To receive Christ is to escape from death.
John 11
To love Christ is to have an increasing desire to depart and be with Him.
Philippians 1
Let this definition of spiritual maturity roll around in your mind for a minute.
Spiritual maturity is to joyfully await death.
Do you buy that? I know it needs to be balanced with other important elements. It leaves a lot out, namely, living life, being faithful in the here and now, and death (in one sense) still being an enemy.
But I think it has a lot to commend it, especially in our shallow age.
The following line from Calvin should not sound surprising – but in our day it does. I wonder if those who first read it four hundred years ago found it surprising? I think they were more ready for it than we are. Their understanding of spiritual maturity was blessedly free from the trivialized views so popular in our own day of evangelicalism.
“Let us consider this settled: that no one has made progress in the school of Christ who does not joyfully await the day of death and final resurrection. . . . Let us not hesitate to await the Lord’s coming, not only with longing, but also with groaning and sighs, as the happiest thing of all. He will come to us as a Redeemer.”
John Calvin in The Institutes
Your spiritual maturity is seen by how joyfully you await the day of your resurrection.
How does this strike you? Are you ready to die?