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Dr. Richard L. Strauss
Novembet 27, 1983
In 1896, a Congregational minister named Charles Monroe Sheldon published a novel, which was destined to become one of the all-time bestsellers. To the best of our ability to determine, there are well over 30 million copies of it in print. We don't know exactly how many because it was never copyrighted and many different publishers printed it. But there are over 30 million. It's a story of a minister named Henry Maxwell. He was the pastor of First Church in Raymond—a fictitious town—and he gave this challenge to his congregation one Sunday morning. I quote from the book.
"I want volunteers from First Church who will pledge themselves earnestly and honestly for an entire year not to do anything without first asking the question, What would Jesus do? After asking that question, each one will follow Jesus as exactly as he knows how no matter what the result may be."
The book, which as you know is entitled In His Steps, is the story of several of the members of his congregation who accepted that challenge and the consequences that they had in their own lives as a result. It's been heralded by some. It's been maligned by others. But the question still remains: How important is it to do what Jesus would do?
Is that something we ought to be asking ourselves? Should that really be a major goal in our lives? What is life's highest goal for the child of God anyway? It seems like a valid question to ask. This is a day of goals and objectives. Seminars on that subject are increasing faster than rabbits increase. People often ask me what are your goals? What are your personal goals? What are the goals of your ministry? What are the goals of the church? It's a good question. Life without goals is meaningless. So what is life's highest goal for the child of God?
If you're familiar with the Westminster Catechism, you know what it says: Man's chief end—chief and highest end—is to glorify God and fully to enjoy Him forever.
That would be a hard statement to argue with or find fault with, but how can any mortal being glorify God? If that's the highest and chief end a man has, how can we do it?
Before the very first man ever saw the light of day, the eternal triune God outlined a plan. He said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness" (Genesis 1:26a). His plan was to design a creature so Godlike that he would be able to visibly display the wondrous glory of the invisible God. That was man's destiny. To display the glory of God because he’s so like God. That man was Adam.
God made him in such a way that he possessed personality like God's. Intellect, emotions, volition. He made him with an inclination or a tendency toward holiness like God's, so he would reflect God's glory. But something happened. Unfortunately, in a moment of rebellious self will, Adam sinned and it marred that Godlike nature he had. And it totally corrupted his inclination to holiness. And now as a fallen sinful being, he's no longer capable of bringing glory to God apart from God's grace. All creation eagerly awaited the day when the image of God in man could be restored, giving glory to God.
Then Jesus came. The Bible reveals that He was the express image of God's person, the exact representation of God's nature. And His life brought glory to God. For the first time since Adam sinned, man saw what God intended him to be. He saw what kind of a life would bring glory to God: It was a life like Christ's.
As I read through the New Testament I see this theme recurring over and over again: the exhortation to be like Christ, to follow His example, to grow in His likeness. In fact, I counted over 30 different but direct references to Christ's likeness in the New Testament. I probably missed some; that was just the first run through. The great goal of the believer's life is to become more like Jesus Christ, to progressively become more conformed to His image, to do what Jesus would do, yes, but because we are becoming what Jesus is, that's the power to do what He would do. It's to be like Christ and by that means, to bring glory to God.
Now our ultimate destiny as believers is to be perfectly like Him. It says so in Romans 8. We are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. It's going to happen someday but our major occupation right now should be dynamic and daily progress toward that goal. God wants every one of us to be growing in the likeness of Jesus Christ.
So I want to talk about that. This morning as we introduce the subject, I want to introduce a few chief commands to Christlikeness. There are many but I want to look at three of them. And then we need to find out how. Let's look at least two conditions for growing in Christ's likeness. There are others but two major ones. Let's start with the commands.
1. The Command to Grow in Christlikeness
a. Jesus Commanded It
Open your Bibles, please, to John chapter 13. Let's join the Lord Jesus in the upper room the last night before His crucifixion. The disciples, as you know, had been arguing over who among them was the greatest. When they entered the room, none of them dared assume a servant's role and wash the other’s feet—something that was customarily done in that culture before reclining to eat. To do that would be to admit being the lowest rank among the disciples and none of them was about to do that. But in a remarkable display of humble and loving service, the Lord Jesus took the basin and the towel, and washed their feet. They were stunned.
