When we first believe in the Lord Jesus and receive Him as our Savior, we receive the divine life of God. This is what the Bible describes as born again. This is not the pinnacle, but just the beginning of the Christian life. One thing that’s amazing about this divine life in us is that it can grow! Just as with our human life, we are not born again as fully mature, but we are born as infants in Christ; yet, we are able to grow and mature! Peter explains this briefly in his epistle:
For you have been born again … like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation
-1 Peter 1:23, 2:2 (NASB)
Similarly, Paul writes of this process of growth in several places in his own letters:
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food
– 1 Corinthians 3:1-2a (NASB)
until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
– Ephesians 4:13 (NASB)
To the apostle Paul, this is a goal that should be in the mind of every Christian: that we should become “mature” with a maturity “which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”
Now, while we press towards this goal of maturity, we will necessarily pass through and experience many different “stages,” or periods. Because of this, it is important to know the qualities of these “stages” to gain a full picture of the progression of a healthy Christian life to recognize healthy growth in the Lord.
Brother Titus Chu’s ministry often considers the growth of the divine life, and in so doing describes the various stages of this life in many ways. Throughout this blog series, we will be looking at how Titus describes these stages, what they mean for us, how we can recognize them in ourselves and others, and how to advance from one stage to the next.
My hope in curating this series is to inspire us all not only to appreciate the stages the Lord has brought us through, but also to help us recognize our current standing before the Lord and to provide a view for how much more of God’s divine life there is to experience! I also pray that as we consider these messages we can encourage one another to press on until we all attain this maturity which is in Christ.