-
Follow us on social media for daily Scripture comments and more at MeWe, Facebook or YouTube.
- Sitemap - Newsletter - Statement Of Faith
- Privacy - Disclosure - Donate
| site search by freefind |
- Home
- Scripture Snapshots
- To Be Like Jesus
[If you purchase anything on this site, I may make a commission. Disclosure Policy]
To Be Like Jesus
Is The Goal Of The Christian Life
The goal of the Christian life is to be like Jesus to the glory of God the Father. All the gifts of the Spirit are manifestations of the Character of Christ. We all have the ability, through the Holy Spirit, to picture a unique aspect of Jesus. As we grow in maturity, our life - our actions, reactions, words, attitudes, etc - should reflect more and more the life of Christ.
“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:” Eph. 4:13
An often overlooked, but vital tool to be like Jesus is the Law of God. God’s Law is His perfect standard of righteousness. Christ perfectly kept the Law. As we work on understanding and applying the Law of God in our lives we grow both in the knowledge and experience of God. And as we do that, we grow to be like Jesus Who perfectly kept the Law.
Many times we look at the Law of God just in terms of human applications. While this is important, every Law given by God also reveals something about His Character and the way He Himself operates. Let’s look at an example: Ex. 23:5 [If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it. NIV]. Here we have a case Law. Someone’s donkey has fallen because the burden is too heavy. We are to help the owner - even if he is an enemy - with his donkey. The basic principle is that, if we have the ability, we are to help people in their immediate need. They may be enemies, but if they need our help we have to help them. This is talking about a specific, immediate need that we become aware of - not long term care [which is dealt with elsewhere]. The point is we cannot ignore people in trouble. In dangerous cases our help may be limited to calling 911, but we need to do something!
But how does this law - aside from its practical instructions - reveal the Character of God? Isn’t this what God did for us? We were struggling and falling under the burden of sin. No one could help us. We were enemies of God. He could have ignored us. He could have told us we were only getting what we deserved. He could have given us a lecture. Instead, because there is no other way He could help with sin, He came down and carried our sin burden Himself - taking it to the Cross.
As we apply this Law in our lives, we allow the image of Christ to grow in our lives. We move toward our goal to be like Jesus. The same can be said for every Law. Maybe this will give you a new perspective on the Law of God. The Law needs to be an important part of our Bible Studies. We need to see both how we are to apply the Law in our lives today and what it reveals about the Character of God. We study the principles of the Law in Master Life and many of the details of modern application in Biblical Law. Great courses to take. What we need is someone[s] to do extensive study on how the Law reveals God’s character.
Note: I must point out - because there is much confusion on the topic - that the law is NOT our method of gaining or maintaining salvation. Salvation is through Jesus Christ alone. Those Christians who reject the Law because they think it relates to salvation have not even understood the issue. The law deals with Christian maturity [sanctification], not salvation [justification]. See the Master Life course for more details.
For more information about Glenn Davis, see our About Glenn page or visit Glenn Davis Books.
Sign up for our free monthly newsletter or take one of our free Bible Study courses.
Please note: We no longer have the commenting feature [maybe again in the future]. Joshua Institute students who have questions or comments on their courses can use the contact button and mention the course name and lesson number in the email. Thank you. Glenn
Copyright © 2004–