As we were reminded yesterday, we are saved by God’s grace alone in Christ alone. But experiencing God’s amazing salvation changes us so much that we devote ourselves to Christlike living.

In today’s passage Paul confirms that there is a measure of spiritual maturity required to understand all this and keep it in balance.

Someone once said that the New Testament is like a body of water: on the one hand, it is shallow enough that a baby could splash around in it safely. But, on the other hand, a skilled diver could descend to great depths in pondering the subtleties of God’s salvation. In other words, the gospel is simple, and yet it is amazingly complex.

Throughout his letters, Paul urges believers not to be satisfied with only what is simple. Using another metaphor, the Bible teaches elsewhere that we cannot be satisfied forever with the simple milk of the gospel but need to mature and move on to its meatier teachings (Hebrews 5:13-14).

God’s Spirit will help us with this, as Paul makes clear in this letter. But the idea is to keep exploring, keep growing, keep maturing. Let’s keep what we have already attained, says Paul, but let’s also keep moving forward into ever greater truths about God and Jesus Christ!