Growing in grace
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen (2 Peter 3:18).
On the wall of our living room we have a large picture frame with four separate groups of photographs of our four grandchildren. June spent a lot of time cutting out images and arranging them, to have an instant record of their early years. Now the small boy in one set of photographs stands over 6 feet tall, and I get a sore neck looking up to him!
Isn’t life astonishing? From the time of conception to the time of birth, so much development takes place. Peter’s letters focus on life. He writes about our living hope: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). And he writes about the Lord as a living stone and of Christians as living stones built into a spiritual house: “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:4-5). What is so encouraging about Peter’s writing is that, as an elderly saint, he is so full of life. He looks back with wonder that He was with the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration. He encourages the people of God to live victorious lives in Christ. And He looks on to the Day of God when the life we possess in Christ will be known in all its fullness. (2 Peter 1:16-18, 3:11-13).
I remember speaking at a meeting in Dorset some years ago. In the front row of the congregation was a Christian in his nineties. He had a bright, smiling face that reminded me of Stephen, whose face was described “as the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15). The old man was a picture of joy. When I came down from the platform, he immediately embraced me and thanked me for the ministry. I felt so encouraged by such an old man being so much in the enjoyment of the life he possessed in Christ.
Peter’s last words are: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”. There was a time when Peter was crushed by his failure until the Saviour restored him through His marvellous grace. For the rest of his life, he never stopped growing in that grace. Peter was well aware of the flesh in him and the spiritual dangers of the world he lived in. That is what is so wonderful about the word “But”. It is in the challenges, trials and bitterness of life that we grow in grace. As a butterfly emerges from the confinement of the chrysalis to joyous flight, so the experiences God allows in our lives are not to diminish us but to help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. Romans 8 emphasises the life we have: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). Mondays often cast dark shadows over people’s lives and COVID-Mondays even darker ones. But we have every reason to express the life we have in Christ, to grow in the grace that always rests upon us and to increase in the knowledge of our Saviour. “To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”
