relationship with him. See Christa L. McKirland, God’s Provision, Humanity’s Need: The Gift of Our

Dependence (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2022), 17–18.

216

Counseling and Praying in Christ

Dependence in the exercise of care has not been a virtue seen in the church of

the Western world in the past decades. Human autonomy has taken center stage in the

present time, even in ministry. Purves describes this reality with concern:

The questions (once again) are: if its identity is taken from psychology or social

work, what then makes pastoral care pastoral or Christian, and what makes pastoral

theology theological? Behind these questions lurks the realization that in the

prevailing assumptions in pastoral theology we have become the subject. Human

autonomy is assumed. God has become existentially dependent on us for the

ministry of care. It is no misjudgment to say that this invites in its wake an approach

to ministry in which we are cast back upon ourselves because everything is now up

to us.

108

Purves continues to denounce that “the thinking and experiencing self rather than the

acting God in Jesus Christ came to occupy center stage in the formation of the modern

pastoral consciousness.”

109

Thus, the ministry of care in the church suffers as it distances

itself from God to rely autonomously on man, with human shepherds trying to shepherd

apart from the Good Shepherd.

The doctrine of union with Christ confronts that denounced reality by

highlighting the human need for God and his grace that shares his blessed life. Apart

from Christ, there is no fellowship with God. But, through union with Christ, God meets

the most fundamental need of humanity with his very presence, communicating by the

Spirit all that is necessary for life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3–4). The Christian life and

ministry exist and operate on account of that life-giving and empowering union. Pastors

and biblical counselors—indeed, all Christians—are called to care for the souls of others,

speaking the truth they know in Christ and loving with the affections of the Christ that are

in them by the Spirit. Ministry depends on the active indwelling of Christ, by his Spirit,

in his people—and that is when ministry is worthy to be called Christian.

108

Andrew Purves, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox

Press, 2004), 5.

109

Purves, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology, 5.

217

Accordingly, participatory conversations are prayerful by nature. They happen

in and by Christ, through his Spirit, before the Father. The Lord hears the conversation of

those in Christ with great attention, remembering their godly fear of him and estimation

of his name (Mal 3:16). Biblical counseling is prayerful because it happens coram Deo

(i.e., in the presence of God). Because of their union with Christ, Christian counselors

and counselees converse in the presence of Christ and by the power of his Spirit. The

more aware they are of this reality, the more conscious they will offer their words to each

other with a prayerful disposition. The Lord hears them.

The biblical counseling movement has never denied the importance of prayer.

Since Jay Adams, prayer has been recognized as having a central place in the biblical

counseling ministry for both counselors and counselees. The relevance of prayer for

counseling derives from recognizing human insufficiency: “Prayer, then, must have a

prominent place, since both counselor and counselee must ask for God’s help and depend

upon Him to give it,” as Adams puts it.

110

Adams’s view of prayer as central to ministry

echoes Purves’s cited critique against the spread of humanistic influences in pastoral

care. For Adams, “the absence of prayer demonstrates that a counseling system is man

centered (humanistic), no matter what its label may be, when in its practice counselors

fail to call upon God and rely upon human wisdom and strength to achieve its goals and

objectives.”

111

Biblical counselors, Adams advises, should ask God for wisdom, help,

correction, and blessing in their counseling undertakings. According to Adams, “The

power and purifying presence of the Holy Spirit must be invoked by the human counselor

as he acknowledges his own sins and inabilities.”

112

This humble disposition to seek help

110

Jay E. Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling: More than Redemption (Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 2010), 61. See also Jay E. Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual: The Practice of

Nouthetic Counseling (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1973), 49–51.

111

Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling, 62.

112

Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 49.

218

from God in light of one’s insufficiencies and needs is constitutive of prayer. Adams

adds, “Requests, general and specific, given with thanksgiving and offered fervently out

of a sense of need and in a spirit of humility are the substance of prayer.”

113

In sum,

awareness of the human need and insufficiency, as well as trust in God’s power and

goodness, leads biblical counselors to pray. Apart from prayer, Adams believes,

counselors should not expect God to work by his Spirit in their counseling.

114

Adams’s conclusion to his treatment of prayer in his Theology of Christian

Counseling offers insight into his understanding of this spiritual practice. Adams explains

that “God is man’s basic environment,” and prayer “constitutes a significant part of the

way in which a Christian comes into intimate contact with his Environment.”

