II Pet. 3:18 ... "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
One of the major characteristics of physical life is growth. Jesus once said it was the purpose of His mission here to confer this gift: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly," (John 10:10). Physical life is God's gift in various degrees to the vast diversity of creatures which constitute the plant and animal kingdoms. But spiritual life is granted only to humans, and then only when they are "born again" (John 3:3) in the water of baptism, having believed in Jesus as God's Son, repented of their sins, and confessed the name of Christ. As converts to Christ, we are told that "we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life," (Rom. 6:4).
The first stage of this new spiritual life is infancy, corresponding to the initial stage of physical life. With proper diet and exercise, however, infants gradually grow to physical maturity, and with proper education they will attain to mental maturity. The growth of the soul to spiritual maturity is also of vital importance, and God has put at our disposal all the resources necessary to accomplish it. Referring to these provisions by God, we are told they are given "for the building up of the body of Christ (that is, the church corporately and hence individuals), until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ,"(Eph. 4:12-13).
The featured text above specifies two of the essential dimensions in which our growth from spiritual infancy in Christ must progress. The first is grace. Well defined as "the unmerited favor of God granted to us through Christ," grace is a fundamental characteristic of life in the Lord. The reception of God's grace imposes upon us the duty to make an appropriate response thereunto. That is, grace must stir us to action. We must never accept it passively and indifferently. Paul once speaks of "nullify(ing) the grace of God," (Gal. 2:21), and that is what the recipient does who is unmotivated to yield his life to its purpose. The first and then perpetual response of a Christian to grace must be appreciation and thanks-giving, followed by steady growth in such essential virtues as faith, love, humility, reverence, and good stewardship. Another vital response to grace is steadfastness in doing the "good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them," (Eph. 2:10). When we are thus engaged in the work of the Lord, we actually become instruments by which He confers grace upon still other souls. When we enlarge these two essential responses to God's grace, we are indeed "grow(ing) in grace as the text urges.
The second essential dimension of spiritual growth is knowledge. In the initial stage of religious education we learn about Christ, that is, we commit to memory the facts about what He said and did and why. Our growth in knowledge, however, must not stop as we gain mastery in this area, (cf. Heb. 5:11 - 6:3). As it proceeds, it must expand into the more important phase of knowing Christ as a daily companion. This is accomplished by internalizing the meaning and implications of what is learned in the first stage. It is of this second, internal phase of growth "in knowledge" that Rom. 12:2 speaks in these challenging words: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and accept-able and perfect." As one's knowledge about Christ penetrates into his conscience and soul to the extent of knowing Christ as a living Person rather than as a mere biographical character, the person's mind is being renewed, and he is being transformed as a person into "the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ."
