CHRISTLIKENESS
The communion
of the gospel is by seeing as well as by hearing. This double strand runs all
through the Bible: image and word, vision and voice, opening the eyes of the
blind and unstopping the ears of the deaf. Just as Jesus is
the Word of God and the Image of God. The Word become visible, the Image
audible... We are familiar enough with the verbal element of evangelism. Where
is the visual?
Perhaps the
most wonderful thing of all is this: God lifts us not only from what we are by
nature to what Adam was in the Garden of Eden, but to what Adam was to become
in the presence of God, and would have been had he persevered in obedience. The
gospel does not make us like Adam in his innocence – it makes us like Christ,
in all the perfection of His reflection of God.
The Christian Life, p. 16, 1997, by
permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
How can all
things be worked together by God for good? The answer is at hand. It is because
God's ultimate purpose is to make us like Christ. His goal is the complete
restoration of the image of God in His child! So great a work demands all the
resources which God finds throughout the universe, and He ransacks the
possibilities of joys and sorrows in order to reproduce in us the character of
Jesus.
The Christian Life, p. 21, 1997, by
permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
There is
nothing more important to learn about Christian growth than this: Growing in
grace means becoming like Christ.
Grow in Grace, by permission of Banner of
Truth, Carlisle, PA. 1989, p. 4.
We must never
forget – if we are to grow in grace, and therefore grow like Christ – that the
One we trust, love, and serve is a crucified Savior. To follow Him means
taking up the cross, as well as denying ourselves. It means a crucified life.
Grow in Grace, by permission of Banner of
Truth, Carlisle, PA. 1989, p. 62.
How do we
bring glory to God? The Bible’s short answer is: by growing more and more like
Jesus Christ.
Sinclair B. Ferguson
Healthy
Christian Growth, The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle,
PA. 1991, p. 2.
Scripture
speaks about God working everything together “for the good” of those who love
him (Rom. 8:28). But what is this “good?” It consists of believers being
conformed (changed and remade) to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). Thus, all
the experiences of life are intended, under the sovereign hand of God, to help
us to grow towards the great goal of the Christian life – Christ-likeness.
Sinclair B. Ferguson
Healthy
Christian Growth, The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle,
PA. 1991, p. 16.
If
traces of Christ’s love-artistry be upon me, may He work on with His divine
brush until the complete image be obtained and I be made a perfect copy of Him,
my Master.
Unknown Puritan
The
difficulty of the commands is merely a reflection of the greatness of the
Gospel. Jesus' expectation is built on his anticipation of what God will do in
the lives of His people! Jesus demands the humanly impossible precisely because
His provisions are supernatural. The magnitude of Jesus' commands must mean,
therefore, that they are tied to the grandest promise of all, namely, the
promise that God himself will work in every circumstance to conform us to the
image of Christ (Rom. 8:28-29).
The God of Promise and the Life of
Faith. Crossway Books, 2001, p. 203.
It is not so
much great talents that the Lord blesses as great likeness to Jesus Christ.
They are the
God-given means by which busy believers become like Christ. God offers His
life-changing grace…to every believer – through the Spiritual
Disciplines.
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 236. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved. For more information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
Wherever the
Holy Spirit dwells, His presence creates a hunger for holiness. His office is
to magnify Christ, and it is He who gives the believer a desire to be like
Christ. The natural man has no such passion.
But in the Christian, the Spirit of God begins to carry out the will of
God to make the child of God like the Son of God (Romans 8:29). And He who
began this good work in the life of the believer “will carry it on to
completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 237. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved. For more information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
All our
spiritual disciplines should be practiced in pursuit of Christlikeness. We
pursue outward conformity to Christlikeness as we practice the same disciplines
He practiced. More importantly, we pursue intimacy with Jesus and the inner
transformation to Christlikeness when we look to Him through the spiritual
disciplines.
Remember, It’s All
About Jesus, www.BiblicalSpirituality.org.
Used by Permission.
To become
like Christ is the only thing in the world worth caring for, the thing before
which every ambition of man is folly and all lower achievement vain.
