What Does It Mean to Grow in Grace?

A couple of weeks ago, when I was here, I gave a sermon on the biblical definition of grace. Last week I gave the same sermon in Austin, and it was a couple of weeks ago, but we covered the doctrine of grace, and we defined what it is according to Scripture. And we sort of unpacked how grace has morphed over the years through the Catholic changes that happened, and then the Protestant changes that even changed the definition of grace even more. And mainstream Christianity has altered the meaning of grace in a very significant way with German theologian Martin Luther's Sola Fide, the belief alone, and then John Calvin's concept of irresistible grace changed the biblical concept of grace dramatically from what the original apostles taught into this no responsibility, no reciprocal, unconditional agreement between God and man, as if God gave grace with absolutely no condition other than you have to believe he exists and that Jesus is your Savior. And boom, everything else is on God and nothing is on you. So in the last sermon we saw that grace is a concept that's actually woven starting in the Old Testament, starting in the book of Genesis throughout the entire Bible all the way to Revelation. It's not a New Testament concept that somehow does away with God's law or does away with the Old Testament. The word grace generally means favor or acceptance, and in our case favor or acceptance by God. The problem is that we've all sinned, and we covered this last week. We were all separated from God, and God stooped down with love and kindness, and He saved us through the death of His Son.

And He has this plan to save all of mankind. But there are conditions to receiving grace according to the Scriptures. Things that we must reciprocate on our part. Faith is one of those conditions. Repentance and baptism is also a condition, and then a life of obedience thereafter is also a condition of grace, as we saw. And we also saw that grace and the law are not opposed to one another. In fact, God's gift of His perfect and holy law was an act of grace. Obedience and grace are not contradictions, but rather companions to each other. And we saw that grace in the first century was understood exactly that way. Their concept of grace when the apostles wrote about grace as though it was loyalty and was supposed to be reciprocated on our part, that loyalty benefits our lives because, oh, bang, God works! So even the loyalty, even the reciprocation that we give to God is actually a blessing to us. And that's the way they would have looked at it in the first century when they wrote it. This wouldn't have even been a conflict because there was no Protestant Reformation back then. Grace, how much commitment was this reciprocal agreement between God and man? That's the question we're going to answer today, sort of. We ended with the verse 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 18. In 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 18, since we're not in the first century and there have been so many changes from the Catholic Church and then the Protestant Reformation, we need to unpack what this verse actually means. From the Scriptures alone, not anybody's opinion, just Bible verses. 2 Peter 3 verse 18. But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen. Now that begs a question.

What does it mean to grow in grace? That's what we're going to address today. What does it mean to grow in grace? We're going to look at it from a scriptural point of view because when Peter wrote 2 Peter 3 and verse 18, he said grow in grace and knowledge. It assumed that the reader knew what he meant because he gave no explanation. He just ended the letter with grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As though you knew what that meant, which means they taught that prolifically throughout all of the Scriptures that we have. Because if they expected you to understand it, we should be able to turn to the Scriptures and know what it means.

You can't just feel or come up with the idea of what it means and have some personal definition of what it means.

This is not a subjective thing. When Peter wrote this, everybody was objectively supposed to know what it meant. So what I'm going to do right off the bat is this is our key Scripture for today.

Turn with me, if you will, read this with me. 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 8 gives us a definition of what it means to grow in grace. This is our key Scripture today. We're going to build off of it. 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 8. Could somebody bring me a bottle of water? I could use a bottle. Thanks. Okay, 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 8.

And God is able to make all grace abound. That's similar to saying grow in grace. God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. There's that obedience.

You may abound in every good work. Thank you. This verse shows that growing in grace is not passive.

It's not just some come up to the stage, accept Jesus as your Savior, and you're good the rest of your life, you're done. That's not what the apostles taught. God provides abundant grace. It comes from Him, according to this verse. But the purpose of that grace is so the believer will respond. God supplies what is needed so the believer can live in a way that reflects Him.

There's two ditches on this road, like most roads. There's a legalistic ditch, and there is a no reciprocal, no responsibility ditch also. Come up, accept Jesus, and you're done. You're good to go. And if you do that, you're actually cooked. When God gives grace, when God gives grace, the believer is expected to develop sufficiency, meaning strength, readiness, and capability. And that sufficiency is actually not an end of itself. That sufficiency is to lead you somewhere. According to Thayer's Greek dictionary, the definition of the word sufficiency is interesting. It's a perfect condition of life in which no aid or support is needed.