"When He had finished washing their feet, He put on His clothes and returned to His place. 'Do you understand what I have done for you?' He asked them. 'You call Me "Teacher" and "Lord," and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you'" (John 13:12-15).
Just as Jesus humbled Himself and assumed the role of a servant and ministered to their needs, so He wants them now to humble themselves and assume the role of servants, and minister to each other's needs. Even if that meant doing the most menial task that was normally assigned to the lowest ranking slave—didn't make any difference. They would be willing if they would be like Him. That would be the supreme demonstration of their love for one another.
He gets into that subject in that same chapter down in verse 34.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:34-35).
He goes on to talk about the unity that will bring. That unity will be the means by which the world will know that the Father sent the Son. Over in Chapter 17 in the same discourse, He says that would be the means by which the world would be attracted to the Savior: Christlikeness. If they would be like Jesus, the world would be attracted to Him.
You see, when the Lord Jesus walked the roads of Israel in His flesh, multitudes of people followed Him. They were drawn to Him. Admittedly, some of them merely wanted to be fed or to be healed, but many of them found something compelling about the person of Jesus Christ and they were attracted to Him. They committed their lives to Him. Nothing in our day is going to attract people to Jesus Christ and encourage them to commit their lives to Him like other people who are like Him, who reflect His very character, who display His nature in daily living. That will attract others to Jesus. It isn't going to be building great church buildings, creating glamorous church programs, or preaching powerful sermons, or getting great numbers of people involved in doing church work. Unless the world sees the character of Christ in us, they're going to interpret everything else they see as mere human cleverness or ingenuity, or just good sales techniques or good business practices. They aren't going to know what's different about us. They must see the character of Jesus Christ.
I read the story of a Jewish woman who had been converted. The friend who led her to Christ suggested that she began her Bible reading in the Gospels, which she did with great spiritual profit. When she finished, she went back to her friend and said, "That was good. Now I want to read a book on church history."
"Oh, why?"
"Well," she said, "I'm just curious. I've been wondering when it was that Christians started to become so unlike Christ."
It's a good question. I wonder if that's what unbelievers around us are asking. "When did Christians start becoming so unlike Jesus Christ?"
Jesus said His example was to be followed. Not ignored, not forgotten, but followed. He says in verse 15, "For I gave you an example that you should do as I did to you." When we begin to think as Jesus thought and speak as Jesus spoke and act as Jesus acted, the lost are going to be attracted to Him. That was Jesus' teaching about being like Him.
b. Paul Commanded It
The Apostle Paul had something to say about the importance of becoming more like Jesus, too. In fact he said several things about it, which we will see through the course of our series. But the central passage on the subject in the Pauline epistles is probably Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4:11-16.
As you know, it's a passage about the mutual ministry of believers to one another in the body. How we use our spiritual gifts to help one another, encourage one another, and equip one another.
"So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up" (Ephesians 4:11-12).
But what I want you to see is the goal of all this mutual ministry of believers in the body—the end toward which we're moving. It's in verse 13.
"Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).
There's the goal: to measure to the stature of the very fullness of Christ. All that Jesus Christ Himself is. Well, I don't mean His supernatural attributes like His omnipotence or His omniscience. We can't be that way. That was His evidence of being God. I'm talking about His humanity: all that He was in His humanity, we can become. That's our goal according to verse 13. It's repeated again in verse 15.
"Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ" (Ephesians 4:15).
Grow up into Him. The goal for members of the body of Christ is to grow to match the head: the Lord Jesus.
The magazine Christianity Today did an interview with Dr. Richard Halverson after his appointment as chaplain to the US Senate. The questioner asked was what lessons God had been teaching him since he accepted his new responsibilities. One thing he mentioned was the importance of intercession for people in public life. Then he said this: "The second is the witness of presence which is very important to me now. The witness of a life that has a Christ-like quality, for the love of God to be shared abroad in my heart, for me to be everybody's servant, for Christ to display His presence wherever I am. That is the maximum witness: the witness of incarnation."
That's the kind of thing Paul is talking about right here in Ephesians 4, folks. So that where you go, people actually see the person of Jesus Christ through you. The witness of His presence. It's the great goal of the believer's life.
