Have you ever considered the great importance of whatʼs attached to a name?

At the extraordinary moment of birth, a child is given a name. On the special day that a bride enters into marriage with her groom, she often adopts as her own the family name of her beloved husband. Every school, business, sports team, and virtually everything else chooses a name to be known by. Why is that?

The reason is that there is something very significant attached to a name: meaning! We often choose names for children to reflect something meaningful to us, or to attribute a meaningful characteristic to the child. A bride receives her husbandʼs last name to tell the world that she is beautifully united to one person, even to the point of sharing a name. You get the point!

So in this inaugural post at Maturing Life in Christ, we will answer the question, “Whatʼs the meaning of your name, Maturing Life in Christ?”

The Source

Before explaining the meaning of the name, letʼs begin with the source of the name. In Colossians 1:28, the Apostle Paul writes this:

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

The Apostle Paul was dedicated to preaching the good news (gospel) of the life, death, and resurrection of the resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ. This passage, very interestingly, actually gives a motive behind the preaching of this glorious message. That motive is this: that people may be presented as mature in Christ.

The Apostle Paul preached the message of the gospel because he knew that many would hear and believe. When a person believes in (or trusts in) Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they are forgiven of all of their sins and no longer under any condemnation! Since Jesus fully received the judgment of all who believe in Him while He was on the cross, there is no fear of being punished by the Lord for all who believe. Jesus took care of it all!

Jesus is a complete Savior, accomplishing our salvation in every respect.Click To Tweet

Remarkably, the perfect, sinless record of Christ (His righteousness) is given to those who are united to Him by faith, and it is this righteousness that provides our entrance into His presence forevermore! Jesus is a complete Savior, accomplishing our salvation in every respect. It is this glorious message that Paul was zealous to preach to the world.

Notice that Paul was eager to see sinners repent of their sin and trust in Christ. He was passionate about seeing spiritually dead people come to life! He wanted them to be forgiven and adopted in to the family of God. But unlike many in our own day, he wasnʼt merely concerned with people making a one-time decision to trust in Jesus that resulted in no transformative change.

Instead, Paul strived to see people enter the Kingdom of God so that they would become mature in Christ! As he wrote to the Ephesian church, God chooses to save people “to be holy and blameless in love before him” (Ephesians 1:4). In other words, God is not only concerned with switching your eternal destiny from hell to heaven, but Heʼs also concerned with your holiness, or who you are and how you live.

God is not only concerned with switching your eternal destiny from hell to heaven, but Heʼs also concerned with your holiness.Click To Tweet

The Purpose

So this leads us to another question in regard to meaning: Why is God concerned with our holiness?

To answer this, we must look back to the beginning in order to see the meaning of Godʼs creation. What is the purpose of His creation of humanity? What is the purpose/meaning of our lives? The Lordʼs constant answer to that as found in His Word (the Bible) is this: “everyone who bears my name…is created for my glory” (Isaiah 43:7). You have probably heard that phrase before. What does it actually mean to “glorify” the Lord? If thatʼs our grand purpose, then surely it would be helpful to know what it means!

For starters, it means that we rightly reflect our Creator God since we as humanity have been made in His image. This means that we live a life that accords with His perfect moral character. It also means that we love, worship, serve, obey, delight in, and praise Him for all His perfect, lovely, magnificent character and ways.

And that brings us to the original question: What is the meaning/purpose of Maturing Life in Christ?

The Meaning of Maturing Life in Christ

Our purpose is to help all those who have been united to Jesus Christ through faith to get closer and closer to the being the person they were created to be! We desire to help you fulfill your purpose of glorifying King Jesus! Our goal is to help you love God supremely, care for others more deeply, worship God with passion, serve and obey Him with humility, delight in Him above all else, and praise Him more and more each second of your life! This is your purpose, and we aim to be just one source of encouragement in that worthy pursuit!

So Maturing Life in Christ is for all those who are:

• IN CHRIST (united to Jesus by faith) and
• Actively seeking a MATURING LIFE that ultimately brings glory to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ! This is, after all, why the Lord created us!

May this website assist you as you strive to honor Christ as a child, a parent, a husband, a wife, an employer, an employee, and so on. As you behold the Lord Jesus Christ, may you become more and more like Him, that you may truly experience a Maturing Life in Christ!