Willard | Renovation of Heart

And heart refers to its position in the human being, as the center or core to which every other component of the selfowes its proper functioning.

Influence on Action But now we turn to action. Our actions always arise out of the interplay of the universal factors in human life: spirit, mind, body, social context, and soul. Action never comes from the movement of the will alone. Often? perhaps usually?what we do is not an outcome of deliberate choice and a mere act of will, but is more of a r

But in both cases ?grace? means we are to be, and are enabled to be, active to a degree we have never been before. Paul?s picture of grace is ?And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed? (2 Corinthians 9:8).

We especially have in mind opinions to the effect that a human being

is purely physical, just an animal?basically, just the human brain. Or the opinion that human beings are, as such, good, or not to be forced to do anything they don?t want to do.

Now, when we set aside contemporary prejudices and carefully examine

these two great sources, I believe it will become clear that heart, spirit, and will (or their equivalents) are words that refer to one and the same thing, the same fundamental component of the person.

In the life under God, by contrast, the order of dominance is

God Spirit

Mind (Thought/Feeling) Soul Body

Here the body serves the soul; the soul, the mind; the mind, the spirit; and the spirit, God. Conversely, the life ?from above? flows from God throughout the whole person, including the body and its social context.

Second, it tells us that the confusion now publicly prevailing over the

makeup of the human being may not be due to its inherent obscurity. Rather, it may be due to the fact that it is a field where strongly armed prejudices?assumptions about what must be the case, ?don't bother me with facts??prevent even well-intended people from seeing what, at l

It is the central point of this book that spiritual transformation only happens as each essential dimension of the human being is transformed to Christlikeness under the direction of a regenerate will interacting with constant overtures of grace from God. Such transformation is not the result of mere human effort and cannot be accomplished by putti

Note how many aspects of the selfare explicitly involved in this passage: the mind (thought), the will (choice), the feelings, the soul, and the body. A major part of understanding spiritual formation in the Christian traditions is to follow closely the way the biblical writings repeatedly and emphatically focus on the various essential dimensions