Kids, Grow Up!
Maturing In Our Personal Relationship
With Christ Jesus
1. Maturing In Our Personal Relationship With Christ Jesus
2. Chastened As Sons
3. Through Fire
4. We Must Be Broken
5. Then On To Spiritual Maturity
The exhortation unto partaking of the divine life of Christ Jesus means our maturing in our personal relationship with Him. Hebrews 6:1 & 3:
"Therefore leaving the elementary teachings about Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation .... This we shall do, if God permits".
The "elementary teachings about Christ" that we are to leave behind once we fully accept them are those concerning His redeeming us, and the "maturity" for which we are to press are God's Ultimate Intention behind creation and redemption, namely that "all things be summed in Christ"! We are to leave behind us a purely human-oriented view of the Cross, and to press on to embracing a God-oriented view of His full purposes.
Why must we earnestly seek to grow unto spiritual maturity?
Because we are commanded to. Hebrews 5:11-13:
"Concerning Him [Christ Jesus, high priest according to the order of Melchizedek] we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, [yet] you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”
The meaning should be clear: the Word of God condemns attitudes of complacency on our part, and strongly admonishes us to grow up in our knowledge of Christ Jesus!
1. Maturing In Our Personal Relationship With Christ Jesus
The New Testament actually uses two distinct Greek words for maturity: Teleiosis and Katartismos. Both of these words are often somewhat misleadingly translated as "perfecting". Teleiosis carries the meaning of "bringing near that which was far off". It is usually applied to the spiritual maturity of individual believers. Katartismos, on the other hand, bears the idea of "properly being knit or woven together", as a fishing net or a piece of embroidery. It is usually used for maturity of the body of believers as a corporate unit.
First of all, a Biblical principle of major importance is that Christian spiritual maturity is a matter of deepening one's personal relationship with Christ Jesus. It has no meaning whatsoever outside of personal relationship with Him. It is not a matter of increasing one's mind knowledge about God, about Christ Jesus, about the Bible. It is not a matter of theology. Nor is it a matter of being "religious" nor moral. It is a matter of knowing Him personally!
"And this is eternal life: that they (we) may know Thee (God the Father), the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3). Even the most basic aspect of being a Christian - having eternal life - is a matter of one's knowledge of (not only about) Christ Jesus. This includes direct personal acquaintance with Him in addition to mental knowledge about Him.
Note how the apostle John defines spiritual maturity in terms of knowing God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and Christ Jesus. 1 John 1:12-14:
"I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. I am writing to you, elders, because you know Him Who has been from the beginning [Christ Jesus - John 1:1-2]. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you [little] children, because you know the [Heavenly] Father. I have written to you, elders, because you know Him Who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one."
One of the many Biblical descriptions of us Christians is "children of God" or "members of the family of God". The New Testament Greek word Teknon (and the Old Testament Hebrew word BN) mean any son, any descendant of the father; however, the words are frequently used, not only genealogically, but also to denote immaturity.
They are distinct from the Greek and Hebrew words Uios and BR, respectively, which mean a son matured and in a position of responsibility. Romans 8:15:
"For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons [Uios], by which we cry out, 'Daddy, Father!'"
"Adoption" here does not mean becoming children of God - that comes through regeneration. Rather, the Greek word Uiothesia means "to be established as sons (Uios) or agents in positions of responsibility." We indeed share that in our rich inheritance in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:11-12). It is one of the purposes or goals of spiritual maturity. But note that even here it is couched in terms of having an intimate personal relationship with God!
As with children in the natural, we are expected to grow up. And growing up involves going through several stages of maturing over time. The nursing stage, the toddler stage, the pre-school years, grammar school years, junior and senior high school adolescence stages, college years, young adulthood, middle age, and elderly - these are examples. We are to start in total dependence upon Him in all things, and from there grow in becoming mature and responsible agents attending to our Father's business in this world.