God's grace is supposed to lead you to a condition where you are perfected in life and no assistance is needed. And that doesn't describe you and me right now, but that is the direction in which we are to go. Grace equips the believer to, according to Paul, abound in every good work. In other words, when we start out at baptism, that's just the beginning. We're supposed to actually improve towards God and Jesus Christ over time. Therefore, growing in grace means receiving God's help and then actively using that help.

Receiving God's help and actively using that help. The one ditch that says, I don't have to reciprocate anything, is willing to receive God's help. Oh, yes, they are.

But they're not willing to do anything with it. The other ditch, the legalistic ditch, tries to do it all themselves. You can't! You aren't able. And we're going to go through the Scriptures and see that today. We're going to see that you need both. God's effort and 100% effort on our part.

We need both. That is what growing in grace is. The believer, you and I, practice obedience. We practice generosity, kindness, discipline, and all other godly traits. And then we respond to God's grace with effort and intention. And our actions begin to mirror the character of God.

And then our character starts to become like God. And we are perfected. That's essentially growing in grace. God supplies the grace, forgiveness of sin, through the death of his son, and then the gift of his Holy Spirit. And the believer has to put God's way into practice.

So growing in grace is going, I'm sorry, is the ongoing choice to use what God gives in order to become like him in every way. Let me say it again. Growing in grace is the ongoing choice that we make to use what God gives so that we can become like him in every way. So if you're the kind of person that can't stay with 45 to 50 minute message without checking out, and there's some of us who are like that, you just got the message. I did that on purpose. I mean, if you get no... I'm going to go into quite a bit of detail, so just fair warning. It's going to be a nerdy sermon. But if you can't handle the nerdy stuff, you just got the message because of our key verse.

You only need one verse because the whole Bible is true and Scripture cannot be broken.

But we're not going to stop there. We're going to go through five biblical aspects taught by the apostles how to grow in grace, and we're going to get a little bit into the detail in these five lessons. And those five lessons are, one, growing in grace requires total commitment and loyalty, not halfway on your part. Secondly, it requires holy living. We're going to see what that means according to the Scriptures. Third, growing in grace requires an ongoing dependence on God.

That sufficiency does not come until after you are a spirit being. While you are still flesh and blood, you have an ongoing dependency on God. Fourth, growing in grace requires you to not quit, to not give up, and therefore, believe it or not, the thing that helps you not do that is humility. Number four, humility. And five, you will grow in forgiveness and mercy yourself.

You will actually become a person who is pleasant to be around. And you know, when God calls people into the church, He doesn't call. He doesn't just pick, oh, let me look around for all the pleasant people in the world, and you're going to be part of the church, and the church is going to be a light to the world because you were already pleasant. No, no. He calls us. He calls us to become the light so that we can't have anything to brag about. That we can turn when people say, how are you people so nice? We'll chuckle inside and go, oh, that's all God. That's all God. We will become people full.

Full of forgiveness and mercy. So let's dive into these five, and we'll start with the first lesson from Scripture and growing in grace, which is having a total commitment and loyalty. Notice again Jesus' own words. Lesson number one, total commitment and loyalty. Luke chapter 14 verse 33. Luke 14 verse 33.

So likewise, and I read this to everybody who I do baptismal counseling with. This is such an important verse from Jesus himself. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. Not might not be my disciple, or there's a good chance you won't be my disciple. You cannot be my disciple. That is like black and white absolute rejection unless you are all in. You are either all in or all out. This shows that growing in grace requires total commitment because Jesus makes it clear. Following Him is not a partial or casual choice. Forsake all means placing nothing above Him. It doesn't mean you throw all your stuff away.

It means you prioritize nothing above Him. Surrendering personal desires, possessions if you have to, habits that are horrible, priorities that are out of place, and even relationships, if they conflict with His will, He said all. Someone says to you something like, you can't have a relationship with Me unless you leave this church. Then for your own sake, and believe it or not, for their sake, you temporarily don't have a relationship with that person.

It's either Me or your stupid church. It's been nice knowing you. The reason I say temporarily is don't forget there will be a resurrection, a return of Jesus Christ that will restore all relationships and make it permanent this time.

Forsake all, He said. This is a total commitment Jesus is talking about. Growing in grace therefore means learning to let go of anything that competes with obedience to God and Christ.

