The problem is not so much that society has it wrong when it comes to understanding the Christian faith.
The problem is: Christians agree with the assessments.
Transformation - from Bios to Zoe
A statue has the shape of a man but is not alive. In the same way, man has the ‘shape’ or likeness of God, but he has not got the kind of life God has.
Life, in this biological sense, is not the same as the life there is in God: It is only a kind of symbol or shadow of it.
What man, in his natural condition, has not got, is Spiritual life – the higher and different sort of life that exists in God.
The Biological life that comes to us through Nature, and which is always tending to run down and decay, is Bios. The Spiritual life which is in God from all eternity, and which made the whole natural universe, is Zoe.
A human being who changed from having Bios to having Zoe would have gone through as big a change as a statue which changed from being a carved stone to being a real man.
And that is precisely what Christianity is about. This world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues and there is a rumour going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.
(C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)
Transformation - A New Kind of Different
Christian life is not supposed to be boring, lifeless, and empty.
Paul says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
C.S. Lewis describes the new creation as "not only going to be different, but different with a new kind of difference."
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all … beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)
The Christian Life
The Christian life is an ongoing transformation (from Bios to Zoe) made possible by the indwelling Spirit of God. The Christian’s job is to submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Paul says, "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25-26)
The key to the life in the Spirit of God: Surrender. Yield. Abandon.
Why would anyone want to surrender?
Love makes all the difference.
Paul testifies, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
