Lecture XXII. Growth in Grace (2)

11. Hence, the taking on of a greater fullness of the Divine nature is a condition of growth in the favor of God. Both the will and the sensibility of God must be in a state of utmost perfection and accord. All of his desires and feelings must be in perfect harmony with his intelligence and his will. Not so with us, in our state of physical depravity. The depravity of sensibility must be physical, because it is involuntary. Still, it is depravity, it is a lapsed or fallen state of the sensibility. This lapsed department of our nature must be recovered, sanctified, or completely restored to harmony with a consecrated will, and an enlightened intelligence, or we are never fitted for heaven. As we become more and more the partakers of the Divine nature, and of the Divine holiness, we are more fully sanctified in spirit, soul, and body, and of course grow more and more in the favor of God.

12. A greater and more all-pervading fullness of the Holy Spirit’s residence is another condition of growth in the favor of God. You cannot have it too thoroughly impressed upon you that every step in the Christian life is to be taken under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The thing to be attained is the universal teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit, so that in all things you shall be led by the Spirit of God. “If ye are led by the Spirit, ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh,” “If through the Spirit ye do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” “To be spiritually minded is life and peace, but to be carnally minded is death.” Always remember, therefore, that to grow in grace, you must grow in the possession of the fullness of the Holy Ghost in your heart.

13. A deeper personal acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ, in all his official work and relations, is a condition of growth in grace. His nature, work, and relations are the theme of the Bible. The Bible presents him to us in a great variety of relations. In my Systematic Theology I have considered some sixty or more of these official relations of Christ to the human race, and these are presented rather as specimens and illustrations than as covering the whole ground of his relations to us. Now, it is one thing to know Christ simply on paper, and as spoken of in the Bible, by reading or hearing of Christ, and quite another thing to know him personally, in these relations. The Bible is the medium of introduction to him personally. What is there said of him is designed to lead us to seek after a personal acquaintance with 434him. It is by this personal acquaintance with him that we are made like him. It is by direct, personal, individual intercourse with his Divine mind that we take on his image. “All we, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” “Faith comes by hearing,” and faith secures for us a personal acquaintance with Christ. Christ has promised to manifest himself personally to those who love and obey him. Do not, my dear children, stop short of securing this personal manifestation of Christ to your souls. Your growth in grace will depend upon this. Think not of stopping short of personally knowing Christ, not only in all these relations, but in the fullness of these relations. Do not overlook the fact that the appropriation of Christ, in each of these relations, is a personal act of faith. It is a putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ, a taking of him as yours, in each of these relations, as your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; your prophet, to teach you, your king, to govern you, your high priest, to atone for you, your mediator, your advocate, your strength, your Saviour, your hiding-place, your high tower, your captain and leader, your shield, your defence, your exceeding great reward. In each of these relations, and in all other of his official relations, you need to appropriate him by faith so as to secure to you personal intercourse with him in these relations. Growing in a personal acquaintance with him, in these relations, remember, is an indispensable condition of growth in his favor.

V. I am to notice some things that are not proof of growth in grace.

1. Growth in knowledge is not conclusive evidence of growth in grace. Some degree of knowledge is indispensable to our being in favor with God; and growth in knowledge, as I have shown, is a condition of growth in grace, but knowledge is not grace, and growth in knowledge does not constitute growth in grace. A person may grow ever so much in knowledge, and have no grace at all. In hell, they cannot but grow in knowledge, as they grow in experience, and in the knowledge of God’s justice. But there, their growth in knowledge but aggravates the guilt and misery of hell. They know more and more of God and his law, and their own guilt, and the more they know, the more wretched they are. From their increased knowledge they never learn piety.

2. It is not certain evidence that an individual grows in grace, because he grows in gifts.

A professor of religion may increase in gifts, that is, he may 435become more fluent in prayer, and more eloquent in preaching, or more pathetic in exhortation without being any more holy. We naturally increase in that in which we exercise ourselves. And if any person often exercises himself in exhortation, he will naturally, if he makes any effort or lays himself out, increase in fluency and pungency. But he may do all this, and yet have no grace at all. He may pray ever so engagedly, and increase in fluency and apparent pathos, and yet have no grace. People who have no grace often do so. It is true, if he has grace, and exercises himself in these things, as he grows in grace, he will grow in gifts. No person can exercise himself in obeying God, without improving in those exercises. If he does not improve in gifts, it is a true sign he does not grow in grace. But, on the other hand, it is not sure evidence that he grows in grace because he improves in certain exercises, for he will naturally improve by practice, whether he is a Christian or a hypocrite.

