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Chapter 8—Growing Up Into Christ
Our characters change when we become children of God. The
Bible speaks of this change as a birth. It also says it is like the growth
of good seed planted by a farmer. Those who have just learned to
love Christ are said to be “like newborn babies.”
1 Peter 2:2
. They
will grow up to be men and women in Christ Jesus. Like the good
seed planted in the field, they are to grow and bear fruit.
Isaiah says that the children of God “will be like trees that the
Lord himself has planted. They will all do what is right, and God
will be praised for what he has done.”
Isaiah 61:3
. God brings us
many lessons from natural life to help us understand spiritual truths.
No matter how wise people are, they cannot give life to even the
smallest plant or animal. Only God can give life. In the same way
only God can give spiritual life to people. A person must be “born
[66]
again.”
John 3:3
. We cannot receive the life that Christ gives until
we are born again.
God gives life, and then He makes things grow. He makes the
flowers bloom and the fruit grow from the flowers. By His power
seeds form in the fruit—“first the tender stalk appears, then the head,
and finally the head full of grain.”
Mark 4:28
.
The prophet Hosea said of Israel, “They will blossom like flow-
ers.... They will grow crops of grain and be fruitful like a vineyard.”
Hosea 14:5-7
. Jesus tells us to “look how the wild flowers grow.”
Luke 12:27
. The plants grow only by receiving what God gives
them. They do not take care of themselves or worry or work. A
child cannot make himself taller by his own power or by worrying.
Neither can we grow in our spiritual life by worrying or working in
our own strength.
The plant and the child grow by receiving what they need—air,
sunshine, and food. As these gifts of nature meet the needs of plants
and animals, so Christ also meets the needs of those who trust in
Him.
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