By Not Known
Today we continue our ‘Created for God’s Purposes’ series of sermons and
studies with a practical focus on being God’s person.
To be God’s person is to bear God’s likeness or image and so to fulfil our identity
at Creation (Gen 1:26-27). To be God’s person is what we were made for.
Our problem is that sin stops us from being God’s person. Sin makes us guilty
before God. This is the penalty of sin. Sin also distorts our character so that we
become incapable of being like God and also habitually deny God’s image in us.
This is the power of sin.
This is where Jesus fits in. By going to the Cross on our behalf, Jesus paid the
penalty for sin. By rising from the dead and sending his Holy Spirit to be in us,
Jesus deals with the power of sin. In all this, he makes it possible for us to be
who we were created to be – God’s person.
An important part of following Jesus (discipleship) is to become like Jesus in our
attitudes, thoughts and actions. This is a central theme of today’s Bible passage
(Eph 4). Indeed, the passage says that the purpose of church leaders is to
prepare God’s people for the work of service so that the body of Christ may be
built up until we all … attain to the whole measure óf the fullness of Christ (Eph
4:12-13).
There are several reasons why we should be like Jesus:
- Becoming like Jesus is the purpose of our predestination (Rom 8:29).
- When we become like Jesus we bear God’s image fully because Jesus is
the full image of God. (Col 1 :15), - Bearing God’s image is God’s purpose in saving us (Col 3:10).
- Bearing God’s image and being like Jesus is necessary for our enty to
eternal life and is our eternal destiny (1 Cor 15:49-50; 1 Jn 3:2).
In simple words: when we become like Jesus we become like God and so fufil
God’s purpose in choosing, making and saving us.
Being like Jesus means taking on his character from the inside out. To do this we
must know Jesus well by reading what the Bible says about him and meditating on it. We must know Jesus so well that we can instinctively answer the questi.on;
‘What would Jesus do?‘ in our every situation. To become Iike Jesus we must be
in a relationship with him – to entrust ourselves to him and make a commitment
to be his follower. Have you done this?