…it is written, “Be holy, because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:16

 Article by Glen R. Jackman

As a Christian desiring to imitate the Lord’s manner of living among men on earth, we must  take note of His personal life and teachings as our mentor. His instruction is there for all of us in the Gospel. The New Testament’s availability was designed by God, in order that we may be influenced by His life and be conformed character-wise into the image of His Son.

By beholding His life, a desire to conduct one’s life similarly on earth touches our affections. This is the purpose of the Bible. To influence our hearts by Christ’s display of love for others, as He sought to reconcile man with His Father.  “And we all…beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV) From one degree of glory to another is the key takeaway. Growing in the Christian life is progressive, not immediate.

The Puritan theologian, John Owen whose writing I enjoy, was chaplain to Sir Oliver Cromwell and regarded as a practical scholar of the Word of God in his time. He stated that “Faith will cast the soul into the form or frame of the thing believed”. It is important, therefore, to understand what the Bible says, to help shape our  beliefs as we study the life of Christ.

With the Holy Spirit’s help, we form a belief that it is the will of God in these matters, that Christ be our example. “Faith comes by the hearing of the Word” (Romans 10:17). Some may discount this view. They may feel that aiming to be like Christ is an unreachable perfectionist desire and a recipe for failure. However we can choose to aim and we can grow towards this viewpoint: “Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy” (Rom 6:19 NLT)

As a grandfather I understand that if my granddaughter does not first play tee-ball, she may not learn to understand baseball in all its fullness nor enjoy the game with her peers as my daughters have over the years. Even tee-ball develops a certain discipline to pay attention to what matters, yet we are patient with our children just as Christ is with us.

By reading the Gospels we can see the wonderful graces of Christ’s kindness to others while living as a man. We can also see His example in carrying out the duties of obedience to His Father as a man. The human nature of mankind was indwelt by Jesus, incarnated by Him, yet Christ had the divine image of God as it was implanted in it, via the Holy Spirit at His virgin birth.

He did not inherit the gross nature of sin as we do as sons of Adam. He did however inherit our weakened human nature as being the Son of man, within which nature Christ lived as a man on the earth as “God with us” via his birth as man, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Owen notes that He did not inherit all the gross propensities and long effects of sin as do each of us as children born into a lineage of a fallen race – fallen when Adam sinned and lost his privilege of living in the light of the presence of God in Eden.

For he derived not his nature from Adam in the same way that we do; nor was he ever in Adam as the public representative of our nature, as we were. But our nature in him had the image of God implanted in it, which was lost and separated from the same nature…

The apostle Paul bears out the fact that Jesus Christ was and is God who prior to the incarnation and after His ascension “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1: 15-17 NASV) John Owen adds that it was God’s intent to have us follow Christ’s example as a man on earth:

…the infinite wisdom of God had this farther design in it also,—namely, that he might be the pattern and example of the renovation of the image of God in us, and of the glory that doth ensue thereon. He is in the eye of God as the idea of what he intends in us, in the communication of grace and glory; and he ought to be so in ours, as unto all that we aim at in a way of duty.

We are predestined to be changed into Christ’s image in order to represent His character. We are predestined to be renovated to the state of what Adam lost in the garden of Eden: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified… ” (Romans 8:29-30 ESV).

Consider how important it is to raise your children up for Jesus Christ that they also will take the Gospel seriously. They will be faced with many temptations in the world as they grow up and are tempted by the popular culture. (A few pictures of my children are used in this article from my youthful days of ministry)

The whole inheritance of Christ as sons of God is offered to us that we may be glorified by following His life and in Spirit-union with Him. Certainly we can only share the glory of Christ as we reflect His lifestyle to others on earth as the Holy Spirit empowers us to do so. The development of Christian character is a lifelong process during our lives on earth “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13 ESV).

Our personal growth in Christ will be carried out to the degree or the measure that we allow the Spirit of God to lead us into holy living, “for those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God” (Romans 8:14 NIV). And it is clear that the ultimate standard of that measure is Christ Himself.

It is all about aiming to please Christ, aiming to reflect His goodness in our worship to God and in our relations with others. It is by beholding Him in scripture that we are changed into His likeness, as this was the Father’s good intention for us.

Knowing that Christ is our example, our standard of measure whom we seek to emulate, we will always know that in comparison to Him, we are sinners in need of divine grace, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Philippians 3:16, 12 ESV)

From one degree of glory to another is how we grow as Christians. The process is is progressive, not immediate.