Growing In Christ
Why We Need and How To Grow In Christ
Life as a Christian begins when we hear the gospel, believe in Jesus and are born again by God’s spirit. As a new-born baby in Christ, we need to be fed – first on the ‘milk’ of God’s word. Then we need to grow, by feeding on the ‘solid’ food of God’s word. Growth is a sign of life and health.
This present life is preparation for the life to come, when we go to be with Jesus. In this preparation we will need to grow spiritually, in Christ, and overcome three things – the world, the flesh and the devil. With growth and bearing spiritual fruit we will be able to endure the trials and temptations of this life and be prepared for persecution and spiritual deception. Growth takes time and perseverance.
We know that lack of or wrong food and bad habits will impact our body – causing retarded growth, sickness or premature death. So it is with us spiritually. Lack of or wrong spiritual food and bad habits will impede or prevent our growth in Christ.
How do we grow in Christ and what evidence should there be to show that we are ‘growing in Christ‘?
I hope that here these questions will be addressed and show that God’s amazing and gracious salvation in Christ goes much further than to forgive our sins and give us a right to enter His eternal kingdom. It is God’s intention that we, having been saved by His grace through faith and born again by His Spirit, not remain as children but also grow by the power of His Spirit.
Growth is God’s Intention
As a father and mother rejoice to see their children grow in stature and maturity so our Father in heaven rejoices to see His children grow spiritually into the likeness of His Son, Jesus.
The end result of growth is that ‘we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’ (Ephesians 4:13). This growth is revealed as we bear the fruit of the Spirit and become more like Jesus. But we must understand that it is impossible for us to grow and bear the fruit of the Spirit except by our being in Christ and he in us. Our growth is in Christ because it is his life and the power of his Spirit, not ours that enables us to live for him.
That we grow and mature is essential so that we will not, as Paul in his letter to the Ephesians says, be ‘tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes’. (Ephesians 4:14). Here Paul warns that poor, false or deceiving teaching will cause us to be led astray and not grow to maturity.
Jesus taught us spiritual truths with many illustrations from the natural world known as parables. There are two great parables relating to growth: the parable of the sower and the parable of the vine (Luke 8:4-15 and John 15:1-6) which explain how: 1. we bear the fruit of the Spirit and 2. what can hinder or even prevent this fruit from forming.
In the parable of the sower Jesus told His disciples of four types of soil which reflect the state of our heart. If our heart becomes hardened, shallow in faith or worldly – that is, love for this world and the things of this world rather than the kingdom of God, we will be in spiritual danger. If these are not addressed we will be unequipped to face the trials of this life and hinder or even prevent our growth and bearing the fruit of Christ’s spirit in us.
In the parable of the vine Jesus said He is the vine and we are the branches. We must remain spiritually connected to Him to bear fruit (see We Are To Bear Fruit).
Life in Jesus begins when we repent of our sins and put our faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. The reality of our faith will be shown in a changed life which the Bible describes as holiness, without which no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). Throughout the New Testament believers, Christians are most often referred to as saints or holy ones. To be holy simply means to be separated from the ways of sin and of this world for God’s purpose. We are able to be holy because by the grace and power of God, through the cross of Christ we are not only saved from the penalty of sin but also its power.
Scripture warns us it is possible to neglect the tremendous salvation we have in Christ with tragic eternal consequences (Hebrews 2:1-3). The good news is that through salvation in Christ God has given us by His grace the power and strength we need to grow in Him and become a holy people. This is not only to ensure our entrance into His eternal kingdom but also that we be light and salt in this world to bring glory to Him.
Contents
Salvation Saved From and Saved For
What are we saved from, what are we saved for and how are we saved?
The Cross – the End and the Beginning
The significance of the Cross, Christ’s death and resurrection in the salvation and the life of every believer
Living As God’s People
How do we become people of God in real life?
Living As God’s People – Part 2
The Spiritual Battle, Warnings and God’s Discipline
The Spiritual Battle: the world, the flesh and Satan
Warnings About Departing from God
God disciplines His people
Building On the Rock of Scripture
How Scripture is essential for our spiritual growth.
The warnings we need to hear so we will remain faithful to Jesus and not fall away.
Are We Once Saved Always Saved?
The Future: Will the Church Go Through the Great Tribulation?
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Derek Stancombe, David Fleming and John Staer for their encouragement, constructive criticism and invaluable comments.
Unless otherwise indicated Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission (www.Lockman.org).
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved