Stuck in the Mud
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.”
2 Peter 3:18 (CSB)
Several years ago, I attended a high school state basketball tournament in a major southern U.S. city. If you have ever attended such an event you know that parking is at a premium. As such, I followed the directions of the venue’s parking attendants who led me to an outlying section of the lot requiring me to hop a curb and park in a grassy area outside the arena. After the game (I don’t remember who played or who won), I made my way back to the car with plans to head straight home after a long day.
Once inside the car, I started it up, put on my seat belt, put the car in drive, and hit the accelerator. To my surprise, I did not move. The engine was revving but I didn’t go anywhere. So, as a guy, what do you think I did? Of course, I repeated the whole process over again hoping for different results (see the definition for idiocy). Guess what? Same outcome. Finally, I opened the door to look around the car. Of course, because you read the title of this article, I found that I was stuck in the mud.
My mind started spinning with possible solutions to my problem when three nice, southern gentlemen walked up and noticed my situation. They politely asked if I needed help, which I quickly admitted that I did. They offered a solution. I was to get back in the car and they would stand behind it and push when I hit the accelerator. Realizing that I had the less strenuous end of the bargain and with few other options, I gladly agreed. So, I got back in, started the car, and on cue pushed the gas pedal down slowly. A second or two later I heard screams coming from behind the car for me to stop. I quickly hit the brake and put the car in park. When I opened the door and looked behind me, I was shocked at what I saw. All three men were covered from head to toe in thick, southern mud! My heart sank. I felt so guilty for agreeing to their help knowing that I had possibly ruined their clothes and their evening.
Now, to their credit, they could have responded in several ways. They could have “creatively” told me what they thought of me and my situation, blamed me and asked for recompense, or simply given up and walked away. But they did none of the above. They simply looked at me in all their earthen glory and said, “Let’s go again”. Eventually, we got the car unstuck and my three willing companions and I made our way to our homes.
Three things I learned from that experience:
We all get stuck at times.
We all need the help of others to move us forward.
Our problems are never just our own. Our “mud” will always get on others.
We all are on a journey to maturity. Whether it is in our thoughts, wills, emotions, or actions, we all have been and are growing to become who we aren’t yet. Unfortunately, there are many times in our lives when we get stuck in our growth. Old, fleshly, bad habits creep in like morning fog and disrupt our growth process. We are constantly tempted to revert to our old ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving when we are threatened or when the world just doesn’t work out the way we want it to. As a result, we embrace ways of living that forever promise peace, prosperity, and happiness, but fall ever short of what they promise. But then the Gospel of Jesus Christ assaults our assumptions and our well-laid plans about what life is really all about. It draws back the curtains of our dark room and shines its unfathomable light on the blindness of all that we have seen as important to our happiness. As a result, it reveals that what we have been pursuing is less than what is being offered and draws us to the point of confession and repentance, leading to a new and more glorious life. Pastor Tim Keller speaks to this point when he says,
“The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God’s sight, they are accepted and righteous. So, we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope — at the very same time. This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. It means that the more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God’s grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin.”
As such, we are to live by a “Christian ethic,” or grow more and more each day as we learn to live and love like Jesus. This happens as we put on the character of Christ and live out the actions of Christ each day.
So, how do we get “unstuck” in our growth in Christ? The Apostle Paul helps us with this in his high-octane letter to the Galatians.
In Galatians 5:16-26, Paul provides specific action steps for living in Christ. Dr. Timothy George sums up Paul’s charge by saying, “What Paul did in the closing chapters of Galatians was to draw out the implications of the doctrine of justification by faith alone and to describe what it meant for the believer who had ‘died to the law’ now to ‘live for God’ (2:19). The energizing principle of Christian ethics, then, is union with Christ and life in the Spirit”.1 As such, Paul provides three steps in moving forward in our spiritual growth.
1. Walk by the Spirit
Paul points out an amazing promise. If we “walk by the Spirit”, we will have victory over the flesh in the warfare of our daily lives. But what does it mean to “walk by the Spirit”? Even though Christ-followers have been set free from slavery to the OT law and sin (5:1), our freedom is constantly under attack. We can be lured to the extremes of legalism (keeping the rules) or libertinism (ignoring the rules) and suffer the consequences of such lifestyles. The danger with legalism is that there is no love expressed toward others. The danger with libertinism is that there is no pursuit of holiness. But true Christian freedom is found in the midst of the battle. It is found in the battle between the two natures that dwell in us; the persistent sinful nature that still dwells in us and the power of the Spirit of God who has redeemed us.
Therefore, we are to walk in the Spirit, “keeping in step with the Spirit” as we grow toward Christlikeness (vs. 25).
2. Deny the flesh
Paul then provides two lists, one of vices and one of virtues. First, he lists the vices that keep us from growing toward Christlikeness. He says, “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (vs. 19-21). So, these areas and other “such things” are not a picture of one who follows Jesus and is growing in Him. Therefore, we are to deny the flesh, pushing back in the power of the Spirit against those things that would hinder our growth in Christ.
3. Grow in fruitfulness
The list of vices above is now contrasted by a list of virtues. These fruits of the Spirit are given by God to believers, calling them to actively live them out in their daily lives in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith-fulness, gentleness, and self-control” (vs. 22-23a). As such, “The law is not against such things” (vs. 23b). In other words, these virtues go beyond the law’s requirements and serve as evidence of a new life in Christ expressed in the power of the Holy Spirit. I have been asked repeatedly by other pastors and ministry leaders how we can quantify spiritual growth. I think there are several answers to this question, but a main one is found right here. We can measure spiritual growth by the increasing amount of fruit that is being evidenced in our lives. Are we becoming more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, etc.? If so, we are becoming more and more like Jesus. A contrary question is, “Where is the hole in our sanctification?”. In other words, which fruit seems to need some more work and nurturing than the others? What is God calling you to do to look more like Jesus in those areas?
So, are you stuck in the mud? Have you considered Paul’s call to a “Christian ethic”? Are you walking by the Spirit, denying the flesh, and growing in fruitfulness? If not, will you seek the Lord, asking Him to do a fresh work in you and to place people in your life to help you out of the mud so that you might move forward? It might be messy, but it will definitely be worth it.
1 Timothy George, Galatians (Christian Standard Commentary), Nashville, Holman Bible Publishers, 2020, 383.
