The NewesLetter Vol 30 no. 1 ;  January, 2026

[For the fully formatted version — complete with Spirituality Shoppe updates and pictures download the PDF version]

Reflections: The Four Spiritual Laws

When I was in high school, I posed that very question to many, many people. “I see you have four wheels on your car. Have you ever heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?” This question was printed on the front cover of—and was the gateway to—a little tract that summarized the Christian message, inviting the hearer to make a commitment to Christ. I discovered the booklet at age fifteen, shortly after my conversion to Christianity (55 years ago last week!). I can’t remember how I found it, but I remember copying the entire booklet by hand because it summarized what I had privately experienced so well and I wanted to make sure I had a copy. Little did I know that I would soon be purchasing those The Four Spiritual Laws in fifty-tract bundles.

Since that time I have graduated from college, seminary, and two other graduate schools (a Ph.D from Berkeley, CA). I was a professor of philosophy and world religions at a secular college. I have taught Christian spirituality for conservative Baptist, progressive Presbyterian, and other institutions all over the world. I visited shut-ins in Chicago, helped pioneer a Christian meditation center in India, mentored leaders in San Francisco, and delivered water to unhoused folks here in Montrose. I have published a number of books. And as I was preparing for our trip to Norway, I realized that—after all this time and experience—I still believe in “The 4 Laws,” albeit with a few changes in language and Bible verse selection. Let me explain by presenting them to you just I might have in the old days, albeit with a few current revisions.

LAW ONE GOD LOVES YOU AND OFFERS A WONDERFUL PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE

The Bible verses associated with this first law in the tract are John 3:16 (God’s love) and John 10:10 (God’s plan). While I have no fundamental disagreement here, I think we comprehend both God’s love and plan if we understand them in the context of the whole of the biblical trajectory. God’s love is a love extended to the whole of creation, including humankind (“good,” “good,” “very good” Genesis 1:1 and following). God’s wonderful plan for our life is a plan of cooperative care (Genesis 1:28; 2:15). This plan of human beings as a new people after God’s own heart is finally realized at the end of time (Revelation 22:5).

LAW TWO WE SUFFER UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF SIN, SATAN, AND SOCIETY. WE ARE SEPARATED FROM GOD, OURSELVES, OTHERS, AND CREATION. THEREFORE WE CANNOT KNOW AND EXPERIENCE GOD’S LOVE AND PLAN FOR OUR LIFE

The Bible correctly identifies that there is a human predicament. Yet the Scriptures are also clear that this predicament cannot be simply reduced to personal “sin.” The forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil weave their way through the entire Scripture story (see for example Ephesians 2:2–3). Our separation from God resulting from “the fall,” is a matter of separation from God, but it is also profoundly a disruption in our relationships with ourselves, with others, and with all of creation (see Genesis 3:14–19). This results in our failure to become—and to experience—God’s beautiful and loving plan of cooperative care for our lives, as demonstrated again and again all through the Scripture. Consequently, we must see “Sin” Biblically as a social and ecological crisis as much as a personal crisis.

LAW THREE JESUS CHRIST IS GOD’S ULTIMATE SOLUTION. THROUGH HIM YOU CAN KNOW AND EXPERIENCE GOD’S LOVE AND PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE

Throughout the Scripture story God invites people (the family of Abraham, the nation of Israel, the tribe of Judah, the remnant of the Exile . . .) to respond to divine love and to enter into new life. But as the story recounts, we refuse and refuse again. Finally God sends Jesus Christ, who as fully human responds where other humans failed. Jesus is the model, the living Word, who displays just what life in God’s love and creative cooperative care looks like (see John 13:15; 1 John 2:6). Jesus is also the mentor, proclaiming a manifesto of new life in keeping with God’s wonderful plan (see Matthew 5–7). Furthermore, as fully divine, Jesus—through his death and resurrection—mediates the very salvation life he models (see, for example, Romans 5:8, a verse used in the original Four Spiritual Laws). Through the life, message, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ—we will get to the Holy Spirit soon—we have victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil and now have access to reconciliation with God, ourselves, others, and creation itself.

LAW FOUR WE MUST WELCOME JESUS AS SAVIOR AND LORD; THEN WE CAN KNOW AND EXPERIENCE GOD’S LOVE AND PLAN FOR OUR LIVES

On the bottom corner of the 3rd Law we read “It is not enough just to know these three laws.” Correct! The Christian gospel has never been simply a matter of intellectual assent. We are compelled to turn the page to Law Four and acknowledge the importance of our response. But just as the character of Christ’s invitation differs from individual to individual and from one community in history to another, so our responses will differ. Indeed, the language of Scripture varies. To the rich young ruler it was a call to sell all and follow (Matthew 19:21). To the bent-over woman it was an invitation for her to permit Jesus’s touch (Luke 13:12–13). “Repent,” “believe,” “be baptized,” “faith” are common invitations. Furthermore, the entire New Testament after the Gospels emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in empowering God’s people to become a creative cooperative community of God’s heart (Acts 2:38). Thus by believing in, following, repenting, receiving Jesus—and welcoming the ministry of the Holy Spirit—we are transformed and becoming transformed more and more in the love and into the plan of God as both individuals and as a people of Christ’s Spirit. Again, just as “Sin” is a personal, social, and ecological crisis, so God’s salvation is presented in Scripture and experienced by God’s people as a personal, social, and ecological restoration.

God loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives, where each area of our existence as individuals, churches, and nations, are ordered in harmony with the values models and taught by Jesus Christ. In the Four Spiritual Laws this is displayed by a picture of the “Christ-Directed Life.”

But when we try and direct our own lives apart from relationship with Christ as individuals, faith communities, nations . . . (the “Self-Directed Life”), we fall short of God’s plan and experience loneliness, division, and discord.

Sometimes, like when I was fifteen, one prayer of surrender (see the next page in the tract) becomes the doorway into big changes. At other times, or for other people, we find ourselves taking one small step of following here and another step of receiving there. Changes still happen.

But in any case, this is the pattern: (1) God’s love and plan, (2) the conditions that prevent our experience of that love and plan, (3) the life and work of Jesus Christ making a way, and (4) the role of our conscious welcome of Christ and the Holy Spirit of transformation. These four spiritual laws provide a helpful summary of the Christian gospel and, for those who have ears to hear, they are a doorway into life.

May the love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you all.

By God’s Grace,

Evan B. Howard