Practicing Christian Doctrine Summary

Chapter five in Practicing Christian Doctrine talks about Anthropology. This word means the study of the human being. Humans are sons and daughters of God almighty. Humans are also created in the image of God. As humans, we have a guidebook for life, the Bible, and we have an ideal example, Jesus Christ, of how to live. In Practicing Christian Doctrine, humans are described as creatures, sinners and new creations. As creatures, humans are utterly dependent on God. This is true because humans are inadequate, bound, and dependent by nature. As well as needing God, humans need others as well. God created humans to love the Lord and to love others as we love ourselves. Practicing Christian Doctrine expresses that the human nature is made up of …show more content…
The Holy Spirit is the third person stated in the Triune God. He is in eternal relationship with the Father and The Son. 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” In the freedom of the spirit, we are transformed and enabled to reflect the image of God. The Holy Spirit began His life giving work in genesis when He “hovers over the shadows of the deep.” The Spirit gives us new life in the present and in the future promise of everlasting life. The Holy Spirit 's work tears down many walls through His all-inclusive love. The Spirit loves men and women, rich and poor, young and old, black and white. This love challenges our practices of racism, elitism, and sexism. Along with these gifts and attributes of the Holy Spirit, Practicing Christian Doctrine explains that He is also a personal spirit. He abides with us, in us, and empowers us to love. He will always point us straight back to the Son. God is not just having relationships, but instead He is a relationship. The Triune God has an inseparable personal relationship of the most mutual kind. In chapter eight, the book also describes the spirituality of humans. Humans are creatures who are both spiritual and physical. The spiritual life is the life of the body and soul together under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells us so that our bodies are temples. As humans, we do not have a problem or struggle because we have bodies, instead it is because we have sin. Bodies are not prisons, they are essential to who we are and to the spiritual life. Our body indwells the Holy Spirit and is made for the Lord. Practicing Christian Doctrine states that we live in the Spirit 's power, being indwelled with the Spirit, as people being made holy under the direction of the spirit who is