When I first heard about this topic, I was excited,
because I thought it would be interesting to talk about. When I started making
some notes, however, I was dismayed. I realized what a huge subject this is –
like maybe half of the New Testament. I started thinking about all that could
be said about spiritual growth, about sanctification, about Jesus as our
example. Wow, how to narrow this down?
One of the challenges is that this phrase, “Growing
in Likeness to Christ,” does not actually appear in the Bible, so the first
thing we have to do is decide what it means – in the absence of a specific
biblical context. The Bible does have plenty to say about spiritual growth,
what it means to mature as a Christian, in terms of our understanding and
experience of God. However, the title might sound like growing in holiness,
which brings up the subject of sanctification – the process by which we are
made holy. This can muddy the waters a bit, because sanctification is something
of a paradox, as is predestination, which is what we were talking about just
before I left on my trip. The reason sanctification is tricky is because there
are two ways (some say 4 ways!) of looking at it. On the one hand, as believers
in Jesus, we have been made holy, once and for all by the atoning death of
Jesus on the cross. We have been clothed in his righteousness. When God looks
at us, he sees the righteousness of Jesus, not our sin.
