One of the most insightful texts that reflects the holistic nature of the Christian's right response to the gospel of grace is Rom 6:17-"But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed."
Note, here, that the Apostle Paul describes the Christian's response to grace as being "obedient." This reveals that the Christian life involves the will.
Furthermore, this obedience is "from the heart." This shows that the Christian life involves the affections.
Finally, this obedience from the heart was to the "standard of teaching." This reminds that the Christian life involves the mind (the cognitive as rational part).
On this Lord's Day, let's be reminded that robust, Christ exalting worship is not merely an act of the will, or merely an act of the affections or mind, it is holistic.
Perhaps no one says this better than John Stott:
We must…beware of all forms of emotional, aesthetic or ecstatic worship in which the mind is not fully engaged….The only worship pleasing to God is heart-worship, and heart-worship is rational worship. It is the worship of a rational God who has made us rational beings and given us a rational revelation so that we may worship Him rationally, even ‘with all our mind.’ (Christ the Controversialist, 165).
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