So far in this series, we have seen that the church should be a place we come to “believe” in the risen Lord, and a place we learn that we “belong” to a loving family as children of a gracious God.
This Sunday the apostle Paul will remind us we cannot remain as children. God expects us to mature in our faith as disciples of Jesus. In other words, we must GROW UP! (Please Read Ephesians 4:11-16)
Just think, aren’t humans the only part of God’s creation that becomes something more than we once were. I mean a cow doesn’t become anything. It just is. Likewise, a dog or a cat maybe become good friends because we love them, but they are still a dog or a cat. A snake is well, you know, a snake! But “becoming” is what the entire process of being human is all about. John Wesley understood salvation as a process of becoming more like Christ as we grow spiritually to be whom God intends us to be, both for ourselves and others.
Paul also believed Jesus’ sacrificial death and subsequent resurrection enable us to become something more. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Cor. 5:17 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Cor 5:21
Perhaps “believing” and “belonging” enter us into the process that enables us to “become.”
Come and See…
Pastor Rob
“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” 1 Cor. 13:11 NIV
No responses yet