“The glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God.”
— Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. 130–202 AD)

Far too many Christians embrace a well-intentioned heresy: the belief that the pinnacle of spiritual maturity is to become an automaton—a passive creature whose every impulse is overwritten by Scripture, whose will is erased in favor of robotic obedience.

You’ve heard the slogans: “I just want to be an empty vessel,” or “Crucify myself so thoroughly that only Christ remains.” The intentions are humble; the anthropology underneath is not Christian.

Genesis does not say we are made in God’s image so we can be reprogrammed out of existence. It says the opposite. If we bear God’s image, then at the core of our being God has placed agency—real, perilous, glorious freedom. God does not craft puppets. He knits together the souls of persons. He hands Adam a garden not merely to tend but to name, cultivate, subdue, and imagine. From the beginning, God delights in a world where human beings genuinely choose, discern, create, and risk. Authentic human freedom is not a flaw to be patched. It’s the goal.

Sin, of course, warps that freedom into rebellion. And because we know our proclivity to wander, we sometimes conclude that the safest spirituality is to kill the will entirely. But biblical obedience is never the annihilation of personhood; it is its sanctification. Scripture does not
command us to become hollow shells for Jesus but living sacrifices with renewed minds—fully awake, fully alive, freely offering ourselves in love.

God does not want to bypass your judgment; He wants to heal it.
He does not silence your desires; He reorders them.
He does not erase your personality; He enlivens it.

The Spirit’s work is not to lobotomize thinking, willing image-bearers into passive instruments. It is to restore us so thoroughly that our choices, our creativity, our loves, and even our risks become theaters where God’s wisdom and glory are put on display.

Maranatha,

Jordy