Growing in Christ

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
Colossians 3:1-4

 
The Christian life is a journey of spiritual growth that begins with new birth from above, repentance of sins, and believing in the salvation of Jesus Christ. A permanent transformation takes place at the time of salvation. You are declared ‘not guilty’ before God. You are given a new living nature that desires the things of God. The dominating power of sin is broken in your life. You are adopted into the family of God and given the blessed presence of the Holy Spirit. This is not an end, but a beginning! It is the beginning of the Christian journey of learning about God, so that you might believe what you learn, be transformed by what you believe, then act on the internal change. The Bible calls this process ‘sanctification.’ It’s a lifelong, progressive, active process of learning to obey all the Lord has commanded (Matthew 28:20). By this process of active obedience, you are truly and dramatically changed from a person of the world seeking the things of the world, to a person of heavenly citizenship seeking the things above of eternal importance.
             

This process of sanctification can be summed up as a four-part process that is ever-repeating: Knowledge –>Faith –> Character –> Action

 
Knowledge: Your salvation, and then sanctification, begins with right knowledge about who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for you upon the cross. You cannot come to believe in Jesus and His work without knowledge of His person and work. This knowledge comes from the Bible, either directly (personal reading) or indirectly (someone preaching or teaching from the Bible). Our knowledge of God at salvation is sufficient, but elementary. Every growing Christian will continue to study the Bible to learn more about the character and nature God. This primarily comes through daily devotion to personally read the Bible and pray. By scripture and prayer, the Lord will reveal Himself to you.
 
Faith: The next step of spiritual growth is believing. It is absolutely possible to know much about God, but not believe what you have learned in your mind. Salvation is by faith (believing). Sanctification is also by faith. The more we learn about God the more we must believe about God.
 
Character: When you learn new truths about God Himself or His will, and you believe these truths, your character changes for the better to become a little more like Jesus. As your character changes your desires change. You will find that you deeply care about things and people that held little or no meaning to you before. As you learn and believe, your character will progressively leave behind the lies, deception, addiction, anger, lust, pride, and cares of this dying world. You will take up love, charity, worship, family, marriage, vocation, and peace.
 
Action: Change in character leads to change in actions. You will begin to treat others with kindness and respect. You will start telling the truth and stop using obscene and blasphemous language. You will control yourself sexually and in matters of money. You will begin to see the importance of the church gathered. You will want to sing and pray. You will want to help those in need and teach those who know nothing of God. By the power of the Holy Spirit, these new desires will become real life-transforming action.
             
These transformative steps will leave you a different and better person. The good change in your life will drive the process to start over again, but at a higher plane. You will want to learn more about God, so you will study and read and pray more, believing what is learned, such that your character is further refined. This is how you grow in character and your actions grow further in godliness. After decades of this successive growth, you will be a dramatically different from who you used to be (1 Timothy 4:15). We become more like Jesus!
 
There are impediments to progress. If you stop any part of this process, it will stagnate your spiritual growth. You can reach a place where you stop reading the Bible in an engaged way. When you stop reading the Bible, you stop being engaged by the word of God. Very quickly you will lose your wonder of God and awe of His grace and perfection. God will become like the world in your mind. You will soon convince yourself that God’s ways are basically like your ways. The importance of daily Bible reading and prayer cannot be overstated.
 
You can also fail to believe what you read. Countless Christians have stalled in their Christian life as they refuse to believe some passages of the Bible that are offensive to them. You should expect to find hard, mysterious, and even offensive knowledge of God along the way. I am referring to clearly taught and long recognized Christian teaching that runs counter to the spirit of the age. Teaching, that if believed, will set you at odds with culture or cause you to trust God in a complete way.
 
Willful sin by omission or commission will break fellowship with God. When we know what to do, and don’t do it, that is sin. Knowing what should be done, being convicted of right action, but still pressing on into disobedience will stop your spiritual progress in sanctification.
             
