Called to Be Saints: An Invitation to Christian Maturity

by Gordon T. Smith

“True spirituality is not a superhuman religiosity; it is simply true humanity released from bondage to sin and renewed by the

Holy Spirit.”7 Christian spirituality is a life of radical dependence on the Spirit. We do not live self-created or self-constructed lives, but rather lives of active response to the grace of God.

There is nothing quite like our sin, failure and weakness to force us, indeed compel us, to turn from the foolishness of our self-constructed lives to live instead in faith and quiet, childlike trust.

When we speak of the holiness to which we are called, the grace of spiritual maturity in Christ, we must speak of it as that which is fulfilled in the ordinary, routine and mundane rhythms of daily life.

“Sinners are tediously alike. . . . Saints manifest a glorious variety. . . . No general terms cover them all.”