115

Here,

Adams seems to offer a metaphysical argument for prayer, but he does not develop it

further. Yet, one may argue that a stronger emphasis on union with Christ would allow

him to take this idea further. God is the environment of every person, and Christ is the

realm where every Christian lives. Union with Christ widens the door for recognizing

human need regarding nature and grace while also underscoring God’s abundant

provisions granted in sending the Son and Spirit. Thus, prayer plays a central part in

biblical counseling because it expresses that life-giving connection between counselors

and Christ, from whom they receive power to know, love, and share.

Therefore, biblical counselors aware of their supplied needs through

participation in Christ by the Spirit will take prayer seriously. They will do so not only

because prayer is the determined means providentially prescribed by God for some of the

blessings he has in store for his children but also because prayer expresses the essence of

the relationship between Christians and Christ, between believers and the Savior—a

113

Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling, 74.

114

See Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling, 62.

115

Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling, 87.

219

relationship in which all riches, all glory, all power, and all purposes reside in and derive

from Christ. As a result, biblical counselors execute their ministry at rest. They know

their ministry is not primarily theirs but Christ’s, for it is Christ who works by the Spirit

in them. Prayer to the triune God is prayer to the Son and the Spirit—the God in whom

counselors abide and who abides in them.

In sum, in Christ, by the Spirit, biblical counselors find their prayers expressed

and answered, as the Spirit of Christ grants them to minister with the mind and affections

of Christ. To be in Christ is to be in his truth and love, which abundantly overflow in

believers for the execution of ministry. By union with Christ, biblical counselors speak

truth in love while they pray that Christ may be exalted in their ministerial efforts as his

virtues shine in and through them. Recognizing their need, biblical counselors cry out to

God, supplicating his provisions so they may obediently know the truth and convey it

faithfully in love. Because union with Christ by the eschatological Spirit is an already-

not-yet reality, their prayers, in a way, have been already answered: Christ, present by his

Spirit, is the provision for their petitions (John 14:13–14, 16–18, 26). Christ in them, by

the Spirit, is the needed provision—present, immediate, and abundant. Christ is their tree

of life, their tree of wisdom and love, and they may partake of him freely.

116

Conclusion

Awareness of union with Christ grounds biblical counselors to engage with the

whole body of Christ, understanding that he is at work by his Spirit in and through each

member. That awareness encourages a fundamentally organic approach to counseling in

its methodology, avoiding formulaic approaches and privileging life together, where

believers convey truth and love through intentional presence. Furthermore, when

counselors are constantly mindful of union with Christ, they naturally engage in

116

On the connection between the tree of life and wisdom, see Daniel J. Treier, Virtue and the

Voice of God: Toward Theology as Wisdom (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 32–42.

220

dependent prayer and find rest, for Christ is the provision they seek, already available for

and in them by the Spirit. God’s abundant provisions have been graciously given in their

giving of themselves in Christ by the Spirit. And so, counselors confidently speak and

love biblically and Christianly out of their sharing in Christ.

Moreover, the doctrine of union with Christ serves as a solid ground for

biblical counseling apologetics. The implications outlined in this chapter reveal that the

doctrine of union with Christ provides biblical counselors with ecclesiological,

methodological, and anthropological arguments for the uniqueness of their ministry.

First, union with Christ locates Christ and his ministry in the church, affirming and

promoting the participation of every believer in the work of care. There is only one

community in the world in which Christ abides, one that he calls his body and one

through which the truth and the love of God flow. The church is, therefore, by union with

Christ, uniquely positioned and empowered to work in the care of souls.

Second, union with Christ underscores how change happens in the context of

organic relationships with God and others. Life together—in the presence of Christ and

others who engage in the ministries of mutuality—is the life ordained by God for proper

human flourishing. In the presence of other believers, Christians find encouragement and

comfort, as Christ makes himself available through the members of his body.

Third, union with Christ highlights the human need for God’s resources. Man

is limited in the help he can provide to another. Unless counselors recognize that

necessity in prayer, seeking God’s provisions in Christ, their ministry of care will suffer

in proportion to their limitations.