As a person, continually surrender every part of your life to God. We are to grow in what I would say a wholehearted dedication that Jesus calls true discipleship. He doesn't accept halfway commitment. He doesn't accept it. You and I are to grow in grace. So that's the first thing. This won't take too long to go through these five. Hopefully we'll get this done pretty quickly. Notice that Paul hones in on this very principle of forsaking everything with the next point, living a holy life after receiving grace. Let's go to Titus for this one. Titus chapter 2.

He doesn't use the word holy in Titus. He simply defines holy living.

Titus chapter 2 verse 11. I mean, I say he didn't use the word holy in Titus. He probably did. Paul wrote this. He just didn't use it in this passage. Titus 2 verse 11. We'll read verses 11 and 12.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that what does grace teach us? Hmm, what are we to abound in? Grace of God that appeared to all men is teaching us something. What does grace teach us? Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live.

Now the Protestants would say, God will do this for you. A legalist would say, I have to do this on my own. Grace says we do this with 100% of our effort, total commitment, as we heard from Jesus Christ with God's help. Listen to how we are to live. We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. That means that grace is not permission to live carelessly.

Instead, grace carries instructions. The same grace that brings salvation also trains believers to reject sinful desires and to practice holy life. Real grace leads to real change. Change you can see. Change you can look back on your life 10 years after baptism, 20 years after baptism, 30 years after baptism and go, I am a completely different person.

Real grace leads to real change. According to this passage, grace guides the believer towards three patterns of holy living. One, self-control, or what Paul said soberly. The word literally means temperance. In other words, discipline and responsible choices. We often use the term self-control for soberly. And then he said right conduct, or he said righteous conduct, or he said righteously, meaning proper or agreeable to the law, according to Thayer.

In other words, have fair, honest, and obedient behavior.

Not judging some people harshly and then giving yourself a pass.

And the third thing he said was godly, which means devoted, essentially. It means pious, but if you look up what pious means, it means devout. And devout means you're devoted.

In other words, you're committed. You're all in. You live a life centered on pleasing and following God. So grace is not merely a gift received, but it's a calling to be followed.

Its purpose includes shaping you and me, the believer, into a person who lives a way that honors God every day. And we don't do that. We try to do that, but we don't do that.

And that's why we need the grace on an ongoing basis.

Grace is unmatched from God. It's unlimited. We can count on it at all times.

When you fall down, and you will, Christianity is not fake. It's not pretend. It's not just come to church and pretend to be righteous because you have nice clothes on.

And then go do whatever you want to do. No! Christianity is every day getting down into the mire of things and trying to get out of it. When you fall down, his unmerited, undeserved, we don't deserve his favor. It will be there. It's there!

Notice two scriptures for the third lesson of growing in grace, which is, keep an ongoing dependence with God. Don't try to do this on your own.

Hebrews 4, verse 16, is so comforting. Hebrews 4, 16. Hebrews 4, 16. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy when and find grace and help in time of need. You know what that means? You're going to need it. You are going to need help.

That's what he just wrote. It shows that grace is not a one-time gift. It is not— I'll just leave it there. It's something that the believer must continually seek.

The command to come is ongoing. It implies at any time you need it. And the purpose is to find grace and help, or grace to help, whenever the need arises. That means Christian life requires regular dependence on God. So, think of it as an analogy.

Grace is not a thing that's stored up in some warehouse in heaven.

God is attentive to you. God is an individual who loves you. And grace is given by God and received when we return to God over and over again every time we fall down. We ask for strength. We ask for guidance. We ask for forgiveness. We're just helped with something. Every time of need, as he wrote, is an invitation to depend on God. In this way, ongoing dependence is a part of growing in grace because growth comes through continually drawing near to God and relying on his help, rather than relying on your own resources. Which is why the next point is so important as well. But don't rely on your own strength with a Christian walk. Always ask God for help.

Not just to overcome this world's challenges. Not just because the pipe broke in your wall and, oh God, please help me fix it. Definitely ask for that. But there's something much more.

And that is those evil desires that are inside us. That's where we really need the heavy lifting.

That's where God's grace really helps us grow. No matter how many times we fall down. I just love this part. God is there to pick us back up when we repent. We ask him for grace.

Don't be afraid to do that. We had a great instructor. I went to Ambassador College way, way back in the day. Not the ABC we have today, but the four-year college.

