Series: Towards Maturity
Ephesians 4:13God's ultimate goal for each of us as individuals - and as a corporate Church - is for us to become mature, reaching "the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Eph.5:25-27; Col.1:28; Heb.6:1).
John 3:1-7; 1 Peter 1:23The first stage in the fulfilment of God's goal is the miracle that the Holy Spirit performs the moment we receive Christ as our Saviour - we are born again (John 1:12-13; Gal.3:26).
1 Peter 1:23; 2 Peter 1:3-4We were born again "of an imperishable seed". A seed contains all the life and likeness of the parent tree, but it is in seed form. In the same way, the moment we were born again, we received the fullness of God's life and salvation (Col.2:9-10). Now we are discovering everything we have in Christ (1 Cor.2:12) and "working out" the salvation we have already received (Phil.2:12-13).
1 Peter 2:2; 1 Cor.3:1-4; Heb.5:11-14Just as a new-born baby has the family likeness, so we too are born spiritually in the likeness of our Father. Now, like babies, we must begin to grow to spiritual maturity (Rom.8:29-30; Eph.4:14-15).1 John 2:12-14 describes Christians in three levels of maturity: Little children (childhood), young men (adolescence), and fathers (adulthood).
Prov.4:18; Rom.8:18; James 1:2-4; 1 Jn.3:1-3
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Unless otherwise stated, all scriptures quoted in these studies are from the New International Version of the Bible, & copy; New York International Bible Society, used by permission. Other versions referred to are: KJV (King James Version), NKJB (New King James Bible), TLB (The Living Bible), Amp (The Amplified Bible) and The Message. All versions used by permission.
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