Spiritual Maturity

What is spiritual maturity?

Have you thought through who is it that God wants you to be and become?

"We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Cor 3:18

This verse defines for us spiritual maturity; "being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory." Spiritual maturity is to become like Jesus. In other words to be changed to be more and more like Jesus in every area of our lives.

The first part of this verse talks about "unveiled faces." What is this all about? Do you remember when the people of God complained about the radiant face of Moses after he came down the mountain where he met with God?

Spiritual maturity all starts with God having to do His miracle work of removing the veiled face, the old nature, our sinful nature and give us an entirely new nature.

So, what does a spiritually mature person look like? Let's put an image together over the next few weeks.

It starts with our core identity of who we are. Our core identity is either a beloved child of God through the miracle work of Jesus or we are outside of God's family. The Bible describes the latter with words like foreigner, alien, outsider, even enemy of God. When anyone turns to Jesus, confesses their imperfection, selfishness and sin, and asks Jesus to become their Savior and Lord, then and only then, does Jesus do His miraculous work. He changes our core identity. He adopts us into His family. We become children of God. We can enter God's present with "unveiled faces."

Do you remember the conversation that Nicodemus had with Jesus one late night? Jesus explained to him that everyone needs to be born again. That confused Nick. He responded, "How can anyone climb back into their mother's womb." That was Jesus' point. With humans, this is impossible. But, with God, all things are possible. Salvation is a miracle gift only God can give. Jesus is the only Spiritual Surgeon who can remove our selfish, sinful nature. He is the only One who can give us His new nature. 

Remember Jesus' qualifications...
-Miracle birth (human mother and God as His Father)
-Perfect life (Jesus never made a mistake, never missed God's mark, never sinned.)
-Jesus willingly went to the cross and died a sacrificial death that we deserve.
-Jesus rose a victorious resurrection.
He truly is the only qualified person to be able to perform this spiritual surgery.

When did you ask Jesus to be your personal spiritual surgeon?
When was the last time you shared your surgery experience with someone else?
Ask Jesus to give you an opportunity to share your story with someone this week. Invite them to join you at church this week as we talk about Why Is there Suffering and Evil.

Next week we will continue to talk about spiritual maturity.

Thanking the Spiritual Surgeon and seeking to share my story with others,
Pastor Chris