That doesn't exist anymore. And it was kind of tough. We had some teachers who were, you know, pretty hard-line. But I had this one teacher, and I'll never forget this lesson.

He would give tests, and he would teach grace by giving a test. He would allow one question if we didn't know the answer or we didn't have time to finish it. We had to write the Hebrew word chased on the line. And the word chased is sort of like agape in the Greek, but it's a much bigger word than agape. Chased covers forgiveness, mercy, kindness, love. It's all of those things.

And so he would teach us grace by he would give really difficult tests. But if we would miss one, we could put chased on that line, and we would get credit as though we got that answer correct.

And he was teaching us grace. We didn't deserve it. We didn't deserve the grades we got. But we sure learned from him. And where did he get that methodology from? First John chapter 1, verse 9. One of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. No matter how many times we fall down, God is there to pick us back up when we repent and ask Him for His grace. First John 1, verse 9. If we confess our sins. Now there's if. The biggest two-letter word in the English language.

Everything pivots on what follows if. If we confess our sins. In other words, we go to God, we repent, we ask for forgiveness. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In other words, please consider what that means. It's not just forgiving. It's not a cheap transaction. He's actually going to pick you back up and move you forward away from that sin. He's going to help you to not sin again, even though you're going to do it. But you're going to do it less frequently, and less frequently, and less frequently, and every time you confess, he will forgive until one day you won't do that sin anymore. That's growing in grace. So keep an ongoing dependence on your Creator.

That's the third lesson of grace. And the fourth way we go in grace is a requirement to even do the third. I might have even should have put the fourth one third, but it works this way. And the fourth one, we must not take God's grace for granted.

We must have humility. You can't be proud when you do something wrong. You can't look for an excuse, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed Satan. That's what we always do. When something goes wrong, we want to deflect it away from ourselves.

James chapter 4 and verse 6 is the better solution.

James 4 and verse 6 is the solution. But he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

This verse shows that humility is essential to growing in grace because God only gives grace to those who approach him with a low, teachable, and surrendered heart.

Pride, according to that verse, blocks growth. Humility invites God's help.

Also, Philippians chapter 2 verses 12 and 13. This passage connects humility with growth. Philippians 2 verses 12 and 13.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, skipping down a little bit, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both the will and do his good pleasure. I love this verse. It's a defining verse that talks about what I was trying to explain earlier about the two ditches. One ditch says, I'm going to do it all myself. I don't need anybody's help. The other ditch says, God is going to do it for me. I don't need to do anything. And this one puts you right in the middle, where you have to work out your own salvation, but don't worry. God's going to help you through it.

It's not your own power or your own might that you overcome, but it's not without your own power and might that you overcome. You and God work together, according to this verse, and fear and trembling that describes a humble, careful, and reverent attitude. And that's what makes this work. It's the opposite of pride and self-confidence. As recipients of grace, we're instructed to grow in grace to recognize this verse, that it is our responsibility to obey. But we also understand that true change comes from God working within us, combined with our efforts. Okay, I think I've said that enough that we get it.

The last lesson from the Scripture concerning grace is forgiveness and mercy. Not what God gives us. That's how this whole thing started. But what we give others. God's grace starts with an act of forgiving. This is where it all began, Romans 5, verses 8 and 9. But God shows His love for us, and that while we were still sinners, while we were enemies of God, out doing our own thing, keeping our bad habits, Christ died for us. We didn't come to Him. We didn't go, hey, we need rescue. Can we have some help here? No, we were out having our own good time, destroying our lives, breaking everything down in society. Oh, I'm a Democrat. Oh, I'm a Republican. Oh, I hate everybody who's different from me, not getting along with anybody. And Jesus died for us, without us asking anything. Verse 9, since therefore we have now been justified, which means forgiven by His blood, you're only made right with God if you're forgiven of your transgressions.

We were justified by His blood. Much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.

God's mercy is boundless. We're walking in the path of Adam and Eve, happiest Larry, determining right from wrong for ourselves, and literally corrupting our lives and the world that we live in all around us. We're literally just tearing things down around us, and God intervened and rescued us from our own sins. He offered forgiveness to everyone, but He requires repentance on our part in order for that forgiveness to be applied.

That was in the first sermon. But think about the magnitude of God's forgiveness and mercy.

He sent Christ to die for everyone. That means the person you don't get along with, the person who's your personal adversary, enemy, whatever you would want to call it, Christ died for that person too. And those people that God gives grace to, those people who accept that forgiveness, God requires that we grow that forgiveness and mercy towards others.

