May 15, 2025 - 2 Peter 3:17,18 - "Growth in Grace"

2 Peter 3:17,18

"Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen."

In the closing verses of his second epistle, the apostle Peter exhorts believers with a solemn warning and a gracious encouragement. This exhortation is directed not toward earning favor with God, but as the fruit of His electing love and preserving grace. Peter reminds the “beloved”—those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world—that while false teachers abound and many fall into error, God's redeemed people are called to spiritual vigilance and continual growth.

"To grow in grace" is NOT to increase in God's favor toward us—His grace is free, sovereign, and unchanging—but rather to grow in our experience, understanding, and dependence upon that grace already given in Christ. It is to be more deeply rooted in the unmerited favor that chose us, redeemed us, and keeps us. Growth in grace is evidence of life in Christ, wrought by the Spirit, not the effort of the flesh.

"To grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" is to grow in the heart’s apprehension of Who He is and what He has done for His people. It is not merely intellectual, but spiritual knowledge—seeing Christ more clearly as the One who bore our sins, fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf as His elect, and ever lives to make intercession for us. This knowledge is by the particular, personal, intimate, and transforming grace of God, produced by the Spirit through the Word.

First, to grow in grace is to mature in our understanding of our need of grace. It's like how our children grow. We keep looking for that maturity in the way that they think, act and speak. In the end, that's when we come to say they have really grown up. They haven't changed as far as their nature is concerned. They are who they are, but they have matured in how they use those faculties that the Lord has given to them. That is a very good illustration of how we mature in our understanding and need of grace. It's not that we sin less, but our understanding of sin, prayerfully, as we grow in grace would become more clear and vital. The closer we get to the Light, as the Lord teaches us by His Spirit, the more we see our own sinfulness. We are drawn to the Lord Jesus in humility of grace. There's a clear understanding of our need.

If we were in our experience and mind and walk and talk growing more and more in holiness, sinning less and less, what would be the need of the throne of grace? As we grow, we understand our need, "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:14-15). Is there ever a time when we don't need Christ? Is there ever a time His blood shed is less necessary now than when we first believed? There has been a Man Who lived in sinless perfection, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. But all others that He came to represent still have that sin nature, and therefore the need to grow in grace. And that's why verse Hebrews 4:16 says, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Boldly doesn't mean presumptuously, but it means not doubting. It means believing that this One, the Lord Jesus Christ, is our only Hope. And we come to Him based upon what He has said in His Word. ""All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). Who is He calling to come? Not the righteous, but sinners.

Second, to grow in grace, we increasingly know and feel our need of the Lord Jesus, not just our understanding and knowledge of our sin. It's again, the word even, because in the original language, that's how that little three-letter word chi can be translated, but grow in grace even the knowledge of the LORD Jesus. And you notice "in" is an italic, so there's no preposition in the original. It speaks of growing grace, even the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's equating the growing in grace with the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. To grow in grace is to increasingly know, learn of Christ, and grow in Him in all manner, whether in our walk, life, or worship. As we're taught of Christ by His Spirit, there's that growth and that maturity. When you talk about the grace of God, it could be that Power of the Spirit that the Lord puts within one of His own, that He's chosen, and Christ is redeemed. Much like a grain of mustard seed, there is that growing and that maturing, similar to taking a seed and sowing it in the ground. The seed is sown in nothing but dirt, yet if you water it and cultivate it, the next thing you know, it grows into a mature tree or produces fruit in its time.

Third, to grow in grace is to mature in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and His grace? Through His Word. As the Lord is pleased to teach us the Gospel, what it shows is that our knowledge, even the best of it, as long as we're in this flesh, is imperfect. Therefore, we need to grow in grace, even in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Can we say at any time that we have all knowledge? This book is about Christ. It's about that great work of redemption that He accomplished for sinners. As the Lord has opened our eyes in regeneration to see Him, He causes us to cry out to Him for mercy and grace, yet that cry is not the end. It's the beginning, just like a baby's cry is the beginning. It's an indication of life. So there's a cry toward Christ. We never stop growing, just like we never stop needing to eat or needing to exercise. There's always the need to grow.

"We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;" (2 Thessalonians 1:3). These are terms that read we in the epistles: that your hope may abound, that love may increase, that patience may have its perfect work. These are all ways of knowing our need of growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who is the Object of faith? It's Christ. So to grow in faith is to grow in that knowledge of the One Who is face of it.