My burden in this message is to help the saints see what the genuine growth in life is. Growth is not a matter of becoming refined instead of crude. To grow in life is to grow with the growth of God. It is to grow with the increase of God. True growth is the increase of God, the addition of God. In Himself, God does not need to grow. He is eternal, perfect, and complete. However, there is the need for God to grow in us. How much of the Triune God do you have within you? Do you not need more of the increase, the addition, of God within you? We all need the increase of God. We need to grow with the growth of God; that is, we need God to increase, to grow, in us. I repeat, in Himself God cannot grow and does not need to grow, but it is necessary for God to grow in us.
In order to have genuine growth, we must first be rooted in Christ, our good land. This implies that Christ is our soil, our earth. Otherwise, how could we be rooted in Him? We are plants rooted in Christ as the soil. Therefore, Christ, the processed, all-inclusive Triune God, is our land. Praise the Lord that we have been planted! Having been planted into Christ, we are now rooted in the living Christ who is our good land.
From 1:12 we see that Christ is the portion of the saints. As we have previously pointed out, the Greek word rendered portion actually means a lot, a tract of land. Christ as our portion is our lot. This means that He is the good land to the saints. After the children of Israel entered into the land of Canaan and took possession of it, they all received their portion, their allotment, of the land. Today our lot is Christ. This lot, this portion, is the soil in which we are rooted.
Christ is the fertile soil in which we, the plants, are growing. This soil is living and moving. Because we have been rooted into Christ as such a living soil, we move when He moves, for we walk in Him. Thus, our walking is not actually ours; it is His. Such a walking in Christ as the good land is also our growing. To grow is to walk in this way. Therefore, when we walk in Christ, we grow in Him.
As a tree grows, it absorbs water and nourishing elements from the soil in which it is rooted. A tree grows by absorbing the riches from the soil. As these riches are absorbed by the tree, they become the increase of the tree. The tree grows with the increase of the riches from the soil. In like manner, we are living plants rooted in Christ as our soil. Christ is moving, and because we are in Him, we walk as He moves. However, those Christians who have no heart to seek the Lord do not walk when Christ moves. They do not cooperate with Him in His moving. But as those who love the Lord and pursue Him, we should always cooperate with Him and say “Amen” whenever He moves. We should be very active and aggressive in Him. Through this experience of walking in Christ we absorb the riches of Christ.
Our walking in Christ is the cooperation we render to Him in His activity. By cooperating with Him in this way, we spontaneously absorb His riches into our being. What we absorb of Christ into us—the element of the riches of Himself as the soil—becomes the increase of God within us. Our land is Christ, and Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God. Therefore, the land is the Triune God. This means that when we absorb the riches of the soil, we absorb the riches of the Triune God. Actually, we absorb the Triune God Himself. Through this absorption, we take more of God into us. This increase of God within us is what we mean by the growth of God.
We are living plants rooted into the Triune God. Now our roots are absorbing the riches of the Triune God into us. As a result, God is added into our being. This addition of the riches of the soil within us is our growth.
About three years ago, we planted some trees around our house. In these three years, the trees have grown very much. This growth has been the increase of the riches of the soil. By the roots of the trees, the riches from the soil have been brought into the trees and absorbed by them. The trees are continually absorbing the riches of the soil. In this way these riches become the very element for the increase of the trees. In this way the trees grow. This is a picture, an illustration, of the genuine growth in spiritual life. It also shows us the way to grow.
We praise the Lord that after years of wandering without a goal, so many of us are now rooted in Christ. It is a blessing to be rooted in Christ in the church life. Once we have been rooted in the church, we are not easily uprooted. We cannot even uproot ourselves. Some who tried to give up the church life because something had made them unhappy found that their efforts were not successful. They had been rooted, and they could not be uprooted. Instead of trying to uproot ourselves, we should be subdued by the Lord and allow Him to live in us.
When we realize that we have been rooted in Him, we shall automatically walk in Him. According to 2:6 and 7, the rooting must precede the walking. Having been rooted in Christ, we now walk in Him. We simply remain in Christ, and He does the walking. Thus, His walking becomes our walking.
Spiritual things cannot fully be explained. Only through experience can they be apprehended adequately. From our experience we realize that when Christ moves, we walk in Him. Then the roots embedded in the soil absorb the riches of the Triune God into our being. Through the addition of God in us, we then grow with the growth of God.