GROWTH IN GRACE
How beautiful is the light of the morning! Behold it hovering over the
distant edge of the horizon and shedding its cheerful beams upon the hills.
It is a morning without clouds. But how soon is the prospect overcast! The
atmosphere is obscured by vapors and the sun is darkened by a cloud. Again
the mists are fled; the clouds have passed over, and the sun is still
advancing in his course. Thus he rises; now, behind the cloud, now in all
the greatness of his strength, shining brighter unto the perfect day. Such
is the path of the just. In the present world, good men are very imperfect.
The best of men have reason to complain bitterly of the body of sin and
death, and the best of men too have the most ardent desires that the body of
sin and death may be crucified with Christ. The highest point of Christian
experience is to press forward. It is a distinguishing trait in the
character of every good man that he grows in grace. There are various
similitudes used by the inspired writers that are significantly expressive
of the advancement of Christians in knowledge and in piety. The young
convert is likened unto one that is newly born. There is a point of time in
which he begins to live. At first he is a babe; then a child, until he
finally attains unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
(Eph. 4:13).
The Kingdom of Heaven is also compared to seed which is cast into the
ground. First comes up the tender blade, then the thriving stalk, then the
ear, after that the full corn in the ear, ripening for the harvest, and
preparing for the garner of the husbandman (Mark 4:28-29). It is also
compared to a well of water, springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14).
No imagery in nature can more fully illustrate the growth of grace in the
heart. “The righteous,” says Job, “shall hold on his way, and he that has
clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger” (Job 17:9). This is the
prominent feature in the character of the good man— “he shall hold on his
way.” “The youth,” says the evangelical prophet, “shall faint and be weary,
and the young men shall utterly fall; but those who wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, 68 they
shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint” (Isa.
40:30-31).
With inimitable beauty is the good man described by the Psalmist: “And he
shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his
fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does
shall prosper” (Psalm. 1:3). Grace in the heart as certainly improves and
advances as a tree thrives in a kindly and well-watered soil. “It flourishes
in immortal youth, and blooms forever in unfading beauty.” The certainty of
the believer’s progress, however, rests on a surer foundation than either
the degree or the nature of his religion. “We are not sufficient,” says the
apostle, “to think anything as of ourselves, but Our sufficiency is of God”
(II Cor. 3:5). Covenanted grace is the support of the believer through every
step of his pilgrimage. There is nothing in the nature of holiness that is
incapable of corruption. Adam fell, angels fell, and such is the awful
depravity of the human heart that left to himself, the holiest saint on
earth would draw back unto perdition. Still, he shall progress in holiness
throughout the interminable ages. It is the economy of divine grace that
where God has begun a good work He will carry it on until the subject is
ripened for glory (Phil. 1:6). The hypocrite, when once he imagines himself
to be a Christian, views his work as done. He is satisfied. He is rich and
increased in goods. But it is otherwise with the true Christian.
Conversion is but the first step. His work is all before him. His graces are
increasingly constant and increasingly vigorous. The more he loves God, the
more he desires to love Him. The more he knows of His character, does he
contemplate the manifestations of His glory with rising delight. “As the
deer pants after the water brooks, so does his soul pant after God” (Psalm.
42:1). Having once tasted that the Lord is gracious is not enough to satisfy
him. He will ever remain unsatisfied until he reaches the fountain head and
drinks to the full of “the river of life which flows from the throne of God
and the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1). The more he sees of the evil of sin, the more he
desires to see. The more he hates it, the more he desires to hate it. The
more he sees of himself the more he abhors himself, and the more does 69 he
desire to abhor himself. The more he is emptied of himself, the more does he
desire to be emptied of himself; the more he desires to become poor in
spirit, to feel that he is cut off from every hope, and to rest on Christ
alone. The more he is engaged in duty, the more delight he finds in
performing it. The more severe his conflict with the enemy, the harder he
urges it and the more vigorous his resolution to maintain it to the last.
There are some things in which the increase of grace is more visible, both
to the world and the subject than others. Particularly have the people of
God less and less confidence in themselves. They cherish an increasing sense
of their dependence. They have been so often disappointed in their false
confidences that they have in some good measure become weaned from them.
They know by bitter experience the folly of trusting to themselves and daily
taste the sweetness of that heavenly precept “In all your ways acknowledge
him, and he shall direct your paths” (Prov. 3:6).
They are more and more patient in sufferings. The more they are accustomed
to the yoke, the less do they repine under the weight of it. They are also
more and more charitable in their opinions of others. Young Christians are
too often very uncharitable and censorious. They are more apt to take notice
of the infirmities of their brethren than their graces and the infirmities
of others than their own. But the more they know of themselves the more
reason do they see to exercise charity toward others. They fear to judge
lest they themselves should also be judged (Mat. 7:1). They walk “with all
lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love” (Eph.
