As God Gives Growth

When Organizations Become Empty Wombs & Dry Earth

A slogan I have heard, particularly in the business world, goes something to the effect that if you are not growing, you are shrinking—if you are not moving ahead, you are falling behind. Considered in absolute terms there is one sense in which this is true and another in which it is not.

The former relates to the grace of God which has been visited in Christ upon all men: If we do not respond to this as a plant that receives them responds to the ministrations of soil, sun, moisture, and all that is given it to live and come into its full fruit, then we have thwarted the just expectations of our Maker and our “end is to be burned.” This is the case whether one describes it in terms of sanctification, justification, or deification: The intended end of all is the same.

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S. M. Hutchens is a Touchstone senior editor.

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