Theological Foundations of Christian Spirituality Formation
📌 Spiritual formation is likened to a sturdy building, requiring a solid theological foundation (the base) to prevent collapse under pressure.
❓ The basis of spiritual formation must address one's relationship with God and with others, not just personal actions, as other parties are involved.
📚 The primary sources used for this material are **Alister McGrath's *Christian Spirituality* and Simon Chan's *Spiritual Theology***.

Foundation 1: The Trinity
🔗 The Trinitarian doctrine (One God in three distinct Persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit) serves as the patron or pattern for human relationships.
💖 The eternal relationship of love within the Trinity provides the model for all relationships, including those between spouses, parents and children, and teachers and students.
🔥 Love is the essential "fuel" for building and maintaining spiritual relationships with God and others; this love must be modeled after the Trinity, not worldly concepts from social media or popular culture.

Foundation 2: Creation (Creatio Ex Nihilo)
🌍 Creation *ex nihilo* (out of nothing) affirms God’s attributes: powerful, loving, wise, and creative.
🧬 Humans were intentionally designed to be inseparable from God; life is found through relationship with the Creator, as illustrated by God breathing life (spirit) into physical creation (Adam).
😟 St. Augustine’s sentiment, "Our heart is restless until it finds its rest in You," confirms that created beings are inherently disconnected from the source of true life without relating to God.

Foundation 3: The Fall (Sin and Inability)
💥 The Fall (Genesis 3) resulted in Total Depravity and Total Inability regarding performing true righteousness or choosing God through human effort alone.
🚫 Spiritual habits and formation cannot be achieved solely by effort after the Fall; they require total dependence on God's grace and mercy.
⚠️ Even after being "born again" (regeneration), lingering sinful tendencies and habits remain, which spiritual formation actively works to diminish, though they are never completely gone in this life.

Foundation 4: Incarnation
👑 Jesus Christ, being 100% God and 100% human, is the primary representative of what God is like and the ultimate model for human life according to God’s standard.
🎯 The objective of Christian spirituality is Christ-likeness: conforming our thoughts, ways of life, problem-solving, and ministry to the pattern set by Christ.
🤝 Examining how Jesus related to the Father and to others (miracles, teaching) provides the blueprint for how believers should structure their spiritual formation habits.

Foundation 5: Redemption
✝️ Redemption is the starting point of Christian spirituality, achieved through Christ's sacrifice as Mediator, securing victory over sin and death, and providing forgiveness.
🎁 The cross is the greatest display of God’s immense love for sinful humanity.
🚧 It is impossible to build genuine Christian spirituality without first acknowledging and responding to Christ's redemption and experiencing regeneration (being born again).

Foundation 6: Consummation and Glorification
🌟 This final stage anticipates Jesus' return in glory, leading to the renewal of the world (New Heaven and New Earth).
🏃‍♂️ Spiritual habits and formation practices are training exercises that prepare believers for this end state, akin to an athlete training for the finish line (Glorification).
⏳ Earthly life is a training ground (the *bios*—biological life) leading toward the fullness of life (*Zoe*) enjoyed in an eternal, fulfilled relationship with God in the renewed creation.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ Spiritual formation must be built upon solid theological ground; ignoring the foundation leads to a weak, easily ruined spiritual structure.
➡️ Love modeled on the Trinity must be the core motivation and fuel for all relationships within one's spiritual life.
➡️ Spiritual growth necessitates recognizing our total inability to save or sanctify ourselves due to the Fall, demanding continuous reliance on God's grace.
➡️ The goal of all spiritual training is Christ-likeness, constantly measuring personal transformation against the perfect life displayed by Jesus.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Jan 13, 2026, 02:12 UTC