The Ven Paul Gardner on Christian mission

This article appeared in the Conference edition of the Church of England Newspaper on 23 September 2003 and is reproduced here with their permission.

"In the Christian faith we come to know God in the first place by grace. But all subsequent growth in the Christian life is also by grace, by God's continuing gracious work I our lives through the power of his Spirit. He has given us 'his divine power'. Growing as Christians and maturing in the faith is about finding God at work within us and following him and remembering the Gospel day by day in such a way that we begin to conform more and more to the likeness of Jesus himself.

"Growth in knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ looks to our coming to an ever deepening relationship with Christ and ever deeper appreciation of who he is and what he has done for us and how wonderful are his promises. Herein lies our Christian joy, but herein also lies our defence against the false teachers.

"I wonder as we go away from this Congress whether we shall go away with a renewed intention to look at ourselves and guard ourselves in the face of false teaching. Will we simply go away with the same views we came with, or will we go away encouraged by Peter and by each other to look again at the context of our mission and so rejoice more fully and more openly and more evangelistically in the Gospel that is ours? And will we go away determined to keep guarding ourselves and examining ourselves to see that we hold still more strongly than before to the utter trustworthiness of Scripture as the word of God. Will we ask ourselves again whether we fully trust in the total sovereign power of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?"

Extracts from the Ven Paul Gardner's Bible Reading 'Living in the Light of Christ's Return (2 Peter 3: 8-18)