10. What is the secret to becoming more Christ like? It is truly a “secret” to the religious mind although God has not intended it to be so. God desires every believer to understand how to become more like Jesus. The first thing to consider is that His ways are not our ways. “As high as the heavens are above the earth so are His ways different from our ways.” (Is. 55:9). The things of God or of the Spirit are foolishness to the natural man so it takes a revelation from God to see this “secret” (1 Cor. 2:14) “Who can know the thoughts of God but the Spirit of God has been given to us that we might know the things that have been “freely” given to us through Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:12) Secondly, one should consider that God works from the inside out, while man works from the outside in. In other words, God first gives the believer a brand new heart as an act of creation. The outward manifestation of that new heart will come later and gradually, like a fruit tree bearing fruit. Paul wrote that in this New Covenant “God raises the dead and calls into being that which did not exist.” (Romans 4:17) Man, on the other hand, tries to modify outward behavior through fear of judgment or outward pressure or knowledge of good and evil, but that method is not God’s way and it cannot change the heart. Becoming more Christ like is really a manifestation of what already is. Did you get that? That is the key. A believer is not gradually becoming more and more like Jesus, more and more righteous, more and more holy, etc. A believer is by an act of recreation made in the image of the risen Christ and inseparably joined to Christ. A believer is complete in Christ now and nothing is lacking to make him or her fit for heaven. Physical death, to be absent from the body, will mean the believer is immediately present with the Lord, blameless, complete and in great joy! In this life it is a matter of the mind being renewed to what is true now in Christ. As the mind is renewed to the new reality in Christ, thoughts change, words change, deeds change, etc. Gradually, as the un-renewed mind catches up with what is true in the Spirit, the son or daughter of God produces spiritual fruit which comes forth for all to see – the invisible becoming visible and God is glorified. The third consideration is that there is a heavenly dynamic which is active in the Spirit during this journey on earth with God. God’s way in the Spirit is to direct our eyes to Jesus and see Him as He really is, and thereby seeing God as He really is. As we do, a mysterious thing happens. As we look to God and behold his countenance concerning us, everything changes. We begin to see our identity in Him, for we have been created by Him in His likeness as a new creation. Seeing Him and seeing who we really are in Him releases the power of God to renew our minds. Paul writes about how Moses’ face began to shine as he simply beheld the glory of God and he writes that this is how it works in the New Covenant (2 Corinthians 3:6-14). We behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus and are transformed in the eyes of men (although the transformation has already taken place in the invisible – in the Spirit within) into the same image from glory to glory as we put on the deeds of the new man who already is, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18) Paul was telling us that when we behold Jesus as if He is a mirror reflecting back to us who we really are, and that we look just like Him! As John wrote, “As Jesus is so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17) Through the Old Covenant of law came the knowledge of sin, the scripture teaches. The law can only show us our sin in the flesh, but that sin in the flesh does not dictate the true identity of the believer anymore. “by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace,” (Eph. 2:15) We have been cut away from the body of the flesh in a great mystery, a spiritual circumcision, the true circumcision of which the Abrahamic circumcision was but a picture, and have been raised from the dead to experience union with the risen Christ. “But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” (Romans 2:29) “The mind set on the flesh is death but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6) That’s it! That’s the secret. No wonder they call Him “Wonderful Counselor”, for His counsel is not of man or of this world. It is full of wonder! How can these things be? Because nothing is impossible for Him! As He says, “Call unto Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you know not.” (Jeremiah 33:3)
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 15:15:39 +0000
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