2 Petee 3: 17,18 are the conclusion of Peter’s letter and should be taken together. These words summarize Peter’s letter, and include both a warning against being misled by the false teachers and an encouragement to keep growing in Christ. Specifically, Peter urges his readers to grow in two areas: The grace of Jesus, and their knowledge of Him.
To grow in grace does not mean to get more and more of God’s grace, necessarily. Grace, by definition, is unearned, unworked for. By His grace, God has forgiven our sins and given us full rights as His children in Christ. We can’t get more of that. But living under the grace of Jesus provides us a huge opportunity to grow spiritually stronger and deeper. Peter wrote in chapter 1 that we are not missing anything we need to lead the life God calls us to. Now it’s time to do it.
One way we grow under the grace of God is to grow in our knowledge of Christ. This implies two ideas. One of these is knowing more and more about Christ in our minds: information. The other is getting to know Jesus better and better in our relationship with Him. Both contribute to making us more productive servants (1 Peter 1:8).
Peter describes Jesus as both our Lord and our Savior. To really know Him, we must continue to grow in our understanding of what it means to live in relationship to Jesus as Lord and as Savior.
And we, like Peter, will reach a single conclusion: Jesus is the one who is due glory both in this moment and forever.
Second Peter 3:18 tells us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.” To grow in grace is to mature as a Christian. We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9), and we mature and are sanctified by grace alone. We know that grace is a blessing that we don’t deserve. It is God’s grace that justifies us, sanctifies us, and eventually glorifies us in heaven. The sanctification process, becoming more like Christ, is synonymous with growing in grace.
We grow in grace by reading God’s Word and letting it “dwell in us richly” (Colossians 3:16) and by praying. Those actions by themselves don’t mature us, but God uses these spiritual disciplines to help us grow. Therefore, maturing in our Christian life is not about what we do, but about what God does in us, by His grace. Understanding and applying God’s grace in our lives is important. We are not to impair it by being proud, because God says that He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Grace is that attribute of God that enables us to break free of our sinful nature and follow Him. It gives us strength and protects us. Without God’s grace, His favor, we would be hopelessly lost in this world. The more grace we have and ask God for, the more mature as Christians we will be.
To grow in grace does not mean gaining more grace from God. God’s grace never increases; it is infinite, it cannot be more, and according to the nature of God, it could never be less. He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him should be saved (John 3:16). How much more grace could there possibly be than that? But to grow in grace is to grow in our understanding of what Jesus did and to grow in our appreciation of the grace we have been given. The more we learn about Jesus, the more we will appreciate all He has done, and the more we appreciate His love and sacrifice for us, the more we will perceive the never-ending grace of God.
Peter also confirms that we need to grow in our knowledge of Jesus and to have that intimate relationship with Him because the more we know of Him, the more of Him will be seen in our lives. Paul said in Colossians 3:1–4: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
The Scriptures contain all the knowledge we will ever need to learn of God, His Son, and His Spirit, at least in this life. God`s desire for those He has saved is their sanctification and transformation. He wants us to become more holy like Himself. He wants to transform us into the image of His Son. The way to do this is by meditating on the Scriptures and applying their principles to our lives as we yield to the conviction and power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. Then we will prove 2 Corinthians 3:18: “We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord.”