How to Grow as a Christian
1. The Need for Growth
Justification – the position of acceptance with God which he gives us when we trust in Christ as our Savior. It is a legal term, borrowed from the law courts, and its opposite is condemnation. To justify is to acquit, to declare and accuse person to be just, not guilty. Sanctification – the process by which justified Christians are changed into the likeness of Christ. When God justifies us, he declares us righteous through Christ’s death for us; when he sanctifies us, he makes us righteous through the power of his Holy Spirit within us. Justification concerns our outward status of acceptance with God. Sanctification concerns our inward growth in holiness of character.
We are not only justified but also regenerated or born again. The metaphor has changed. We have left the law court and entered the maternity ward. The dramatic crisis of birth is followed by the laborious process of growth. So then, what sanctification is to justification, growth is to birth. But hundreds of people in the church have never graduated from the nursery.
2. The Areas of Growth
- Faith – Faith is trust. The reasonableness of trust depends on the trustworthiness of the person being trusted. Faith should be living and growing.
- Love – We are to love God with all our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
- Knowledge – Whenever the heart is full and the head is empty, dangerous fanaticisms arise. The Hebrew concept of knowing was never purely intellectual. It went beyond “understanding” to “experiencing”.
- Holiness
(1) Holiness is Christlikeness, and sanctification is the gradual process of being transformed (2 Cor. 3:18).
(2) Holiness is the work of the Holy Spirit. The secret of sanctification is not that we struggle to live like Christ, but that Christ comes by his Spirit to live in us.
(3) If the Holy Spirit is to do his work of transforming us “with ever-increasing glory”, our part is “with unveiled faces” to contemplate and so reflect the glory of God.
The carpenter from Nazareth is still busy with his tools. Now by the chisel of pain, now by the hammer of affliction, now by the plan of adverse circumstances, as well as through experiences of joy, he is shaping us into an instrument of righteousness.
Be patient, but determined. Do not lose heart. Watch the discipline of your Christian life. Be diligent in daily prayer and bible reading, in churchgoing and attendance at the Lord’s Supper. Make good use of your Sundays. Read helpful books. Seek out Christian friends. Get busy in some form of service. Never leave your sins unconfessed and unforgiven. Never allow a pocket of resistance to arise in your heart. Above all, yield yourself without reserve each day to the power of the Holy Spirit who is within you. Then step-by-step you will advance along the road of holiness and grow towards full spiritual maturity.
3. The Means of Growth
Analogy of a growing child: The greatest single condition of children’s physical growth is the regularity of a right diet, and of their psychological development the security of a happy home.
Right Diet: God’s Word – It’s simple teaching is like milk and its deeper truth like solid food. Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the Scriptures. A good appetite is a reliable sign of spiritual health, as of physical.
Happy Home: God’s purpose is that children should be born into, and nurtured within, a stable and loving family. His ideal for newborn Christians is the same. Many of us have altogether too individualistic a concept of the Christian life. Church membership is neither a luxury nor an optional extra; it is a duty and a necessity. The church is the new community of Jesus. We need to be full and active members of the church.
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