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CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION

Biblical counseling exists as a ministry because of the work of the Trinity in

the church. Believers speak truth in love to one another as they grow from and into Christ

because their conversations, including biblical counseling, are contextualized in God’s

work of salvation from the Father, in the Son, by the Spirit. Thus, biblical counseling

happens in union with Christ by the Spirit as believers speak the truth of God in the love

of God to the people of God so that they may become more and more mature in Christ by

the power of his Spirit. A pneumatology of biblical counseling, therefore, must explicate

more than the role of the Spirit in the counseling room; it must understand the task of

biblical counseling itself in the broader context of the trinitarian missions, especially the

work of the Spirit who unites believers to Christ, terminating and perfecting salvation in

them. The Spirit’s presence then causes the transformation of those in whom he dwells as

he communicates Christ’s life and virtues to them, recreating them after the pattern of

Christ, such that they overflow with truth and love for others.

This project has shown that a pneumatology of biblical counseling that is

attentive to the doctrine of union with Christ appropriately contextualizes the ministry of

biblical counselors within the mission of the Holy Spirit as he empowers them to speak

the truth in love, by participation in Christ, to particular people with specific problems.

The Holy Spirit allows Christians to participate in Christ’s mind and affections so that the

truth they speak and the love they share have Christ himself as origin, power, and

purpose. From the beginning to the end, all of the Christian life and ministry is from,

through, and to the triune God (Rom 11:36). Imitation of Christ in the work of soul care

demonstrates that Christ is present in his church, his body, which participates in his life

222

and virtues. Biblical counseling follows the patterns of the truth and love of Christ

because Christ is himself efficiently working by his Spirit in his people (cf. Matt 28:20;

Acts 1:8; Gal 2:20; Col 1:28). Thus, biblical counseling happens by virtue and as a result

of that blessed union of believers with Christ by the Spirit.

The argument of this project was demonstrated in four major acts. In the first

act, chapter 2, I surveyed the literature by relevant authors from different phases of the

biblical counseling movement (BCM) as well as confessional statements from various

biblical counseling organizations, identifying how they view the relation between biblical

counseling and the Holy Spirit and paying particular attention to mentions to the doctrine

of union with Christ. Even though the BCM has strongly emphasized the necessity of the

Holy Spirit for biblical counseling ever since the first writings of Jay Adams, union with

Christ has not played a relevant part in pneumatological discussions. Moreover, the

surveyed BCM literature displayed three imbalances. First, the necessity of the Spirit was

highlighted regarding the counselee and his or her transformation, while the spiritual

participation of the counselor received less attention. Second, descriptions of the work of

the Spirit stressed his empowerment of cognitive aspects at the expense of the affective

aspect of his work. Finally, treatments of the doctrine of union with Christ were

frontloaded with the preeminence of the federal, positional aspect of that union, and the

organic element that underscores continual participation in sanctification was often

neglected. These unbalances then received corrective attention in chapters 3–5.

In the second act, chapter 3, I presented the trinitarian foundation for the

doctrine of union with Christ, allowing the pneumatological discussion of this project to

happen in the appropriate context of theology proper. The Spirit’s mission reflects his

eternal procession from the Father and the Son. Next, the church’s confession of the one

God helped frame the discourse on the economy of the Spirit within the doctrine of

inseparable operations. The Spirit works inseparably with the Father and the Son. Finally,

the nature of union with Christ by the Holy Spirit was presented as connecting the

223

historia salutis and the ordo salutis, highlighting the fact that in that union, God the Spirit

applies the salvation accomplished by the Son with all its blessings, not only forensically

for justification but also organically for sanctification, allowing believers to partake of

the life and virtues of Christ. By that mystical union with Christ, the ministry of biblical

counseling belongs to the church and only by derivation. The church’s priesthood is

participatory in nature, and it involves more than mere co-laboring. It involves

“participatory conversations,” in which the saints speak the truth in love to one another

(Eph 4:15) by participation in Christ by the Spirit.

In the third act, chapters 4 and 5, I developed the theme of Christian cognitive

and affective participation in Christ: Participatory conversations happen in the truth and

love that come from Christ by the Spirit. Chapter 4 demonstrated the association of the

Holy Spirit with truth and the mind of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of Truth

(John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13) who communicates the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:6–16),

enabling believers to share the wisdom and understanding that characterizes the Messiah

(Isa 11:2; Eph 1:17). As such, the connection between illumination and practical wisdom

was developed on the foundation of the Spirit’s work. Accordingly, the Christ-oriented

witness of the Holy Spirit enables Christians to reason practically, empowering

counselors for the wise interpretation of people’s particular experiences according to

Scripture. Because of the Spirit’s work in them, counselors can apply their spiritual

knowledge and wisdom to specific life experiences, bringing real life and the scriptural

text to meet fruitfully in the counseling room.

