05/22/24 PURITY and MATURITY

05/22/24 PURITY and MATURITY

People often confuse MATURITY with PURITY. It is not only the sound of the words, it is the use of the words in Christian parlance.

Spiritual MATURITY is the development and progress made by Christians through growth in grace. This should take place with aging. Sometimes maturity comes more quickly because of challenging circumstances. Some temperaments or personality types are more suited for maturing than others, but barring any abnormalities or handicaps, everyone should be able to mature, and if a person is faithful in his Christian life, he will mature.

Spiritual PURITY is a state of total cleansing from all sin, which Christians experience through the infilling of the Holy Spirit, as we are told in Acts 15:8-9. In the passage, Peter said that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was the same for the Gentile believers as it had been for the Jewish believers in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost.
Acts 15:8-9
8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;
9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

Purity of heart is God's instantaneous work of grace, which cleanses a Christian from the Old Man, the Carnal Mind, the Double Mind, the Law of Sin (the Body of this Death or the Law of Sin and Death), which are various Biblical names for the Sinful Nature, the Adamic Nature (extra Biblical names).

The basic order of salvation experience is...
God calling us to salvation.
Faith, Repentance, Submission.

LIFE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT BEGINS
Clean Hands (what we do).
Conversion: Justification (forgiveness), Regeneration, Sanctification (cleansing from past sins and of guilty conscience and of current behavior), Adoption, Partaker of the Holy Spirit.
Growth in Grace (through obedient faith, prayer, study of God's word).

FULLNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BEGINS
Pure Heart (what we are).
Growth in Grace continues.
God's call to total surrender.
Faith in His power to Entirely Sanctify our heart (to be made pure, even as He is pure.
Holy Spirit's Fullness (purifying, empowering).
Life in the Spirit.

Maturity should lead to Purity, but maturity does not purify us.
Maturity is limited by the absence of Purity.
Purity leads to greater maturing, but purity does not take the place of maturing.
Maturity is more concerned with quantity.
Purity is more concerned with quality.

Conversion is the presence of God in the Christian's life, bringing light, life, love, peace, joy.
Entire Sanctification is the presence of God's fullness in the Christian life and the absence of inherent uncleanness.
To Sanctify is to separate from sin and to separate to God and to make holy.
Entire Sanctification has been described as something we approach gradually, entered into suddenly and grow in forever.
Conversion is deliverance from the fruit of sin.
Entire Sanctification is deliverance from the root of sin.
Conversion is the New Birth of the believer.
Entire Sanctification is the purifying of the believer.
Conversion is the forgiveness and cleansing of sins committed.
Entire Sanctification is the deliverance from inherent sinful disposition.

The word, "salvation" can refer to the conversion experience of the believer, but it can also refer to the ongoing condition of the believer.

The New Convert is saved from sins committed and saved from the power of sin to rule in his life.
The Entirely Sanctified is saved from the continuing inner struggle with his inherited sinful nature.

Conversion provides love, Entire Sanctification provides abounding love.
Conversion provides peace with God, Entire Sanctification provides the very peace of God ruling in our hearts.
Conversion provides joy, Entire Sanctification provides joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Conversion provides assurance of faith, Entire Sanctification provides full assurance of faith.

We cannot be perfect in maturity, as God is perfect, but we can be perfect in purity, as God is perfect.

When God cleanses us from all sin (as the Bible clearly teaches) we can be filled with His Spirit.

Our fullness is limited by our capacity. We cannot have the quantity of God's love and purity, which God has, but we can have the same kind of love and purity that God has.

Remember, the Bible tells us to be pure, even as He is pure; to be holy, as He is holy; to be righteous, as He is righteous, and to love with the same perfect love, with which He loves.