Gary Gilley: Growing in Christ, Working Our Salvation Out

by | Jun 5, 2020 | American Church, Apologetics, Christian Growth, Discernment, Discipleship, Gospel, Podcast | 0 comments

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TODAY’S GUEST: Dr. Gary Gilley has been pastoring at Southern View Chapel in Springfield, Illinois, since 1975. He is author of seven books including This Little Church Went to Market, This Little Church Stayed Home, ‘‘I Just Wanted More Land,’’ – Jabez, “Is That You Lord?”, This Little Church Had None, and Out of Formation.  

His brand new book is called Growing in Christ: Laying the Foundations of Christian MaturityHe has also contributed to five other books, Reforming or Conforming, Biblical Sufficiency Applied, Practical Aspects of Pastoral Theology, Dispensationalism Tomorrow & Beyond, a Tribute to Charles Ryrie, and An Introduction to the New Covenant. 

Pastor Gilley is a frequent speaker at Bible conferences and writes at Think on These Things Ministries, which examines important contemporary theological issues and trends.  Today we to look at Christian maturity and sanctification in the life of the disciple of Jesus Christ, as well as the delicate balance of Christians working with the Holy Spirit in this lifelong process. 

Growing in Christ: Laying the Foundations for Christian Maturity (2020, Grace Acres Press) is Gilley’s newest book. While salvation is wholly a work of the Lord, requiring only faith and not our personal efforts, such is not true of sanctification, or spiritual growth. Rather, both God and the believer play vital, sometimes overlapping roles, in our progress toward maturity. Maturity is the result of human response to the enablement of God. It is initiated by God and requires a radical dependence upon the grace and power of the Spirit as we work out our salvation. This manual is designed to aid the children of God in the process of working out their salvation through the power and energy that God supplies. By the Lord’s grace, may it accomplish this purpose in your life.

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13

“From this text, we learn that the Christian life is very much a two-sided coin. While salvation is wholly a work of the Lord, requiring only faith and not our personal efforts, such is not true of sanctification, or spiritual growth.” -Pastor Gary Gilley