The Bible speaks, in many places and in many ways, of the corresponding maturing process of Christians. Much has been written on this, variously denoted as consisting of 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 15, or even 40 "stages", depending upon the point of view one takes of the maturing process. I myself have taught on each of these Biblical points of view at various times; each is valid and gives its unique understanding of how our personal relationships with Christ Jesus are to unfold and develop. Here we briefly discuss what such maturity is to lead us to and what it entails.
2. Chastened As Sons
Maturing in our relationship with Him is a process of adjustment in our lives. Our sins are not the primary issue. Rather, the primary issue is the sin-nature behind our thinking, our mentality, our understandings of reality that up to now are heavily influenced by our worldly experiences. Our concepts of Christ Jesus and His ways and His will for our lives are at best greatly distorted and limited, if not actually erroneous in many aspects. So, our patterns of thinking, our attitudes, our motives, our perspectives, all must be adjusted.
That comes not primarily through mind-knowledge or didactic education. Rather it comes through a process of interaction between His dealings in the circumstances in our lives, the guidance and direction we daily receive from the Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus in our hearts, and our responses thereto in the midst of those dealings.
It is not a matter of being "zapped" by the Holy Spirit in a single "altar call" experience or singular event, such as laying on of hands and/or receiving the Baptism into the Holy Spirit. The primary function of the Holy Spirit in us as Christians is to lead us unto maturity in our personal relationships with our Lord Christ Jesus.
It is not the Baptism into the Holy Spirit per se that matures us for ministry or for God's will for our lives, or for whatever. The only route to spiritual maturity is trial and error while being dealt with by the hand of God via the Holy Spirit of Christ living in us. Among the Biblical references to God's process of adjusting us is the concept of the "wilderness experience". It is that process which prepares us, as it did our Lord (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13, Romans 5:3-4, and Hebrews 12:5-11). It prepares us by refining and strengthening our faith, as we discuss in the following section. The Baptism into the Holy Spirit is to enable us to endure those "wilderness experiences" and to respond to them positively and constructively rather than with bitterness and discouragement.
Look at Hebrews 12:5-11, and note how the writer speaks of the adjusting process as chastening by a loving Heavenly Father:
"... and you have forgotten the exhortation that is addressed to you as sons, 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness."
Yes, the maturing process is painful at times. But the love of our Lord Christ Jesus toward us is ever more real during the chastening tribulations, and it is that love that ever deepens our union with Him. And we become settled and stable through it all - 1 Peter 5:10.
3. Through Fire
God's dealings in our lives to adjust us unto maturity in Him are also referred to in the Bible as fire: "My God is a consuming fire" - Deuteronomy 4:24.
1 Peter 1:6-9 has these powerful words:
"In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls."
"That our faith be refined, as gold from ore, in a refiner's fire...." What is faith, that it must be refined and strengthened through fire? Here we give but a brief summary of these harsh but vital truths.
Faith, again, is our inner response to God and His initiatives in our lives. Our response, though, must involve three aspects: seeing Christ Jesus in the spirit; dynamic dependence upon Him in the "now"; and sensitive obedience to His Will. Our dependence upon the Person of Christ Jesus alone, and our obedience to His will alone, is compared to the gold in the ore. The dross is our dependence upon everything else: for example our dependence upon the pastor or priest of our local church, upon our spouse, our jobs, our bank account, our abilities and talents. The dross is also our obedience to all other voices than that of Christ Jesus alone: for example the voices of our loved ones, those in the world whom we try to impress, those who admire us, and most tyrannical of all, the voice of our hideous self! We must learn to depend utterly on Him alone, and to yield to His will, alone.
This learning and yielding process is also typified in the Bible by such concepts as:
(1) heart circumcision;
(2) wheat being ground into fine flour in the crucible of testings; and
(3) clay being kneaded and smoothed by the Master Potter to remove the lumps and unevenness and resistances in our wills.
Our dependence upon Him needs to be total, and beyond our mind understanding; otherwise our ministries and our Christian walk are in human strength or soulishness, rather than in His wisdom and power. So, our dependence upon our many idols, tangible and intangible, and our obedience to the demands they make on our time and efforts, must be transferred to Him alone. That takes many "wilderness experiences", over time, for most of us. It is not the suffering of those trials, but our learning to trust and obey Him through them, that adjusts us to true spiritual maturity in Him and that refine and strengthen our faith.
