LAST week we started the sixth chapter in the study of Principles of Spiritual Growth, looking at the principle fact that we are Complete in Him. All of these considerations stem from our lengthy study and central principle of our Position in Christ. One of the precious gems of our faith is the knowledge that in Christ, from the very beginning of our new birth and walk, we already possess all that is needed for “life and godliness” (2Pet. 1:2). This means we are “complete in Him” (Col 2:9,10), with every spiritual blessing available and fully at our disposal (Eph. 1:3). All that is needful for our Christian life is fully ours, we can add nothing to what is already there, it just needs to be discovered, learned and utilized. I could go on to pile verse upon verse to make my point, but as I think on this, I recall what first day of school is like for many children. My thoughts go to those kindergarteners starting their first day of what will be their long and inevitable journey of education. For them it’s an unknown path of nervous uncertainty and maybe even doubt. For their teachers and parents, it is no such thing. To the experienced, all is predictable and sure as the sun’s rising in the morning that all their God given and implanted abilities and inherent talents will be trained up and nurtured over-time. With diligence and perseverance their inherent potential will be worked out to greater or lesser degrees of success. As a school principal and teacher, I recall every day looking into the eyes of potential greatness, the operative word here being, “potential.” It is just a matter of time and the faithful efforts of each student with parents, teachers, and mentors alike to nurture the outcome (13 years and maybe more if they go onto college or graduate school).
THIS reality is no less true and an apt metaphor for the Christian life,. Being born again of incorruptible seed it needs – no it must – grow and endure proper growth to Christ-like maturity, taking time and the several means of grace required over time. But be sure, all the potential is resident within for all who truly are “in Christ,” equally possessing the Spirit enabled means of grace. The issue is appropriation, which –interestingly enough- is the title of the next chapter. But for now, we need see what it means to be complete in Christ, meditating on the fact and implications of what we already fully own, being Complete in Him.
Again, have a great weekend with family and friends, especially in your Lord’s Day worship.
With highest regards in Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa. 30:15 & Job 2:10
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Chapter 6—Complete in Him …continued
“Progress is only advancing in the knowledge, the spiritual knowledge, of what we really possess at the outset. It is like ascending a ladder. The ladder is grace. The first step is, we believe that the Lord Jesus was sent of God; second, that in the fullness of His work we are justified; third, we make His acquaintance; fourth, we come to see Him in heaven; we know our association with Him there, and His power here; fifth, we learn the mystery, the great things we are entitled to because of being His body; sixth, that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ; seventh, lost in wonder and in praise in the knowledge of Himself” (J. B. Stoney).
Since we are complete in our Lord Jesus, it will not do to try and add to that finished work. It is now a matter of walking by faith and receiving, or appropriating from the ever-abundant source within. Walter Marshall is concise here: “Christ’s resurrection was our resurrection to a life of holiness, as Adam’s fall was our fall into spiritual death. And we are not ourselves the first makers and farmers of our new holy nature, any more than of our original corruption, but both are formed ready for us to partake of them. And by union with Christ, we partake of that spiritual life that He took possession of for us at His resurrection, and thereby we are enabled to bring forth the fruits of it; as the Scripture shows by the similitude of a marriage union. Romans 7:4: ‘Married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.’”
Our part is not production but reception of our life in Christ. This entails Bible-based fact-finding, explicit faith in Him and His purpose for us in Christ and patient trust while He takes us through the necessary processing involved. No believer ever fell into maturity, even though he is complete in Christ. Spiritual growth necessitates heart-hunger for the Lord Jesus, determination, based on assurance, to have that which is ours in Him, plus meditation and thought. We will never come into the knowledge of our spiritual possessions through a superficial understanding of the Word. How can we ever expect to have intimate fellowship with One we know little of?
“Christianity concentrates the whole fullness of revelation in the one human personality of Jesus Christ as Mediator—that is, as the mediating central principle of the new Divine organism, in its fullness of Spirit and Life, ….to be continued
