Articles
Growing In Grace
“grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).
Most Christians know how to grow in the knowledge of Christ, through the study of the Bible. Congregations offer Bible classes on The Lord’s Day and in the midweek, but this is not the limit of such Bible study opportunities.
Growing in grace is a different challenge. How is this done? Grace is basically defined as “favor.” The grace of God, then, is favor granted to others. When granted to sinful people, it appears to be favor that they do not deserve. Yet, the sinless Jesus received grace, and certainly deserved it (see Luke 2:40). He even “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). If Jesus could increase in favor with God, it is also possible in the child of God.
But, mistakes can be made regarding how a person can grow in grace. The Apostle Paul exposed one of these errors in his letter to the Romans. Apparently, some people had misapplied a truth regarding the Law of Moses. That law revealed the nature and kinds of sins (Romans 3:20). God gave it to Israel, because of the increase of things He branded as sins (Galatians 3:19). However, Paul says, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness...” (Romans 5:20 21).
This truth was twisted into a dangerous idea. Some thought that receiving more grace could result from increased sinning. Paul’s response was quick. He said, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2). In the following verses, he says that our baptism released us from sin, and that growth in grace is obtained by an increase of righteousness (compare also Romans 5:17).
An example of growth in grace is useful to us. Stephen was one of only seven men chosen out of several thousand to “serve tables” in the Jerusalem church. He was, like the other six, “...of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom...” (Acts 6:3). He was further described as “...a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit...” (Acts 6:5). Again, he was said to be “FULL OF GRACE and of power...” (Acts 6:8). His accurate review of the history of Israel is seen in Acts 7. Stephen’s zeal to spread the gospel brought him in conflict with opponents, and he became the first Christian martyr, after the death of Jesus. As he was dying, he prayed for his enemies to be treated mercifully (Acts 7:60).
We may not have to follow Stephen as martyrs, but we can certainly let him be our example in having a good reputation, being full of the Spirit and wisdom, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and, like him, growing to the fullness of God’s grace.