Chapter 5 argued for the close association between the Spirit and love. The

nature of the Spirit’s eternal procession from the Father and the Son led Christians from

various centuries—from Augustine of Hippo to Thomas Aquinas—to see the Spirit as the

bond of love between the other two persons of the Trinity. Moreover, the oneness of God,

who is love by nature, allows for the affirmation that the presence of the Spirit manifests

the outpouring of God’s love over his church (Rom 5:5). By the Spirit’s indwelling

224

presence in the saints, God effectuates his work of salvation and restoration, manifesting

his love for and in his people. Believers’ lives are caught up in the life of the Trinity

because of their union with Christ by the Spirit, which thus effects a reorientation of the

human will and the satisfaction of the soul in Christ. This new present reality is what

enables biblical counselors to practice Christ-like love in their work of care. Biblical

counseling, therefore, is built upon a pneumatological love: The church is, by sharing in

the divine nature through participation in Christ by the Spirit, a community of love

marked by mutual care through self-giving.

In the fourth and final act, chapter 6, I outlined some theological implications

of this project’s argument for biblical counseling practice in the context of the church.

Particularly, chapter 6 considered the impact of having a greater awareness of union with

Christ by the Spirit in biblical counseling. First, awareness of union with Christ affirms

the insufficiency of biblical counselors in themselves while acknowledging that they can

confidently minister to others, individually and collectively, because of the Spirit of

Christ in them. Second, biblical counselors who are conscious of their organic

participation in Christ by the Spirit reject rigid methodologies and formulaic approaches

to counseling, favoring instead a relational model for their ministry interactions because

they organically share their lives in Christ and with each other. Finally, dependence and

prayer are natural for those who constantly acknowledge their need for Christ and their

existence in union with him. Thus, biblical counselors speak truth in love with an attitude

of dependence upon Christ, which translates into a strong life of prayer.

This project did not intend to provide a complete pneumatology of biblical

counseling. However, exploring the doctrine of union with Christ in a trinitarian context,

this project has laid a firm ground for the theological development of biblical counseling.

Other research projects can build upon it. For example, although this project briefly

mentioned the apologetic force of union with Christ for biblical counseling, different

projects can further develop how this doctrine can serve in the debates along the spectrum

225

of differing views on psychology and Christianity by establishing the mission of the

church and the nature of her work. Also, union with Christ by the Spirit is fertile ground

for a theologically nuanced theory of change, which can be best considered in a project

not limited to a focus on the counselor part or aspect, as this one has. Finally, future

research can explore the implications of the doctrine of union with Christ by the Spirit for

perseverance through suffering, underscoring the participatory nature of Christian

contentment and compassion in the care of those facing hardship.

If biblical counseling happens on account of union with Christ by the Spirit,

then biblical counselors should live by the constant prayer “Come, Holy Spirit” (Veni

Sancte Spiritus). Biblical counselors must, therefore, be mindful that the Spirit’s presence

means Christ is present (Matt 28:20), indwelling in the hearts (Eph 3:17), empowering

the life that is worthy of his name and gospel, now and progressively, until eternity (cf.

Rom 6:8; 8:10–11; Eph 1:13–14). Such awareness of that union will then ongoingly

summon counselors to a dependent and fervent disposition to pray this prayer:

O God the Holy Spirit,

Thou who dost proceed from the Father and the Son,

have mercy on me.

When thou didst first hover over chaos,

order came to birth,

beauty robed the world,

fruitfulness sprang forth.

Move, I pray thee, upon my disordered heart;

Take away the infirmities of unruly desires and hateful lusts;

Lift the mists and darkness of unbelief;

Brighten my soul with the pure light of truth;

Make it fragrant as the garden of paradise,

rich with every goodly fruit,

beautiful with heavenly grace,

radiant with rays of divine light.

Fulfill in me the glory of thy divine offices;

Be my comforter, light, guide, sanctifier;

Take of the things of Christ and show them to my soul.

Arthur Bennett, ed., The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

(Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1975), 30 (italics added).

226

The church’s prayer for the presence of the Spirit sustains her perseverance through the

anticipation of her final Maranatha cry: The Spirit of Christ here and now empowers the

church to face her present afflictions and struggles with a sure eschatological hope that

the King will return and complete his work. Christ is not bodily present on earth, but his

Spirit makes him present with and in believers, whereby he efficiently operates his will in

the people for whom he died and enables them to participate in his work of redemption

with truth and love.

