What is spiritual maturity? How does the Bible
define it?
There are a handful of passages that speak
to this. We are going to draw primarily from three: Hebrews 6:1-2, Philippians
3:4-11, and Romans 12. These passages each identify various steps on the road
to spiritual maturity. There is some overlap between them, so we will combine
them into one expanded list.
1. Repentance from Dead Works (Hebrew 6:1, Philippians
3:4-9)
2. Faith in God (Hebrews 6:1, Philippians 3:9)
3. Knowing God (Philippians 3:10)
4. Sanctification/Mind Renewal (Hebrews 6:2, Romans 12:1-3)
5. Walking in Unique Gifts & Calling (Philippians 3:10,
Romans 12:6-8, Hebrews 6:2)
6. The Fellowship of Christ’s Sufferings (Philippians 3:10)
7.
Being Conformed to Christ’s Death (Philippians 3:10, Romans 12:14-21)
This list presupposes an initial surrender
of overt, willful sin took place at conversion. Also, each of these steps is an
area we (hopefully) continue to grow in our entire lives. I don’t want to give
the wrong impression that one step must be fully conquered before moving on to
the next. Now, let’s break down each step.
1. Repentance from Dead Works (Hebrew 6:1, Philippians 3:4-9)
The writer of Hebrews identified “repentance
from dead works” as the “foundation” of Christianity. Every time we
do something that appears “good” or “Christian” or “spiritual”, but
subconsciously seek to feed our sense of self-worth or compensate for
underlying guilt, we perform a dead work.
This does not mean we should not exercise
discipline. It does not mean we should stop praying, reading scripture, or
assembling with other believers if we do these things out of guilt or
self-righteousness. But it does mean being honest with God and others about the
condition of our hearts and asking Him to change us.
We can also use parenthood or our careers
as dead works – anything we rely on to help us feel acceptable. However, dead
works are especially toxic when infused with religious zeal. Dead works are at
the heart of every false religion. Even atheists want to feel like good people
and often expend a tremendous amount of effort to convince themselves they are.
In Philippians 3:4-9, Paul listed several
factors from which he might have derived self-worth – his nationality, his
family of origin, his impeccable moral behavior, his career advancement, his
respectability in the eyes of his peers. Yet he gave up finding any value
whatsoever in these things, saying:
“But
whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the
sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the
surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ…”
Dead works are serious and dangerous. In a
way, they are more deadly than overt sin because they are so deceptive. They
have the appearance of righteousness. They cause some believers to think they
are growing closer to God when they are actually pushing Him away. They cause
other believers to think they can never be good enough for God and give up
following Him under a cloud of condemnation.
Because repentance from dead works is so foundational,
it is often the most heavily attacked area of a believer’s life. Satan
constantly pressures us to try to earn God’s acceptance through moral
performance, and then gets us to pressure others (including our children) in
the same way. The way to combat this is found in the next step – Faith in God.
A Personal Story
Dead works are ingrained in our fallen
nature even from childhood. When I was four years old, I stole several dollars’
worth of quarters from my dad’s home office. For the next two days, I felt
physically sick with guilt. I was afraid to expose my sin to my father, so I
secretly brought the money to church the next Sunday and put it in the
offering, hoping to alleviate my guilt.
It seemed to work. I began to feel better.
My relationship with my father had not been restored since I was still hiding
something from him. But at least I could reason to myself that I was not a bad
person since I ultimately gave the money away to a holy cause.
This is the quintessence of a dead work.
It hides the truth of our condition. If I had the courage to tell my dad the
truth, he would have reacted exactly as God does – he would have forgiven me
and reaffirmed his love for me.
Incredibly, God kept my pursuing my little
4-year-old heart. The senior pastor of this large church happened to see
me put the money in the offering and mailed a letter to my parents praising
their son’s virtuous character! When my parents read it and began telling me
how proud they were of me, I knew I was a fraud. God gave me a wonderful opportunity
to come into the light and confess my sin, but I still chose not to out of
fear. Nevertheless, it is a wonderful illustration of the deceptive nature of
dead works.