GROWTH IN GRACE by Etta Booth

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 4, 1869

GROWTH IN GRACE.

By Etta Booth

“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Phil. iii, 12.

The earnest Christian will thus think of himself; not as having already attained, but, with the apostle, will follow after an increasing conformity to Christ, never forgetting that this is the object for which he has been apprehended. We notice, therefore, when there is real spiritual life there is progress in that life, and by a renewal of the spirit, an advancement from one state of improvement and knowledge to another is already perceptible. “Not as though I had already attained.” We should remember this was the language of one who could always say, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; also, ‘Who shall separate me from the love of Christ?’” Here then is one who counted himself not to have apprehended, and freely confesses not to have attained though one of the brightest examples of Christ’s church. But how many there are, alas! who appear to think they have already attained; their retentive memories are stored with texts for argumentative display, they have added unto faith and virtue, knowledge, and have been contented to remain upon this third round of the spiritual ladder. Year after year they remain, like a piece of statuary, just the same. No fresh shoots, no living foliage, no sweet flowers or fruit of hope and love, but a dwarfed, withering picture of decay. In this spiritual sickness, it is thought, What need I more? At such a time and place, I felt a full assurance my sins were all forgiven me, and I know the gifts of God

are through repentance, and have lived a devotional, Christian life since that time. But was not Paul fully assured of his forgiveness? Yet he says, “Not as though I had already attained.” In spiritual health there is a constant reaching unto the things which are before, giving the inward life continual progress. The life of faith in Christ is an increasing abiding in him, the only element where complete victory over every indwelling sin can be obtained. Melancholy look the days to some. The golden days of experience are in the past, and thus they are like old age, content to stand with their fairest periods behind them, having only occasional glimpses of hope in the future. How different the prospect of that servant of the Lord who could be satisfied with nothing short of being “changed into the same image from glory to glory” while the fairest days beamed before him, combining with the past that “earnest of the inheritance.”

ETTA BOOTH.