Grace, Faith & Life

Paul speaks of spiritual maturity as “putting on” …

15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
 Col 3:12-17 12 ¶ Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. 14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
  2 Peter 1:3-12 2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 ¶ And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 12 ¶ Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. (My emphasis in red.)What is going on here?

God works in our life to change us into the “image of Christ”.

Jesus Christ came to give us His life. It is not us living it. It is us getting it. It is Christ living His life in us and through us, as the Holy Spirit teaches us all things pertaining to Christ, in order to change us into His image.

We need to be changed, because even though we are born again, we still have free-will and we are still living in the flesh. So our aim in life is, by faith, learning Christ, not just to stop sinning, but to be our life. We are to live by faith to allow Christ to live His life through us and allow him to overcome the flesh and the world through us.

Every pursuit in the world eventually leads to disappointment, unfulfillment, and dissatisfaction – all is vanity. To a Christian, pursuit of holiness is fulfilling. To understand that God is working in our life to change us to be like Christ, is exciting. We are complete in Him. Col 2:9, 10

We may still have things which we hold on to or which are holding unto us. (Strongholds and weaknesses) If we are not adding to our faith, these strongholds and weaknesses may cause our faith to FADE into uncertainty and disappointment.
[ Read Stedman, about new Christians falling away. ]

Sometimes Christians try to get by on one or two hours per week for their faith. The rest of the time they are doing battle with the world in the “Flesh” and may even be trying to leave God out of it, or they don’t trust God to be a part of it. Most of us have looked for meaning and purpose, acceptance and escape in the wrong things. We are trying to find security in a trusting relationship. This is why God acts in our life, to set us free from the sin and fear in our life by teaching us to trust in Him to conform us into the image of Christ. Changing conflict, bondage and despair into freedom, joy and hope.

As we allow Christ to live life through us, we experience victory over:

– Wrong beliefs and thinking

– Strongholds of the flesh

– Pride, self and habits

– Weaknesses of the flesh

– guilt, fear and worthlessness

Discipleship, study, edification, and biblical counseling adds to our knowledge. The Holy Spirit then adds to our faith by changing the attitude of our heart.

Many Christians don’t get past a saving faith. They have tried to be obedient and make Jesus Lord of their life and haven’t been able to do it, because they are doing it in the flesh. They don’t know that walking by faith is a personal relationship, in Christ, – not just something which you exercise at a time of crisis or desperation.

Our faith rests and enlarges on God’s revelation of His grace, His truth, His promises concerning His character and His purposes in our life. Learning to depend on what God says, is what frees us from the bondage of the flesh and produces the spiritual emotions which we desire. Right thinking based on our identity in Christ overcomes the natural tendencies of our flesh. [ Read Anderson – level III ]

The outline, which follows explains how God works in our life. It is not a formula. It is a process which is different with each one of us. Everyone has a different walk – but we all should understand that everything comes from God, in His time. (What we need to understand is always the same. The way we understand it is always different.) It is not us deciding to put God first in our life and have it all at once, He is our life. It is letting His life be our life.

This is the difference between choosing and abiding, or knowing and depending. Scripture teaches us some of the ways it works, then the Holy Spirit reveals it to us in our heart. Some learn easily, some learn hard. When God calls, pay attention.

So, in the following outline, we are going to look at some selected terms and scriptures which explain how this is supposed to work.

Spiritual maturity is not about what we do for God but what God does in us. It is about putting on the right thing in the right way. Eph 4:21-24   Acts 20:32   2Tim 3:16   Col 3:16 Growing in grace is growing in understanding how God acts in our life, understanding the fulness of God’s grace, identity and personal relationship not religion. Rom 5:1-5   Eph 1:17,18 3:16-20   2Pet 1:5-12 By the grace of God, we are being changed from the image of Adam into the image of Christ.
Rom 8:29   Eph 4:13   1John 3:2   Col 1:15, 18 3:10   Php 3:20 21

 Until we are enlightened by the Holy Spirit to understand this part, we are probably out there giving it all we’ve got to “win” for God. Kind of like our “sacrifice” for God which He said He didn’t want. He wants us to know Him which requires a different attitude in our heart. This attitude change won’t come until we come to understand and believe that there is nothing we can do for God. This would be kind of humbling wouldn’t it? Scripture calls it the “offense of the cross”. It all comes from Him if we just come without any fleshly pride and commitments. 

 These are not ten steps to maturity. They are phases of our life in Christ, our walk by faith.    2Pet 3:18   1Pet 2:2 How does it happen? It is not something which we do. It is understanding who we are.

It is what is done to us. Rom 8:29   Eph4:13   1John 3:2   Col 2:9 10

We have to think about it. Our Mind, Heart, Will and Spirit all need to be involved in all of this. Even though we are born again, we still choose between the spirit and the Flesh. We know about it, then God reveals it to our heart, which changes the attitude of our heart to a further understanding of His grace. Christ lives it in our life and we trust God for the results. As God changes the attitude and desires of our heart, the old baggage which we carry for the Flesh will fall away. This is a process of us learning God’s “Truth” through trials and circumstances.

You see, the fleshly attitude is no longer who we are or who we want to be. This is not the real you. When we were born again, God’s indwelling presence fulfilled a spiritual need which we all have. When the Flesh talks us into doing something which we don’t really want to do (sound familiar?) then, that is not reality and like Paul, we won’t be very happy with ourselves. (Romans 7)

But, when we don’t do the right thing, God is not going to “get” us. He knows our every weakness. He will use situations to teach us truth about who we really are, conforming us to the image of Christ drawing us to a closer relationship with Him. This happens as we seek to experience the life of Christ in us and find the spiritual relationship which produces the fruit of the Spirit.

FRUIT FOR US

– Love   Gal 5:22-23

– Life

– Hope

The focus is not on improving the flesh, but to experience the love of God in our life. He is not teaching us how to overcome the flesh in our self-effort. He is teaching us truth which dispels error, love which dispels fear. Christ does it. We respond to what God puts into our heart. This is living by faith. The commandment is to believe. (FAITH)   1John 3:18-24

The end of the commandment is to LOVE.   1Tim 1:5  Christians don’t need to know any law to keep the law.

Being “filled” with the Spirit is to be controlled by love. It doesn’t happen all at once. By the grace of God, we are being changed from the image of Adam into the image of Christ.   Col 3:10   Php 3:20-21   Col 1:15, 18

We are all at different stages in our walk, so we don’t need to try to be just like every other Christian. Godly edifying happens whether we are paying attention or not.

Edify means to instruct or enlighten so as to encourage intellectual, moral or spiritual improvement. God said He would perfect us in the image of Christ. Php 1:6

We never attain to a complete understanding of any one part of this. God is always working to accomplish His purpose in us.  Rom 8:28

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