There are several verses in the New Testament that speak of our growing in the Lord. Most Christians understand we are to grow in the Lord.

But what does it mean to grow in the Lord? And how important is it?

If any person be in Christ there is a new creation in which the old nature has passed away and every part of the new personality is of God.

Obviously scriptural! But what does this have to do with the grace of salvation? Aren't we "saved by grace"?

God's purpose in providing a new covenant is to create people who are new creatures, meaning creatures who keep His commandments. God has given us grace with the idea that the sins we have committed will be put behind God's back and we can start off fresh. We don't have to worry about the Law of Moses. And we have God's Spirit and the body and blood of Jesus to help us keep God's commandments.

But we have perverted the program. We have introduced the thought of a "dispensation of grace," the idea being we no longer have to keep God's commandments.

There is no such thing as a "dispensation of grace." There is a new covenant but there is no dispensation of grace meaning we don't have to keep God's commandments. This whole business of a special Gentile dispensation of grace that forgives us so we can "go to Heaven" without becoming a new creation is a huge, huge, huge deception. The concept of a dispensation of grace has perverted God's intention under the new covenant.

There is a grace of forgiveness apart from keeping the Law of Moses. And then there is grace for growth—growth into the moral image of the Lord.

To grow in Christ means to grow in the ability to distinguish between good and evil and to have the desire and ability to choose the good and reject the evil. This is a major part of the image of Christ.

Until we make progress in the ability to reject the evil and choose the good we are babies. God loves His babies but they are about as useful in the Kingdom as a monkey in a machine shop.

The grace of God under the new covenant includes forgiveness but especially the Divine Virtue that enables us to grow in Christ each day.

To view grace as a special "dispensation" in which God forgives people and brings them to Paradise in an unchanged state is to completely misunderstand what Christianity and salvation are all about.

The primary meaning of being saved is being kept from destruction in the Day of the Lord. It signifies you will have an opportunity to continue in the program of re-creating man in the image of God. After you are saved, whether it is today or in the Day of the Lord, you are to begin the program of transformation. If you do not, if you do not begin to bear the fruit of the likeness of the Lord, you will be cut out of the Vine.

Is all of this actually true and scriptural?

Unfortunately yes!