Becoming more like Christ

Through these two unfathomably great gifts—eternal life and the Holy Spirit—you now have the opportunity to live morally every day as Christ lived here, or, as John writes, “to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:6). This is exactly what God’s Word calls every Christian to do. Peter says, “so that you might follow in his steps” (1 Pet. 2:21). 

Paul puts it as follows: “Have this mind among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). It’s precisely this goal that the apostle worked towards in his ministry with believers. That’s why he writes to the Galatians, “my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” (Gal. 4:19). This is exactly the purpose of our lives!

Paul had one great desire from the moment of his conversion: that Christ would be glorified and magnified through him. He wasn’t only concerned with the words of his sermons. He wanted the life of his Master to be evi- dent in his own thinking and behaviour (see 2 Cor. 4:10- 11). But this could only happen by putting the past behind him and saying decisively, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

This brings us to the question: What specifically can we do to become more like Christ? Or in other words, how can we set this transformation process in motion so that the life of Jesus is seen more in us? 

The key to this is found in 2 Corinthians 3:18 where Paul writes, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit”.

When we have the Son of God before us, whether in His life here on earth or in the place He now occupies at the right hand of God, the Holy Spirit does something we can’t do in our own strength: He transforms us into the image of our Lord and Master. 

So it’s the Holy Spirit who brings about Christ-likeness in us when Jesus Christ is before our hearts. That’s why it is so enormously important for each one of us as Jesus’ disciples, to occupy ourselves extensively with our Master and to study His life in the Gospels.

J.P.S.