In all of these teachings the one thing that is never defined, much less nurtured to grow, is what exactly "spiritual" means. Learning Bible verses and truths is actually academic or mental growth. Observing more and more laws or principles, or practicing rituals is behavioral growth.
Consider the teachings of early Dispensationalist J.B. Stoney on this matter:
Everyone according to his moral sense, if he is true to his conscience, refuses the evil and seeks the good; and as the conscience becomes enlightened, this is more definitely insisted on. This is the principle of law; obedience was enjoined by the law however contrary to the natural man. Now when grace comes in, the believer rejoices in the assurance of his forgiveness, and, as he knows atonement, his conscience constrains him to live to please God; but this is often taken up on the principle of law, so that self-improvement becomes his great aim, and the law his standard of walk.
Now it should be plain to anyone who understands the Gospel, that in the fulness of the grace of God, the man who offended against God was judicially terminated in the Cross, and the one who believes in the Second Man is justified. He should know that he is not now in the flesh, in Adam before God but in Christ; and that any attempt which he may make to improve his old man in conduct is in reality a flagrant, though unintentional, denial of the greatness of the grace of God.
But this is a wile by which many are captured and detained. Almost every believer is more or less caught in this snare, and many, alas! continue in it to the end of their course. Very few learn early in their history what it is to be in Christ, and thus meet to enjoy fellowship with the Father. Until this is known he is necessarily occupied with himself. As a result he sometimes subjects himself to much self-mortification in the effort to repress or improve the tendencies of the flesh, and this goes on until the cry is not, Who will improve me? but "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
The word "transformation" occurs twice in Scripture with reference to Christians (Rom. 12:2, and 2 Cor. 3:18). Every believer tries to be reformed, but very few apprehend the great moral difference between reformation and transformation. As a rule believers rejoice that they are saved, and aim to be up to the language of Micah 6:8, "to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."
There are increasing numbers who have accepted the truth that by the grace of God they have been transferred from Adam to Christ, and that they are clear of the old man in God's sight; yet they have no true understanding of what it is to be "transformed." Reformation is improvement, and refers to what already exists; but transformation means a change of being. This, it is feared, is little known.
from Reformation or Transformation? J.B. Stoney
online source Bob Nyberg - New Tribes Mission