Jesus said something about it. Paul said something about it.
c. Peter Commanded It
Peter added his inspired testimony to the importance of becoming more like Christ in 1 Peter chapter 2. Will you turn there, please? It's found alongside a great statement on Christ's substitutionary atonement—a very famous verse we talk about frequently. It so clearly presents the Gospel.
"'He Himself bore our sins' in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; 'by His wounds you have been healed'" (1 Peter 2:24).
You've probably memorized that verse. What you may have failed to recognize was that it is found in a context, the major point of which is our willingness to suffer wrongfully, our willingness to suffer for doing the will of God. That's the point of the passage. Jesus is introduced into the discussion as the most important example of a Person who suffered for doing right, who took it patiently without retaliating, with perfect trust in His Heavenly Father. That's why that gospel text is there. It's an illustration of Jesus who suffered wrongfully and did it willingly.
See the point is back in verse 21. After encouraging us to be willing to suffer, even for doing good, Peter says:
"To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps" (1 Peter 2:21).
In His steps. That's where Charles Shelton got the title for his book. For you to follow in His steps.
We seem to find it easier to major on verse 24, to talk more about his death for sins, than our following in His steps. Maybe it's because some would imply that living as Jesus lived is going to earn us eternal life. That's wrong. But as a result, sometimes we jump to the other end of the spectrum and preach His substitutionary atonement but forget to mention that the great goal of Christ's atoning work on Calvary's cross is to make us like Himself so that we can bring glory to God.
That's the point of the passage. A simple Gospel message is all that's necessary for folks to see their need and they'll open their hearts to Christ for eternal salvation. The simple gospel message that all have sinned, that Christ died for our sins, and He rose again to declare us to be righteous and give us eternal life. That's the gospel and that's all that's necessary to get people saved.
But God doesn't want us to stop there. That's not enough—believers need encouragement to be like Christ. That's the point of this passage and I want that to be one of the major goals of my ministry. I want it to be one of the major goals of our lives. All of us. Not for what we get out of it—sometimes I fall into that trap even when I'm preparing a message, I think to myself, now I've got to prove this to these folks and it's important for them to understand this and obey this because it's going to help them and they're going to be happier for it. That's one reason. And there are enormous advantages to growing in Christlikeness in terms of peace and joy and love and unity and oneness. There are many advantages but that's not the point, dear folks. We need to be growing in the likeness of Jesus Christ because that's the only way we can glorify God and He deserves to be glorified just for who He is—not for what we can get out of it—just for who He is. We need to grow to be like Jesus to bring glory to God, but how are we going to do it? That's the crucial question, isn't it?
2. The Conditions for Growing in Christlikeness
How can we be like Jesus after seeing these commands to Christlikeness? Let's look at two important conditions for growing in Christ's likeness.
a. Abiding in Him
Turn over a few pages, please, to 1 John. It comes after Peter. First John chapter 2.
The Apostle John talks about being like Jesus, too. Jesus did. Paul did. Peter did. John did. They all did. It's because it's so important.
"The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked" (1 John 2:6, NASB).
Are you abiding in Christ? Then you ought to walk like Jesus walked: live like Jesus lived. That's what John says. That's the sense of the word walk: carrying on our daily activities. Jesus Christ is to be our model for daily living.
But notice how John links walking as Christ walked to abiding in Christ. You can't divorce those two. They're linked together. He indicates that Christ's likeness is the evidence that we are truly abiding in Christ.
Now in John 15:4, believers are exhorted to abide. It's something we do. We can choose to do it or not to do it. But what does it involve if we are to choose to do it? What are we supposed to do? What does it mean to abide in Christ?
If you weren't with us several months ago when we studied John 15 and abiding in Christ on Sunday evening, let me just try to explain it through a simple illustration.
If you were to ask a young single adult, "Are you living at home?," what you mean by that is, "Are you abiding in your parents' house?" Is that where you spend a large portion of your life, where you take your meals, where you sleep at night, where you spend many of your leisure hours? Is that your home? Basically: Is that the center of your life? That's what we mean. Well that's what it means to abide in Christ.
