Remember Benjamin in the movie, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? He grew younger instead of older!
Could you imagine that in the Christian life? Well, it happens more than you know. I talked about this a week or so ago and left off with these words…
“It’s like that when Christ followers stop growing and, in far too many cases, start an ‘anti-maturing’ process.
We need to talk about this because it’s epidemic—worse (spiritually speaking) than swine flu. This thing is a full blown pandemic in the church!
Check back for the vaccine.”
That’s what this post is about. But, if you’re the least bit confused about this series click here and read part one. Now, on to the vaccine…
I guess I can overlook all the anti-aging attempts when it comes to wrinkle creams and hair transplants and so forth. They’re cheesy, and ultimately they don’t seem to do anything except make scam-artists richer—but they are, after all just physical. But what happens when the whole anti-aging mentality creeps into the spiritual realm? What happens when the Benjamin Button affect runs rampant in our churches?
Instead of maturing Christians, we are left with an epidemic of believers devolving spiritually. They seem to be growing into adolescence and eventually spiritual toddler-hood instead of becoming more like Christ. And since the healthy process is known as, ‘sanctification,’ which means—becoming more like Jesus Christ—anything less would be utter failure.
But what can be done?
Satan would love for believers to think we have a full blown pandemic on our hands and that it’s too late to do anything about it. If we’re lucky, we’ll survive with our salvation and that will have to be enough.
Thank the Lord that’s not enough for Him!
God called you, believer, because He loves you. He did not want sin to ravage you physically, emotionally and most of all, spiritually—so He saved you the day you cried out to Him. Yes, He loved you too much to see you wallowing in your sinful state…
And He loves you too much to leave you half finished too.
So, what’s the vaccine? How can we stop growing more immature and begin again to grow up in the Lord?
Simple…”remember your first love.” When you lived by love, your life showed it in every way. Like in the following scripture…
Let everything you do flow out of a heart of love and gratefulness and you will begin to grow again. The signs of this growth will be the fruits of the Spirit, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22–23
Well, if those things represent the fruit of a healthy tree, how do you get the tree growing in the first place?
First of all, a seed has to be planted (salvation) and then, with water and plant food, it grows—with prayer and the reading of God’s Word we slowly get to know this great God who reached down and saved us. And love motivates us on in this journey toward growing more like Jesus.
So why do so many fail to get very far on this blessed journey?
I believe most of them take a wrong turn at the junction of justification and sanctification.
I know. I know. Let me explain.
Most of us don’t have trouble understanding and embracing this thing called justification. It’s a once-for-all act. It is never to be repeated because it can’t be. It’s once-for-all. Unlike sanctification (which is a process) justification is a one time declaration of our forever standing…once-for-all.
We like that—especially Americans! We want everything fast. We want what we want and we want it now!! Oh, and don’t bother me with it again! That’s how many start thinking about justification—’Thanks God! Now move along and I’ll call You if I need You!’
Sanctification, on the other hand, keeps on going throughout our entire earthly lives. I like the way the old time preacher, Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones put it:
“We continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord until we are perfect beyond the veil.
So there is nothing quite as erroneous and confusing and even unbiblical as to mistake the essential difference between justification and sanctification. That is the whole trouble with Roman Catholic teaching and all Catholic piety. If you confuse sanctification with justification, you will be doubtful (always) as to whether you are justified (saved) or not.
[So, understand this once and for all] Justification takes place outside us, as in a tribunal; sanctification takes place within us, in our inner life. I stand in the court when I am justified, and the judge pronounces that I am free; it is a statement about me, outside me. But sanctification is something that is worked and takes place within.
Justification removes the guilt of sin; sanctification removes the pollution of sin and renews us in the image of God.
Finally, last, by definition justification is a once-for-all act…”
What to do? What to do?
Remember your first love—that’s what. Remember why you fell in love with Jesus in the first place. Do you not recall that you came to the end of yourself and realized that nothing you could do would ever be enough? And what did God do then?
He loved you anyway. He loved you despite all your mess ups and the garbage in your life. He loved you and…
He reached down and saved you just because you acknowledged your sin and asked for a rescue. You didn’t earn it. You weren’t justified by works of your own hand. You were justified because God loved you enough to pluck you off of the path to Hell. His Son took the penalty for you and in God’s heavenly court you are now declared ‘not guilty’ (justified) because of Him.
If that doesn’t make you love Jesus I don’t know what will.
Now, at that point, you were justified and the beginning of the greatest adventure of your life should have taken place. But for many it didn’t. The great adventure didn’t even get off the ground.
What happened?
You started with love and faith but shifted (almost) immediately back to trying to prove yourself to God—prove your worth, prove that you deserved to be justified in the first place. That’s like getting the relief and mercy you begged for in court instead of the life imprisonment you had coming only to walk out of the courtroom and completely forget the one who freed you in the first place!
Not everyone forgets right away. Some go out and thrive at first—basking in the love and light of the undeserved freedom they got from the God who loves them ‘just because.’ Some of these begin to mature only to revert back the moment a really difficult trial in life comes their way. And then they too revert back to trying to live good enough to deserve a more blessed life. And…
maturity ceases.
You can read about the whole sorted mess here in Galatians 3:
1 You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.
2-4Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!
5-6Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don’t these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.
7-8Is it not obvious to you that persons who put their trust in Christ (not persons who put their trust in the law!) are like Abraham: children of faith? It was all laid out beforehand in Scripture that God would set things right with non-Jews by faith. Scripture anticipated this in the promise to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed in you.”
9-10So those now who live by faith are blessed along with Abraham, who lived by faith—this is no new doctrine! And that means that anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up: “Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law.”
Want to stop the ‘Benjamin Button Affect?’ Remember your first love and His grace upon grace to you in the first place and love your way back into the growth process.
Do this and you’ll be back on track in no time!