By His death on the cross Jesus triumphed over the forces of evil. He who subjugated the demonic spirits during His earthly ministry has broken their power and made certain their ultimate doom. Jesus. victory gives us victory over the evil forces that still seek to control us, as we walk with Him in peace, joy, and assurance of His love. Now the Holy Spirit dwells within us and empowers us. Continually committed to Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, we are set free from the burden of our past deeds. No longer do we live in the darkness, fear of evil powers, ignorance, and meaninglessness of our former way of life. In this new freedom in Jesus, we are called to grow into the likeness of His character, communing with Him daily in prayer, feeding on His Word, meditating on it and on His providence, singing His praises, gathering together for worship, and participating in the mission of the Church. We are also called to follow Christ.s example by compassionately ministering to the physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual needs of humanity. As we give ourselves in loving service to those around us and in witnessing to His salvation, His constant presence with us through the Spirit transforms every moment and every task into a spiritual experience. (1 Chron. 29:11; Ps. 1:1, 2; 23:4; 77:11, 12; Matt. 20:25-28; 25:31-46; Luke 10:17-20; John 20:21; Rom. 8:38, 39; 2 Cor. 3:17, 18; Gal. 5:22-25; Eph. 5:19, 20; 6:12-18; Phil. 3:7-14; Col. 1:13, 14; 2:6, 14, 15; 1 Thess. 5:16-18, 23; Heb. 10:25; James 1:27; 2 Peter 2:9; 3:18; 1 John 4:4.)
BIRTH IS A MOMENT OF JOY. A seed germinates, and the appearance of those first two leaves makes the gardener happy. A baby is born, and its first scream announces to the world that here is a new life to reckon with. The mother forgets all her pain and joins the rest of the family in joy and celebration. A nation is born to be free, and an entire people throng the streets and fill the city squares, waving symbols of their newfound joy. But imagine: Those two leaves do not turn into four but rather remain the same or vanish away; a year later the little baby neither smiles nor takes a first step but remains frozen in the simplicity of its entrance into the world; the newly freed nation for a short while turns within, into a prison house of fear, torture, and captivity.
The joy of the gardener, the ecstasy of the mother, and the promise of a freedom-filled future turn into disappointment, grief, and mourning Growth -- continual, constant, maturing, and fruit-bearing growth -- is essential to life. Without it birth has no meaning or purpose or destiny.
To grow in an inseparable equation of life--both physical and spiritual. Physical growth demands proper nourishment, environment, nurture, exercise, education, training, and a purpose-filled life. But the issue under consideration here is spiritual growth. How do we grow in Christ and mature as Christians? What are the hallmarks of spiritual growth?
Perhaps the most basic and unique principle about Christian life is that it begins with death--indeed, with two events of death. First, the death of Christ on the cross makes possible our new life--free from the dominion of Satan (Col. 1:13, 14), free from the condemnation of sin (Rom. 8:1), free from death and penalty of sin (Rom 6:23)--and it brings reconciliation with God and humans. Second, the death of self makes it possible for us to take up the life that Christ offers. As a result, third, we walk in newness of life.
Death of Christ. The cross is central to God's plan of salvation. Without it Satan and his demonic forces would not have been defeated, the problem of sin would not have been solved, and death would not have been crushed. The apostle tells us: "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). "For God so loved the world," says the Bible's most favorite passage. If God's love conceived and originated the plan of salvation, the execution of the plan is explained in the second part of that passage: "That He gave His only begotten Son." The uniqueness of God's gift was not that He gave His Son but that He gave Him to die for our sins. Without the cross there could be no forgiveness of sins, no eternal life, and no victory over Satan.
