9.16.8 "The Goal of Christian Maturity"

"The Goal of Christian Maturity"

Isaiah 22:1 - 24:23
Galatians 2:17-3:7
Psalm 60:1-12
Proverbs 23:15-16

As we grow in the Balanced Christian Life, our objective is maturity. When you start out on any journey, it's a good idea to know where you are headed. So, what is your objective in maturity?

We'll start with a quiz. I'm going to give you two scriptures and you have to pick which of the two is our goal. Now, you might have to think about this!

Ok, Here's door number 1:

"I have been crucified with Christ: and I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the real life I now have within this body is a result of my trusting in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20

Here's door number 2:
"Then have you gone completely crazy? For if trying to obey the Jewish laws never gave you spiritual life in the first place, why do you think that trying to obey them now will make you stronger Christians?" Galatians 3:3

Well, which one did you pick?

Here's the thing. Paul is talking to the Galatians this way because they started to get real legalistic about issues of the Jewish law, and were equating their Christian walk with these external actions. Basically, they had lost sight of what it's all about. Paul says in 3:1 "... you USED to see the meaning of Jesus Christ's death as clearly as though I had waved a placard before you with a picture on it of Christ dying on the cross." They had lost sight.

Glad that never happens to us, right? Well, here's how we get lured into that trap: We each have certain areas of conduct in which the Lord is leading us to change. As we draw closer to Christ, we sense his Spirit drawing us to "clean up!" Where we can easily get into trouble is when we start to place our cleaning list on other people. "God is dealing with me that this is wrong, so if anyone who is doing this is wrong..." We place our burdens on others. Another mistake is that we start to clean up our act, and we get so hung up in the cleaning process that we become prideful about what we no longer do.

The reality is that becoming "crucified with Christ" is what our goal must be. When one begins to live this way, it naturally reflects in that individual's conduct. There are certain things that individual will not do. However, changing your conduct will not automatically make you crucified with Christ. Don't get me wrong, we do need to be set apart from the filth of the world, but it doesn't end with being set apart. We must set ourselves apart for the purpose of experiencing his presence.

This may be hard to follow, but I'll keep plowing away. Let me use this example. There is a lot of junk on TV. When you develop maturity in Christ, there are things you will not watch. Your character and Christ in you will not allow you to do it. it just doesn't feel right. However, just because you stop watching things that are inappropriate does not make you mature in Christ. Proper conduct is the FRUIT of the Spirit purifying us.

Paul says in 3:2 "Let me ask you this one question: did you receive the Holy Spirit by trying to keep the Jewish laws? Of course not, for the Holy spirit came upon you only after you heard about Christ and trusted him to save you."

The life of holiness is a result of drawing close to Christ. Trying to be pious does not make you closer to Christ. Too often our human nature wants to take the path of "fixing things" before drawing close to Christ. We forget that drawing close to Christ "fixes things."

This is a tough message to properly communicate so I hope it makes sense. I'll use another example: I remember one big mistake I made when I was in high school. I was witnessing to a friend who was feeling very convicted. He was smoking as we were walking down the street. It got to the point where he was ready to say the sinner's prayer. He finally said, "ok, I'm ready to do it." I told him, "alright, but first put that out." It took some convincing, but he did, and we prayed. The unfortunate and unintended picture he had in his mind was that if he smoked, he wasn't Good enough for Christ. Consequently, he really struggled as an early Christian because he had such difficulty with the smoking issue. He felt he couldn't "measure up".

What I didn't understand fully at that stage in my life is that my only job was to lead him to Christ. I needed to let the Lord take care of the rest. We all need to remember that we catch the fish, and HE cleans them. We don't need to get cleaned up BEFORE taking the bath!

When dealing with others, we don't realize that God's cleaning list has a different order than ours. What we want God to take out of another person's life may not be the next item on God's agenda. In fact, when we spend to much time worrying about what God's agenda is for someone else, it can too easily distract us from the next thing he wants to take out of our own life.

Draw close to Christ, and everything else will take care of itself. That should be the goal of your maturity. To be crucified with Christ, so that it's not you living, but him living in you!

Even as we work at living the DREAM, we must remember that it's through the power of the Spirit, not our own strength that we grow in Christ.




Through the Power of the Spirit,
Live the DREAM!

P Greg


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