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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Episode 2 :: Question 1 on Christian Growth and Maturity

11:05 PM | Posted by St. Burnish | Edit Post
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome
Introduction: I want to welcome you today to another special webcast – question & answer – session, and I’m going to endeavor to provide bible answers to some of the questions that we’ve been receiving. And, by the way, we’re getting tremendous responses from all around the world and this is just beautiful.  And, so, right away, I’ll begin addressing these questions, and at the end of this, I’m going to pray for you; so, don’t miss that aspect of the program.


Question 1 – Derrick Fontem (Cameroon): Dear Pastor Chris, God bless your ministry. I would like to know if Christianity has stages one must undergo to become a full-fledged Christian. There is this thing about baby Christians and mature Christians. Is that really true?

Answer 1: Well, um, there are no stages to undergo to become a fully-fledged or full-fledged Christian. There are no stages. You become a full Christian at once when you’re born again. You know, the Bible says, “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away and all things are become new” [2 Corinthians 5:17]. You become a Christian once, and at once when you give your heart to Christ and you receive eternal life into your spirit according to Romans 10:9, “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” And, so that’s the way you receive salvation; and, once you receive salvation, you receive Christ into your heart [and] you receive eternal life. You become a new creation. That’s what makes you a Christian, and you become a full Christian. Just like when a child is born, he’s a full human being [see?] He’s not part human being or partial human being. He doesn’t have to grow to become a full-fledged human being. See, we’re dealing with natures here; so, you become a full-fledged Christian once you’re born again.

But, then, like you said, there is this thing about baby Christians and mature Christians. Yes, there is! The Bible does talk about it. In 1st Peter 2:2 [I want to quickly read something to you], “as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” You see that, which means there is growth, growth in Christianity. When you receive Christ, you start out your life like a newborn baby; so, spiritually, it’s the same thing…you start out your life like a newborn baby [quotes 1 Peter 2:2 again]. So you grow from there; the more you learn the Word, the more you study the Word of God, the more you practice the Word of God, the more you grow. And, so that’s what the Bible talks about.

Again, that’s why we’re given ministers. There are ministry gifts given to the church – the body of Christ – to help us develop. I’m going to read that to you from the book of Ephesians Chapter 4, starting from verse 11: “and he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; or the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ [Ephesians 4:11-13].” See that? So, this all has to do with growth and development. In verse 14, it says “that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.” So, he expects us to grow into Christ. And, when he says to grow up in Him in all things, he doesn’t mean that we’re now coming into Christ afresh, but that in Christ, we grow. So, that’s what he’s talking about. So, there is the reality of what you talked about – baby Christians and mature Christians, but mature Christians are not people who have been in Christ for a long time. It is those people who have grown in Christ; they’ve grown in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In fact, 2nd Peter Chapter 3 talks about that [and, I’ll like to read that to you from the Bible] from verse 18; it says, “But, grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen [2 Peter 3:18].” Then also, when you study in 1 Corinthians Chapter 3 [beginning from Chapter 2 actually]…Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 does talk about carnal Christians and spiritual Christians, baby Christians, and so on. If you also go into the first epistle of Saint John, you read in Chapter 2, it does talk about ‘children’, then it says ‘young men’ and then ‘fathers’, so there are stages in Christianity, but you are a full-fledged Christian from the day you’re born again. You are as much a Christian as a mature person who has been in Christ for many years and who has grown maturely, you see. So, you’re a full-fledged Christian like a baby in the natural world is a full-fledged human being like any adult but needing to grow so that he can live the full life – live life to the full [better put that way]. 


Watch full episode 2 [June 2, 2009] video here!
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