Most of us have been educated in the “school of performance.” In fact, Shakespeare once said, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.” From the very beginning of our lives we’re taught that we must perform properly in order to get what we want. There’s a direct relationship between how hard we work and how much we’re rewarded. For example, “Be good & you’ll get a cookie.” “Clean your room and you’ll get your allowance.” “Practice hard and you’ll make the varsity team.” “Study in college and you’ll get a better job.” And on the list could go.
The tragedy of this world’s philosophy is that we become so conditioned by it we carry it over into our Christian experience. The grace of God that saves us (Ephesians 2:8-9) loses its meaning when we’re bombarded with the pressure to perform. And this pressure often comes packaged in religious verbiage such as, “God helps those who help themselves.” It sounds good; the only problem is, it’s not biblical! There’s only one place where you and I can stop performing and that’s in the unconditional love and acceptance of Jesus Christ – He who is “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The same grace that saves us is what sustains us and enables us to grow. It teaches us how to live here and now – without performing!
Peter exhorted all of us to “grow in the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” And if we’re going to experience progress in our personal relationship, transformation in our inner self, success in our outward behavior and growth in the grace of Jesus Christ we must first of all:
I. Recognize a Need for Growing in Grace
Peter’s statement points that out clear enough. And the truth is this is the easy part, that’s not hard at all. For example, Bob had been a Christian for about 6 years and had come to Dallas to head up a major city wide evangelistic campaign, hosting a daily radio program and working with some of the largest churches in America. He was beginning to think he was close to reaching the ultimate in Christian maturity - until one day he took his wife shopping at the mall. Crowded and busy like this time of year parking was at a premium. Seeing 2 empty spaces right near the entrance as he approached his “answer to prayer” a guy driving a shiny new sports car pulled into that spot straddling the line.
At first Bob thought it was an accident, so he rolled down his window and said nicely, “Sir, you probably haven’t noticed, but you’ve taken up 2 spaces.” He gave Bob a quick glance and with a smirk said, “I know it.” As he got out of his car, Bob got a good look at him. He was middle-aged, with flecks of gray in his well groomed hair. His shirt was open down the front, revealing numerous gold chains dangling over what looked like a “chest toupee.” Bob felt instant and total dislike for that man. A little more forcefully Bob responded, “Well, would you please repark it, so I can use one of the spaces?” Holding out his arm to escort a much younger-looking girl, the man replied, “No.”
At that moment all those years of being a child of God didn’t mean a thing to Bob. His mood was now murderous. “Buddy,” He said through clenched teeth, “if you don’t move that car I’m going to stuff you in the tailpipe and move it for you!” Bob started to get out of his car, fully intending to do what he said. However, his wife Amy looked at him as if he’d lost his mind, and said so. Bob told her that it wasn’t his mind that he was worried about losing; it was that parking space! Suddenly Bob stopped. “What are you doing?” He asked himself. “You were perfectly willing – in fact, excited to give up your thriving, lucrative business to go into full-time ministry, but you are ready to fight another person rather than give up that parking space!”
Having finally come to his senses, He spent the next several minutes maneuvering his car through the lot, driving mostly in reverse. His goal was to keep the guy with the foreign car from seeing his rear bumper – the one with the sticker that said, “Smile! Jesus loves you.”
