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GROWTH IN GRACE

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 5, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 17.

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GROWTH IN GRACE.

By John Nevins Andrews

[From Les Signes des Temps.]
CHRISTIAN experience consists in making constant advancement in the things of the Spirit of God. Our first lesson in the school of Christ is not all that we need to learn. Each day there is a new lesson for us to master. Our acquaintance with Christ commences when we receive the forgiveness of our sins through the merit of his blood. It is then our business to form an intimate acquaintance with him. We are to learn the excellence of his character, and then to imitate that excellence in our own lives.
It is not enough for us to know that Christ is meek and lowly, we must become such ourselves. It is not all that is necessary for our salvation to be assured of the fact that Christ resisted Satan and overcame him. We must ourselves, through the grace of Christ, gain the victory over the great adversary. Christ loved his enemies. We cannot be Christians while we have evil dispositions in our hearts toward those that hate us. The life of Christ is our example, and our character must, through the grace of God, become like his. How can this great work be accomplished in us? It cannot be done in a moment. It is a progressive work. To-day we learn one part of our lesson, to-morrow another, and so each day of our lives, we must make some advancement in this divine experience.
Selfishness dwells in us by nature. Our Lord Jesus Christ was wholly unselfish. How can we be transformed and made in this respect like Christ? The work must be wrought by the grace of God, but not without our co-operation. God will test us by bringing us into circumstances, where self must be given up, unless we prove rebellious against him. Now we are brought into a great strait, we must sacrifice our self-interest, or refuse to follow Christ. If we seek the grace of God to help us in this trial, we shall gain the victory; but if self is dearer to us than life, we shall sacrifice Christ to self. Many Christians have done this and ceased to make progression in Christian experience. But if we gain the victory in this struggle with self, our warfare is by no means accomplished.
We have a thousand such conflicts before us in every one of which we must gain the victory. The promises of God are made only to those who overcome. Our strength to overcome in this great conflict is in the grace of God. But we must use the grace that God gives us in watching, praying, and resisting Satan. If we do this, every conflict will result in bringing us nearer to God.
Why do we not take a deeper interest in this work? Why do we not feel an intense desire to grow in grace? The reason is obvious. We are too well satisfied with ourselves. We think that we have already attained the character of the Christian, and that our salvation is certain. Christ pronounces a blessing upon those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Hungering and thirsting are among the strongest emotions of our nature. They express the most intense desires of which we are capable. It ought to alarm us that we do not have these desires in our hearts. We ought to know that our situation is one of danger, when we are satisfied with ourselves and do not earnestly seek the advancement of the work of grace in our hearts.
The character of Christ is one of infinite excellence. If we keep our eye fixed upon him, we shall feel an intense desire in our hearts to become like him. The greater advancement that we make, the greater desire shall we feel to advance still further; for at each step which brings us nearer to Christ, our views of his excellence will become clearer and more distinct, and our desire for greater conformity to him will increase in proportion as we come nearer to him. We shall never find the place at which to halt in our Christian experience. The advancement which we make each day will only show us farther advancement that we need to make on the following day. And so while we really grow in grace we shall never become proud of our attainments in Christian experience, for we shall see at every step as we advance the excellence of Christ in a clearer light than we have ever seen it before. And so we shall not take to ourselves the credit of having already perfected a Christian character, but at each new discovery of the excellence that dwells in Christ we shall feel that what we have attained in the past is as nothing compared with the great advancement which we ought to make.
How many Christians are like the children of Israel in the wilderness. Moses tells us in the first chapter of Deuteronomy that there was only the distance of eleven days' journey between Horeb, where Israel received the law, and Kadesh-Barnea on the border of the promised land. Yet between these two points the children of Israel journeyed thirty-eight years. They made long journeys, but they were in every direction except toward the promised land. If they had been obedient to God the journey of eleven days would have sufficed to take them through the wilderness, but in consequence of their disobedience they made this long journey in the desert.
Many Christians spend years of their lives without making any advancement in Christian experience. When they are assailed by Satan they give way to his temptations instead of gaining the victory over them. If something unpleasant arises, they give way to violent temper and speak bitter words. If they are tempted to envy or jealousy, they allow these evil passions to obtain the mastery in their souls. If selfishness shows itself in their hearts they yield to its evil suggestions, and they are not alarmed at the manifestations of these evil passions. They suppose that because Christ was free from malice and envy and selfishness, that they shall be saved while yielding to these evil things, if they only believe in Christ. They do not understand that all the promises of God's word are made to those that overcome, and that the grace of Christ is freely offered to us to enable us to accomplish this work.
Christ has told us in his sermon on the mount what he will say to those that profess to be his disciples, but who have never overcome the evil passions of their hearts. In the day of Judgment when they expect confidently to meet his approval he will say, "I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity." We need not have these words spoken to us, but they will be thus spoken unless the work of God's grace shall be perfected in our hearts. There still remains a space in which to accomplish this work. Let us be diligent that we may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless. Bale, Dec. 1880. J. N. A.