May we cast off every sin that so easily entangles us and pursue knowing, believing, and living for Jesus! To know God and have true fellowship with Him are the most important things in all of life.
 
Set your mind on Christ who is exalted in glory,
Pastor Vic

Under Grace

“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” —Romans 6:14-15
 
I spoke Sunday to you regarding Acts 15 – the first Council of the early church. The Council officially recognized that keeping the law of Moses is not necessary for salvation. As part of this affirmation, it is acknowledged once again by the Apostles Peter and Paul, Barnabas, and James that salvation comes to us by grace alone through faith. No one has ever been able to keep the perfect standard of God’s law, apart from Jesus, He being divine. Trying to earn favor with God through law keeping is a fruitless and self-defeating effort. The law is a yoke that no one can bear.
             
However, the moral law is used by God to bring us to salvation. We come to salvation when the law reveals our sinful state, convicts us of our sin, and then subsequently we turn away from that sin in repentance. With a repentant heart, by faith we call out to Jesus for the forgiveness of our sin. We are saved from the wrath of God toward sin by the grace of God extended to us in Jesus Christ. Once we have entered into salvation by grace, the use of the law changes. In Christ the moral law is used to direct us toward righteous living. As Christians we can make real progress in godliness. When a person comes to salvation, grace must never be used as a license to sin further. The truly repentant are grieved by sin and want earnestly to make progress away from old ways and into the new life of Christ.
             
The entire chapter of Romans 6 revolves around this theme. The chapter can be summed up in that those who believe in Jesus as Savior, must also walk fervently in His ways. We cannot claim salvation and continue to walk in sin. This encompasses the genuine direction of the heart. What do you love or desire? As we grow to love Jesus, we also grow to love His ways. As we love the ways of Jesus, we leave behind the sinful ways of this world. There is always a struggle in our hearts, but real progress is made toward sanctification.  I encourage you to read and carefully consider the entire chapter of Romans 6. These considerations are not new to our age. The church has always struggled to sort out the relationship between law and grace. Paul spoke on this subject often because it was essential for a correct understanding of the Christian life.

Let’s walk briefly through Romans 6:

• As disciples of Jesus, we are forgiven by His grace. In newness of life, we pursue the commands of Jesus.
• We must obey the commands of Jesus and walk in His ways. We cannot claim to believe in the salvation of Jesus and ignore the ethic of Jesus.
• We obey the commands of Jesus because we love Jesus. Our motivation is love, not duty or guilt.
• By the salvation of Jesus:
  • We are set free from the penalty of sin. We are justified. We are declared not guilty before God.
  • We have new power over sin to live in the ways of Jesus, though not perfectly. This power comes to us by the work of the Holy Spirit.
  • We are not yet free from the presence of sin. Though all authentic Christians make progress in their faith and character over time, only in the glorification of heaven will the presence of sin be fully removed.
• (v.11) We are to “consider ourselves” dead to sin and alive to God. This is a mindset for living; the way we ought to see ourselves before God.

• (v.13-14) We are to commit ourselves (present ourselves) to God regularly as instruments of righteousness. This means exactly what it says. In our hearts we give ourselves to God. We consider that we are dead to sin, and we actively ask for God to use us for good in the world as we commit ourselves to living virtuously for Jesus.
• (v.18-19) Paul tells us in an analogy that this goes as far as seeing ourselves as “slaves to righteousness.” This should not be understood through the lens of 19^th century American slavery, but as slavery was known in Paul’s time. This essentially means that our lives are no longer our own. As disciples of Jesus, we are wholly given over to following God’s will for our lives. Mysteriously, as we die to ourselves, we find true life in a way we did not understand before. This is a walk of faith which leads to sanctification and ultimately eternal life (v.22).

I urge you to hear the law of God and be convicted of your sin. In conviction, do not despair, but call out to God to believe in Jesus and be forgiven of your sin! In new life, rejoice in the grace of God and learn day by day what it means to enter into the life of Jesus by obedience to His commands. All this resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Should we continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be.

-Pastor Vic