Sanctification Is Growth: Question: Are You Growing?

You therefore, beloved, since

you know this beforehand, 

beware lest you also fall 

from your own steadfastness,

being led away with the error

of the wicked, but grow in

the grace and knowledge 

of our Lord and Savior 

Jesus Christ. To Him be 

the glory both now and forever.

2Peter 3:17-18

     This blog is all about considering our faith, making the needed changes that are necessary beginning from within a person and causing a change in the outward man. Sanctification is all about holiness, therefore it is a question of most importance and should be considered by every Authentic Biblical Christian. I would admit all those who claim to be "Christian" except that if your theology is amiss then your presupposition will lead you to miss the mark as many have done. Paul writes: "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1Corinthians 2:14). Everyone who is downright earnest about his/her soul, and hungers and thirsts after righteousness, true spiritual life, will address this question; do we make progress? Do we grow? God is pleased to use humans for His purposes even our growth: Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place" (2Corinthians 2:14).  Sanctification is something that every true, every Authentic Biblical Christian must assess in themselves: are you growing in holiness or have you settled for what you are now? Are you willing to make those necessary changes in your religion so that you are led by God to be a wonderful fragrance for the Gospel? Days go and come, seasons go and come, events go and come; and time keeps marching forward, this ought to set us thinking and making cause to look within ourselves. Life is ebbing away! The time is coming when the reality of our "Christian" life will be tested: have you built your life on the Rock or on sand? A time will come, now or later, but it will come, a time when we take stock of our religious life, examine the state of our souls. Do we grow in spiritual things? Do we grow?

     This is an important question for in this day especially there are some strange and crude opinions in men' minds on some points of doctrine, and one of those strange opinions is the point of growth in grace as a part of true holiness, that which is evident in a person of Authentic Biblical Faith. Some deny this fact, they are satisfied with their religious beliefs and see no need to examine their faith, their exercise of faith, and other just explain this doctrine of growth away, and pare it down to nothing. For some it is misunderstood and neglected; but today is the day when a person who seeks the truth, to live as an Authentic Biblical Christian will look into the face of the whole subject of Christian growth.

     As I consider now the subject of spiritual growth, Sanctification, it is admitted that the Bible speaks volumes about this subject and that there is a reality for religious growth, growth in grace. I will cover as to how we may know that we are growing in grace, what are the marks of this growth? In other words; how can we know if we are growing? Further to grow is to say that there are means by which growth is caused and that those means are to be used if any growth is to occur. If you desire to grow in grace then those means must be used and this doctrine of growth is not a matter of speculation and controversy; it is an eminently practical subject for it is connected in the whole question of Sanctification. Growth is a mark of Authentic Biblical Christians which leads them to have spiritual health, spiritual prosperity, spiritual happiness, and comfort; all which is connected to growth, growth in grace. 

     Yes, time is slipping away and while we are in this body we have a purpose designed by God: "For we who are in this tent gran, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present  with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him for we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he had done, whether good or bad" (2Corinthians 4: 4-10).

     The work of self-examination may seem intolerably hard but it holds the most wonderful change in a person in this life and in the life to come: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day" (2Corinthians 4:16).

Since you have purified

    your souls in obeying 

the truth through the Spirit

    in sincere love of the brethren,

love one another fervently 

    with a pure heart...."

                      1Peter 1:22

You have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ

Richard L. Crumb