God’s will for us is to become like Christ. He will work in our life to make it happen, but we also need to put in some effort on our part.
God is in command. God’s purpose for us is to imitate His son, Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). This is gradually taking place. We are constantly being changed to reflect the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). A number of other Bible scriptures highlight our responsibility. “Train yourself to be godly,” according to 1 Timothy 4:7, and “Imitate me (Paul) as I imitate Christ,” according to 1 Corinthians 11:1.
God’s desire for us
God intended for Adam and Eve to be sinless at the time of their creation. Upon becoming followers of Christ, we have [found pardon for our transgressions]. We understand that we are still sinners, though. Like Paul, we discover that we are always unsuccessful in our attempts to do what is right. This is exactly what Paul states in Romans 7:15–25. Evil is always there, despite his desire to do what is good. That should be sufficient to convey to us the difficulty of becoming more like Christ. How can anyone obey Paul’s teaching to become like Christ? How do we become godly by self-training?
The work of the Holy Spirit in us
This is the work of God’s Holy Spirit within us. He is the one who does the work. We must submit to Him when He makes us aware of our faults, mistakes and sin. Let us confess to God, ask for His cleansing, help and power so that we do not fall into the same trap again. People who feel or think they are already good or have achieved a good level of Christ-likeness will usually be very proud of themselves and judge others by their own standards. Jesus seemed to be surrounded by such people, called the Pharisees. They even felt qualified to judge that Jesus Himself did not reach God’s standard. The Bible commands us not to judge others. So we must remember that becoming more like Christ is a private matter between each individual and God.
The most important steps
These are the most crucial actions we should take after becoming Christians if we want to emulate Christ.
- Acknowledge when you have sinned and failed to live up to God’s expectations. Then, turn to God in repentance and beg for His forgiveness.
- Give yourself over to God and express your desire for Him to transform you into a more like Christ going forward.
- Your comments will be taken literally by the Holy Spirit, who will then start highlighting things that need to be confessed and changed. It’s possible that you’ll encounter an increasing number of people who irritate you, provoke you, test your tolerance, treat you unfairly, exploit you, or defame you to the verge of breaking you. The Holy Spirit will use all of these things to transform you into someone who is more like Christ.
- In instances such as these, seek God’s assistance to act, react, and respond in the way that Jesus would. It might not be simple, and you might discover that you fail more often than you succeed. However, you will see that your default reactions of hatred, rage, and the need for vengeance start to alter if you keep obeying God and the Holy Spirit.
- But don’t fool yourself—becoming more like Christ is a lifetime endeavor that God will only finish in us when we stand before Him in heaven. As the Bible says, “He who began a good work in will bring it to completion on the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
