You Must Grow

Have you ever asked yourself “Why am I not growing?” Have you ever asked yourself “Why am I spiritually unfruitful?” Peter reminds us that there is a reason why Christians don’t grow. It’s because they have forgotten their beginnings.

You should be growing in faith. You should be growing in goodness. You should be gaining new knowledge. You should be demonstrating more self-control, perseverance, and godliness. Compared to last year, today you should be manifesting more brotherly kindness and love. If you’re not, you need to jumpstart your spiritual growth. This verse tells you what your problem is:

For he who lacks these qualities [faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love] is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins (2 Peter 1:9; NASB).  

A believer grows by adding more Christian virtues to his life, but if he has not been doing that, God will diagnose him with spiritual myopia. God says he is shortsighted. The believer who does not grow can only see his life from up close, he cannot see it from afar. He's incapable of looking back in history and seeing what God did years ago. He has ceased to appreciate what God did for him at the start, when he first became a Christian.

Not only has the stagnant Christian forgotten that he was lost in sins, and that he was condemned—living under the judgment of God--he has forgotten the immense mercy he received in baptism. Yes, baptism is what Peter refers to as ‘his ‘purification from his former sins.’ The main problem of a Christian who is not growing is that he has forgotten what happened when he was baptized.

Illustrations: Marriage and Job Contract

Consider a person who has been married for many years but who is not becoming a better spouse. If they forget what their life was like as a single person (the loneliness they felt, their longing to have a partner, the feeling they had that they were incomplete), then they will not appreciate what they have in their current civil status.

To recharge their marriage, they should spend some time reflecting with their spouse on their wedding. They should recall the day when God gave them their lifelong partner. If they do, they will be motivated to improve and grow in that relationship. They will again appreciate the great blessing God has given them.

What of those people who are not growing professionally in their job? Before they signed the contract for their current job, when they had passed through a period of unemployment, they were unhappy. If the case was that they switched over from another job, it's likely that they weren't happy there wither. They applied for a new job because something in them was not satisfied.

Then they signed a contract! On that day they were thrilled and excited to get a new job. If today they are not growing professionally or have become unproductive at work, what they need to revive themselves is to remember the moment they signed the contract for their current place of employment. They got a guarantee of many benefits, including a salary. If they recall that day, it should be enough to encourage them to commit to professional development now.

Likewise, the solution for a person who is not growing in their faith is to remember their baptism. A believer who in the course of time has become unproductive has lost sight of the great mercy God gave him in baptism. All his previous sins were washed away in an instant! Isn't that moment worthy of recollection?

If he remembers his baptism, he’ll recall that everything he has is by the grace of God: forgiveness, the blood of Christ, access to God through the New Covenant, and freedom from condemnation! Maybe over the years he has started to think that what he has as Christian is partly due to his own skills, abilities, personality, or goodness. Remembering our baptism is a reminder that "except for the grace of God, there go I." It reminds us that we are nothing without Christ and the mercy of God.

Your Former and Current Sins

The Bible passage we're studying talks about your former sins. What are those, exactly? Let's consider the passage again:

For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins (2 Peter 1:9; NASB).  

This fact isn’t taught enough in churches, but at your baptism, God purifies you from all your former sins. All of your previous sins that you committed in life prior to baptism were washed away when you descended into the water. One reason why this is not taught often is because most pastors don’t want believers to have to deal with the stark reality that they need to deal with all sins committed after baptism through confession.

Very few pastors explain to members of their churches that they'll be judged for their actions--any sins committed after baptism will be punished by the Lord Jesus. We'll have to give an account of every unconfessed word, action, or inaction (negligence).

... we will all stand before God’s judgment seat... So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God (Romans 14:10, 12).

... no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).

I [John the Baptist] baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:11-12).

For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10; NASB).

I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every empty word they have spoken (Matthew 12:36).

If you’re a believer, you must deal with sins committed after baptism through confession. If you don’t, you’ll have to give an account for them when you stand before Christ’s judgment throne--be ready for fire to burn up all your vain works. But do even better than be ready. It's much better to keep your tab low with the Lord through confession now than to have to suffer disgrace on the Day of Judgment. Confess your sins now and find forgiveness.

Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper as the second tradition of the Christian Church precisely to assist you in keeping a low account of sins with God. He has given you a tool to be able to always examine your conscience and confess your sins. We should take the Lord’s Supper in a worthy, not an unworthy manner.

Fools, Dogs, and Pigs

Only a fool will turn back to his previous sins after baptism. Scriptures compare such a person to a dog which returns to its vomit or a pig which, after it has been washed, goes back to the mud.

As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly (Proverbs 26:11).

They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they feast with you… abandoning the right way, they have gone astray…

... if, after they have escaped the defilements of the World by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.

It has happened to them according to the true proverb, ‘A dog returns to its own vomit,’ and, ‘A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire’ (2 Peter 2:13, 15, 20-22; NASB).

How can you prevent piggy-ness? How can you resist doggy-ness? A person who abides in Christ will not return to a life of sin. He’s no dog. He’s no pig. He’s a child of God. He has been born of God and God’s Spirit abides in him. He has seen Christ and knows him.

No one who abides in him [Christ] keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him… No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s Seed [i.e., the Spirit] remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God (1 John 3:6, 9).

Purification in the New Testament

Again, not to forget the passage at hand, let's read it again:

... he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins (2 Peter 1:9; NASB).  

Peter calls baptism a purification. John the Apostle used the same term as Peter—purification—when he spoke of the baptisms men like Jesus and John the Baptist administered. So purification is a synonym for baptism. The two words were used interchangeably. See that here:

… there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples [the disciples of John the Baptist] and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan [Jesus], to whom you have testified—behold, he is baptizing, and all are coming to him’ (John 3:25-26; NKJV).

Great. We see the word purification used in the Bible for baptism. But what's not great is that it’s not a term used in churches these days. Sadly, it's not a term pastors associate with baptism anymore. You don’t hear pastors telling visitors to their churches “you must be purified of your sins in baptism” and that’s unfortunate because purification has always been a key component of salvation.

When Paul was converted, the command he heard from the man who evangelized him (Ananias) was to wash away his sins in baptism. Paul knew that he needed purification of sins just like everyone else who was baptized during his age.

... now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name (Acts 22:16).

Purification in the Old Testament

Many Old Testament rites required purification. There was a huge basin of water on the Temple Mount that held many gallons of water for washing both people and objects. It was called 'the sea of bronze.' It was there specifically for the purpose of purification.

If they fail to purify themselves after touching a human corpse, they defile the Lord’s Tabernacle. They must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, they are unclean (Numbers 19:13).

Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it. Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from it (Exodus 30:18-19).

Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water (Exodus 29:4).

Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water (Leviticus 8:6).

He then made ten basins for washing and placed five on the south side and five on the north. In them the things to be used for the burnt offerings were rinsed, but the sea was to be used by the priests for washing (2 Chronicles 4:6).

The Principle and the Privilege of Purification

A New Testament believer may safely set aside all the Old Testament rites, but he cannot set aside the principle of purity. We cannot remove purification from God’s plan for us. In fact, the purification we read about in the Old Testament, which most of the time involves water, finds its fulfillment in New Covenant baptism. Old Testament believers longed to have access to what we enjoy now under the New Covenant: baptism in Jesus’ name. Getting baptized in Jesus' name is, without a doubt, the most powerful means of purification in the history of the World!

Old Testament purification is not required of us now, but Christian baptism is. Baptism, the Christian rite of purification, washes away all our previous sins—something no Old Testament rite ever did. In fact, the Old Testament purification rites were a view forward to the purification we have today in Christ Jesus. The Old Testament Temple had a bronze basin, but the Church has baptism!

How privileged we are to know about baptism, and to be able to take advantage of it!

... he [Jesus] turned to his disciples and said privately, 'Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it' (Luke 10:23-24).

You know one thing the Old Testament believers never heard, but that you hear? It's something you heard today: That you can receive purification from all your former sins! We hope that sounds wonderful to you. If you evangelize, tell others about it. Maybe they'll think it's wonderful too.