The reasons for this article is to show that the word of God is significant to our lives as Christians. Some of us have come to know how important that is, that our growth in Christ depends on it. But some may be facing some challenges of how the word of God is really being used as means for our growth in Christ. My focus in this article is mainly our growth in doing what is good which is part of our Christian walk.
Table of Contents
The foundation for Christian growth
Just to lay a foundation of Christian growth which is the subject covered in the doctrine called “Sanctification.” Sanctification is a big word but it is from the word “sanctify,” which means to “set apart.” So as believers in Christ we are set apart. We are different from those who are not saved. For us now, we are now children of God, holy people, that is our identity etc. The process of sanctification is where God through His word changes us from glory to glory into the image of Christ, or where God renews the new man that He has created us in Christ so that we are more and more like Christ.
It is revealed as part of God’s sovereign plan that He should work in us in such a way to achieve His very goal of making us like Christ. One of the very important question that a Christian has to look at is, what kind of life am I expected to live since I am now a believer? Now this is the question that we are going to deal with so that we can take the word of God seriously in our lives.
What kind of life am I expected to live since I am now a believer?
Eph 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. NIV
Very interesting that the result of God’s work in us is evident in doing the good work that He has prepared beforehand. We can be sure of this that God’s salvation does not lead us to doing other than that which is good. The question that one may ask is, how do I know the good work that God is talking about and how do I get thoroughly equipped to doing them? That is how the scripture come in play. Paul says in 2 Tim 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (NIV).”
God’s word is practical
One of the amazing truths that has been running in my mind that I have come to rejoice at from the time I knew it is that the scripture is very practical, which means God’s word can be applied in our lives. So, God chose His word to be a means through which we are trained and thoroughly equipped for doing the good work which He has prepared that we should do beforehand.
Let me give an example of this:
Think of the instructions we have in the Bible concerning the need to love each other, being kind toward one another, admonishing each other etc, God trains this new man(Colossians 3:10) in that truth which we learn in His word.
God’s work in us through His word teaches us to expect more from Him for our growth
When I became a Christian, I noticed that, at least every Christian I know expects me to be loving toward them. One of the questions I have is that, how can you have such a high expectation from me who is a wretched and poor man in such matters who for now I am still learning to differentiate what my right hand is from the left? I have come to learn that the answer to that expectation is not from within me, it is from God who saved me and whose work is taking to completion that creates an expectation in every believer. Not that as brothers and sisters we can love etc. by ourselves but because God is working in our lives.
We are taught not only to know that God is working but to expect His work in each one of us and trust Him for that. Therefore, we can pursue to love each other because our Father is faithfully working in us as we submit to His word. God does not only use His word to renew us which may constitute training us so that we can do every good work but He uses His word also to teach us to expect such good work of God to continue in our lives.
I would want to mention that in the earlier article, “two wrong views that John is correcting in 1 John 2:1-2” I mentioned that we need to “Desire to have the word of God do its work in us.” I would like to add to that, that as God is working in us, He creates a deeper desire for Him. Because our desire for Him grows as we learn of Him and know Him more. To make it simple, if you are trying to make a connection between you desiring and God creating more deeper desire, know that it is God who begins first in all this work of salvation.
So, “we love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).” We desire Him because He first changed “the dispositions of our hearts and gave us a new heart at our new birth (RC Sproul).” So, the idea of us desiring the working of God’s word in our lives spring from the very fact that God has already started doing the good work in us and we have to pay attention to that by setting our hearts on Him. We are renewed people that is what we should be doing.
“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good (1 Peter 2:2-3, NIV).”
Thus, why we can hold each other accountable when we go off track, by not submitting to the truth because we know that God is not going to use other means to work in our lives but His truth. And it is indeed disobedience to disregard what God is doing in our lives. As hard as it may be that is what sin does. It is choosing another way rather than following what God has set for us. The Holy Spirit using His word awakes us to the folly of choosing that way of sin and points us to Christ for forgiveness of sin and create a more and deep desire for God as we learn of Him. A clear view of God is what we need in all this life.
I thought to make this article short. We’ll continue talking about the working of the word of God in our lives.
