We are like Christ

So this week I have tried to work through the many different levels of our union with Christ. I looked at many of the passages that teach we are in Christ. I also worked through the thought that Christ is in us. And yesterday I worked a little understanding better what it means to have fellowship with Christ. Today I want to think for a few moments about the fourth part of our union with Christ, and that is becoming like Christ.

Here is the sad reality of the church today. Many of us have heard the expression, "what would Jesus do". Maybe even some of us have the WWJD bracelets that were popular back in the 90s. But here is the fact that our union with Christ teaches. We are never God, so we can never truly do what Jesus did. But becasue of our union with Christ, we have all the blessings in Christ, fellowship with Christ through His Word, and we grow to be more like Christ through His Word and our fellowship with Him. So rather than asking what would Jesus do, here is a better question to ask, what would Jesus want me to do? To answer that question, we need to be in fellowship with Christ through His Word and we need to be growing more like Christ, through His Word. So what does it mean to grow to be more like Christ?

1 John 2:6 states, "He who says he abides in Him [Christ] ought to walk in the same way in which He walked". So becoming like Christ means that we walk like Christ, talk like Christ, be like Christ in our character, attitudes, actions, and words. Like that song from the 90s that said "I want to be like Mike", it is the same for "I want to be like Jesus, walk like Jesus, talk like Jesus". So for example, Paul says that husband are to love their wives, as Christ loves the church (Eph. 5:25). This means as a husband I must have the same sacrificial and leadership love that Christ has for His church. This becoming like Christ also means that "as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive (Col. 3:13). Becoming like Christ even means that we suffer like Christ and follow His character in what a life of obedience to the will of the Father looks like (1 Peter 2:21).

But here is an important point to make. Our growing like Christ is not just to follow the example of Christ, becasue that would be just WWJD. No, our growing like Christ is a becoming like Christ. And when we become like Christ, yes His example is good to follow, but we are more importantly adopting His character, His desire for the will of God, His delight in the will of God, and His passion to see the glory of the Father spread. When we become more like Christ, we no longer ask the question, but live a life of godliness flowing out with Christ character from us. There is no longer a pause or asking a question. When we become like Christ in our union with Christ, our actions and response immediately start to become how Christ would respond and act. All of a sudden our character becomes like Christ character. Slowly and gradually our will becomes the will of Christ. Christ was perfect and was God, we are not. So we must never try to do what Christ did, becasue we can't. But we can become like Christ, so that our spiritual fruit is the same spiritual fruit that Christ has. And becoming like Christ in that way is letting Christ work though us and asking the right question, "what would Christ want me to do for Him".

This final piece of becoming like Christ then is what our union with Christ entails. We are in Christ so we experience and are given all the spiritual blessings that Christ has from the Father. We have Christ in us, so we have the resource and power of the God-man, in us to live a life to spread the glory of God. We have a unified fellowship with Christ, so that when we spend time in the Word, Christ is still speaking and teaching us today. And as we have seen today, we begin to become like Christ in our growth, so that when we act and live, we are doing the will of God through Christ. So what a glorious blessing and gift it is to be in union with Christ. And what an amazing privilege God the Father has bestowed on us, to view us as His Son when we are in union with Him.