development.

The Christian life is to be one long effort, partial, and gradual, to
unfold the freedom possessed. Paul knew full well that his
emancipation was not perfect. It was, probably, after this triumphant
expression of confidence that he wrote, 'Not as though I had already
attained, either were already perfect.' The first stage is the gift
of power, the appropriation and development of that power is the work
of a life; and it ought to pass through a well-marked series and
cycle of growing changes. The way to develop it is by constant
application to the source of all freedom, the life-giving Spirit, and
by constant effort to conquer sins and temptations. There is no such
thing in the Christian conflict as a painless development. We must
mortify the deeds of the body if we are to live in the Spirit. The
Christian progress has in it the nature of a crucifixion. It is to be
effort, steadily directed for the sake of Christ, and in the joy of
His Spirit, to destroy sin, and to win practical holiness. Homely
moralities are the outcome and the test of all pretensions to
spiritual communion.

We are, further, to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord, by
'waiting for the Redemption,' which is not merely passive waiting,
but active expectation, as of one who stretches out a welcoming hand
to an approaching friend. Nor must we forget that this accomplished
deliverance is but partial whilst upon earth. 'The body is dead
because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.' But
there may be indefinite approximation to complete deliverance. The
metaphors in Scripture under which Christian progress is described,
whether drawn from a conflict or a race, or from a building, or from
the growth of a tree, all suggest the idea of constant advance