4:2). They have also the more full government of their passions. They are
“slow to wrath” (James 1:19).
They are more and more punctual in the performance of the relative duties.
Young Christians are apt to neglect them. They allow the duties they owe
immediately to God to swallow up those that belong to their neighbors. But
as they advance in the divine life, they become more uniform in the exercise
of grace, and more punctual in the discharge of all duty. They do not love
God less, but they love their fellow men more. As they grow more fervent and
more constant in their devotional exercises, so they become more circumspect
and unexceptionable in their relationships with the world. Perhaps there is
no one point in which growth in grace is more visible than in that harmony
and consistency of character which are too often lacking in young
Christians, but which shine with so much beauty in those who are advanced in
the Christian course. In everything that belongs to the excellence of real
religion, the true believer is in a state of progression. He seeks and
strives, he wrestles and fights, he is ever aiming at the prize. View him in
the early part of the divine life, follow him through the various stages of
his progress, and you will find that notwithstanding all his doubts and
declensions, he makes a gradual advance. He does not feel, he does not act
“as though he had already attained, either were already perfect, but he
follows after, if he may apprehend that for which also he is apprehended of
Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12).
“This one thing I do,” says Paul, “forgetting the things which are behind,
and reaching forth to those things that are before, I press toward the mark
of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14).
Where is the Christian that does not make the spirit of the apostle his own?
Tell me, you who have just begun the heavenly race; tell me, you who are
verging toward the goal; was there ever a Christian that felt satisfied with
present attainments? Is not the unvarying voice, both of early and
long-tried piety responsive to the language of Paul? Yes, it is both the
highest point of Christian experience and the clearest evidence of Christian
character to press forward. It is his grand inquiry how to be and how to
live more like a child of God. Mark the way of the upright. As you trace his
steps through this dreary pilgrimage sometimes he wanders from the path;
sometimes he halts and tires. His progress is far from being uniformly rapid
and often far from being perceptible either by himself or others. Sometimes
his motion is retrograde. There are seasons when, instead of advancing, he
is the subject of great defection. Still it is true that on the whole he
advances. If you compare his present state and character with what they were
a considerable length of time past, you will find that he has made gradual
progress. I know there are seasons—dark and gloomy seasons, seasons of guilt
and declension—when the real Christian will make this comparison at the
expense of his assurance. Seasons of guilt and declension ought to be
seasons of darkness. I know too there are seasons when he is liable to
discouragement, because he does not always experience that light and joy
which crowned the day of his conversion. There is a glow of affection, a
flush of joy which is felt by the young convert as he is just ushered into
the world of grace which perhaps may not be felt at any future period of his
life. You cannot draw from this the inference that he has made no advance.
All this may be true while there is a power of feeling and a strength of
affection in the saint who has passed through the wilderness and knows the
trials of the way to which the young convert is a stranger. As he ascends
the mount, his eye is fixed, his step is more vigorous, and his path
brighter and brighter. He remembers his devious steps and how he traced them
back with tears. But the trials of the way are forgotten. He is rising to
that brightness of purity which “sheds the luster of eternity” on his
character and aiming at the crown of righteousness which fades not away.
Here then is another test of the genuineness of your religion. I am aware
that it is a severe one. But it is one which bears the seal of truth, and we
must not shrink from it. Professing Christians are apt to place too much
confidence on their past experience and think little of the present, to
think much on what they imagine to have been their conversion, their first
work, and then give up the business of self-examination, and allow
themselves to droop and decline. But the question is what is your present
character? “Grace is the evidence of grace.” I know it is true that he who
is once a Christian is always a Christian, but it is also true that he who
is not now a Christian never was a Christian. “Examine yourselves,
therefore, whether you be in the faith” (II Cor. 13:5). The best evidence in
the world that you are is that you grow in grace. No man living in spiritual
sloth and making no new advances ought to flatter himself that .he is a
partaker of the blessings of the great salvation. The man who is satisfied
because he thinks he is safe, who feels that he has religion enough because
he thinks he has enough to save him from hell is as ignorant of the power as
he is a stranger to the consolation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A careful
study of the key passages which set forth the evidences of regeneration and
true conversion will reveal that in the great majority of cases we are
commanded to look for present evidences. Consult the following as typical:
John 10 :27; Matthew 7:21; I John 2:3-4; 3:10-14; Hebrews 5:9.
The widespread practice in our day is to look back to some “evidence” and to
rest upon it as a sufficient ground of assurance in spite of the glaring
absence of present reality. All who value their souls, and all who would he
true watchmen over the souls of others must diligently seek to conform their
thinking to the biblical pattern on this most crucial point.—the Editors.