Grace and Growth

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5:16 NKJV.

This Brief Word follows on from the last one, where we discussed the tension between received and receiving. (See Brief Word BW128 Received Receiving 221021). I believe there’s some important things we need to look at on this great subject.

Bob Gas who writes The Word For The Day, says this (28 October 2022).

In spiritual childhood, it’s essential to understand: the difference between your stage of growth and your standing before God. Don’t get them mixed up! Trusting in the finished work of Christ gives you right standing with God as a fully accepted, redeemed child of his. If you forget that, every time you fall, the devil will make you doubt your salvation. When you sin, it doesn’t mean that your standing before God is altered; it means your stage of spiritual growth needs work.

The forgiveness you receive at the new birth is a judicial act, making you a member of God’s family in good standing. But the forgiveness you receive on a daily basis is a relational act. For example, when you enter some wrong numbers into your calculator, what do you do? There is a little button called ‘clear entry’ that lets you erase your mistake and start over again. That’s what the blood of Jesus does. Repentance allows you to override sin by triggering God’s forgiveness, so that the flow of his grace continues. And when grace flows, growth follows. (Emphasis added).

That is brilliant!  When grace flows, growth follows. How true. When we understand all that the Lord has done for us in Christ, when we understand all that we have received freely and undeserved, when we’ve received the grace of total forgiveness at the new birth – the judicial act – then growth follows, as we learn and grow in understanding of who we are in Christ – the relational act.

When we try to live in the way we know we should, without the power of grace, we are running on empty. There is no power, there is no energy, there is no ability to do that. But when we focus on grace, and what we already have, and the vastness of God’s goodness in Christ, then that revelation changes us and we start to change and become more and more of who we really are, a son and daughter in Christ, with all that he has won and freely given us.

Remember Paul’s instruction to Walk in the Spirit … (Galatians 5:16) NKJV.

We can walk in the Spirit, it is possible. We can and we do, when we focus on the things we have, not the things we don’t have. Focus on our Position not our Performance. Focus on our Standing not our Stage. Focus on our Received not our Receiving. Focus on Grace not Growth. When we do, then, the performance, the stage, the receiving, the growth, will just happen because it comes out of our Position, our Standing, from Grace. It comes out of the Spirit’s work in us, bringing a greater and clearer revelation of all that Christ has won and done for us at the cross.

Focusing on what Christ has done for us, all the things we have in full, enlarges those things, (remember, the thing we focus on, we empower. Pastor Ken Legg). It reveals more and more of them, and our understanding of them grows, then we begin to live them, and our actions and behaviour takes the shape of those things, which we have in full but are growing in an understanding of.

But if we focus on the things we don’t yet fully have, we enlarge those things, and we become more and more aware of what we don’t yet have, even though they are growing in our life. It’s a bit like focusing on the fruit doesn’t make it grow. But focusing on the root, does. Focusing on what there is already; roots, trunk, branches, life, creates a healthy environment for what is not yet there – fruit – to grow.

Walking in the Spirit is then to reckon, to consider, to acknowledge, all the things we have been given in full, accept them, receive them, count them, reconcile them as being a part of us. It is to live from that place of having, rather than that place of not having. It is to live out of the resources we have been freely given. It is to live from the reservoir of grace, position and standing with God that Christ has graciously won and done for us and given to us.

It’s our choice, we can either chose. (Or though in some things we chose both).

Position        ⇒      Or      ⇒      Performance

Standing      ⇒      Or      ⇒      Stage

Received      ⇒      Or      ⇒       Receiving

Complete     ⇒      Or      ⇒      Incomplete

Done             ⇒      Or      ⇒       Doing

To be led by the Holy Spirit from a resource of these things, position, standing, received, complete and done, is to be free from the works of the law, of performing, of doing. It is to put to death the ungodly, worldly things the flesh wants us to do.

But when a revelation of who we are in Christ so captures us, and grips our heart, we are keen to focus on those things, (the grace gifts of Christ to us) and enlarge them and their influence in our life.

And do not be conformed to this world, (living in the lust of the flesh) but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Walking in the Spirit) Romans 12:2 NKJV.

My friend, God loves you. He really does. And He has provided both grace and growth for us, in the finished work of the cross.