For many years I tried to find out what is meant by the growth in life. The Bible does emphasize the need for us to grow in life, or for the divine life to grow in us. I could not come to a clear understanding of what this meant or how it could come about, even after studying the Bible, reading various spiritual books, and considering my own experiences.
Now I realize that the real growth in life is the transformation of the soul.
In the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-13), the Lord Jesus speaks of their lamps and their vessels. Both the prudent and the foolish had oil in their lamps (see v. 8), but only the prudent took oil in their vessels. Two portions of oil were needed, one for the lamp and the other for the vessel. Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord” (lit). The virgins’ lamps, then, refer to the spirit. Romans 9:21 and 23 tell us that our being is God’s vessel. This means that our soul is the vessel. Those who are saved all have oil in the lamp; that is, we have the Spirit in our spirit. Whether we have an extra portion of oil in our vessel, however, is another question. While the prudent virgins took oil in their vessels, the foolish did not.
Whether we are foolish or prudent, then, depends not on our spirit but upon our soul. Our spirit has been regenerated, but is our soul now saturated with the Spirit? Do we have the extra portion of oil in our vessel? This is a matter we must seriously consider. Now that we have been regenerated, we need to be transformed; that is, we need to grow in life. To grow is to increase. The life abiding in our spirit needs to spread out into our soul until it is saturated. Otherwise, our soul remains natural and old. As the new elements of the divine Spirit enter into our soul, it is organically transformed. This transformation is the growth in life.
There are many Christians who have virtually no growth in life. This is because the indwelling Spirit has been given no opportunity to spread into their soul and saturate it.
Where does the Scripture indicate that transformation and the growth in life are one and the same? First Corinthians 3 says: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God made to grow....You are God’s farm, God’s building....But if anyone builds on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, stubble, the work of each shall become manifest” (vv. 6, 9, 12-13).
Paul says that we are God’s farm, God’s building. We are here to grow Christ. Paul planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the growth. These terms all pertain to the matter of growth. How is growth the same as transformation? We are also a building, with gold, silver, precious stones. We start out as plants growing on God’s farm, but the end result is gold, silver, and precious stones. Is this not transformation? Frail plants are transformed into such solid things! It is possible, we are warned, for the result to be wood, grass, and stubble, suitable only for burning. Yet we may be transformed into another category, that of gold, silver, and precious stones.
Suppose we take three brothers. They are young, perhaps having only recently come into the church life. We may consider them as plants. One is a small tree, another is a shrub, and the third a tender flower. They are growing on God’s farm, the church. See how delicate they are! They cannot take any kind of harsh treatment or damage. Yet, though they are young, they are growing. The Lord expects that one day this small tree will change into gold, this shrub will become silver, and this flower will be a precious stone.
This flower, this shrub, and this small tree look lovely to us today. Suppose, however, that after three years we find them still the same. They have not grown and been transformed. They may be lovely to look at, but they are not suitable for building material. Can a house be built with flowers? Can a little tree be used for a doorpost? Can a shrub be part of a wall? There could not be such a building! Nor can these be the building materials of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is built of gold with walls of precious stone and gates of pearl. God’s building is not with fragile flowers, delicate shrubs, and tender saplings!
These three brothers all need to change. They need an organic, metabolic transformation. After three years we do not want to find this brother still a flower, lovely to look at but useless for building. We want him to be a precious stone, even though the beautiful blossoms are gone. We want to see this shrub changed into a pearl perhaps, solid and transparent. This tree also needs to be transformed, perhaps into gold as pure as glass.
Dear saints, are you content to be trees, shrubs, and flowers? Or do you long to be precious stones? On this “farm” in Stuttgart, which do you have? I believe you have a variety growing here. There are plants, but also some gold, silver, and precious stones.
This farm that is also a building illustrates the way the indwelling Spirit spreads from our spirit to permeate our soul and thus transforms us.