Maturity

[HKHaugan]

Maturity 

A key word to Jesus being the way, truth and life is ‘maturity.’  That means how His mind thought right, how His heart had a right attitude and how His Spirit motivated Him to live every moment according to His Father’s will.  His maturity was capped by His perfect faith.   As images of God we look to Him as the perfect Image of God (Jn.1:1, Col.1:15, Heb.1:3).  His mind, heart and Spirit are right, perfectly right and in perfect balance.  He is where we start.  Made in His image (Gen.1:26) we have the same structure, but sin separated us from Him.  So, we need to return to Him in order to become mature.  Let’s spell that out.

 The mind

The mind is our perceptive, reasoning and analyzing center.  What it perceives it analyzes based on what it uses for beliefs and principles.  We need His perception and reasoning.

The heart

The heart is where the reasoning process is sifted attitudinally. We need His attitude (Spiritude).

The spirit

The spirit is the servant of the mind and heart governing personal behavior.  We need the Holy Spirit’s motivation.

 Without God these are governed by the fear-centeredness of sin.  Life is all about ‘me fitting into the world.’

With God, faith in Jesus replaces sin’s self-centeredness as we trust Him to direct the traffic of our lives through the Scriptures inspired by the Holy Spirit living in our heart.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus spiritually maturing us.

  In all three, the mind, heart and spirit, there are only two choices for maturity, the world’s or God’s.  It is either secular maturity or spiritual maturity.  Secular maturity is governed by the attitudes and opinions of others, the culture, plus trial and error propelled by fear of not fitting in to the social environment we are in at any moment.  The world has standards that are impersonal, changing and unforgiving. 

 For us who believe in God it is far more practical.  Remember, Jesus’ baptism fulfilled Scripture, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature with God and man (Lk.2:52).”  Baptism was the sign He was fully mature.  The Father said so (Mt.3:15-17).  Therefore, He is the way we measure where we are in our maturity.  His love, His truth, His grace and His faith pave our way as we relate to Him.  God’s standards are personal, relational and unchanging.

 Jesus’ life is the fulfillment of what it means to live as a mature person.  His teachings and miracles  glorified His Father in all His choices, decisions and behavior.  The Cross was the crowning achievement of His maturity and the Resurrection was the proof that His way of maturity was the only way to for human beings to recover theirs.  His mission for which He was born started at His Baptism.  He had fulfilled what it meant to be right.  The descending dove was the visible assurance of His maturity, the Holy Spirit His power.  He had been conceived by, grew in, and was filled with the Spirit.  He was ready to be the Light of the world, the Good Shepherd, the Gate for the Sheep, Redeemer, Forgiver, Miracle Worker, Teacher, Healer, Evangelist and Savior.  There was no hesitation in Jesus when He said He was the Resurrection and the Life (Jn.11:25).

 Again, there is an important contrast here between spiritual and secular maturity: 

 For Jesus, maturity was spiritual.  Baptism illustrated His completed spiritual maturity in a human body (Mt.3:15). Thus, He thought spiritually, was moved in His heart to trust the Spirit’s guidance, and then acted by His spiritual faith.  He was the perfect image of God in the flesh, the perfectly right Person in all He said and did as He served His Father and us.  To relate with and follow Him is to mature.

 Worldly maturity is quite the opposite.  It is a fear driven survival within the world where everything is defensively self-serving.  Nothing spiritual about it.  Survival, through secular values of success and recognition, is defined by their visible trophies. Sin’s self-centeredness reigns.

 For us, Baptism is leaving the secular mindset of self-elevation through material success.  Baptism is the beginning of becoming spiritually mature.  Accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord is the shift from fear to faith, thinking, relating and acting spiritually.  Salvation is the process of spiritually maturing, the Holy Spirit leading the way. If there is material success it is used to serve the Lord and others.  We are images of God in recovery.  So, Jesus’ Baptism showed His completed spiritual maturity.  Our Baptism is the beginning of our spiritual maturity.

What the spiritually mature Jesus accomplished is our inheritance.  We grow and flourish as His witnesses in a growing maturing relationship with Him.  He is the Savior and Lord of our personal maturity.