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.
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, Its 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.
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.
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!
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!”