Christian Communion with God the Father, Son & Holy Ghost through the Word & Spirit: Bible Study 7C

Bible Study #7C, within Bible study 7 on the most important institution, the church of Jesus Christ, discusses the individual Christian's walk with God; how he can be growing in grace.

In order for church members to build each other up spiritually, they must themselves have strong and growing personal communion with the Father through Christ by the Holy Spirit; the saints’ fellowship with each other is based upon their Spirit-produced fellowship with the Father and the Son (Ephesians 2:18; 1 John 1:3; 2 Corinthians 13:14). God commands: “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18). How do Christians grow? Christians grow through God’s Word and by God’s Spirit.

The Bible commands: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). You should therefore read the Bible, following the pattern of those who “read ... [God’s] law in a book ... all the days of [their] life” (Deuteronomy 17:18, 19).

Christians should also study the Bible, obeying Christ’s command to “search the Scriptures” (John 5:39). “Searching” the Bible has the idea of making a careful or thorough effort to learn it, to study it, to investigate and examine God’s Word.

Pick passages of Scripture to memorize: "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” (Psalm 119:11), and meditate or think deeply upon what you read, study, and memorize, so that you can glorify God for His truth and obey what you read: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” (Joshua 1:8).

Spend serious time in God's Word: "“Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of [God’s] mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12).

Discuss Scripture with others: "“Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” (Malachi 3:16-17).

Regularly and reverently read, study, memorize, meditate, talk about, and obey the Bible, and you will grow spiritually!

While you are responsible to learn and follow God’s Word, the Christian life is not one where believers struggle unaided against their sin, this sinful world, and the devil (1 John 2:15-17). On the contrary, the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Almighty God, powerfully works in those who have been justified to transform them into the image of Christ. At the moment you trusted in Christ and were born again (John 3:3), the “old you” that was dominated by sin and Satan was “crucified with Christ,” in order that your sin “might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:6).

While you still have a tendency to evil within you (Romans 7:23), sin is no longer in control—now God is in control! What is more, God has now made your body His spiritual temple (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), so the one God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—has come to live within you (John 14:23; Romans 8:9)! You can say, with joy: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20). The Father has predestinated you to holiness (Romans 8:29), Christ has “suffered” and died to “sanctify” you “with his own blood” (Hebrews 13:12), and the Holy Spirit applies the grace purposed by the Father and purchased by the Son to empower you, so that “ye through the Spirit do mortify [put to death] the [sinful] deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13). The Christian life is not about powerless self-dependent attempts to stop sin, but about fellowship with the Triune God, who exercises His Almighty power to energize your fight. Using Scripture (Ephesians 6:17; Matthew 4:1-11), God strengthens you to overcome acts of sin and your indwelling sinful tendencies themselves, progressively counteracting, controlling, overcoming, and eradicating them. Your battle with sin will continue until you get to heaven (1 John 1:8-10), but as you more and more “walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16), are “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), and “quench not [cooperate with His working instead of resisting] the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19), you will joyfully experience more and more victory over sin, so “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).

Prayer is a crucial means the Spirit will use to transform you, making you holy like Jesus Christ.