Your Spiritual Growth

Your spiritual growth is through a personal relationship with God in Christ. Don't be satisfied to remain where you are without growing in Christ. "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). That statement summarizes your spiritual growth in Christ. 

Your spiritual growth is through the word of God in the Bible. A proper diet is necessary to maintain good health. Likewise, feeding upon God's word in the Bible is necessary for your growth in Christ. Knowledge should lead to growing in the grace of Christ, which is the unmerited favor of God. 

Your spiritual growth strengthens your faith in Christ. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). We believe what we know is true. Increased knowledge of Christ should lead to increased faith and assurance in Christ. That is growth in grace. It's growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Your spiritual growth is through life situations. God allows us to be in situations beyond our ability, that we may not trust in ourselves but in Him. Our impossibilities are always His possibilities. With God all things are possible. Jesus said, "For without me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). That lesson leads us to spiritual growth in the grace of Christ, as we trust Him in all of life's situations. Oh for grace to trust Him more!

The Holy Spirit Resisted

God's grace is resisted by those who reject the gospel. They have "insulted the Spirit of grace" (Hebrews 10:29). The Bible teaches that people resist the Holy Spirit, because their hearts have not been changed by the grace of God. Those who are lost face condemnation by rejecting the gospel of Christ.

"You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you" (Acts 7:51). Only the Spirit of God can change our hearts, which means the mind, will, and emotions. By resisting the Spirit of grace, those who are lost insult the only one who can apply the gospel of Christ to their hearts.

The Spirit of grace, who changes our corrupt hearts, is the same Spirit who convicts those who are lost of unbelief. Conviction is grace that precedes new birth (John 16:7-11). When conviction is resisted, grace is resisted. Conviction deals specifically with the sin of unbelief, in essence, rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Those who are lost reject the light of Christ. Jesus said, "And this is condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). Therefore, those who are lost resist the Spirit of grace and have no one to blame but themselves for their own just condemnation.

How Salvation Is Applied

Salvation is applied through the Holy Spirit. He is known also as the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29). The Holy Spirit works in your heart to have a personal relationship with Christ. Your mind is enlightened. The Spirit of grace enables us to confess Jesus is Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3).

The Spirit of grace applies salvation in Christ. It is "the grace of God that brings salvation" (Titus 2:11). Grace is the goodness of God leading us to repentance (Romans 2:4). Grace is the gift of God in Christ received by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The Spirit of grace does not force us to believe in Christ. God's grace works in and through our will, but never to do violence to our will. Without this work of God's grace, your will is in bondage to sin and unable to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Spirit of grace applies salvation, not our works. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and do for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). We don't work for our salvation. We work out what God has worked in us. That is the grace of God in Christ.

The Spirit of grace brings us to repentance and faith in Christ. It is all of grace (Ephesians 2:5, 8-10). Grace is the way God initiates our salvation. We are enabled by the Spirit of grace to respond to the gospel of Christ (John 16:7-11; Acts 15:11).

Bride-Elect of Christ

In Bible days a father chose the bride-elect for his son. God the Father has chosen the bride-elect for His Son (Ephesians 1:4-6). The bride of Christ is the church. The custom of Bible days was for the fathers of the bride and groom to enter a covenant, a binding agreement, concerning the future marriage.

For Christ and the church, the binding agreement is the new covenant or testament. God the Father has entered into an everlasting covenant with His Son (Hebrews 13:20-21). The church is the bride-elect, including all who are born of the Spirit through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 

In Bible days, the groom paid a price for his bride-elect. Christ loved the church and purchased her with the blood of His cross (Ephesians 5:25). These words from a hymn describes the love of Christ for the church: "From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride. With His own blood He bought her and for her life He died."

The groom gave gifts to his bride-elect. Christ sends the Holy Spirit with gifts to the church. They are the three abiding gifts of faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). The greatest gift of all is love. "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). The church is the bride-elect. The elect includes all who are chosen by grace through faith in Christ.

God Is Not Partial

God is not partial. This is a lesson that the apostle Peter had to learn through divine revelation and in his own experience. Peter preaching to the household of Cornelius was a major change in his thinking. He was a Jew preaching the gospel to Gentiles. "Then Peter opened his mouth and said, 'In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality"(Acts 10:34).

God is not partial in His love for the world (John 3:16). The good news is that God loves sinners, and He proved it at the cross of Jesus. Jesus did not die for good people, because there are none (Romans 3:10, 23). We have all sinned and come short of God's glory. Jesus died for sinners (Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Once and for all, God proved His love for the world at the cross of Jesus (1 John 2:2).

God is not partial in His mercy and grace toward mankind. The Bible declares: "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men" (Titus 2:11). There's enough mercy in God for all nations (Revelation 5:9). 

God's mercy is sufficient to save anyone from eternal judgment. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). The invitation to God the Father through Jesus Christ is offered to all people with no partiality. "Whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43).

Who Christ Is for Us

Charles Spurgeon wrote: "Jesus will never betray the confidence we place in Him. As you place your faith and trust in Him, remember that He is made unto us 'wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30). 

Christ is wisdom for us. He is every believer's Counselor, sharing with us the wisdom of God. His words in Scripture speak wisdom and counsel for our life situations. He speaks wisdom to us, as we read His words in the Bible.

Christ is righteousness for us. Self-righteousness will never please God. By faith in Christ, the believer receives the only righteousness that can possibly please God. We become righteous by faith in Christ alone. We are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Christ is sanctification for us. Trying to sanctify yourself is nothing more than self-righteousness. Only the blood of Christ and the Spirit of Christ can surely sanctify us before God. Jesus Christ alone is our sanctification.

Christ is redemption for us. He paid the price to set us free from the curse of sin and condemnation. It is nothing but the blood of Jesus. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are blood bought. Jesus paid it all.

God's Grace In Christ

God's grace is in Jesus Christ our Lord. God's grace changes our hearts, which is regeneration. God's grace enables us to repent and believe the gospel of Christ, which is our conversion (Philippians 1:29; 2 Timothy 2:25).

God's grace is salvation by faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation is God's grace working through us in Christ (Ephesians 2:10). The Bible clearly teaches that salvation is by God's grace, and not by any works which we have done. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). 

God's grace is the gift of God in Christ. It is never earned by our works. If salvation was by our works, we could boast of what we have done. However, salvation is by grace in Christ alone, which means it is the gift of God. Salvation is the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is to the glory of God alone, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Salvation is not received by God's grace plus our works. Some teach that salvation is initiated by God's grace and must be completed by our works. Not so. When grace saves us, it is by grace received in Christ. God's grace in Christ begins and completes our salvation (Philippians 1:6).