The question now is: Are you living in Christ? Are you abiding in Christ? Is He the center of your life? Are you conscious of His presence through the hours of the day or don't you think about Him from one day to the next? Are you living in fellowship with Him? Are you learning from His Word? Are you obedient to His will? Are you drawing on His resources? Are you depending on His power? Are you sensitive to His dealings in your life? Is He the center of your life? That's the question.
That's what abiding in Him is. Jesus taught us in John 15 that when we abide in Him we will bear fruit. It stands to reason. He likens it to a vine and branches. The life of the vine is flowing into the branches and producing the fruit of that life, the life of the vine. Now He's the vine, we’re the branches. So when we're abiding in Him, His life is flowing through us and we are producing what? His life, His character, His conduct. It's Christ's life so the fruit is obviously going to be His character and conduct. Abiding in Him will enable us to walk as He walked because it will enable us to be what He is, to reproduce His life.
Now some have implied that anybody can live like Jesus. It doesn't matter whether you're properly related to Him—just use your own willpower and do what Jesus would do if He were here. You can't do that. That's not possible apart from His life.
Others have insisted, "I don't care what you do; it's impossible to be like Jesus in this culture. We're too far removed from the Biblical framework." But folks, if we have His life then we can reproduce His conduct and His character. And we do have His life. The Apostle Paul made that very clear.
In Colossians 3:4, he said Christ is our life. In Galatians 2:20, he said it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us.
That's where we get the ability to walk as Jesus walked: because we have Jesus' life.
While Christ lived to show us how to live, He died and rose again to give us His life to indwell us by His spirit and so empower us to follow His example. What He began to do in His death and resurrection, He wants to continue to do by His life operating in us. If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you are a child of God, the Spirit of Jesus Christ lives in you. You can be what Jesus was. You can live as Jesus lived. But it's your choice.
You see, we decide whether or not we're going to abide in Him. We decide whether or not we're going to spend time in His presence, whether we’re going to immerse ourselves in His Word, whether we're going to pattern our lives according to His revealed plan, whether we're going to depend on His power. We make that choice.
He isn't going to insist that we do it. It's our decision. But there isn't any other way to grow in His likeness. There’s no other way to glorify God. No other way. That's why you're here. That's why God made you! That's the essence of life for a child of God. So it's obvious which way we need to decide this morning.
b. Beholding Him
There's a second condition for becoming more like Christ as well as abiding in Him, and it's found back in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. In this context, Paul is contrasting Moses' Old Covenant ministry with a New Covenant ministry. He sums it up in verse 18.
"And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Now the contrast is implicit in the context. Beholding the glory of the Lord is not limited to Moses as it was in the Old Covenant. Back then he was the only one who saw God's glory. Now we all have that privilege. See it verse 18? Don't miss the importance of every word in that verse.
"And we all," you see. And there's no need to cover our faces to veil our faces as Moses did to hide the fact that the glory was fading. We can continually reflect the glory of the Lord. "We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord" (NASB), and instead of merely reflecting the glory of the Lord on our faces as Moses did, we can experience an inner transformation of character. A metamorphosis, if you will. It says there in verse 18 we are being transformed into the same image, the image of Christ, from glory to glory just as from the Lord the Spirit.
You see what the verse is teaching, folks? As we see Jesus revealed in His Word, as we occupy our minds with Him, we are changed into His very likeness from the inside out.
That word transformed is from a Greek word from which we get the English word metamorphosis. We are transformed from the inside out. It doesn't happen all at once, but gradually, from one degree of glory to another, Paul says. And the image of God, which was marred in the fall, is restored by the power of the Spirit of God so that we can bring glory to Him again.
You see, it's a basic axiom of life that we become like the people we look at, and occupy our minds with. Ultimately we become more like them. Husbands and wives begin to acquire each other's characteristics after years of living together. They may not even want to but they do. It just happens. People assume the mannerisms of the heroes they admire.
