(Established Through His Atonement, Growing in the Life We Receive)
We may recognize that our acceptance before God rests upon Christ and still approach spiritual growth as something we must accomplish from ourselves. Chambers directs us to the atonement through which communion becomes possible. Spurgeon asks us to consider whether the life we have received is finding fuller expression.
The Communion We Could Never Establish
Chambers writes:
“Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is accomplished only through the magnificent atonement of Christ.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
The foundation of sanctification lies in what God has accomplished through His Son. We could never bring ourselves into communion with the Father through the refinement of our natural capacities. Greater discipline cannot remove sin or open the way into His presence.
Christ has opened that way.
Hebrews connects our sanctification with the offering of Jesus Christ and our access to God with His shed blood (Hebrews 10:10, 19–22). Our approach begins with a provision already made. We draw near because the Son has made reconciliation possible.
This gives proper meaning to Chambers’s language of oneness. Jesus prayed that those who believe through the apostles’ word would be one in the Father and Son (John 17:20–23). Such communion does not erase the distinction between God and those He has redeemed. We remain receivers of grace, brought through Christ into fellowship with the Father.
The atonement therefore reaches beyond relief from guilt. The One through whom we are reconciled also brings us into a life of abiding communion. We belong to Him, and the life we receive in Him begins to shape our desires, judgments, and responses.
When Growth Seems to Stand Still
Spurgeon writes:
“Many Christians remain stunted and dwarfed in spiritual things, so as to present the same appearance year after year.” (Morning and Evening)
These words invite honest examination. Familiarity with Christian language can increase while our responsiveness to God remains little changed. We may know how to describe dependence while continuing to defend our own direction.
Yet spiritual growth cannot be measured simply by increased activity, stronger emotions, or greater confidence in speaking about faith. A person may become more accomplished in religious things while remaining unwilling to receive correction.
Jesus locates fruitfulness in abiding in Him (John 15:4–5). Growth proceeds through continuing reception of the life He gives. Peter likewise directs believers toward the nourishment by which they grow, having tasted the Lord’s graciousness (1 Peter 2:2–3).
The grace first received remains the grace upon which we depend.
Spurgeon’s warning should not become a reason to despise slow or quiet growth. Some of its clearest expressions appear in ordinary moments: an injury acknowledged without excuse, a resentment relinquished, a difficult truth received, or another person heard with patience. What once met only resistance begins to meet a willing response.
Receiving More Fully What Has Been Given
Chambers and Spurgeon belong together here. The atonement establishes the ground of our communion; growth concerns the unfolding expression of the life received within it.
We do not outgrow dependence upon Christ. We grow in it.
The Holy Spirit operates upon the human spirit, forming responsiveness to the Father and bringing the character revealed in Jesus into fuller expression. As Scripture exposes our self-direction, we can receive that searching without treating correction as rejection. The Father’s grace gives us reason to turn toward Him honestly.
This morning, we may recognize a familiar place of resistance. We need neither conceal it nor answer it with another promise of independent strength. We can bring it before the Father through the Son, trusting the mercy that has opened the way.
The life given in Christ has room to bear further fruit in us. Our hope rests in His sufficiency, and our response is to remain open to what we receive from Him.