3. It is not proof that a person grows in grace, because he thinks he is doing so. One may be very favorably impressed with regard to his own progress in religion, when it is evident to others that he is not only making no progress, but is, in fact, declining. An individual who is growing worse and worse, is not ordinarily well aware of the fact. It is not uncommon for both impenitent sinners and Christians to think they are growing better, when they are growing no better This results from the very nature of the case. If any person is growing worse, his conscience will, for the time being, be come more and more seared, and his mind more and more dark, as he stifles conscience and resists the light. Then he may think he is growing better, just because he has less sense of sin, and while his conscience continues to sleep, he may continue under a fatal delusion. A man will judge of his own spiritual state as he compares himself with a high or low standard. If he keeps Christ before him, in his fullness, as his standard, he will doubtless always, at least in this state of existence, have but a low estimate of his own attainments. While at the same time, if he sets before himself the church, or any of the members of the church as a standard, he will be very likely to form a high estimate of his progress in religion, and be very well satisfied with himself. This is the reason why there is such a difference in people’s views of their own state and of the state of the church. They compare themselves and the state of the church with different standards. Hence, one takes a very humbling view of his own state, and complains of that of the church; another thinks such complaints 436of the church censorious. To him the church appears to be doing very well. The reason why he does not think the church cold, and in a low state, is that Christ is not his standard of comparison. If a man shuts his eyes, he will not see the defilement on him, and may think he is clean, while to all around he appears loathsome.

VI. What is proof of growth in grace.

1. The manifestation of more implicit and universal trust in God is an evidence of growth in grace. The exercise of greater and more implicit confidence, as I have said, is the condition of growing in the favor of God. Here, I say, that the manifestation of this implicit and universal confidence is proof that this growing confidence exists, and is, therefore, satisfactory evidence of growth in the favor of God. If you are conscious in your own soul that you do exercise more implicit and universal confidence in God, this is conclusive proof to you that you are growing in grace, and as you manifest in your life, and temper, and spirit, this growing confidence, you prove to yourself and to others that you are growing in the favor of God. For as you grow in implicit confidence in him you must grow in his favor.

2. Another evidence of growth in grace, is an increasing weanedness from the world. The will may be in an attitude of devotion to God, while the world’s seductive charms very much embarrass the healthy action of the Christian life. All the soul becomes crucified and dead to the world, it grows in the favor of God.

3. Less reluctance of feeling, when called to the exercise of self-denial, is an evidence of growth in grace. It shows that the feelings are becoming less and less despotic, that the will is getting more the mastery of them, that the sensibility is getting more into harmony with the devotion of the will, and the dictates of the intelligence.

4. Less temptation to sins of omission, is another evidence of growth in grace, e.g., less temptation to shun the cross, to neglect unpleasant duties, less temptation to indolence, less temptation to shirk responsibility, less temptation to neglect prayer, reading the Scriptures, private and family devotions, in short, less and less temptation to shun the performance of any duty, is evidence of growth in grace. These temptations consist in the excited states of the sensibility. As these become less in strength and frequency, we learn that our sensibility is becoming more completely subjugated to the law of the intelligence, and the decisions of the will, and consequently, that the work of the sanctification of the spirit, soul and 437body is progressing, and that therefore we are growing in the favor of God.

5. A growing intensity and steadiness of zeal in promoting the cause of God, is evidence of growth in the favor of God. Sometimes Christian zeal is comparatively cool, at other times deep and intense, sometimes it will be steady, at other times fitful and evanescent. As Christians grow in piety, their zeal becomes deep, intense and steady, and as you are conscious of this, and in your life and spirit give evidence of it to others, you have, and give proof, that you are growing in the favor of God.

6. Losing more and more the consciousness of self, and respect to self, in every action of life, is an evidence of growth in the favor of God. Some have so much consciousness of self in everything, and so much respect to self in everything they say and do, as to be embarrassed in all their Christian life, whenever they attempt to act or speak in the presence of others. As they lose this self-consciousness, and have less respect to self, their service of God becomes more free and unembarrassed, and they are all the better servants by how much less they think of self. Sometimes young converts cannot speak or pray, or perform any public duty, without being either proud or ashamed, as they think themselves to have performed those duties with more or low acceptance to those around them. While this is so, their piety is in a feeble state. They must lose sight of their own glory, and have a single eye to the glory of God, to find acceptance with him. But as they lose sight of self, and set God always before them, having an eye single to his glory, they grow more and more in his favor.

7. Consequently, a growing deadness to the flattery or the censure of men, is an evidence of growth in grace. Paul had grown in grace so much, that he counted it a light thing to be judged of man, he only sought to commend himself to God. As you find yourself growing in this state of deadness to the flatteries or censures of men, you have evidence that you grow in grace.