Through His death on the cross, Christ triumphed over Satan. From the fiery temptations in the wilderness on through the agony of Gethsemane, Satan mercilessly led the attack against the Son of God--to weaken His will, to cause His way to falter, to lead Him to distrust His Father, and to pressure Him to detour from the path of bearing the bitter cup of humanity's sin as a vicarious sacrifice. The cross was the final onslaught. There, "Satan with his angels, in human form, was present,"1 to carry the great warfare against God to its ultimate end, hoping that Christ would even now come down from the cross and fail to fulfill God's redemptive purpose of offering His Son as a sacrifice for sin (John 3:16). But Christ, by giving up His life on the cross, crushed the power of Satan, "disarmed principalities and powers," and "made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it" (Col. 2:15). On the cross, "The battle had been won. His [Christ's] right hand and His holy arm had gotten Him the victory. As a Conqueror He planted His banner on the eternal heights. . . . All heaven triumphed in the Savriour's victory. Satan was defeated, and knew that his kingdom was lost."2
The apostle's graphic description in Colossians is noteworthy. First, Christ disarmed the principalities and powers of evil. The Greek for disarmed literally means "stripped." Because of the cross, Satan stands stripped of all his demonic power over God's people, as long as they place their trust in the One who brought about that victory on the cross. Second, the cross made Satan and his cohorts "a public spectacle" before the universe. The one who once boasted that he would "be like the Most High" (Isa. 14:14) is now made a cosmic spectacle of shame and defeat. Evil no longer holds power over believers, who have passed from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light (Col. 1:13). Third, the cross has ensured final, eschatological victory over Satan, sin, and deahth.
Thus the cross of Christ has become an instrument of God's victory over evil:
At every step of this ladder of redemption and victory, we see the fulfillment of Christ's own prophecy, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke 10:18).
The Christ of the cross is God's redemptive action for the problem of sin . Lest we forget that fact, Jesus asserted that His blood was to be "poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matt. 26:28). That shedding of the blood is crucial for the experience and appreciation of salvation. For one thing, it speaks about sin. Sin is real. Sin is costly. Sin's grip is so immense and deadly that forgiveness of sin and freedom from its power and guilt are impossible without the "previous blood of Christ" (1 Pet. 1:19). This truth about sin needs to be said again and again, because we live in a world that denies the reality of sin or remains indifferent to it. But at the cross we are confronted with the diabolical nature of sin, which can be cleansed only by that blood "poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matt. 26:28).
Let us never forget of be indifferent to the fact that Jesus died for our sins and that without His death, there could be no forgiveness. It is our sins that drove Jesus to the cross. As Paul states, "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly...in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:6, 8). Or, as Ellen White states, sin "weighed heavily upon Christ, and the sense of God's wrath against sin "weighted heavily upon Christ, and the sense of God's wrath against sin was crushing out His life."3 There is no escape from affirming and proclaiming the "once for all" (see Rom. 6:10; Heb. 7:27; 10:10) sacrificial and substitutionary nature of the death of Jesus.
We are not saved by Christ the good man, by Christ the God-man, by Christ the great Teacher, or by Christ the impeccable Example. We are saved by the Christ of the cross: "Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. "With His stripes we are healed."4
The blood of Jesus, then, assures forgiveness from sin and casts the seed for newness of growth. One of the first aspects of this newness and growth in the Christian life is reconciliation. The cross of God's instrument for effecting human's reconciliation with Him. "God was in Christ," says the apostle Paul, "reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). Because of what He did on the cross, we are able to stand before God without sin and without fear. That which estranged us from God has been dealth with. "As far as the east is form the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us" (Ps. 103:12). The Man on the cross has opened a new way into the very presence of God. "It is finished," He announced on the cross, and then He urged His followers to enter into an ever-abiding fellowship of God.
Reconciliation with God immediately opens up the second phase of the redemptive growth process: reconciliation with our fellow humans. One of the beautiful pictures of the cross is the variety of people who crowded around there. Not all were admirers of Jesus. Not all were saints. But look at the people. There were Egyptians who prided themselves in their business acumen; there were Romans who boasted in civilization and culture; there were Greeks who excelled in their learning; there were Jews who considered themselves as God's chosen people; there were Pharisees who thought they were the chosen of hte chosen; there were Sadducees who thought they were doctrinally pure; there were slaves who sought freedom; there were free men who indulged in the luxury of liesure; there were men, women, and children.
