A Devotion from Archibald Alexander

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 
—2 Peter 3:18

By grace we must understand the principle of new life, implanted in regeneration. It is as if the apostle had said, Increase in holiness or advance in piety.

But grace is not a plant. It is of heavenly origin. By nature we are all “objects of wrath” (Eph. 2:3), conceived in sin, and totally destitute of holiness. None, therefore, but the truly regenerated soul is capable of growth in grace. We have, it is true, a rational nature and a moral constitution and are accountable, free agents, but in relation to spiritual exercises, we are dead: “dead in … transgressions and sins” (v. 1).

A seed that possesses life, although it has lain dormant for a thousand years, yet when placed in a congenial soil and subjected to heat, air, and moisture, will readily sprout and grow until it arrives at maturity. But if the vital principle is lost, it will never give any indications of life, and all human skill and power can never cause it to vegetate. Yet, this seed may appear to have no defect in its internal structure. It may possess the perfect organization of seeds of the same species, but its life has fled, and no power on earth can restore it.

Analogous to this is the condition of the human soul. Possessed of all the faculties with which it was created, it has lost the image of God. The principle of spiritual life with which it was animated has become extinct. And as the communication of life is the prerogative of God, so is the regeneration of the soul, and as this work requires the exertion of the same power that first caused light to shine out of darkness, it is denominated “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17), and, as there is in it some analogy to raising a dead body from the grave, it is called a resurrection (see Eph. 2:6). But as this divine power is exerted without any consideration of merit in the creature, it is called grace.

Although grace does not exist in anyone by nature, yet it may be received at any period of our existence in this world, from infancy to old age, and we read of some who were sanctified from the womb. But the number of such is very small. Piety is seldom observed to exist with the first dawning of reason and moral feeling. Most persons, therefore, who become the subjects of grace, can remember the time when they were alienated from God and have some knowledge of the change that took place in their views and affections.