Fixed vs Growth: Effort, Dead to Sin and Yet Sinners

As Christians, we may feel that we are constantly asked to hold two apparently opposite ideas in our hearts through faith.  We are “now and not yet” people:  we embrace God’s promise of love, forgiveness and faith now while simultaneously looking with joyful anticipation to the new creation of heaven and true unity with Him.   When the Bible says we are righteous through Christ, we trust in that absolutely while simultaneously recognizing that we sin daily and constantly need forgiveness from Him.  We are confident that the work of salvation was completed by Christ and is a gift by faith in Him to which we can add nothing, while simultaneously recognizing that we can continue to grow in faith, fruitfulness, Christian maturity and perseverance.   In 1 Peter 1 verses 3 and 4, Peter tells us that our inheritance in Christ is kept in heaven, as if in a fire-proof lock-box.  A few verses later, starting in verse 13 he says “Therefore, prepare your minds for action:  be self-controlled….be holy in all you do….”  Our salvation can’t be taken from us, we are “fixed” in our identity as God’s children.  But we are not finished or complete yet.  God will perfectly conform us into His image when we are with Him in heaven.  While we are here on earth, we are growing.

A program developed by Dr Dweck taught a group of young students to think of their brains as muscles, organs to be exercised and strengthened; to think of their intelligence as a skill they could increase through effort rather than as a fixed quantity.  She describes an elementary school boy who had earned a reputation as a disruptive, poor student.  This young man, after a few sessions of hearing his brain described as a muscle over which he had control, asked her with tears in his eyes “you mean I don’t have to be stupid?”   This young man had viewed himself as a fixed quantity.  He’d been labeled as stupid, so he lived out that identity.  He’d been labeled as a trouble maker, so he lived out that identity too.  But the intervention by Dr Dweck and her graduate students showed that child that he did not have to live with that fixed identity but rather could grow and change into a strong, productive student.  In the same way, we are not stuck with our fixed identity as sinners.

Colossians 2: 13 tells us “When you were dead in your sins…God made you alive with Christ.  He forgave us all our sins…”.  Later, in Colossians 3: 1 and 5, we are told “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God….[p]ut to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…”; there follows a list of example sins which we are exhorted to “put to death.”  We are like that little boy, but our cry is “you mean I don’t have to be dead in my sins?”  Our sins are nailed to the cross of Christ and we are forgiven, here in time and in eternity.  We are also blessed by the power of God in Christ to daily crucify our sins to that cross, to seek forgiveness and to ask for release from our sinful behaviors.  We can exclaim:  you mean I don’t have to be trapped by my alcohol abuse; by my sexual sins; by my food addictions; by my use of filthy language and profanity; by my rage and acts of violence; by my greed and covetousness?  No, we are not left dead in our sins.   In the same chapter 3 of Colossians, verses 12and following, we are told more than that; we are admonished to behave like God’s holy people, clothed in compassion and humility as the peace of Christ rules in our hearts.

1) Read 1 Peter 2: 1 – 3.  What are we to rid ourselves of and what are we to crave?  

2) We are admonished to “grow up in [our] salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”  What does this mean to you as a Christian?  Are you an infant or are you growing in faith?

3) Read 1 Peter 2: 4-7  Reflect on the “process” and effort language in these verses. We are temples of God’s Spirit, and Christ is our cornerstone and capstone.  Consider how you have been built in your faith and godliness through your life.

4) When you consider that your life and body is meant to be a temple for God, are there behaviors, habits, thoughts or desires that are sinful and unworthy?  Reflect on these with a repentant heart before God. 

5)  According to verses 9 through 12, what is our fixed identity (especially verses 9 and 10)?  How are we called to live—the effort we are called to put forth—in verses 11 and 12?  Why are we to put forth this effort?

6) Read the parable of the wise and foolish builders in Matthew 7: 24 – 27.   What was the key difference between the wise and foolish builders?  We are not physically present to hear Christ’s words, but we have the inspired Word of the Bible.  How have you used scripture as a strong foundation to your life?