Christlikeness

It may be said that Christlikeness is the clarion message of the entire Bible – not just the New Testament. As the word clearly suggests, “Christlikeness means to be like Christ. The very “job-description” of believers is to become like Christ. The purpose of all of life, the reason we are all here, is to manifest God’s presence on earth through Christlikeness. When we exhibit on the human level the qualities and characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are Christlike.

NIV 2 Corinthians 3:18 And 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, who is the Spirit.

The great old preacher and theologian Charles Spurgeon once said, “A Christian should be a striking likeness of Jesus Christ. We should be pictures of Christ. Oh! My brethren, there is nothing that can so advantage you, nothing can so prosper you, so assist you, so make you walk towards heaven rapidly, so keep your head upwards toward the sky, and your eyes radiant with glory, like the imitation of Jesus Christ.”

Max Lucado, a source I seldom quote in spite of (maybe because of) his popularity, some years ago posed a great question that is most relevant to this blog: “What if, for one day, Jesus were to become you? What if, for twenty-four hours, Jesus wakes up in your bed, walks in your shoes, lives in your house, assumes your schedule? Your boss becomes his boss, your mother becomes his mother, and your pains become his pains? With one exception, nothing about your life changes. Your health doesn’t change. Your circumstances don’t change. Your schedule isn’t altered. Your problems aren’t solved. Only one change occurs. What if, for one day and one night, Jesus lives your life with his heart? Your heart gets the day off, and your life is led by the heart of Christ. His priorities govern your actions. His passions drive your decisions. His love directs your behavior. What would you be like? Would people notice a change? Your family, would they see something new? Your coworkers, would they sense a difference? What about the less fortunate? Would you treat them the same? And your friends? Would they detect more joy? How about your enemies? Would they receive more mercy from Christ’s heart than from yours? And you? How would you feel? What alterations would this transplant have on your stress level? Your mood swings? Your temper? Would you sleep better? Would you see sunsets differently? Death differently? Taxes differently? Any chance you’d need fewer aspirin or sedatives? How about your reaction to traffic delays? (Ouch, that touched a nerve.) Would you still dread what you are dreading? Better yet, would you still do what you are doing? Would you still do what you had planned to do for the next twenty-four hours? Pause and think about your schedule. Obligations. Engagements. Outings. Appointments. With Jesus taking over your heart, would anything change?” That is a piercing, probing question and scenario, is it not? Well, you know what? This scenario is exactly what God wills for us. To be led by the heart of Jesus, filtering every situation and every event through the heart of Jesus. The purpose of life is to glorify God by becoming Christlike. You could say that we are created to become like Christ.

“A sculptor once fashioned a magnificent lion out of solid stone. When asked how he had accomplished such a wonderful masterpiece, he replied, ‘It was easy. All I did was to chip everything that didn’t look like a lion.’ All God does is chip away everything in our lives that doesn’t look like Christ.” – Anonymous

NAS Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;

The definition of the Greek word for “conformed” (σύμμορφος [sum-mor-fos]) is, I think, quite provocative. It means, of similarity of form or nature having the same form as, conformed to, similar in form or nature.

As I said above, Christlikeness is not just a New Testament priority, but it may be found in the opening chapter of Genesis. From the very beginning, God’s plan has been to make you and me like His Son Jesus:

NAS Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…

That perfect image was lost when man sinned. Salvation, it may be said, is the process of regaining that lost image and likeness (the two terms are most probably one thing; a literary device known as a hendiadys employed for emphasis). What does the perfect image and likeness of God look like? It looks just like Christ.

NAS Colossians 1:15 And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.

In this unique case especially, “Like Father, like Son.”

NAS John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father ‘?

Jesus is the exact image of the Father. The Christian life is a spiritual process of conforming believers to the exact image of Christ. Now, I need to quickly clarify that statement. Whereas Jesus as the exact image is God Almighty Himself, our Christlikeness will never make us Christ. He is the Creator, we are the creation, the creatures. He is the Potter, we are the clay.  We will one day be just like Christ, but we will never be Christ.

Also, we must distinguish between scriptural Christlikenss and the life of Satan. Do you remember what Satan promised Adam and Eve in the Garden?

KJV Genesis 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

That’s not biblical Christlikeness; that’s self-realization. That’s heresy. Satan’s lie is still with us today. New Age philosophies and the Church of Latter Day Saints, better known as Mormons, promise the same thing. God doesn’t want us to become gods; He wants us to become godly.  He wants us to take on His values, attitudes, and character.

NAS Ephesians 4:22-24 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

That’s Christlikenss. People are to see Christ in us. Something about us, the way we do things, how we react to situations, the things we say, the way we say those things, our smiles, our dress, our choice of cars and homes should all in some way – directly or indirectly, immediately or subsequently – remind others of Jesus. At the beginning of every school year, as part of my introduction to my students, I purposely declare that I am a “Jesus freak.” It is my studied belief that every Christian should be able to say that unashamedy, without reservation. I believe the Word of God calls us to radical Christianity. Radical Christianity (which I intend to write about more in a future blog) is the kind of religion that loves when the situation or the person seems to dictate otherwise.

I think you’ll agree, too many times we seem to feel that when we’re wronged we are somehow released from the responsibility to be nice or to love. According to Scripture, that’s decidedly not true. Allow me to share these pertinent verses with you:

ESV Ephesians 4:31-32 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

NET Romans 12:10 Be devoted to one another with mutual love, showing eagerness in honoring one another.