But the cross made no distinction between all these. It judged all of them as sinners; it offered to all of them the divine path of reconciliation. At the foot of the cross the ground is level. All are brought together--and nothing divides humanity anymore. A new brotherhood is launched. A new fellowship begins. East merges with west, north comes down to south, white shakes hands with black, rich leaps over to clasp the hands of the poor. The cross bids all to the fountain of the blood--to taste the sweetness of life, to share the experience of grace, and to proclaim to the world the emergence of a new life, a new family (Eph. 2:14-16). Thus the cross initiated victory over Satan and sin, and consequently, brought new life in Christ.
Death to self. A second important aspect of Christian newness and growth is death to the old self. You cannot read the New Testament without coming to grips with this fundamental aspect of the new life of the Christian. Read Galatians 2:20, 21: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Or read Romans 6:6-11: "Our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.... reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Or read Jesus' enunciation of the new life principle: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain" (John 12:24).
Christian life, thus, does not begin with birth. It begins with death. Until self dies, until self is crucified, there is no beginning of all. There must be a radical, deliberate, total surgery of self. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). "The Christian's life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit."5 The apostle underscores both death to sin and resurrection to a new life through the experience of baptism: "Do you not know that as many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:3, 4). Baptism thus symbolically opens the door of new life and bids us to grow in Christ.
Something happens to a person who accepts Jesus as Saviour and Master. Simon the waverer becomes Peter the courageous. Saul the persecutor becomes Paul the proclaimer. Thomas the doubter becomes the missionary of the frontier. Cowardice gives place to courage. Unbelief gives way to a torch of faith. Jealousy is swallowed up by love. Self-interest vanishes into brotherly concern. Sin has no room in the heart. Self stands crucified. Hence Paul wrote, "Put off the old man with his deeds. . . put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him" (Col. 3:9, 10).
Jesus insisted: "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Matt. 16:24; cf. Luke 9:23). In Christian life, the death of self is not an option but a necessity. The cross and its claims--both immediate and ultimate--must confront Christian discipleship and demand absolute response. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's powerful commentary is worthy of note: "If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life... Wwhen Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. ...it is the same death every time--death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call."6
So the call to Christian life is a call to the cross--to continually deny self its persistent desire to be its own savior and to adhere fully to the Man of the cross, in order that our "faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God" (1 Cor. 2:5, RSV).
Living a new life. A third aspect of growing in Christ is living the new life. One of the great misunderstandings of Christian life is that salvation is a free gift of God's grace--and that's the end of the story. It is not. Yes, it is true that in Christ "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. 1:7). It is also true that "by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Eph. 2:8, 9).
Yes, grace is free. But grace cost God His Son's life. Free grace does not mean cheap grace. To quote Bonhoeffer again: "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."7
Cheap grace has nothing to do with the call of Jesus. When Jesus calls a person, He offers him or her a cross to carry. To be a disciple is to be a follower, and being a follower of Jesus is no cheap trick. To the Corinthians Paul writes forcefully of the obligations of grace. First, he speaks of his own experience: "By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them [the apostles], though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me" (1 Cor. 15:10). Thus Paul acknowledges the supremacy of God's grace in his life. And immediately he adds that this grace was not given to him in vain. The Greek eis kenon literally translates "for emptiness." That is to say, Paul did not receive grace in order to lead a vain, empty life--but rather a life filled with the fruit of the Spirit, and even that, not in his own strength, but by the power of the indwelling grace. Similarly, he pleads with the believers "not to accept the grace of God in vain" (2 Cor. 6:1).
The grace of God has not come to redeem us from one kind of emptiness, to place us in another kind of emptiness. God's grace is His activity to reconcile us to Himself, to make us a part of the family of God. Having come into the family, we live in the family, bearing the fruits of God's love through the power of His amazing grace.
Growing in Christ, therefore, is a growth in maturity so that day by day we reflect the will of Christ and walk the way of Christ. Hence the question: what are the hallmarks of this mature life and the signs of its constant growth? Without exhausting the list, we can reflect on seven such hallmarks.
