Have you ever been told that if you would imitate Jesus all would be well in your life? From pulpits to podiums to books we are told to imitate Jesus. WWJD bracelets were all the rage a decade ago. Put one on your wrist, look at it every once in a while, and viola, better life. It’s no doubt true that to seek to live as Jesus lived and to react as Jesus reacted would result in a better spiritual life. Despite the facts that Jesus lived two thousand years ago in a country far removed from our own doesn’t lessen the value of his examples. When you speak of Jesus you are speaking of God; so, emulating Jesus is to emulate supreme Godliness. Jesus was God Incarnate, which is Bible-speak for God in human form. Jesus is to be our life-example.
Now for the hard part: exactly how do we emulate and imitate Jesus? We can’t heal the sick, nor can we drive demons out of people. We can’t turn a few fish and loaves of bread into a massive fish sandwich meal for thousands of people. We can’t turn water into wine. We can’t calm gale force winds on a body of water and we certainly can't walk on water. Enough of the cant’s, let’s look at what we can do: we can see our power coming from God the Father and keep up a regular stream of communication. We can go around doing good for people in God’s name. We can love the hard-to-love and provide care for the needy. We can place the needs of those we haven’t yet reached ahead of our own.
Now for the really hard part: Jesus died. To emulate Jesus is to be willing to die for God. Losing one’s life due to being a Christian actually happens in many places in the world; but let’s face it, it doesn’t happen here. Losing one’s actual life is not required to be a dedicated follower of Jesus. This is a good thing. All that is required is to symbolically give up our hold on our life and give it to God. We symbolically die to our carnal, sinful, natural, dead-end selves and allow God to gift the Holy Spirit into our lives. So death is involved, just not the as a doornail type. After we have the Holy Spirit in our lives it is easier to seek to imitate Jesus in all the other ways…just don’t get your hopes up for walking on water or tossing out demons.
Crucifixion is not required, but a form of death is before we have a prayer of imitating Jesus. It’s so very counter intuitive but death precedes life in God’s equation. It is only in dying that we can live in the manner God wishes for us to live. Sign me up for that whole WWJD thing!
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Imitating Christ is hardly the core of the matter. It is becoming more of Christ and less of us. Jesus is the focal point. Without Him, we are nothing and we can do nothing that is worthy of Him, even imitating Him; we then become false representatives of Him.
ReplyDeleteThe Apostle Paul wrote that anyone who is abiding or living in Christ takes on all the spiritual attributes such as having to bear the cross, die, be raised from the dead or resurrected, and sit with Him in heavenly places. Be it as it may, spiritually, we are crucified with Christ. He ios the preeminence of our life.
Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
For many, even those who claim to be Christian, cannot bear this saying. They cannot take the prophecy of Christ, “In the world you will have tribulation” (Matthew 16:33). Instead, they want a cheap salvation, a cheap Jesus, and a cheap grace.
There is a price to pay in order to be a real Christian (disciple of Christ). We must decrease while He increases. This is the core of any profound believer to the Word. We more than “symbolically die to our carnal sinful natural…” The Holy Spirit gives us the power to overcome these things. And by means of His guidance, we continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ Jesus. We are to die of our own fleshly desires (self-centeredness) and allow Christ to be the preeminence or increase in Christ-centeredness.
To the nocturnal sublime: It’s hard to see the truth when one’s livelihood depends on NOT seeing it.
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