Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Growing in Holiness
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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John 15:4-8
Grafting is the process of joining two plants together so tightly that they grow together into one. The upper branch, called a scion, is tightly bound to the trunk of another plant, the rootstock. The bark is peeled where the two plants join to expose and align the cambium, the thin ribbon of actively dividing cells that produce conductive tissue for the actively growing plant. The two plants' tightly compressed cambiums develop finger-like tissues that grow together into a grafted union. The practice of grafting has been used to accelerate fruitfulness, improve growth rates, and increase hardiness. Three key factors will result in successful grafting: -
The first factor is compatibility. The closer the two plants are alike, the higher the success rate. One cannot take a palm tree and successfully graft it to a grapevine. -
The second factor is alignment and pressure. The two plants must remain tightly bound, and their cambiums must line up as closely as possible. -
The third factor is proper care of the graft site. The grafter must keep the joint alive, hydrated, and free of disease while the two plants grow together. These three key success factors of a physical graft are the same elements required for a successful spiritual graft. The first, compatibility and likeness: Paul tells us, as the root is holy, so too must the branches be holy. God has called us to become holy, and if we desire holiness, we must plant holiness! Growing holiness is expensive because it costs us our complete devotion. We must learn to love—as God so loves us—sacrificing and holding nothing back! We must lay down our lives for each other (John 15:13). The second success factor, alignment and pressure: The more tightly pressed together we are to Christ—the more we love Him and strive to emulate Him—the more aligned we are with Him and His way of life and the tighter our grafted union grows. The third success factor, keep the joint alive, hydrated, and free of disease: It takes daily care—prayer, meditation, study, and occasional fasting—to ensure our grafted union remains active, nourished, and healthy through the Spirit of God and His living Word. These things, along with putting the things of God into practice as we learn them, help us develop and maintain the right attitude to bear much fruit. Through our strengthening grafted union to Jesus Christ, we receive the nourishment to produce the daily fruit of self-sacrificial love. This is how we become holy and pleasing to God. We were the wild, unfruitful branches with no potential. But God the Father, the Vinedresser, called us and peeled back our thick, carnal, and sinful bark. Through the sacrificial death of our Savior and the New Covenant, He bound us tightly together in a grafted union to the holy Root. Through Him, we receive the spiritual nourishment and water of life (see Revelation 22:1) required to grow together and produce fruit. The apostle James uses a similar metaphor of implanting or engrafting, this time in reference to God's Word: “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted [engrafted, KJV] word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). We must work harder to remain aligned with Him in all things. As mentioned, the cost of holiness is complete, self-sacrificial love. If we hold back love or forgiveness, we cannot be in Him. If we put anything in this world over our relationship with Him, we cannot be in Him. As James urges, we must repent of everything in us that is not like Christ. We must reach out to Him with all our might and literally cling to Him! He is our everything, and without Him, we can do nothing! As we abide in Him, He abides in us. As we draw near to God, He draws near to us (James 4:8). In this way, our grafted union will grow strong as we produce the righteous fruit that pleases Him. We are the branch of God's planting, grafted into His Family. As we humble ourselves and embrace His engrafted Word of life, we grow in union with Him, transformed into righteous, holy branches that produce the self-sacrificial fruit of love. One day soon, the branches of God's planting will inherit the land forever and glorify our great God and Father!
Bill Onisick
The Branch of God's Planting
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Galatians 5:17
To a growing Christian, internal conflict frequently intensifies, a puzzling and distressing "side effect" to sanctification or holiness. This inner turmoil occurs because the person is growing and is thus more intensely aware of how far he is from God's perfection. He begins to "see" God far more clearly than ever, and he becomes distressed because he realizes that he does not even begin to measure up to what God is. He is ashamed of his impurity, that he is so rank with sin, that his character is so weak, that he allows his tongue to say things he knows he should not, that thoughts go through his mind that he knows are filthy. He sees hate in his character, which distresses him. But, if he were not growing, he would never have seen it! This revulsion is the very thing that makes him want to change. An adult understands far more in a given situation than a child. It is a significant mark of the adult's experience and maturity. A professional grasps much more of his profession than a novice. This same principle is at work in the mind of the one growing in holiness. The expert is always more aware than the novice. As an apprentice welder, many of the welds I had to make were on critical pipe joints, where there was perhaps 600-1200 pounds of steam pressure inside that line. Whenever I, not yet a journeyman welder, was assigned to a job in that kind of a high-pressure situation, my welds had to be inspected by a journeyman. I would make the weld, but the journeyman had to look at it. Frequently, I would make the weld and think I had done a pretty good job. The journeyman with all his experience would look at it and point out all the flaws in my weld. He could see from experience what my less-trained eyes and hands had failed to do. In essence, this applies to our spiritual growth. Christians who are really growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ—being sanctified—begin to become distressed the more they learn and experience. They see their flesh lusting against the Spirit. They are being pulled in each direction. Many years before, they would not have even been aware of what was happening inside them. But they are beginning to become trained in the holiness of God, and it distresses them that they fall so far short.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Nine)
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Revelation 3:17
Christ rebukes His church of Laodicea because its perception of reality—particularly about themselves—bears no resemblance to His own. This spiritual blindness resembles the false expectations held by the people of Christ's time, with a notable exception: The members of His church have access to His Spirit—His mind, His heart, His perspective—and so should be free from much of the blindness that obstructs carnal man. They have the means to see more clearly. A more accurate lens is available to Christians, which is why He says, "[A]noint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see" (Revelation 3:18). Once God's Spirit has been given, the onus is on the individual to improve his own sight. Today's church member may demonstrate this blindness in ways similar to the blind of Christ's time. It may come in the form of an unshakable belief that he alone has the whole counsel of God or is the primary focus of God's attention. It may show itself in a steady stream of criticism of the brethren—criticism that encompasses all but the self. It may manifest itself in a self-centeredness that assumes the spiritual high ground, believing that the rest of the church needs to rise to its level. All of these distortions spring from not seeing the self clearly—a result of not seeing God clearly. The Bible gives two related principles regarding spiritual vision, particularly about being able to see God—and as we see God more clearly, our perception of all other spiritual matters will improve. First, Jesus tells us that the pure in heart—those without guile, pride, hypocrisy, envy, jealousy, competition, hidden anger, double-mindedness, or any other defilement of inward sin—will see God (Matthew 5:8). In the same vein, Hebrews 12:14 says that without holiness—God's consecration of us combined with our submission to His requirements for moral purity—one will not see God. Our spiritual vision will only be as good as our purity of mind and conduct. Any defilement will affect our spiritual sight, making it a never-ending challenge to see things as God sees them. It is far easier to compile and rehearse the failings of others than it is to overcome in areas where we fall short of God's holiness. Seeing through the lens of unquestioned, untested, or unreliable expectations—about God, about prophecy, about our standing before Him, or the like—leaves us little better than those who failed to recognize their Creator when He came to them. Yet, applying ourselves to this purifying process will begin to allow us to see things from a perspective that approaches God's own.
David C. Grabbe
Not-So-Great Expectations
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