Christ is on the move within.

Mr. Beaver’s famous words are inspiring: “They say Aslan is on the move—perhaps has

already landed” (C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe [New

York: HarperTrophy, 1994], 74).

227

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ABSTRACT

COUNSELING IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST:

UNION WITH CHRIST AND THE PNEUMATOLOGY

OF BIBLICAL COUNSELING

Lucas Sabatier Marques Leite, PhD

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2024

Chair: Dr. Robert D. Jones

Biblical counseling happens in union with Christ by the Spirit as believers

speak the truth of God in the love of God to the people of God so that they may become

more and more mature in Christ. A pneumatology of biblical counseling, therefore, must

explicate more than the role of the Spirit in the counseling room; it must understand the

task of biblical counseling itself in the broader context of the trinitarian missions,

especially the work of the Spirit that unites believers to Christ, terminating and perfecting

salvation in them. This dissertation demonstrates that a pneumatology of biblical

counseling that is attentive to the doctrine of union with Christ appropriately

contextualizes the ministry of biblical counselors within the mission of the Holy Spirit as

he empowers them to speak the truth in love by participation in Christ. Biblical

counseling happens by virtue and as a result of that blessed union of believers with Christ

by the Spirit.

Following the introduction in chapter 1, the argument of this project develops

in four major acts. In the first act, chapter 2 surveys the literature by relevant authors

from different phases of the biblical counseling movement (BCM) as well as confessional

statements from various biblical counseling organizations, identifying how they view the

relation between biblical counseling and the Holy Spirit and paying particular attention to

mentions to the doctrine of union with Christ. In the second act, chapter 3 presents the

trinitarian foundation for the doctrine of union with Christ, allowing the pneumatological

discussion of this project to happen in the appropriate context of theology proper. In the

third act, chapters 4 and 5 develop the theme of Christian cognitive and affective

participation in Christ: biblical counseling as “participatory conversations” requires the

truth and love that come from Christ by the Spirit to help counselees respond well in their

contexts of struggle or crisis. Chapter 4 establishes the association of the Holy Spirit with

truth and the mind of Christ, while chapter 5 argues for the close association between the

Spirit and love. In the fourth and final act, chapter 6 outlines some theological

implications of this project’s argument for biblical counseling practice in the context of

the church. Particularly, chapter 6 considers the ecclesiological, methodological, and

devotional impact on biblical counseling from having a greater awareness of union with

Christ by the Spirit. Chapter 7 concludes the work. In the end, it becomes clear that there

is no biblical counseling without union with Christ by the Spirit.

VITA

Lucas Sabatier Marques Leite

EDUCATION

LLB, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2009

MDiv, Faith Bible Seminary, 2016

ThM, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2018

PUBLICATIONS

Review of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia,

Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution, by Carl R.

Trueman, Consilium Theologicum 2 (February 2021): 84–91.

“A Eclesiologia Evangélica de John Webster.” Consilium Theologicum 3 (June

2021): 19–35.

“Conscience Care: An Analysis of William Perkin’s View of the Conscience

and His Practice of Soul Care.” Revista Batista Pioneira 12, no. 2

(December 2023): 73–89.

ORGANIZATIONS

Association of Certified Biblical Counselors

Biblical Counseling Coalition

Evangelical Theological Society

London Lyceum

ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT

Teaching Assistant, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville,

Kentucky, 2018–2022

Counseling Practicum Mentor, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,

Louisville, Kentucky, 2019–2022

Writing Coach for Project Methodology (Doctor of Ministry), The Southern

Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, 2021–2022

Adjunct Instructor of Biblical Counseling, The Southern Baptist Theological

Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, 2022–2023

Professor of Biblical Counseling and Christian Ethics, Word of Life Bible

Seminary, São Paulo, Brazil, 2023–

MINISTERIAL EMPLOYMENT

Pastoral Intern, Faith Church, Lafayette, Indiana, 2013–2016

Assistant Pastor, Comunidade Evangélica de Maringá, Paraná, Brazil, 2016–

2017

Pastoral Assistant, Third Avenue Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky, 2020–

2021

Missionary to Brazil, Faith Global Missions, Lafayette, Indiana, 2022–

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