God’s
ultimate goal for us, however, is that we be truly conformed to the likeness of
His Son in our person as well as in our standing… Jesus did not die just to
save us from the penalty of sin, nor even just to make us holy in our standing
before God. He died to purify for
Himself a people eager to obey Him, a people eager to be transformed into His
likeness… This process of gradually conforming us to the likeness of Christ
begins at the very moment of our salvation when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell
within us and to actually give us a new life in Christ. We call this gradual process progressive
sanctification, or growing in holiness, because it truly is a growth process.
Jerry Bridges
Transforming Grace, NavPress, 1991, p.
105. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved.
God never
allows pain without a purpose in the lives of His children. He never allows
Satan, nor circumstances, nor any ill-intending person
to afflict us unless He uses that affliction for our good. God never wastes
pain. He always causes it to work together for our ultimate good, the good of
conforming us more to the likeness of His Son (see Romans 8:28-29).
Jerry Bridges
Transforming Grace, NavPress, 1991, p.
139. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights
reserved.
The good that
God works for in our lives is conformity to the likeness of His Son. It is not
necessarily comfort or happiness but conformity to Christ in ever-increasing measure
in this life and in its fullness in eternity.
Trusting God, 1988, p. 120. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved.
We mistakenly
look for tokens of God’s love in happiness. We should instead look for them in
His faithful and persistent work to conform us to Christ.
Trusting God, 1988, p. 150. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved.
There are
many who preach Christ, but not so many who live Christ. My great aim will be
to live Christ
It is not
great gifts that God blesses so much as it is great likeness to Christ.
Christlikeness
is the substance of spiritual dedication.
John MacArthur
A
Balance of Faith and Effort from Our Sufficiency in Christ, 1991, Crossway
Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. p. 201.
When
[pastors] measure whether or not we are successful, it must be by this
criterion, namely, are we seeing the saints growing to completeness in Jesus
Christ?
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 29.
We are to
reflect Christ in all that we say and do. And the Christ of Scripture is the
humble, suffering servant who, in spite of great opposition, false accusations,
and public ridicule, remained faithful to the heavenly calling.
Appointed to Preach, Christian Focus
Publications, 1999, p. 70.
It is
inconceivable that a person could fall in love with the Redeemer in the
biblical sense and not long to be conformed to the object of that affection.
To God be the Glory,
Crossway, 2000, p. 38.
None can know
their election but by their conformity to Christ; for all who are chosen are
chosen to sanctification.
Matthew Henry
Free and warm reception into the
divine favor is the strongest of all motives in leading a man to seek conformity
to Him who has thus freely forgiven him all trespasses.
Horatius Bonar
God’s
Way of Holiness.
We become
like that which we behold. We will never be transformed into the likeness of
God or be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus until we learn how to behold
His beauty. To see Him is to be like Him. As David beheld the beauty of the
Lord, as he meditated on the glorious perfections and passions of God’s
character, he became more like God. More than that, he fell ever more in love
with God.
Sam Storms
Copied
from: Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Knowing God by Sam Storms,
© 2000, p. 54-55. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.org. All rights
reserved.
God does not
accept me just as I am; He loves me despite
how I am. He loves me just as Jesus
is; He loves me enough to devote my life to renewing me in the image of Jesus.
David Powlison
Seeing With New Eyes, P&R Publishers, 2003,
p. 169-170.
Press
right home to your
conscience the question, “What do I have of the mind of Christ?” Does my heart
answer, does my disposition correspond, to the holy, meek, humble, forgiving,
benevolent, patient, self-denying mind of Christ? Do men who know the beauty
and glory of the Original, as it is delineated on the page of the gospel, when
they see me, say, “There is the image of Christ!” Or do they look skeptically
on, and after standing in silence for some time, profess they can see little or
no resemblance? Oh, be satisfied with nothing short of a copy of Christ’s heart
into yours!
In
order to mold His children, God sometimes has to melt them down.
Author
Unknown
When the wife
of missionary Adoniram Judson told him that a newspaper article likened him to
some of the apostles, Judson replied, “I do not want to be like a Paul or any
mere man. I want to be like Christ. I want to follow Him only, copy His
teachings, drink in His Spirit, and place my feet in His footprints. Oh, to be more like Christ!”