Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2700
“But grow in Grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18.
IT is worth while to remark that this passage immediately follows the 17th verse, where the Apostle says, “Beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you, also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in Grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” He puts the one after the other, as if the one must be the means of the other. There had been some, in the Apostle’s day, who had twisted, to their own destruction, certain expressions in the Epistles of Paul which Peter said were “hard to be understood.” And, therefore, he warned Christian men and women to take heed lest they, “being led away with the error of the wicked,” should “fall from their own steadfastness.”
In order that they might know how to stand and to be preserved from falling, he gave them this direction—“grow in Grace,” for the way to stand is to grow. The way to be steadfast is to go forward. There is no standing except by progression. If you see even such a simple thing as a child’s top rolling along your floor at home, you will observe that it will always stand upright as long as it keeps on rolling—but when it stops, down it goes! So is it with the Christian—as long as he is in motion, he stands—but if it were possible for the motion to cease, then the Christian would fall from his steadfastness. Glory be to God, he will be kept from falling, and he shall be presented faultless before the Throne of God! The way to stand, then, is to go forward. The way to be steadfast is to progress. The way to be alive, according to the Apostle, is to “grow in Grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
We will offer, first of all, two or three remarks upon growth “in Grace” in general And, secondly, a few remarks upon growth in Grace being intimately connected with growth “in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. ”
I. First, then, we shall offer some remarks upon GROWTH “IN GRACE” IN GENERAL. What shall we say about
it?
The first remark we make is that there is a sense in which there is no such thing at all as growth in Grace. If you understand the word, Grace, as signifying free favor and the love of God towards His people, there is not, and there cannot be any growth in that at all—
“The moment a sinner believes, And trusts in his crucified God”—
he is, by the Grace of God, then and there justified and complete in Christ Jesus! And if he lives till his hair is gray, he will never be more justified, and never be more beloved than he is the very first moment in which he believes in Christ. As soon as ever I have a vital connection with the Lamb of God, I am “in Grace.” Let me live on, let my Grace grow, let my faith increase, let my zeal become warmer, let my love be more ardent, yet I shall not be more “in Grace” than I was before! God will not love me more, He will not have a deeper and a purer affection in His heart to me then than He has the very first moment I turn to Him, nor will His Grace the less justify me, or less accept me, the first moment when I come to Him with all my sins about me, than it shall do when I stand before His Throne! We never grow in the Grace of election. We are always, as Peter says in his first Epistle, “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” And in that
sense of being, “in Grace,” there is neither growth nor any retrograde movement. So also is it in the matter of justification—
“In union with the Lamb, From condemnation free, The saints forever were, And shall forever be.”
And they are at any one time as much justified as they are at any other time. Give me to be justified today, then I was justified yesterday, and I shall be justified tomorrow. As soon as I put my trust in the Savior, I became complete in Grace, so far as that was concerned, I was made perfect in Christ Jesus. I cannot be more than perfect and, therefore, I cannot in that respect grow in Grace. I cannot receive more justifying mercy. I cannot receive more pardoning Grace, for I have had it all at once and have so become perfect in Christ.
But you will remark that our text does not say anything about Grace growing—it does not say that Grace grows! It tells us to “grow in Grace.” There is a vast difference between Grace growing and our growing in Grace. God’s Grace never increases—it is always infinite, so it cannot be more. It is always everlasting. It is always bottomless, it is always shoreless. It cannot be more and, in the Nature of God, it could not be less. The text tells us to “grow in Grace.” We are in the sea of God’s Grace—we cannot be in a deeper sea, but let us grow, now that we are in it. We cannot be more in it than we are, or than we have always been. We are in God’s Grace. We are in the Covenant. We are in the scheme of redemption. We are in union with Jesus—we cannot be more or less so, for we are eternally secure through the blood of our Savior. But while itcannot grow, wecan grow more in it and so we shall “grow in Grace.”