How Do We Grow as Christians?

When church gets out do you find yourself thinking about those areas of your life that you need to improve? Or do you leave pondering the gospel of grace, and the glory of God in Christ's work in our place? Certainly we may leave with both of these things on our minds, but which one did the pastor emphasize the most?

A dear friend of mine who is a truck driver told me when I got my commercial drivers license that the best thing I could do to drive straight was to look as far down the road as I could. Even when driving through curves I should anticipate where we are heading and keep my eyes fixed there. The reason is that if we look down right in front of the bus or truck to keep ourselves between the stripes we actually make things worse. We end up looking back and forth and over-correct back and forth. Though it is completely counter intuitive, trying to look close to stay between the lines makes doing so very difficult.

This principle holds true for us in our Christian walks too. If we are constantly focused on what we are doing and how to stay between the lines (if you will) we will over-correct and constantly drift back and forth, back and forth. However if we keep our eyes fixed on the cross and the resurrection, if we keep our thoughts on the amazing truth that God lived and died in our place, then we will be far less likely to drift and sway nearly as much. Of course we will never be perfect, but the more we focus on Him the more we will find ourselves desiring to know, love and seek Him, and far less will we be drifting towards all the counterfeits.

What's the point? If you walk out of church focused primarily on yourself and the things that need to change in your life, you will drift back and forth and rarely will any real progress be made. But, if you leave thinking and meditating on the all-sufficiency of Christ because the gospel has been the high point of the teaching, rather than how we apply the text to our lives, then we will find ourselves more and more fulfilled in Him.

We would all agree that we have been saved solely by the grace of God, and the same must hold true for our growing in Christ (sanctification). This doesn't mean we do not "work out our salvation with fear and trembling" but it means that we do so with the rest of the verse in mind "because it is God who is at work in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."

Only as we find our gaze turned more consistently to Christ will we find true lasting life change. Only with the preaching in our churches being more Christ-centered - realizing that our only hope of continued change is still bound up with Christ and His finished work - will our growth be enduring.

Yes we must walk and strive and struggle, but we will only find victory in these as we focus far more on the victory that has already and completely been won for us in Christ. This is exactly what the author of Hebrews is saying when he wrote in Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, LOOKING TO JESUS, THE FOUNDER AND PERFECTER OF OUR FAITH, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (emphasis added)

Are you hearing Jesus made much of each and every Sunday? While application is very important, it is completely impotent apart from the life changing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is our only hope for justification (initial salvation), and He remains our only hope in sanctification (Christian growth).