Christian Adulthood in the Bible
The Big Idea: God has always wanted being born again to lead into growing up again.
The message that Jesus transforms adulthood shouldn’t be surprising. Just as the Bible testifies that God wants everyone to be born again, it also testifies that he wants us to grow up again.
From the beginning of the Bible to the end, God is never satisfied with his people merely gaining entrance to his way. He wants his people to follow his way, to grow in his way, to be shaped by his way. He wants to see us saved, sanctified, and glorified. He wants us to share his life. Christian adulthood is all about this reality: God’s desire for our fullest flourishing.
Four Key Passages
Though the call to Christian adulthood is a consistent implication in the Bible, it is most clearly and explicitly described in four passages from Paul and the author to the Hebrews. Let’s briefly consider each in turn.
PASSAGE #1
Colossians 1:28-29
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
This passage is as close to a mission statement or purpose statement as we get from Paul about his apostolic ministry to the churches he oversaw. Once a church was founded and people had converted, Paul turned himself with Spirit-powered toil and struggle toward their Christian adulthood. He was not aiming for bare salvation, but for growth into the fulness of God’s life.
The Big Idea: Paul describes Christian maturity as the purpose of his apostolic work.
PASSAGE #2
Ephesians 4:11-16
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
The purpose of the spiritual gifts that God doles out to the church is to lead Christians out of Christian childishness and into Christian adulthood. This adulthood is characterized by steady-mindedness, by Christlikeness, by knowledge of Christ, by the comprehension of the unity of the faith, by truth-speaking, and by love. This process is everlasting, because it will not be finished until we reach the fulness of the stature of Christ, which is infinite.
The Big Idea: The reason God gives gifts to his church is so that we, its members, may leave childish Christianity behind and enter the full maturity of Christ.
PASSAGE #3
Hebrews 5:11-6:12
About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Here, the author to the Hebrews chastises the readers for their childish Christianity. They have not trained themselves to have powers of discernment. They have not moved past elementary principles of Christian doctrine and practice. And the author makes it clear: as a result, they are in serious danger. Childish Christianity is liable to lead to apostasy. In order to avoid the foolishness of childish Christianity and the danger of apostasy, the author calls the readers to imitate saintly Christians, and to hope in Christ with earnestness, rejecting sluggishness.
The Big Idea: Childish Christianity is a real threat to God’s people, one that blocks them from discerning the truth and growing in the faith.
PASSAGE #4
1 Corinthians 13:9-12
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
The fullest life in the kingdom of God – the New Earth life – is compared to adulthood. Just as adulthood is better than childhood, the new life that Christ will inaugurate will be better than the life that we now know. Just as we get to leave childhood to enter adulthood, Christians get to leave behind partial, obscured Christianity for fuller and fuller nearness to God.
The Big Idea: Christian adulthood finds its fulfillment and its model in the sanctified and glorified life that we will experience with King Jesus on the New Earth.
Conclusion
The purpose of apostolic ministry, and of all the spiritual gifts that God gives to his church, is for every member of the church to grow up in Christ, into the fulness of his life, leaving behind the dangers of childish Christianity until we are all gathered home into the brightness of Jesus’ unresisted kingdom.
Christian youth need to hear about this fuller, brighter faith as they decide whether to make the faith their own. They need a clear, beautiful, glorious invitation into Christian adulthood.
If we want to participate in the purposes of God and his church, there is no alternative way. If we want to meet youth in the context of our cultural confusion about adulthood and all the harms it causes, then there is no more compelling message we could use.
Now, with clear eyes about the difficulties we face, with an understanding of the true nature of adulthood, with our spiritual purposes clear, and with a sound biblical foundation, we can begin to discuss the practices and methods that will best advance our aims. In the next essay, we’ll consider four key practices for offering youth liberty, authority, identity, and mystery in all three aspects of adulthood: internal adulthood, social adulthood, and Christian adulthood.
If we keep our eyes on our goal and wisely shape our ministry to match them, we’ll see renewal in the rising generations.
FOR FURTHER STUDY
The Four Pillars of Adulthood in the Bible
When you consider CAI’s definition of adulthood — liberty, authority, identity, and mystery — the Bible has even more to say about Christian adulthood. Here are some great passages to help you dive in.
Liberty
Galatians 5 - Christ has set us free for freedom, but we don’t always live like it. Living in freedom by the Spirit distinguishes Christian adulthood from childish Christianity.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 - As we grow up in Christ, we are being transformed until we arrive at the glory of the freedom of the Spirit of the Lord.
Ephesians 4:11-16 - Growing up in Christ liberates us from the shifting storms of culture, human cunning, and error.
1 Peter 2:16 - Jesus has set his people free, but we still need to learn to live as people who are free.
James 1:22-25 - Christians are called to persevere into the law of liberty.
Authority
Matthew 10, Luke 9:1-6, 10:1-20 - After they had followed him for a while, Jesus gave his disciples a share of his authority in order to complete the work he had for them.
1 Corinthians 6:2-3 - Christians are destined to judge angels. God wants to hand over more and more authority to us as we grow up in Christ.
Luke 19:11-27 - God expects us to be good stewards of the gifts he has given us, and eager to reward those who are good stewards with even more authority.
Titus 2 - Paul instructs Titus in how to use the authority that God has given him.
1 Corinthians 12 - Christians receive power from God to minister on his behalf. But this is not just a passive thing. We are called to “earnestly desire the higher gifts.” Rather than staying put, we should grow up in Christ.
James 5:16 - Effective prayer is correlated to growth in righteousness.
Hebrews 5:11-13 - The writer is disappointed that the readers have not gained greater maturity and ability to discern God’s way.
Colossians 1:9-12 - Paul longs to see the Colossian Christians grow up into the power and knowledge that God has for them.
Ephesians 3:14-21 - Paul prays that the Ephesian Christians may grow up into the power and knowledge that God has for them.
Identity
Ephesians 5:1-21 - We are God’s children, but we must still learn to live like it. Living in the light of our true identity is the sign of Christian adulthood.
Romans 8:12-17 - Our adoption by the Spirit must increasingly be reflected in our lives.
Revelation 2:17 - One of the rewards God has for his people is the knowledge of their true name.
1 Peter 2:1-12 - Our citizenship in God’s kingdom makes us strangers and foreigners in every human society. We must learn to live like it.
Colossians 3:1-17 - We are raised with Christ and beloved by God, but we must grow up in Christ until we really act like it.
Hebrews 2:5-18 - Jesus became like us so that we could become like him, our Brother.
Mystery
Ephesians 4:11-16 - Mature Christians are steady and grounded in an uncertain world.
1 Corinthians 13:9-13 - We’re in a cloudy world, grounded by love, and someday God’s going to make everything clear, when we grow up into him.
Colossians 1:9-12 - Paul longs to see the Colossian Christians grow up into the power and knowledge that God has for them.
Ephesians 3:14-21 - Paul prays that the Ephesian Christians may grow up into the power and knowledge that God has for them.
Romans 8:18-30 - Our endurance through suffering, which already seems so much bigger than us, prepares us for much greater glories in which we will live.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 - We are being transformed from one degree of glory to another, made more and more capable of standing up in the presence of the vast beauty of God.
Jude 1:17-25 - In a world of confusion and doubt, Christians are called to abide in the prayer and teaching of the Spirit and we’re lifted into the greater glories of God.
2 Peter 1:1-11 - God has called us to share his own glory and excellence, ever increasing.
2 Thessalonians 2:13-15 - God sanctifies us so that we may obtain his glory.
