Do We Grow Into Victory?
Growing in grace is one of the secrets of maintaining the life of victory; without normal growth we shall lose our victory. We do not grow into grace; we grow in it. Receiving the Victorious Life is not a matter of growth.
There are, in many cases, shorter or longer periods of growth that precede the entrance into the life of victory. So far as God is concerned, the Life is a gift and not a growth, and it may be enjoyed at once by any Christian. But the Christian may gradually come to understand what are his privileges in Christ in the matter of victory over sin. Or he may not at once get to the bottom in the surrender of life to the Lord, and God will lead him on as quickly as he will go, to the place of complete surrender and complete faith. This gradual preparation before entering fully into victory must be distinguished from “growth in grace,” which goes on in a normal way only when the Christian is abiding in Christ for victory.
Growth in grace, in the Word of God, never means growth out of sin. There is no suggestion in the New Testament that a Christian is to grow gradually out of sin. Sin is always dealt with through the blood of Christ, and we need the Saviour every moment to keep us cleansed from sin and its defilement. But if it is the blood that cleanses us by grace we are not to eliminate sin gradually by our growth in grace.