Col. 1:28 Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man full-grown in Christ;

Col. 2:19 And not holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.

 

In Romans 6:5 Paul says that “we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death.” Now we are growing with Christ in the likeness of His resurrection.

GRAFTING AND GROWTH

Baptism is not a lifeless ritual; it is an experience that is very much related to life and growth. Whenever we baptize believers, we should help them realize that in baptism they will grow together with Christ, because they have been grafted into the crucified and resurrected Christ. Christ’s crucifixion provided an opening in Him for us to be grafted into Him, and His resurrection ushers us into the process of growth. Now that we have been grafted into Christ, we should grow in Him day by day.

In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul also speaks of growth. In verse 9 he points out that the believers are God’s farm. In verse 6 he says, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the growth” (Gk.). This implies that the saints are plants in God’s farm. In the church, God’s farm, we are plants growing.

The concept of growing like plants is also found in Romans 11, where Paul uses the illustration of grafting a branch from a wild olive tree into a cultivated olive tree. In the eyes of God, we all are plants, or trees. In Romans 6:5 Paul uses a particular Greek word to indicate growth. It is very difficult to find an English equivalent for this word, which means to grow by being planted or grafted. Both planting and grafting are for growth. A tree is planted in the soil so that it may grow. Likewise, the purpose of grafting is growth. Recently, a brother pointed out a marvelous definition of this Greek word found in Commentary on Romans by Frederick Louis Godet. According to Godet (p. 243), the word denotes “the organic union in virtue of which one being shares the life, growth, and phases of existence belonging to another.” Through the organic union of two plants, accomplished by grafting, the one plant partakes of the life and characteristics of the other plant. What a wonderful way of growth! Applying this definition to our spiritual experience, we may say that we have been grafted into the “tree” of the all-inclusive, life-giving, processed Triune God, who is the all-inclusive Spirit. Having become one with Him through grafting, we now partake of the life and characteristics of this all-inclusive One, and in this way we grow.

ROOTED IN THE LIVING LAND

In the book of Colossians there are implications that believers are to grow like plants rooted in the soil. In order to understand the Bible, we need to understand both the direct meaning of the words and also the implications. Sometimes the revelation expressed through the implications of a verse is deeper than that conveyed in the direct statements. This is true of Colossians 2:6 and 7. Verse 7 speaks of our “having been rooted” in Christ. This implies that, in God’s eyes, we are plants. Those who have been baptized into Christ are plants rooted in Christ.

The phrase “having been rooted and being built up in Him” is related to those who are walking in the preceding verse. We are to walk in Christ, having been rooted and being built up in Him. This means that we are to walk by having been rooted in Christ. If we have not been rooted in Him, we cannot walk in Him. As living plants, we are walking plants. We walk by being rooted in Christ. What wonderful, mysterious plants Christians are! We are plants who both walk and grow.

GROWING WITH THE INCREASE OF GOD

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.

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.