One aspect of these wilderness experiences or trials by fire is what we call "Maturing Through Soul Affliction". For the final phases of our process of being adjusted unto maturity entail an emptying of our self, so that we become completely yielded to the Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus in us - that we become completely fused into Him. It is a matter of internal holiness, holiness into Him, our losing ourselves in Him. Holiness from the world, even pious religiousness, are not the issue.
4. We Must Be Broken[1]
That emptying of our self, so that we become completely yielded to the Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus in us, that we become completely fused into Him, requires that the power of self be broken. This is the inner work of the indwelling Holy Spirit that we address here.
The Holy Spirit, in breaking the power of our self, is intrinsically gentle, entreating and captivating. Even though the task is to bring us to the point where we see ourselves honestly, the Holy Spirit never intends to harm nor embarrass us. But He must be persistent in showing us who we really are, in order to bring us the ultimate release and peace we have been seeking all along.
So He pursues us day after day until we finally acknowledge the wisdom of knowing as well as admitting our limitations, of confessing and taking responsibility for our failures and our sin. When we do, He will not broadcast the intimate details of your life but be wonderfully compassionate and discreet. His goal is for us to discover our weaknesses and hidden sin. But if we will not yield to Him in the personal yet critical issues, He will send others to expose these hidden hindrances to our sanctification; those persons are usually far less tolerant and loving then Him.
One of the personal yet critical issues the indwelling Holy Spirit must deal with, is our expectation of failure. We only fail because we will not admit our need of God. He designed us to accomplish everything He planned for our life. We are fashioned to do exactly what His destiny for us requires. God made us in His image to bear His glory. But we doubt our value to Him and underestimate our abilities in Him. Our problem is how we see ourselves; we lack a vision of the depth of His love for us and hence who we are in Him.
Satan is quick to exploit that lack in us. He ever tries to convince us that we are worthless and far too sinful for even God to forgive. But not so. The sin that has invaded us is keeping us not from God’s forgiveness but from fulfilling God’s destiny for us. Sin is like a spy. Sin is no more a part of us than a spy is part of the country he infiltrates. It can do damage only until we discover and disarm it. But until we do recognize and confess the sinful attitudes, thoughts and actions that consume our heart, we give the evil one license to do whatever he wills.
So our repentance is not repenting of something that is intrinsic to us; our sin is an invader that has corrupted us. When we banish it from our life, we are not exiling part of ourselves; so let go of it.
We must allow the Holy Spirit to show us where sin has taken root in our life. We will never be free of sin’s influence until we give the Lord free reign to work in our heart. “Lord, sin has invaded my body. I don’t like it, I don’t want it, but I keep doing it. It’s taking control of me and starting to separate me from You. I need Your help to get rid of it. It is not mine. I want to be in You and Your will for me.”
The apostle Peter had to go through this. He had to see his true self, not who he thought he was or who he wanted others to think he was. He faced his frailty and the weakness that continually assailed him. He confronted his imperfections and lack of strength. But then he discovered that he could obey his Lord despite his struggle to overcome sin and his inability to obey in his own strength. 1 John 1:9 over and over again! For he then had the power to repent as often as necessary without shame and without hiding some of the truth. We have nothing to lose, for our Lord knows all about us even before we come to Him.
But we must continually do this yielding and repenting, and never let our guard down! No one is immune to the guiles of the evil one. How stealthily he stalks us! He is always looking for a weakness in our soul that he can prey upon! Iniquity is a ruthless deceiver. It haunts us, it sticks to us, and ultimately it rules us. Each time we give in to it, we invite the evil one to invade our heart.
The pathway of change is rarely easy. Sometimes in the midst of true revival, old sin habits seem to fall away quickly as folks repent and God graciously brings healing and deliverance. But change also requires a steadfast commitment to obey the voice of God. Obedience isn’t easy, but it’s the only way we can be rid of those sin habits we so despise. We must make one right choice after another. God will then change what we have been unable to change by ourselves.