Back to the words of Jesus Christ, Matthew 18, verses 21 and 22. You're familiar with this, so we will go through it rather quickly. Matthew 18, verse 21. Peter came to him and said, Lord, how often shall I forgive my brothers who sin against me? And I forgive him. You know, that's a legitimate question. How many times, in other words, do I have to put up with this nonsense over and over again? Oh, I forgive? And they just do it again. Oh, and I'm a Christian, so I have to forgive? And Peter's like, putting his foot down, how many times do I have to put up with it? It's a legitimate question. That's a legitimate question.

But Jesus is looking at it from God's point of view. Not from our limited perspective, but from a perspective of eternity. Put your problems in the perspective of eternity. Is it going to matter 10,000 years from now that she won't return your casserole dish? No!

Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven.

A quote from our Grace booklet on page 81. A condition of continuing to receive his forgiveness is that we ourselves must be merciful. End quote. We are literally ready to forgive everyone, just like God is. And that is part of growing in grace. Colossians chapter 3 verse 13. Colossians 3 verse 13. Bearing with one another. And if one complaint, one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other.

So we put up with our idiosyncrasies, and when those idiosyncrasies boil over, and they do, we go, oh, it's okay. I mean, it wasn't okay. What you did wasn't okay. But you and I are okay. Remember when Joseph forgave his brothers? Joseph said, what you did, you meant for evil. I'm not going to say that's okay, but I'm not in the place of God.

I'm not your judge. You and I, we're okay. Joseph literally could have had his brothers killed. He was second in command of the most powerful country in the world, Egypt. He was like vice president of Egypt. He could have commanded swords drawn, everybody dead, as soon as Jacob died. Nope. It wasn't Joseph. He... Joseph got this. It says, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And those are the five lessons. We've looked at five different biblical lessons from the scriptures and what it means to grow from grace.

Let's review. So those of you who don't follow the nerdy stuff, you can check back in now. One, total commitment or loyalty is required for grace. And then you have to live a holy life. Number two. Number three, you don't do it alone. Growing in grace requires an ongoing dependence with God calling on Him in time of need. And that's constant. Which requires, number four, humility. And causes you to grow, number five, in forgiveness and mercy.

There are some lessons from the Bible that you can learn about growing in grace. And there's so many more than we covered today, but we don't have time. That's enough. We've covered quite a bit. I mean, I didn't even cover love. The biggie. The big one.

I didn't cover that. Because there is literally so much to cover. Notice how much we are to grow in grace. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15. Ephesians 4 and verse 15. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way. And to Him who is the head into Christ. How many ways are we to grow like Jesus Christ? How much of ourselves has to change? Oh, just all of it. Ephesians 4, 15 teaches us we grow up in every way into Him the head is Christ. That means Christian growth is comprehensive. There is no aspect of our lives that can't use improvement.

God calls us as we are, yes, but not to stay as we are. But to grow in every way to become like Christ. That involves the whole you, the whole me. We are not called to grow in a few select areas, to mature in character, in conduct, and in our thinking, so that we reflect the nature of Jesus Christ. Growing in grace means to grow in every aspect of life, to become a loving person like God in Christ are. So we started today where we ended two weeks ago, 2 Peter 3, 18, where Peter writes that we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Like we're supposed to know what that means. Do you know what that means? Does it mean just grow in forgiveness? No! It means to grow up, to become like Jesus Christ in your entire life. So don't self-define what growing in grace means. Don't listen to a watered-down version of grace. Grace is intense. They talked about grace a lot in their teachings, and we are blessed to have all of those Scriptures preserved so we can see what it means. So our key Scripture today was 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 8.

And God is able to make all grace abound to you. In other words, grow in grace. So that having all sufficiency, you will one day become without need of help. And you will be the one relied upon to help.

But we're not there when we're flesh and blood. Having all sufficiency and all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. Grace requires work. So take heart. Take heart. Don't be intimidated. Growing in grace is not beyond you. It is your calling. And it's God's promise and assurance.

He doesn't ask you to grow in grace without giving you help. So as you walk with Him and you rely on Him and you put His words into practice in your everyday life, in every part of your life, He's going to supply everything you need to grow except one thing, your effort. So put some effort into this walk. May God bless us all as we grow up in every way into Him who is the Head into Christ.