1. A life of Spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus, "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Without the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, the Christian life cannot even begin. He is the Spirit of truth (John 14:17). He guides us in all truth (John 16:13) and makes us understand the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures. He brings a conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:7, 8), without which we cannot fathom the present and eternal consequences of our actions and the life we lead. It is the transforming power and presence of the Spirit in our lives that makes us sons and daughters of God (Rom. 8:14). It is through the Spirit that Christ "abides in us" (1 John 3:24). With the indwelling of the Spirit comes a new life--new in that it rejects the old ways of thought, action, and relationship that were against God's will; new also in that it makes of us a new creation, reconciled and redeemed, freed from sin in order to grow in righteousness (Rom. 8:1-16) and to reflect the image of Jesus "from glory to glory" (2 Cor. 3:17, 18). "When the Spirit of God takes posession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the light of heaven. No one sees the hand that lifts the burden, or beholds the light descend from the courts above. The blessing comes when by faith the soul surrenders itself to God. Then that power which no human eye can see creates a new being in the image of God."8
The Spirit makes us "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (Rom. 8:17). The life of the Spirit is thus a call to spiritual action: Reject the old order of sin and be sharers of Christ's sufferings in the present life in order that we may be sharers with Him of future glory. Christian spirituality is thus not a flight into a world of fantasy and mysticism. It is a call to suffer, share, witness, worship, and live the life of Christ in this world, in our communities, and in our homes. This is possible only by the indwelling presence of the Spirit. The prayer of Jesus is that even as we are in the world we should not be of the world (John 17:15). We must live in the world--that's our habitation, and that's the arena of our mission. But we do not belong to the world, for our citizenship and hope are in the world to come (Phil. 3:20).
Paul describes this Spirit-empowered life as one that is spiritually growing and maturing. Such maturity will reject the works of the flesh--"adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like" (Gal. 5:19-21)--and embrace and produce the fruit of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal. 5:22, 23).
2. A life of love and unity. Christian life is a life of unity, a life reconciled to God, on the one hand, and reconciled to one's fellow human beings, on the other. Reconciliation is the healing of a breach in relationships, and the primary cause of this breach in relationship is sin. Sin has separated us from God (Isa. 59:2) and has splintered humanity into a multitude of factions--racial, ethnic, gender, nationalities, color, caste, etc. The gospel of Jesus deals with this problem of sin and all the breaching factors associated with it and creates a new order of unity and reconciliation. Hence Paul could say, God "has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 5:18). Out of this reconciliation is born a new community--a redeemed community marked by vertical unity with God and horizontal unity with one's fellow beings. Indeed this life of love and unity is the kernel of the gospel. Did not Jesus say so in His high priestly prayer: "That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me" (John 17:20, 21)? The entire redemptive mission of Jesus and the power of His gospel cry out for vindication in love and a unity that must bind the members of the redeemed community. There is no Christian growth without such love and unity. And where this unity and love prevail, all the dividing walls between people will come tumbling down. Barriers of race, national origin, gender, caste, color, and other divisive factors stand abolished in the life of the person who has experienced the new creation, a new humanity (Eph. 2:11-16). As that person grows and matures, the glorious truth of reconciliation, love, and unity shines brighter and brighter in both individual and corporate expressions of Christian life.
The love factor in Christian growth is unique to the gospel. Jesus called it the new commandment (John 13:34), but the newness does not refer to love but to the object of love. People love, but they love the lovable--they love their own. But Jesus introduced a new factor: "Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another." That is to say, just as universal, as sacrificial, and as complete as Jesus' love is, so should our love be. The new love erects no barrier; it is inclusive; it loves even the enemy. On that type of love "hangs all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).
The command to love our neighbor leaves no room for modification. We do not select whom we love; we are called upon to love all. As children of one Father, we are expected to love one another. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Christ has shown that "your neightbor does not mean merely one of the church or faith to which we belong. It has no reference to race, color, or class distinction. Our neighbor is every person who needs our help. Our neighbor is every soul who is wounded and bruised by the adversary. Our neighbor is everyone who is the property of God."9
True neighborly love penetrates the color of the skin and confronts the humannes of the person; it refuses to take shelter under caste but contributes to the enrichment of the soul; it rescues the dignity of a person from the prejudices of dehumanization; it delivers human destiny from the philosophy of holocaust of thing-ism. In effect, true love sees in each face the image of God--potential, latent, or real. A growing, mature Christian will possess that kind of love, which is indeed the basis of all Christian unity.