I love Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous old short story entitled, The Great Stone Face. Maybe you had to read it in high school, too. It's a story of Ernest, a boy who lived in a valley under the shadow of a great mountain. On the perpendicular side of that mountain, nature had formed what resembled the features of an enormous human face. Very early in Ernest's life, his mother told him a legend predicting that a child would be born in that valley who was destined to become the noblest personage of his day and whose countenance in manhood would resemble the features of the great stone face. Ernest was intrigued with the story. He never forgot it. After his work was done each day, he would go out and just stare at the features of the great stone face. Kindly, encouraging features they were. He would just sit there for hours and meditate on the significant issues of life.
On three occasions during his lifetime, the entire valley came alive with excitement when word arrived that the great man foretold in the legend had appeared at last. Each one of them had been born in the valley and had moved away after spending their boyhood there and had gained some prominence and prestige. Now they were coming back in glory to be acclaimed by their fellow dwellers of the valley. One was a shrewd and wealthy business tycoon. Another was an illustrious and successful general. The third was a silver-tongued statesman who was running for president. Each time the people of the valley thought their hero had arrived and they received him with great fanfare, and each time they were sadly disappointed. They eventually came to realize they'd been mistaken.
Ernest was becoming an old man now and he was known for his quiet and gracious wisdom. In fact, outsiders would come to the valley just to meet the simple husbandman and listen to his profound thoughts. One who came was a famous poet who had once lived in the valley. In fact, Ernest read his poems frequently during his life and had thought surely this poet must be the fulfillment of that ancient legend and prophecy. But it was the poet himself who made the astonishing discovery. As they talked together in the open air one day with a group of neighbors, the poet looked to the mountain. And then he looked to Ernest. He threw his arms high and exclaimed, "Behold! Behold! Behold, Ernest himself is the likeness of the great stone face!"
You know the parallels of that story to this spiritual truth that we are studying are uncanny. Ernest had actually acquired the features of the face as he gazed upon its glory day after day, year after year. Just so, the Spirit of God builds into our lives the very character of Jesus Christ as we behold His glory day after day, and year after year.
We don't become like Jesus Christ, folks, by living for money or material goods or success or power or acclaim. We don't become like Jesus Christ by reading the daily newspaper or watching television. There's nothing wrong with those things but they won't bring you into the image of Jesus Christ. We become like Jesus Christ by occupying our minds with Him. Get to know Him through His word. Spend time in His Word. Spend time in His presence through prayer. And you will grow in His likeness and God will be glorified. That's really what counts in life.
That's what life's all about for the child of God. That's the believers highest goal. Are you willing to commit yourself to it today?
Trusting Jesus as Your Savior
Now I have to remind you that it's possible to be religious, even to call yourself a Christian, and not to know Christ personally. You can struggle and strive to be like Jesus till your dying day, and you will fail because you must begin first of all by having the life of Christ within you. It is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy that He saved us. By His grace do we receive that new life.
Will you acknowledge that Jesus Christ died for your sins, that He paid the penalty you deserved, that He rose again to give you His life, and then trust Him alone—no church, no religious activity; just Him—and receive Him as your Savior? That's the place to begin. From that point you can grow in His likeness.
Let's bow together in prayer.
With our heads bowed prayerfully, let's think about these two issues.
Number one: Have you received Christ as your Savior? Do you know that for a certainty? Have you settled it so there's no doubt in your mind? Your trust is in Jesus Christ and His shed blood, His death on Calvary's cross for you. If there's any question, settle it now, will you, in the quiet of your own heart? You talk to God: I'm a sinner. I don't deserve Your love or grace or forgiveness, but I believe Jesus died for me to secure it. I admit I'm a sinner. Lord Jesus, come into my heart and deliver me from sin. Save me.
And He will. Whomever believes on Him shall be saved.
Christian, you've done that. You know you have; it's settled. But maybe you're willing to admit today that you haven't grown much in the likeness of Christ. As we go through this series and you see Him unfolded in the Gospel records, are you willing to say, yes, I want to be like that? God, help me. I will determine here and now by Your grace I will grow in the likeness of Christ. I will abide in Him. I will occupy my mind with Him.
Closing Prayer
Oh Father, what a difference it's going to make in our lives, and in our church—but best of all, how much glory You're going to receive, if we will follow through with our commitment to You today. God, help us to do it, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Memory Verse
Christlikeness
For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.
1 Peter 2:21 NASB
Continue to CL-02: A Submissive Spirit (coming soon)