Dear Friends,
Some months back, I selected a book for us to read as a church body that I highly commended to you: Growing Your Faith – How to Mature in Christ by Jerry Bridges. As you have have heard me say before, Jerry Bridges is one of my favorite authors and theologians. He had such a profound impact on my growth in Christ at an early age. The very first Christian book I ever read was The Pursuit of Holiness. That book radically changed me as I then saw God’s calling for my life, and the call for every believer, was to pursue holiness and grow in Christ.
Growing Your Faith is a unique book in that it takes many of the key areas of the Christian life that Bridges has written about in his other books and brings them together in one. Over the next several months, I hope to write about these three major themes of spiritual growth upon which Bridges elaborates in this work - 1) the necessity of spiritual growth, 2) the means of spiritual growth, and 3) the marks of spiritual growth.
The first area of concern in the Christian life is the necessity of spiritual growth. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are called to grow in their faith - it truly is a necessity. Consider these exhortations from the Apostle Peter. "Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." (1 Peter 2:2-3 ESV) Also, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." (2 Peter 3:18 ESV) Spiritual growth is not a suggestion for those who would follow Christ, it is a necessity!
A Christian is called to see that, for the glory of God and for our good and joy, we need to grow spiritually! But what exactly does it mean to follow Christ and grow spiritually? What does it look like? Growth is a normal expression of life. Children must get their rest and eat properly to reach a mature, adult stage in life. Likewise, adults must take care of their bodies and minds and, in the process, they too grow in wisdom and understanding. When it comes to the Christian life, we should never stop growing spiritually. This is easy to say but in reality, spiritual growth is hard. Spiritual growth ordinarily occurs by intentional and appropriate effort. Just as it takes diligence and discipline to be a well trained athlete or to keep our bodies in good physical shape - spiritual growth, growing in Christ - takes discipline and training. "Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come." (1 Timothy 4:7-8 ESV) Spiritual growth does not happen by osmosis - it takes effort.
So how do we grow? We grow by the means of grace that God has given to us: Bible study, preaching, prayer, fellowship, etc... These have been traditionally called spiritual disciplines. They are called disciplines because they require effort. Just like we must brush our teeth at least twice a day to maintain proper dental health, so we must also have a steady, even daily, diet of reading and interacting with the Word of God in order to grow.
What should be the foundation for our growth at Christians? What is the underlying reason for spiritual growth? The answer is grace. One of the primary hindrances to our spiritual growth is a failure to understand grace. A correct understanding of grace and a consistent dose of applying it to our lives must be the foundation for our desire to grow spiritually. So what is grace? Bridges biblically defines grace as "God’s favor through Christ to people who deserve His disfavor." This definition of grace is the foundation by which we are to build a life of spiritual growth.
Bridges is very helpful in explaining what he call the bookends to grow in grace through Christian Disciplines. Those bookends are: Christ’s righteousness – our acceptance before God, and Christ’s power – our power to grow in grace. This is essential to Christian growth. Bridges succinctly states, “We are dependent upon the righteousness of Christ for our acceptance with God, and we are dependent on the power of Christ for our ability to pursue spiritual growth.”
Why should we worry about growing spiritually? What is to be our motivation in spiritual growth? Bridges explains that we are to be compelled by love, God's love. God loves us solely by His grace given to us through Christ Jesus. We are free from having to earn God’s favor through our performances and efforts. Our performance does not grant us favor in God’s sight.
It is paramount that we practice spiritual disciplines to grow in our faith. We are to thoroughly commit our entire lives to the lordship of Christ by growing in our faith. However, our commitment to growing in our faith should be a grateful response to God’s grace, not a way to earn God’s blessing. Our growth in Christ is compelled by His love. Christ’s undying love for us compels us to no longer live for “me,” but for Him who died for me. We are to make His will and ways the rule of our lives and His glory our chief end because it is our response to His love. God’s grace, as expressed through Jesus Christ, motivates us to grow in our faith!
Next time we will look at the means of spiritual growth. See you Sunday!