3. A life of study. Food is a basic essential for growth. The function of any living organism requires adequate and constant nutrition. So it is in spiritual growth. But where do we find our spiritual food? Primarily from two sources: constant communion with God through the study of His Word and through cultivating a life of prayer. Nowhere is the importance of God's Word for spiritual life as clearly taught as in the words of Jesus Himself: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). Jesus provides a perfect example of how He used the Word to face Satan. "Jesus met Satan with the words of Scripture. 'It is written,' He said. In every temptation the weapon of His warfare was the word of God. Satan demanded of Christ a miracle as a sign of His divinit. But that which is greater than all miracles, a firm reliance upon a "Thus saith the Lord,' was a sign that could not be controverted. So long as Christ held to this position, the tempter could gain no advantage."10
So it is with us. Says the Psalmist: "Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against You!" (Ps. 119:12). To this, add the promise provided by the apostle: "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12). When the Christian uses this sharp, two-edged sword of the Spirit to fend off Satan's attacks, he or she is on the winning side of the battle. The believer is empowered to penetrate and cut through every obstacle to spiritual growth, to discern right from wrong so that a consistent choice can [be] made on the right side, and to distinguish between the voice of God and the whispers of the devil. That's what makes the Word an irreplaceable tool for spiritual growth.
"All Scripture," Paul wrote, "is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thouroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Tim 3:16, 17). Do you want to grow in understanding truth and doctrine? Do you want to know how to keep your soul on track for God? Do you want to know what God has in store for you today, tomorrow, or the day after? Reach for the Bible. Study it daily. Approach it with prayer. There's no better way to know God's will and seek His way.
4. A life of prayer. God speaks to us through His Word. Knowing His will is part of spiritual growth -- part of communing with Him. Another aspect of this communion with God and growing in Him is prayer. If God's Word is the bread that nourishes our soul, prayer is the breath that keeps our soul alive. Prayer is speaking with God, listening to His voice, kneeling in surrender, and rising up in the full empowerment of God's strength. It demands nothing of ourselves -- except that we deny self, lean on His strength, and wait upon Him. Out of that waiting flows the power with which we can walk the Christian journey and fight the spiritual warfare. The prayer of Gethsemane assures the victory of the cross.
Paul considers prayer so important in Christian life and growth that he mentions six fundamental principles: "Pray always;" "Pray with supplication in the Spirit;" "pray in the spirit;" "pray watchfully;" "pray with perseverance;" and "pray ... for all saints" (Eph. 6:18). Like the Pharisee (Luke 18:11), we are often tempted to pray for a show, for ourselves, or simply as a routine. But effective prayer is self-denying, Spirit-filled, intercessory, pleading for the needs of others, even as we pray for the fulfillment of God's will on earth by being His faithful witnesses. Prayer is a perpetual communion with God; it is the oxygen of the soul, and without it the soul atrophies and dies. "Prayer," says Ellen White, "is one of the most essential duties. Without it you cannot maintain a Christian walk. It elevates, strengthens, and ennobles; it is the soul talking with God."11
5. A life of fruit-bearing. "By their fruits," Jesus said, "you will know them" (Matt. 7:20). Fruit-bearing is an important aspect of Christian growth. Salvation by grace is often misunderstood as denial of obedience and fruit-bearing. Nothing can be farther from biblical truth. Yes, we are saved freely by faith in what God's grace has done through Christ, and we have nothing of which to boast in ourselves (Eph. 2:7, 8; John 3:16). But we are not saved to do what we please; we are saved to live in accordance with God's will. There is nothing legalistic and hence unnecessary about obedience to the law, but it is the natural sequence to God's gracious liberation from sin. Hence, "faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:17).
Consider Jesus' assertion and hope in John 14 and 15. The assertion is His relationship with the Father, and the hope is for the relationship of His disciples with Him. In the first, Jesus asserts, "I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love" (John 15:10). The obedience of Jesus to the Father is not a legalistic compliance but an outgrowth of His abiding in the Father's love. The intimate relationship between the Father and the Son is based on love and love alone, and it is this love that led the Son to accept the Father's will and taste the bitterness of Gethsemane and Calvary.
