SPIRITUAL MATURITY: GROWING UP IN RIGHT DOING

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness (Hebrews 5:13 NIV). 

The babe in Christ

Peter speaks through the Spirit and says, "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation (1 Peter 2:2 NIV). Pure spiritual milk is served to new converts. They are like newborn babies. They are too tender to be given bones to chew. What kind of teachings constitute 'pure spiritual milk'? They are what scripture calls, 'foundation of the doctrine of Christ (Hebrews 6:1). 

When someone comes into union with Christ afresh, they are like a seed that is germinating in a soil. It takes time for it to develop roots, stem, leaves, crown and fruits. They are like a newborn baby. It has no teeth to chew bone. So it depends on breast milk, which is organic and pure and helpful for its growth and development. 

Teaching new converts requires much love, patience and simplicity. They do not need mysteries and revelations so called, all they need to develop roots, stem, leaves, crown and fruits is the simple divine message of God's grace. God's grace manifests as love, mercy and benevolence. The new convert needs this simple divine message. It is this simple divine message of God's grace that enables the new convert to become deeply rooted in God's love. 

A baby needs to be pampered, and God, the Father, does it perfectly. He pampers his little children with his love so as to make them joyful and confident in him, not being afraid of him. Divine love that is groomed to maturity is not afraid of God, the Father, instead, it reveres him.

So new converts need the pure spiritual milk of the message of God's grace. God's grace is soft and pampering, but does not spoil the child. It builds up trust for the Father as you get to know that you can rely on him even at your weakest point. 

The grown up in Christ

Now when a baby grows up and becomes an adult, their thinking changes. Their understanding also changes, and so does their speech. They reason and speak from a greater depth of understanding. So is the Christian. When you grow up in the faith, you gain a rich experience of the Father's grace. Your insight and spiritual understanding of his love changes. You gain greater depth of understanding of the implication of his love. 

For instance, Paul reasons that God's goodness is intended to bring the sinful person to repentance (Romans 2:4). This implies that when you are always doing wrong and yet, you do not reap what you sow, it does not mean that God, the Father, condones wrongdoing, but rather, he wants you to understand that his love is patient and kind. It forbears until you come to your senses and change your behavioural pattern to please him. 

At times, he disciplines you as soon as possible, allowing you to reap what you sow quickly, if that will make you come to your senses more quickly. 

God's righteousness

God's righteousness is difficult to understand when you are a baby in Christ. You may misinterpret his righteousness as insensitivity or wickedness. This is why it is not appropriate to give this bone to a new convert. 

In the key verse above, the writer to the Hebrews says it clearly, "Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness." This refers to the new convert who is like a newborn baby. Since they depend on milk, they are not acquainted with bone. The teaching of righteousness is like a bone meal. 

Righteousness

Righteousness is the quality of always being right and always doing right. This quality originally belongs to only God. That is, God alone is always right. He alone always does right. Righteousness is his intrinsic nature. 

Imputed righteousness

No human has ever met God's standard of righteousness. The Old Testament says that even your righteous deed is like a filthy rag in the eyes of God (Isaiah 64:6). This means that it is imperfect and so despicable to God that he cannot be pleased by it. 

Rather than press humankind to work futilely for their own righteousness, he attributes [ascribes or credits] righteousness to those who have faith in his Son, Jesus Christ, just as he attributed righteousness to Abraham through his faith (Romans 4:3; Genesis 15:6). 

Vital righteousness

By virtue of Christ living in you, you are completely filled with all the fulness of God including his righteousness. If Christ be in you, then righteousness has become your nature just as it is God's nature. It is not merely attributed to you, it has become your new nature since you have been born again by the Spirit. You are a new being having a new nature that is the same as that of God's. 

Christ then, becomes your righteousness when you believe in him (1Corinthians 1:20).

Right doing

If righteousness is imputed, is there a need to do what is right? 

Righteousness is imputed to you by substitution, but righteousness becomes your new nature by regeneration. As a born again person, you have the Father's nature of righteousness, and so your righteous deeds do not qualify you to be righteous, but rather, Christ in you, qualifies you to be righteous in the sight of God, the Father.  

So do not put your confidence in your right doing but in your right believing. If you have faith in Christ, you have believed right, and so you are righteous in the sight of God, the Father. 

Notwithstanding, this does not imply that you are free to live to please the flesh. It is only a babe in Christ who chooses to live to please the flesh since they are not acquainted with the teaching of righteousness. The grace of God that pampers us with divine love also "teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age" (Titus 2:12). 

Right living does not qualify you to be righteous, but it proves that you are righteous. God's grown up children live right as they believe right. 

Doctrinal imbalance

Owing to the global moral degradation and helpless uprising of delinquencies, some bible teachers of today resort to teaching "feel good" messages that overemphasize God's grace that pampers the Christian over his grace that teaches the Christian to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions. 

There are "feel good" messages that encourage you to only believe right since you cannot live right. They help you to feel good but they are not complete and balanced. A balanced teaching of righteousness spells out the yes and no, do's and don'ts, rights and wrongs, good and evil, as well as the acceptable and unacceptable pattern of behaviour in the sight of God, the Father. 

A culture of balance

Balance is what solves the problem in the matter of righteousness. Deep within the subject of righteousness is God's justice, that is, the attribute of being fair, equitable or balanced. 

The teaching of righteousness must take into account the balance of right believing and right living, for right believing produces right living. 


Truth Haven

Comments

  1. Sage WordOctober 31, 2022 at 4:26 AM

    Sage Broadcast empowers you to study, reason and question (srq) in order to find evidence of the truth. Remember, this is achievable only through the Holy Spirit.

    ReplyDelete

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