Have you ever been there? In spite of a sincere and genuine faith in Jesus Christ, have you ever suddenly found yourself acting in a stupid manner, as if you never heard of the gospel? If we’re totally honest, we’d all admit to such times. All of us can forget who we are and what we believe in an unexpected moment of time. We’ve all heard those voices, either real or imagined: “I thought you were a Christian!” comes the sneer. “I thought I was too,” we respond in disgust. “How could I do such a thing?” Of course besides “unexpected moments,” Christians can choose to live in a determined and long-term manner that’s contrary to what God’s Word says as well. In fact, we all have areas of our lives where we face ongoing struggles with temptation and failure. And we sometimes wonder if we’ll ever begin making progress in this Christian life. Growing in grace begins by being honest with ourselves and God by Recognizing a Need for Growing in Grace. Let’s also look at:
II. Reasons we Need to Grow in Grace
What every person who comes into this world needs is life. The reason being, our problem is we are born physically alive, but spiritually dead. So, simply put what we need is life! And that’s exactly what Jesus Christ offers us: “I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Having received life by the grace of Jesus Christ, our goal as Christians is to return to the living Christ as our life – not just turning to him for “help” to live life or for some impersonal infusion of “power” or for some magic formula that will cause our lives to “click” and become all smooth sailing – no Jesus Christ is our life! Paul says in Colossians 3:3-4 “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, there you also will appear with Him in glory.” NASB
2 Peter 1:3 also says “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” The point is, the Christian life is not “starting out” with Jesus and then “graduating” to something better. There’s no such thing as “advanced Christianity” – every person who begins their Christian life begins it with everything they’ll ever receive. But you ask, “How can a person who’s been given everything they need for life and godliness continue to struggle? What more can we need when we already have everything?” The answer is this: Even though we’re given everything we will ever need at spiritual birth, we still have a whole lifetime of growing in our understanding of Christ and of the riches, power and life that He’s already given us! That’s what growing in grace is all about. And that’s the Reason we need to Grow in Grace. Finally, let me show you HOW you can grow in grace:
III. Relationship with Jesus Christ is How you Grow in Grace
You can only grow in grace through a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, who personally teaches you truth from His Word, which you take out into the rough-and-tumble of real life in the real world. You see growing in grace isn’t a matter of your becoming bigger and stronger in and of yourselves, but simply getting yourself out of the way and allowing Christ to live His life in and through and for you. Growing in grace is not learning “10 steps to spirituality” or providing a ladder by which you can “climb 12 easy steps to spiritual maturity.” Growing in grace is not simply the mastering of certain “principles.” Too often we have approached the Christian life as a subject to be learned rather than as a life to be lived. You can’t grow in grace in a classroom, through a seminar, or during a “quiet time,” as good as those things may be. You can only grow in grace and knowledge through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
In fact, the “curriculum” can’t be planned or anticipated. Through the sovereignty of a loving God, the pathway we will tread in this fallen world will be as unique as each one of us is. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John.16:33). The truth is, if growing in grace required perfect conditions, it would never happen, because we grow in the midst of real life. If any of us grow in grace it will be under the conditions in which we live our every day lives. Whatever the situations in your life may be, that’s where you will have to grow in grace.
Another aspect of growing in grace is: We grow in grace in spite of our personal failures and sins. How you ask? As you focus on what God is doing in the midst of what you are doing. Hebrews12:1-2 tells us: “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race that is marked our for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus . . . “ You see, the road, the path, the plan is already marked out for us. Christ should be our concentration. On the other hand, if the focus is on ourselves, the result is predictable. We know what we’ll do – fail, veer off the path, sin. But Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. If a person abides in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” The branches role – our job is to abide or remain in the vine, our source of life – which means that we’re to continue in dependent relationship with Jesus whereby we allow the life of Christ to flow through us unhindered. Bob demonstrated how much of Christ’s life he could produce apart from total dependency on Jesus, NONE!
The Christian life isn’t merely hard, but it’s impossible! Only Christ can live it and so the only intelligent thing we can do is to let Him! However, we all can and will take back the control of our lives at times, thereby demonstrating once more our total inability to bear the life of Christ on our own. The good news is that the Lord knows all this about us, but still accepts us totally and loves us unconditionally. It’s not a shock to Him when we sin.
So in conclusion, how do we grow in grace? - In our Relationship with Jesus Christ. When we “fix our eyes on Jesus,” we’re focusing on a Person who is described as having ”glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). When we sin, His grace says, “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11). Then His Truth says, “Let Me show you a better way,” and points to the way of freedom, grace and peace: “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).
Each one of us has some areas that we have learned to trust the Lord in, but right alongside these are other areas which we haven’t yet yielded, often without even being aware of it. For example, I may be trusting God in the areas of my marriage, children and ministry, while at the same time I’m living in self-sufficiency in the areas of my finances and leisure time. Over our lifetime, growing in grace involves God’s opening our eyes to our need to trust Him in new areas of our lives, or on a new level of challenge and then walking us through the process of learning to turn these areas over to Him. What area of your life is God making you aware of in your relationship with him for growing in grace? Remember, if we’re going to grow in grace, we must focus on what God is doing in the midst of what we’re doing.
Would you respond to God’s grace today by faith, by placing your faith in Jesus Christ for whatever God wants to do through you?
(This message was inspired by the reading of the book “Growing In Grace” by Bob George and some of the content comes from that source.)