Jesus uses the Father-Son relationship of love as an illustration of the kind of relationship His disciples should have with Him. Just as the relationship of Jesus with the Father preceded His obedience to the Fahter, so should the relationship of the disciples with Jesus precede their obedience to Him. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). "I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father" (verse 31).
Observe the hope Jesus has for His disciples. He does as the Father commanded so that the world may know His relationship of love with the Father. The love relationship precedes the doing of the Father's will. He loves His Father and therefore willingly does His Father's will. Likewise, Jesus anticipates a love foundation for His own disciples. "Abide in me, He says, "as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me" (John 15:4). Fruit-bearing, obedience, and living in accordance with God's will are thus essential signs of spiritual growth. The absence of fruit indicates the absence of abiding in Christ.
6. A life of spiritual warfare. Christian discipleship is not a journey of ease. We are engaged in a warfare that is real and dangerous. As Paul says, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand" (Eph 6:12, 13).
In this warfare, supernatural forces are arraigned against us. Just as the angels of the Lord are engaged in the ministry of serving His followers, delivering them from evil, and guiding them in spiritual growth (Ps. 34.7; 91:11, 12; Acts 5:19, 20; Heb. 1:14; 12:22), so are the fallen angels deeply plotting to turn us away from the demands of discipleship. The bible asserts that Satan and his angels are in rage against the followers of Jesus (Rev. 12:17) and the devil himself is walking "about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may deour" (1 Pet. 5:8, 9). The road to spiritual growth is filled with the devil's traps, and it is here that our spiritual warfare takes on its ferocity. Hence Paul uses some strong words of action: Stand! Take up! Put on! Be strong! (Eph. 6:12, 13). "The Christian life is a battle and a march. In this warfare there is no release; the effort must be continous and persevering. It is by unceasing endeavor that we maintain the victory over the temptations of Satan. Christian integrity must be sought with resistless energy and maintained with a resolute fixedess of purpose. . . .All must engage in this warfare for themselves; no one else can fight our battles. Individually we are responsible for the issues of the struggle."12
God, however has not left us alone in this warfare. He has provided us victory in and through Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 15:57). He has given us well-tested armor with which to face the enemy. Paul describes this armor as consisting of the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, and the unfailing power of prayer (Eph. 6:13-18). Guarded with such armor, dependent completely on the unfailing power of the Spirit, we cannot but grow in spiritual valor and win the warfare in which we are engaged.
7. A life of worship, witness, and hope. Christian growth does not take place in a vacuum. It takes place, on the one hand, within the community of the redeemed, and on the other, as a witness to the community that needs to be redeemed. Observe the apostolic community. Soon after the ascension of Christ and accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit, the early church both individually and corporately manifested its growth and maturity in worship, fellowhip, study, and witness (Acts 2:42-47; 5:41, 42; 6:7). Without corporate worship, we miss the identity and arena of our fellowship, and it is in this fellowship and interpersonal relationship with others that we mature and grow. Hence the apostle's counsel: "And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as in the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching" (Heb. 10:24, 25).
The more we grow in worship, study, and fellowship, the more we are urged to serve and witness. Christian growth demands growth in service (Matt. 20:25-28) and a growth toward witness. "As the Father has sent me," Jesus said, "I also send you" (John 20:21). Christian life is never meant to be a life witin the circle of the self, but always to be poured out in service and witness to others. The Great Commission of Matthew 28 charges the Christian to be mature enough to take the gospel of forgiveness to the world around in order that all may know the redemptive grace of God. The sign of the life of the Spirit and Christian growth is a life of ever expanding witness -- Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uppermost part of the world (Acts 1:8).
We live, worship, fellowship, and witness in time--and for the Chrstian, time anticipates the future. "I press on," says Paul, "toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:12-14). Lead a sanctified life, says the same apostle, in order that "your whole spirit, soul and body [may] be preserved blameless at the coming [of] our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:23). Growing in Christ is thus a growing in anticipation, in hope, of the final consummation of the redemptive experience in the Kingdom to come. "To the humble, believing soul, the house of God on the earth is the gate of heaven. The song of praise, the prayer, the words spoken by Christ's representatives, are God's appointed agescies to prepare a people for the church above, for the loftier worship into which there can enter nothing that defileth."13>