Answer: Becoming
more like Christ is the desire of every believer, and it is encouraging to know
that God has the same desire for us. In fact, the Bible says that God
“predestined [believers] to be conformed to the likeness of his Son” (Romans
8:29). Making us Christ-like is God’s work, and He will see it through to the
end (Philippians 1:6).
However, the fact that God will transform us into Christ-likeness doesn’t mean
we can sit back and be carried to heaven “on flow’ry beds of ease.” The process
demands our willing cooperation with the Holy Spirit. Becoming more Christ-like
requires both divine power and the fulfillment of human responsibility.
There are three things which contribute to our being more Christ-like: our
surrender to God, our freedom from sin, and our spiritual growth.
1) Becoming more Christ-like is the result of surrender to God. Romans 12:1-2
says that worship involves a total self-dedication to God. We volunteer our
bodies as “living sacrifices,” and our minds are renewed and transformed.
When Jesus said, “Follow me,” Levi left his money tables immediately (Mark
2:14); so do we freely surrender all we have for the sake of following the
Lord. As John the Baptist said, “He must become greater; I must become less”
(John 3:30), so we focus more and more on Jesus and His glory, losing ourselves
in His will.
2) Becoming more Christ-like is the result of freedom from sin. Since Jesus
lived a sinless life, the more we consider ourselves “dead to sin” (Romans
6:11) and live a life of purity, the more like Jesus we will be. As we offer
ourselves to God, sin is no longer our master, and we are more clearly
identified with Christ (Romans 6:1-14).
Jesus invites us to follow Him, and we have His example of obedience (John
15:10), sacrificial love (John 15:12-13), and patient suffering (1 Peter
2:19-23). We also have the example of the apostles, who modeled Christ (1
Corinthians 11:1).
When it comes to restraining sin in our lives, we have divine help: praise the
Lord for the Word of God (Psalm 119:11), the intercession of Christ (Romans
8:34; Hebrews 7:25), and the power of the Spirit who indwells us (Romans 8:4;
Galatians 5:16)!
3) Becoming more Christ-like is the result of Christian growth. When we are
first saved, we are immature in wisdom and knowledge, and inexperienced in
grace and love. But then we grow. In each of these things, our charge is to
become stronger—and more Christ-like. “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). “May the Lord make your love increase
and overflow for each other and for everyone else” (1 Thessalonians 3:12).
Right now, God works in us: “We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's
glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory,
which comes from the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). One day, however, the process
will be complete: “When he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him
as he is” (1 John 3:2). The promise of being fully Christ-like in the future is
in itself motivation for becoming more Christ-like now: “Everyone who has this
hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).
