Growing in Grace

The great American hymnist, Thomas Chisholm, wrote “O to be Like Thee”.  Our question is - how are we going to be like Him?  If we are really honest with ourselves, we must admit that it is very easy for us to sin.  We want to sin because it pleases us to do so.  We do not love the Lord our God with all our heart, but we do love ourselves a great deal.  When we lay hold of the true depth of the nature of sin we come to the sad realization that we fail to be the representatives of God that we aspire to be.  So, how do we become like Him?  Peter tells us in II Peter 3:18 to “grow in grace”.  Since Jesus was the perfect embodiment of grace, then growing in grace will make us more like Him.

That leads to the next logical question.  How do we grow in grace?  Peter couples growing in grace to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  To grow in grace will include growing in knowledge.  But Paul tells us that if we know all things and lack love, that knowledge profits us nothing.  Knowledge by itself is not grace, but growing in knowledge is part of the process of growing in grace.  It also reveals to us a means of growing in grace.

How did we learn to read?  We learned one letter at a time.  Then we put letters together and made words and put words together and explained ideas.  Growing in grace can be just like that.  Grace has many attributes the same as the alphabet has many letters.  We learn them and then string them together and then apply them the same as we did with letters and reading and writing.  We can take the letters of the alphabet and apply an example of grace to each letter.  We can think of what grace means to us, what our pastors and teachers have taught that grace means and what we have discovered in our own Bible study concerning grace.  Then we can list those characteristics and then alphabetize the ideas.  Soon we will have a mini-dictionary of grace with many ideas under each letter.  Yes, there are multiple ones for X, although it helps to step outside of English to get them. 

Now we learn our new ABC’s of grace.  We practice them.  We put them together into ideas of obedience and service to God and man.  We find ourselves overwhelmed by the ways that God has manifested them all in our own lives.  We come to realize that we are only responding to the magnificent measure of God’s grace already bestowed and we thankfully participate with Him in its manifestation.  O, friends, we learn to sing and shout and praise and proclaim, 

“Almighty God, Thy love unbounded, Grace abundant given me,

How my soul looks up rejoicing, Kneels before that bloody tree. 

Almighty God, Thy grace unbounded, Poured thru Christ upon my head,

Let that glow of grace conceal me, Show to all my Christ instead.” 

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