Everyone has heard of the popular X Factor programme created by Simon Cowell, where contestants with musical talents compete with each other to win over judges and TV audiences who vote online. The winner is the one with the X factor (an outstanding special talent or quality) and receives the prize of a record contract.

The X-factor in Peter and John

In a way, the “X factor” was involved in the confrontation between the Jewish religious council and Peter and John in the wake of the remarkable healing of a man lame from birth (Acts 4). The council questioned the authority of Peter and John to perform that miracle. In their answer, Peter and John pointed out that it was not they, but Jesus, whom the leaders had crucified, that had healed the lame man. The educated and powerful council observed and noticed the calm authority and boldness of Peter and John. They closely resembled Jesus. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13 ESV) The disciples had lived with Jesus 24/7 for about three years and had observed and imbibed his teachings, absorbed his attitude and imitated his actions. This was the “X factor” that stunned the religious council.

Christ’s finished work and X-factor

Today, through Christ’s death and resurrection and the outpouring of the Spirit in our hearts, Christ lives in us. His presence, power and purpose permeate our being and change us from one degree of glory to another. We are being transformed into his likeness and image by the Spirit who dwells in us. It is written in 2 Cor 3:18: “And we all with unveiled face, reflecting 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.” The Spirit begins a process of shaping our inner life so that it conforms to the values, character and mission of Jesus. It is a lifelong transformative journey that begins at conversion and leads us to maturity. How does this work?

Practices to predispose ourselves to receive grace

The transformative journey is aided by positioning ourselves to receive God’s grace through various spiritual disciplines:

• Receiving God’s Word: Reading and studying the Bible to grasp the meta-narrative and understand who God is and what he has been doing throughout salvation history. Slow meditation of shorter passages and verses that we feel drawn to, allows the Spirit to illuminate, inspire, and create the desire for change in our lives. A renewal of the mind is essential. Romans 12:2 highlights this. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” This means allowing the truths, beliefs, values, and perspectives of the Bible to uproot our deeply embedded old patterns of thought and values.

• Faith-sharing in a community: Be part of a group that provides a safe space for honest sharing of the ups and downs of life, nurtures faithful prayer for one another, and loving commitment to serve one another. It is also in the community that we nurture qualities and attitudes that reflect Christ – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22,23).

• Regular reflection: Short pauses daily or weekly to reflect on the significant events, conversations, and experiences that affected you positively or negatively in the past day or week. We give thanks for the blessings, whether small or big, for in them we notice God’s love. We pray about those painful and unhappy moments that impacted us negatively and ask God to show us how he is present and how we can grow through that experience.

• Loving service: Start loving people and doing things to serve them. We join God in his mission to embrace the world with his love. Gradually, we will discover our passion, giftings, and callings.

• Prayer: This is a life-long journey of learning to trust and depend on God for everything. We first need to realize how spiritually impoverished and bankrupt we are. Jesus told his disciples in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Once we realize this, prayer begins.

• Church calendar: The church calendar marks all the significant events in the life of Christ and the church: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Good Friday and Easter, and Pentecost. It provides a rhythm, structure and framework for the spiritual formation of the church. By participating and meditating on the themes and rituals suggested by each, we learn different aspects of Christ and his finished work and embed kingdom values into our lives. By revisiting the same stories and themes with fresh eyes each year, we experience afresh God’s loving embrace and deepen our faith in God.

All these ways help us to predispose ourselves to God’s grace and facilitate the Spirit’s formation of our faith and growth in Christ-likeness.

This is part of a planned series of writings on the topic, “The A to Z of Christ’s Finished Work”. I am writing it alphabet by alphabet. Thus far the others that I have written can be found HERE.