Christlikeness and the indwelling of the Spirit
Chapter 2
CHRISTLIKENESS
In April 2007 I celebrated my 86th birthday and took the opportunity to announce my retirement from active public ministry. Although I declined all subsequent speaking engagements, I already had in my diary an invitation to give an address at the Keswick Convention 1 that July. This chapter is based on the text of that last address.
I remember vividly the major question which perplexed me (and my friends) as a young Christian. It was this: What is God’s purpose for his people? Granted we had been converted, but what next?
Of course we knew the famous statement of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, that ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever’. We also toyed with a yet briefer statement of only five words such as ‘love God, love your neighbour’.
But neither seemed wholly satisfactory. So I want to share with you where my mind has come to rest as I approach the end of my pilgrimage on earth. It is this: God wants his people to become like Christ, for Christlikeness is the will of God for the people of God.
I propose first, to lay down the biblical basis for the call to Christlikeness; second, to give some New Testament examples; and third, to draw some practical conclusions.
THE BIBLICAL BASIS OF THE CALL TO CHRISTLIKENESS
This basis is not a single text, for the basis is more substantial than can be summed up in one text. The basis consists of three texts which we will do well to hold together: Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18 and 1 John 3:2.
The first text is Romans 8:29: God has ‘predestined [his people] to be conformed to the image of his Son’. When Adam fell, he lost much (though not all) of the divine image in which he had been created. But God has restored it in Christ. Conformity to the image of God means to be like Jesus, and Christlikeness is the eternal predestinating purpose of God.
The second text is 2 Corinthians 3:18: ‘We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate [or reflect] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed [or changed] into his image, with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.’
The perspective has changed – from the past to the present; from God’s eternal predestination to his present transformation of us by the Holy Spirit; from God’s eternal purpose to make us like Christ, to his historical work by his Spirit to transform us into the image of Christ.
The third text is 1 John 3:2: ‘Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’ And if God is working to this end, it is no wonder he calls us to cooperate with him. ‘Follow me,’ he says. ‘Imitate me.’
Many of us have heard of a book entitled The Imitation of Christ which was written in the early fifteenth century by Thomas à Kempis. So many hundreds of thousands of editions and translations have been published that, after the Bible, it is probably the world’s best-seller. It is not actually about imitating Christ for its contents are more varied than this. But it got its title from the book’s first words, and its enormous popularity is an indication of the importance of its topic.
So, returning now to 1 John 3:2: We don’t know, and we do know; we don’t know in any detail what we shall be, but we do know that we will be like Christ. And there’s really no need for us to know any more. We are content with the glorious truth that we will be with Christ and like Christ.
Here then are three perspectives (past, present and future) which are all pointing in the same direction: God’s eternal purpose (we have been predestined...); God’s historical purpose (we are being changed, transformed by the Holy Spirit); and God’s final eschatological purpose (we will be like him...). These all combine towards the same end of Christlikeness, for Christlikeness is the purpose of God for the people of God.
If we claim to be Christian, we must be like Christ.
Having established the biblical basis, that Christlikeness is the purpose of God for the people of God, I want now to move on to illustrate this truth with a number of New Testament examples. But first, a general statement from 1 John 2:6: ‘whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did’. If we claim to be Christian, we must be like Christ.
SOME NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES
We are to be like Christ in his incarnation
Some may immediately recoil with horror from such an idea. ‘Surely,’ you may say, ‘the incarnation was an altogether unique event and cannot be imitated?’
The answer is ‘yes and no’. It is ‘yes’ in the sense that the Son of God took our humanity to himself in Jesus of Nazareth, once and for all and never to be repeated, but ‘no’ in the sense that we are all called to follow the example of his great humility. So Paul could write in Philippians 2:5–8:
Have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had:
who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human being,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!
We are to be like Christ in his service
We move on now from his incarnation to his life of service. So come with me to the upper room where he spent his last evening with his disciples. During supper he took off his outer garments, tied a towel round him, poured water into a basin and washed his disciples’ feet. When he had finished, he resumed his place and said: ‘Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you’ (John 13:14–15).
Some Christians take Jesus’ command literally and sometimes have a foot-washing ceremony in their Lord’s Supper. And they may be right. But most also transpose his command culturally. That is, just as Jesus performed what in his culture was the work of a slave, so we in our cultures must regard no task too menial or degrading to undertake.
