SPIRITUAL GROWTH: FORGIVENESS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
Whether you are meeting Jesus for the first time, or walking into a deeper union with Him, we aim not only to be there when you are born again, but as your will becomes married to the Savior’s. Christ Gospel Church of Mansfield is committed to fostering each member’s spiritual growth. Our goal is that each person would be found mature before God
, able to fully bear the fruit of the Spirit, having grown into the fullness of intimately knowing Jesus Christ. There is a vast difference between being saved from the punishment of death and hell and being a mature disciple of Jesus Christ. What is paramount for the Christian is to be led from being born again to being a Bride who has made herself ready (Rev. 19.7). We are called to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3.18) and this call has eternal consequences. Just like a natural tree, we can only grow the fruit of the Spirit to the degree that we have matured in Christ. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Each Christian is called not simply to be a person saved from the consequences of his/her sin, but to flourish in the spiritual life and moral development that God has, and does, intend for each person. For this reason, the apostle Paul explains the purpose for the church and its various ministers, stating that we are to grow into the full stature (character and nature) of the Lord Jesus Christ:
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Eph. 4.11-13). Each of us have been called to grow into the full stature (the complete nature) of Jesus Christ. This is the ultimate goal of God for man, and the means by which the Bride will have made herself ready (Rev. 19.7). God wishes for us the fullness of Christ and nothing less. It is therefore our goal at Christ Gospel Church of Mansfield to lead all who are willing into a saving knowledge of the LORD Jesus Christ, and into the full vivacious intimacy that is so brazenly promised throughout the scriptures. Whether you are meeting Jesus for the first time, or walking into a deeper union with Him, we wish to walk with you as your will becomes married to the Savior’s. REWARD OF GROWTH: A BRIDE TO JESUS
God told Abram, He is the “exceeding great reward” (Gen. 15.1). Of all the biblical buzz words the word “reward” still makes many of us Christians a touch uneasy. The Gospels continually state that we are going to be rewarded for what we do for Jesus, yet we are often concerned that to desire a reward from God makes us less sincere for God, greedy for spiritual rewards rather than Jesus Himself. In one of C.S. Lewis’ most famous sermons titled The Weight Of Glory, he explains that there is nothing wrong with desiring the reward that comes from loving Jesus, because the reward is a natural part of being in love with Him. For example, there is nothing wrong with a man who wishes to marry the woman he loves, because it is “the proper reward for a real lover.” The same is true with Jesus. The scriptures are full of the promises of the ‘proper reward’ for the Christian who loves God, and at the height of various parables, types and imagery is the metaphor of the Bride. The bride is the ideal example of a mature relationship with Jesus Christ. When God’s people grow into the height of intimacy with God the Bible distinguishes them as a Bride. For example, we find in the Old Testament that God does not call Israel His bride until they are firmly founded in the land of Canaan, which is also called Buelah, which is Hebrew for married (Isa. 62.4). In other words, not until the people of God had completed their journey and were then living in the fulfillment of God’s promise were they considered His Bride. This does not mean that they did not love God -or He them- until that point; it is merely a way to demonstrate that they had reached a new intimacy in their relationship with God. Just as every living thing goes through stages of growth, so too does the body, soul, and spirit of a person as it is redeemed unto God in deeper ways each day He is sought, until it reaches the spiritual intimacy of the Bride. The ‘proper reward’ for spiritual growth is more of God Himself; God told Abram, He is the “exceeding great reward” (Gen. 15.1). What then could be a greater reward than the opportunity to have our will married to His, in loving intimate relationship? Reward for spiritual growth is not a caste system for those more ‘spiritual’ than others; iit is the natural effect of varying degrees of love for the Savior. For example, in the New Testament we discover Paul the apostle explaining that on the day of resurrection each person will not have the same glorified body. Some will have a level of glory that shines like a little star, while others as the sun, “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15.41-42a). The resurrected saints of God shine in a manner akin to different levels of natural light. We find later that this same analogy of saints covered in light is found in the book of Revelation. Here we discover three varying degrees of spiritual garments: some wear white robes (Rev. 6.11), some white raiment (Rev. 4.4), and the Bride wears fine white linen (Rev. 19.14). A quick look into a concordance reveals that the word for white in Greek refers to light. Thus, each type of redeemed person in the eschatological account of John is covered in light, just as Paul had explained. The difference is in the kind of garment of light. From robes to linen there is an increasing amount of clothing, which signifies, just as Paul states regarding the stars, moon, and sun, an increase in the amount of light in accord to the specific garment worn. In all of this the Bride wears the most intensely pure garment of light (in Paul’s terms Sunlight) and dwells forever in the New City where, interestingly, there is no need for the Sun due to the uninhibited glory of God (Rev. 21.23). What then does this mean for the Christian? Each of us have the opportunity to grow in profound intimacy with God, and as we grow we are able to bear more of the profound weight of His glory that will, for all eternity, shine in accord with how much we have chosen Him to be our exceeding great reward. In short, forgiveness from our sins is just the beginning! Christ Gospel Church is dedicated to leading each person into the full shining glory of spiritual maturity that has been promised to each person who has dedicated his/her life to Jesus Christ; “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4.11-13).
