Booklet, adapted from Advanced Study No. 2: The Ways of the Heart

The Whole-Hearted Christian

Frank Allnutt

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Part 7: The Whole-Hearted Christian

Positionally, relationally, and ontologically, the Whole-Hearted Christian is no different from the Half-Hearted Christian. Both have “eaten of the Tree of Life, and have been rescued out of the domain of darkness and placed into God’s realm of light. Both are new-hearted, new creatures in Christ. The differences between the two have to do with the condition or mode of their hearts, and the ways in which they function and behave.

A change of heart
The Whole-Hearted Christian has experienced, and is experiencing, a change of heart and all that comes with it: intimate fellowship with Jesus and the wonderful blessings of the abundant life He promised. He wholeheartedly walks in truth and does what is good in the sight of God (see 2 Kings 20:3). This is sometimes referred to as “knowing” or “experiencing Christ as life.”

In the New Testament, “repent” (metanoeo) and “repentance” (metanoia) find their meaning in a change of heart (though a change of heart involves more than repentance). Repentance is the radical transformation of the functioning of the heart’s mind, emotion, and will, which form the context of salvational faith. Faith without repentance is not saving faith, but mere intellectual assent. Repentance is turning away from sin—mentally, emotionally, and volitionally. Because sin is found in the dynamic of certain human behavior, repentance, while seen as an event of faith at the time of salvation, is also an ongoing process—just as faith is an ongoing process. For when a believer sins, repentance must necessarily follow—sin must be confessed and turned from if the believer wishes to enjoy fellowship with Christ. And the only way a believer can successfully turn from the sin motive is to exercise his love motive. Sin functionally divides the heart, and love functionally unites it. For as light disperses darkness, so does love disperse sin.

Figure 11: Perspectives of the Whole-Hearted Christian

Figure 11 illustrates several perspectives of the Whole-Hearted Christian. The depiction on the left is of the positional and ontological perspectives, and the one on the right is of the conditional and functional perspectives. Notice that:

Positionally, the Whole-Hearted Christian, like all believers, exists in God’s realm of light and is in the Spirit, as indicated by his white heart and body.

Ontologically, the Whole-Hearted Christian, like all believers, is a new-hearted, new creature in Christ.

Relationally, the Whole-Hearted Christian, like all believers, is united with Christ.

Conditionally, the heart of the Whole-Hearted Christian is united, soul with spirit, and God’s light fills his heart and body.

Functionally, the Whole-Hearted Christian experiences the united dynamics of the soul and spirit, and operates in holy harmony with the indwelling Spirit of Christ.

Behaviorally, the Whole-Hearted Christian walks or lives in the Spirit, is led by the Spirit, and is filled by the Spirit.

Wholeheartedness is a superior way of life—the way of living in Christ, and experiencing Christ living in and through self.

The believer with a whole heart is one who, out of the promised “new spirit” of love (Ezekiel 36:26; 2 Timothy 1:7), has had a change of heart. He has positively responded to God’s desire for him to “Give Me your heart, My son, and let your eyes delight in My ways” (Proverbs 23:26). He is experiencing true fellowship with God because love has functionally set him free from pridefulness and other actual sins, and their resulting “death” or separation of fellowship with God.

The Whole-Hearted Christian has forsaken fleshly, worldly, and sinful living. He has conditionally and functionally “crucified the flesh” (Galatians 5:24) and is living as a “new man,” whose spiritual and loving bearings unite his soul with his spirit.

Through this united mode of heart, personhood— with its love-united soul and spirit—functions “in the Spirit,” in contrast to functioning “according to the flesh.”

A whole heart is a healed or healing heart
Most of us, in various ways and degrees, have experienced a wounded or broken heart. The Whole-Hearted Christian has been, or is being, healed of any such wounds. God has promised all of His children: “I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isaiah 57:15b).

David and Isaiah testified to God’s love for the broken-hearted believer and His desire to heal their wounds:

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed [contrite] in spirit (Psalm 34:18).

He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds (Psalm 147:3).

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified” (Isaiah 61:1-3).

The purposes of our being healed are to promote wholeheartedness—to be continually and consistently loving God, yielding to Him, and walking in fellowship with Him out of loving obedience from the heart.

“They will return to Me with their whole heart”
It is God’s desire that all of His children will fellowship with Him out of a whole heart and live whole-heartedly for Him. Long ago, God promised and prophesied:

“I will give them [His children] a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to [fellowship with] Me with their whole heart” (Jeremiah 24:7).

