The Broken Form

Dr. Spencer R. Fusselman

The glorious reality of your adoption is the foundation of your faith: you are a chosen son or daughter of the King, conscripted into a royal lineage before the foundation of the world. However, to fully appreciate the magnitude of the Gospel, you must first confront the severity of your condition prior to that adoption. You cannot understand the cure until you understand the disease.

In the world of martial arts, there is a distinct difference between teaching a complete novice and teaching someone who learned "street fighting" on their own. The novice is a blank slate. The street fighter, however, is a bundle of dangerous habits. They arrive with "bad muscle memory"—instinctive flinches, poor posture, and erratic movements developed over a lifetime of untrained survival. When the Sensei tries to teach them a straight punch, they flare their elbows. When they should step forward, they lean back. Before the Sensei can build the correct structure, he must ruthlessly deconstruct the broken form.

Theologically, this is the doctrine of Total Depravity. It is a hard truth, often rejected by a culture that preaches inherent human goodness, but it is the essential diagnostic tool for the Warrior Priest. We do not enter this world as "blank slates." We enter with a spiritual localized infection that has spread to every part of our being. The Apostle Paul describes our natural state in Ephesians 2:1 not as "sick" or "confused," but as "dead in trespasses and sins." A dead man does not need a life coach; he needs a resurrection.
When we speak of "bad muscle memory" in the spirit, we are talking about the corruption of three specific areas:

• The Mind (Rationalization): Just as an untrained fighter convinces themselves that swinging wild haymakers is "power," our fallen minds are experts at rationalizing sin. Jeremiah 17:9 warns, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" We are masters of rebranding our rebellion. We call our gossip "venting," our lust "appreciation," and our pride "self-respect."
• The Will (Bondage): We often believe we are free to choose God anytime we want. But the untrained will is enslaved to its strongest desire. If you love self more than God, you will always choose self. You are free to do what you want, but your “wanter" - that I your desires are broken.
• The Affections (Misplaced Love): We love the shadows more than the light (John 3:19). Like a fighter who drops their hands when tired because it feels comfortable, we drift toward sin because it feels natural to our fallen state.

In a traditional dojo, one wall is usually covered in mirrors. The mirror is not there for vanity; it is there for correction. It shows you what you actually look like, not what you think you look like. You might feel like you are standing straight, but the mirror reveals you are leaning.

The Law of God (The Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount) acts as this mirror. Romans 3:20 declares, "For by the law is the knowledge of sin." When we look into the perfect standard of God, we stop comparing ourselves to the "white belts" of the world (murderers, thieves) and realize that compared to the Master, our form is shattered. We realize that our anger is murder in the heart (Matthew 5:21-22) and our lust is adultery in the heart (Matthew 5:28).

As a Purple Belt student—someone midway through the journey—you face a specific danger: Pride (religious and physical). The white belt knows they know nothing. The black belt knows how much there is still to learn. But the intermediate student often thinks they have arrived. They have learned a few forms, memorized a few verses, and cleaned up their external behavior.

This is the trap of the Pharisee. You can polish the outside of the cup while the inside remains full of greed and self-indulgence (Matthew 23:25). You can have perfect karate technique and still be a bully; you can have perfect theology and still be a jerk. God is not impressed by your "spiritual kata" if your heart remains unyielded.

Theologian R.C. Sproul clarified this distinction: "We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners." The flaw is in the nature, not just the action. Understanding this breaks the pride of the martial artist. You realize that you cannot "earn" your next rank in God's Kingdom through self-effort alone. You need an external intervention.

This realization of your "Broken Form" is not meant to crush you into despair; it is meant to drive you to dependence. When a student finally admits, "Sensei, I don't know how to move. I keep flinching. I can't fix this," they become teachable. As long as they defend their street fighting style, they cannot learn the art. Spiritually, as long as you cling to the old man, you can not be made new.

When you admit that your "broken form"—your hidden anger, your recurring lust, your desperate need for validation—is a fatal flaw you cannot fix on your own, you are finally ready to receive the grace of the Ultimate Sensei, Jesus Christ. You stop trying to impress God with your shadowboxing and start trusting in His power to rebuild you from the ground up. You realize that grace is not a topping for your ice cream; it is the water for your survival.

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