We are to be like Christ in his love
As Paul wrote: ‘Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God’ (Ephesians 5:2). To ‘live a life of love’ is a command that all our behaviour should be characterized by love, but ‘gave himself’ for us is a clear reference to the cross. So Paul is urging us to be like Christ in his death; to love with Calvary love.
Do you see what is happening? Paul is urging us to be like the Christ of the incarnation, the Christ of the foot-washing, and the Christ of the cross.
These events in the life of Christ indicate clearly what Christlikeness means in practice. For example, in this very chapter Paul urges husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her (Ephesians 5:25).
We are to be like Christ in his patient endurance
In this next example we consider the teaching, not of Paul but of Peter. Every chapter of Peter’s first letter contains an allusion to suffering for Christ, for the background of the letter is the beginnings of persecution.
In chapter 2 in particular, Peter urges Christian slaves (if punished unjustly) to bear it, not to repay evil for evil (1 Peter 2:18). We have been called to this because Christ also suffered, leaving us an example so that we may follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:21).
This call to Christlikeness in suffering unjustly may well become increasingly relevant as persecution increases in many cultures today.
We are to be like Christ in his mission
Having looked at the teaching of Paul and Peter, we come now to the teaching of Jesus, as recorded by John (John 17:18; 20:21).
In prayer, Jesus said to his Father, ‘As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world’; and in commissioning, he said, ‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ These words are immensely significant.
This is not just the version of the great commission recorded in John’s Gospel, it is also an instruction that their mission in the world was to resemble Christ’s. In what respect? The key words are ‘sent into the world’. That is, as Christ had to enter our world, so we are to enter other people’s worlds.
It was eloquently explained by Archbishop Michael Ramsay when he said:
We state and commend the faith only in so far as we go out and put ourselves inside the doubts of the doubters, the questions of the questioners and the loneliness of those who have lost their way.2
This entering of other people’s worlds is exactly what we mean by incarnational mission, and all authentic mission is incarnational mission. We are to be like Christ in his mission.
Here then are perhaps the five main ways in which we are to be Christlike: we are to be like Christ in his incarnation, in his service, in his love, in his endurance, and in his mission.
THREE PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES
We conclude now with three practical consequences of the basis and examples for Christlikeness that we have considered.
Christlikeness and the mystery of suffering
Of course suffering is a huge subject in itself, and there are many ways in which Christians try to understand it. But one stands out, and that is that suffering is part of God’s process of making us like Christ. Whether it is a disappointment or a frustration, we need to try to see it in the light of Romans 8:28 and 29.
According to Romans 8:28, God is always working for the good purpose of his people, and according to Romans 8:29 this good purpose is to make us like Christ.
Christlikeness and the challenge of evangelism
Why is it that our evangelistic efforts are often fraught with failure? Several reasons may be given, and I must not oversimplify, but one main reason is that we don’t look like the Christ we proclaim.
‘If you Christians lived like Jesus Christ, India would be at your feet tomorrow.’
John Poulton has written about this in his perceptive little book, A Today Sort of Evangelism:
The most effective preaching comes from those who embody the things they are saying. They are their message...Christians...need to look like what they are talking about. It is people who communicate primarily, not words or ideas...Authenticity...gets across from deep down inside people...A momentary insincerity can cast doubt on all that has made for communication up to that point...What communicates now is basically personal authenticity.3
Similarly, a Hindu professor, identifying one of his students as a Christian, once said, ‘If you Christians lived like Jesus Christ, India would be at your feet tomorrow.’
Another example is of the Rev. Iskandar Jadeed, a former Arab Muslim, who has said, ‘If all Christians were Christians there would be no more Islam today.’
I don’t know the authors of these sayings personally but I believe them to be genuine.
Christlikeness and the indwelling of the Spirit
I have spoken much about Christlikeness, but how is it possible for us? In our own strength, it is clearly not, but God has given us his Holy Spirit to enable us to fulfil his purpose.
William Temple used to illustrate the point from Shakespeare in this way:
It is no good giving me a play like Hamlet or King Lear, and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it; I can’t.
And it is no good showing me a life like the life of Jesus and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it; I can’t.
But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me, then I could write plays like his.
And if the Spirit of Jesus could come and live in me, then I could live a life like his.
God’s purpose is to make us like Christ, and God’s way is to fill us with his Holy Spirit.