“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.” (2Peter 3:18)
This is the end of Peter’s epistles. Peter the impetuous one who denied Jesus because he was afraid and who usually put his foot in his mouth but was changed supernaturally by the Holy Spirit, knows about growing in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus. He understood the importance of growing in the grace of Jesus and growing in the knowledge of Jesus.
When we first come to the Lord, we’re not knowledgeable in the Lord. It’s a new thing. It’s a new world to us. We are like foreigners coming into a new world. The only thing we might know is that something new has happened. We have agreed with it and know we want more of it. We don’t know why, but we are craving more of this new thing. It’s our new human spirit that has been reborn of God craving more of God. We are following this new peace and love we are feeling. It’s changing us. Already we want nothing to do with our former life, our sinful life, our dark life. We have found the light. And one thing we know for sure is, that it’s a God thing.
This is God’s grace, God undeserved favor and blessing on us. It’s drawing and pulling us more into this new life. This is a great time of discovery and learning. This is a crucial time for every believer. We cannot make sense of all of it through our limited world knowledge. We try to reconcile it, but it will not be reconciled. It’s a new thing. A new way of thinking. A new way of living.
What is needed is the sincere milk of the word. Peter wrote: “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” (1Peter 2:1-3) Yes, that we know, the Lord has been gracious to us. The Holy Spirit indwelling is confirming the Truth of that in us even though we don’t know Him yet and might not even know about Him yet. He is in us, working in us, leading us, guiding us and teaching us.
But what is it that Peter said we need? It’s the nourishment of the Word of God. Our human spirit that has been reborn of God craves and needs the nourishment of the Word of God, the Truth, the unchangeable, the pure and untouched and untouchable by human thought or human pollution, Word of God. Jesus told His disciples: “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63) The Word of God does the work of growth in us. It has the power to transform us because it comes from God’s mouth. And just like He spoke, and the earth was formed, it forms us more and more into His image. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (2Timothy 3:16)
We are a new man now. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2Corinthians 5:17) Quit the former things of our former selves. Paul in his letter to the Colossians writes, “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him:” (Colossians 3:9-10) Keep growing. Keep changing. Keep surrendering more of that worldly selfish thing of our former selves to the Lord. It is His working in us that removes it.
“To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.” Yes, because it is only because of Him and by Him that this happens. It was nothing we did. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) To Jesus, our Lord and Savior alone be all the glory.
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