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit [of love] within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:26, 27).

The Apostle Peter assures us that God has fulfilled His promises to us: “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and Godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature...” (2 Peter 1:3, 4).

There is much evidence in Scripture that God has fulfilled His promise of a new heart, a new spirit of love, and the indwelling Holy Spirit. Perhaps the most complete and concise statement to this effect is found in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, in which he prays that God will grant to them “to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).

God made us new-hearted, new creatures to serve as the sanctuary or holy place for His Spirit. Through the Spirit, Christ’s eternal life was made our life. And through Christ’s indwelling Spirit and our shared life with Him, He lives His life in us (Galatians 2:20).

Figure 13: The Fruit of the Whole-Hearted Christian

The Whole-Hearted Christian walks in the Spirit out of whole-hearted (love-motivated) obedience from the heart (Romans 6:17), and produces “fruit for God” (Romans 7:4) through his inner-man functioning and outer-man behavior. Because he walks in the Spirit, he walks in the ways of God, God’s love, God’s Kingdom, and God’s grace. He enjoys close fellowship with the indwelling Spirit of Christ, and is cooperating with Him in the joint process of being functionally conformed to the likeness of Christ.

Now, let’s turn to the teaching of Jesus on the subject of producing fruit for God.

The vine and the branches

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:1-7).

Loving obedience

“By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:8-11).

Loving each other

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another” (John 15:12-17).

Our behavior is governed by the condition and functioning of our heart. Figure 14 illustrates the dynamics of a whole heart—one that is functionally united, soul with spirit, and operates in harmony with the indwelling Holy Spirit.

When our hearts are whole and we walk in the Spirit and are filled by the Spirit, the gift of God’s love is poured out within hearts through His Spirit (Romans 5:5). “The fruit of the Spirit is love” (Galatians 5:22), and when love is manifested in and through us, we produce the fruit of love for God, for ourselves, and for others:

1. The fruit of joy is the loving heart’s strength in Christ.

2. The fruit of peace is the loving heart’s security in Christ.

3. The fruit of patience is the loving heart’s endurance in Christ.

4. The fruit of kindness is the loving heart’s conduct in Christ.

5. The fruit of goodness is the loving heart’s character in Christ.

6. The fruit of faithfulness is the loving heart’s confidence in Christ.

7. The fruit of gentleness is the loving heart’s humility in Christ.

8. The fruit of self-control is the loving heart’s victory in Christ.

9. In summary, the fruit of love is the loving heart’s freedom in Christ.

The spirit of life in Christ set us free from the principle of sin and death (Romans 8:2)—positionally, relationally, and ontologically, at the time of our salvation. In the very practical matters of our everyday lives, the spirit of life in Christ can set us free from the principle of sin and death (separation of fellowship with Christ)—if we function out of a whole heart. If we do not live wholeheartedly, we risk conditional and functional enslavement to sin and death.

Because the Whole-Hearted Christian is motivated by love, the following statements can be made that characterize his life and life-style:

1. He is growing spiritually—is being functionally conformed to the likeness of Christ.
   
   

2. He is growing in his ability to know the mind of Christ and to think as Christ thinks.
   
   

3. He experiences Christ’s peace and joy, and is learning to respond to circumstances with Christlike feelings.
   
   

4. He experiences diminishing fleshly desires and increasing new desires that correspond with the will of God.
   
   

5. He experiences victories over the flesh, Satan, sin, and the world order.
   
   

6. He walks in grace, is lovingly obedient from the heart, and thus fulfills the law.
   
   

7. He responds to the Great Commission by witnessing for Christ to nonbelievers.
   
   

8. He builds up the body of Christ through discipling others, intercessory prayer, and many other practical ways of ministering to their needs.
   
   

9. He magnifies the glory of God through his life, life-style, behavior and works.

Our new hearts make us capable of loving God and others as ourselves. This is because we are partakers of the divine nature, of which love is a chief attribute. This “new spirit” empowers us with the motivational principle of love so that love will be dynamic in our relationship with God as well as with others. Without this new spirit of love, the soul could never be functionally united with the spirit, and thus could not operate in harmony with the Spirit of Christ.

When we live whole-heartedly we are always in a state of becoming more and more functionally conformed to the likeness of Christ Jesus. We come to live more in Him and see more of His living in and through us. In this way, God is working to progressively sanctify the functioning of our hearts in conforming us to the likeness of Christ.

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