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Pastor's Blog June 25, 2020
"Growing Up Into Christ I"
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Throughout "Steps to Christ," Ellen has been repeating, in numerous ways, two points about Christianity that have often aggravated and discomforted Adventists: God became a man so that he could share his divine life with us, and there is absolutely nothing we can do to acquire, develop, or achieve this divine, new life - only God can give it to us and grow it in us. But we Adventists are a wily lot, and in our discomfort with these truths we often succumb to the temptation to find loopholes in the process of our sanctification.
While we have become comfortable admitting that we cannot save, justify, or resurrect ourselves, we often struggle to admit that we also cannot sanctify, grow, transform, or truly and thoroughly change ourselves. Ellen points out time and again that only God can grow and shape us into Jesus' likeness: "it is only through the life from God that spiritual life is begotten in the hearts of men"; "[as an analogy for our spiritual life] it is God who brings the bud to bloom and the flower to fruit" (45); "The child cannot, by any anxiety or power of its own, add to its stature. No more can you, by anxiety or effort of yourself, secure spiritual growth" (46).
But Adventists obviously have a sense of disquiet about this truth. When we read statements like, "Unless a man is 'born from above,' he cannot become a partaker of the life which Christ came to give" (45); "The plants and flowers grow not by their own care or anxiety or effort, but by receiving that which God has furnished to minister to their life" (45-46); and "The plant, the child, grows by receiving from its surroundings that which ministers to its life" (46), we tend to emphasize the words "become a partaker" and "receiving" so we can convince ourselves that there is a work for us to do after all. But our spiritual games with words ignore the fact that such terms are passive - they are actions that happen to you, not actions you yourself do - and only succeed at ignoring Ellen's main point: "Jesus teaches the same thing when He says, 'Abide in Me, and I in you'" (46).
Friends, all the control of how fast or even that you grow in Jesus has forever been taken out of your hands. Jesus has brought you to himself; your task is to stick with Jesus, since you are incapable and powerless to do anything else.
(*) Steps to Christ, Chapter 8— Growing Up Into Christ, 1977 edition
God Bless.
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