That’s radical Christianity! Radical Christianity produces Christlikeness. More specifically, being filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) produces the fruit of the Spirit in us (Galatians 5:22-23), which is Christlikeness. Two other passages where clear and concise portraits of what Christlikeness looks like are the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) and the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians. God wants us to take on – as much as humanly possible – the character and attributes of Christ. These character traits and attributes are found in the Bible.  How else are we to know for certain what Christlikenss looks like apart from the pages of Scripture?

Some reading this blog may think that all this about Christlikeness is a bit over the top for them personally. Some may be thinking that “Jesus freak” is not quite where they’re at right now in their lives. I can understand that. But to those who may feel this way, I would like to humbly point out that that God’s commands and the implications of His Word are not conditional; they are meant for each believer. Not only that, but they are not impossible. Any Christian, regardless of circumstance, can obey any biblical instruction at any time. Take for example

ESV 1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

I submit that when we love, we are fulfilling all of the extreme words I have previously employed: “Jesus freak” and “radical.” When we exhibit biblical love to others we are “Jesus freaks” engaging in “radical Christianity.” We are Christlike. The same goes for forgiveness or any other Christlike characteristic we obediently demonstrate in our Christian lives.

Another point I would like to clarify is the fact that Christlikeness does not mean losing your personality or becoming a religious robot. God created each one of us uniquely. He does not want us to destroy that individuality. Christlikeness has to do with transforming our character, not our personality.

Summarizing, I would like to focus on what I will term “The Two Realities of Christlikeness.”

• Christlikeness must be biblical. We have just spoken about this reality. The outworking of our relationship to Christ must be along the lines drawn in Scripture and not upon our personal ideas about

• Christlikeness requires effort. A profound spiritual truth is that before God works, He waits for us to act first. Our obedience unlocks the power of God. God’s power through the Holy Spirit is released in us as soon as we take a step of

No matter how strong our desire, we cannot produce the character of Christ in our own strength. This is an important explanatory point to “Reality” number two. You cannot will yourself to Christlikeness, though will power is not to be dismissed. Only the Holy Spirit has the power to make the changes God wants to make in our lives…

NKJ Philippians 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

Perhaps the simplest way to explain the essence of this study is to say the secret of Christlikeness is surrender. The Holy Spirit lives within the believer. He is constantly at work inside us to change us from the old self we once were to the new self that looks like Christ.  If we submit to this work of the Holy Spirit in our lives Christ will live through us and produce Christlikeness.

Another way to say it is in order to grow in Christlikeness, we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit. While we can be confident that the Holy Spirit is always at work within us, we should not relax and rely solely on Him to do all the Christlike work. It is accurate to think of our Christian lives in terms of cooperation with the Spirit. Rick Warren, who wrote the best-selling Christian book of our time, a book that in spite of its immense popularity should, in my opinion, only be selectively quoted, gives this good advice appropriate to the subject at hand, “Don’t wait to feel powerful or confident. Move ahead in your weakness, doing the right thing in spite of your fears and feelings.  This is how you cooperate with the Holy Spirit; this is how your Christlike character develops.”

NAS 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

This cooperation is somewhat paradoxical. It is true, as 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, that the power (grace may be understood as power) of Christ is perfected in our weakness. But it is also true that Christlikeness requires effort on our parts. Please do not misunderstand that statement. When I speak of effort I am speaking to Christians who are already saved. Effort has nothing to do with obtaining salvation. Effort does, however, have a great deal to do with our life after salvation, our spiritual growth. Consider these verses:

NIV 2 Peter 3:14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

NAS Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Here is a closing story that illustrates Christlikenss in, what I hope will be, a memorable way: “One day missionary Amy Carmichael, who devoted her life to rescuing girls who had been dedicated to a life of slavery and shame in Indian Hindu Temples, took some of her children to see a goldsmith refining gold in the ancient manner of the Orient.  The man sat beside a small charcoal fire. On top of the coals lay a common red curved roof- tile, and another tile over it like a lid. This was his homemade crucible. The man had a mixture of salt, tamarind fruit, and burnt brick dust which he call his ‘medicine’ for the purifying of the gold.  He dropped a lump of ore into the blistering mixture and let the fire ‘eat it,’ as he would say.  After awhile, the man lifted the gold out with a pair of tongs, let it cool, and studied it.  Then he replaced the gold in the crucible and blew the fire hotter than it was before. This process went on and on, the fire growing hotter and hotter.  ‘The gold could not bear it so hot at first,’ the goldsmith explained, ‘but it can bear it now. What at first would have destroyed it now helps it.’ As the children watched the gold being purified in the fire, someone asked the man, ‘How do you know when the gold is finally purified?’ The man’s answer was, ‘When I can see my face in the liquid gold crucible, then it is pure.’”

With all that’s been said, listen to 2 Corinthians 3:18 again:

NIV 2 Corinthians 3:18 And 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, who is the Spirit.

Make a serious decision to become Christlike. Live with the Heart of Jesus.

Think with the Mind of Christ.

Walk in the same manner that Jesus walked. Commit yourself for the long-haul.

Amen?

– Professor Thomas A. Rohm