What does being like Christ look like?

A story is told about when the wife of missionary Adoniram Judson told him that a newspaper article likened him to some of the apostles. Judson replied, “I do not want to be like a Paul … or any mere man. I want to be like Christ … I want to follow Him only, copy His teachings, drink in His Spirit, and place my feet in His footprints. Oh, to be more like Christ!”

I second that!

God’s greatest desire for us is that we become like Jesus. As disciples of Jesus, that should be our greatest desire as well. Even Jesus said, “Students [or disciples] are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher,” Luke 6:40. The Apostle John would write, “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did,” 1 John 2:6.

Pastor Bill Morgan elaborated on being like Christ with a simple illustration:

On a wall near the main entrance to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, is a portrait with the following inscription: “James Butler Bonham — no picture of him exists. This portrait is of his nephew, Major James Bonham, deceased, who greatly resembled his uncle. It is placed here by the family that people may know the appearance of the man who died for freedom.” No literal portrait of Jesus exists either. But the likeness of the Son who makes us free can be seen in the lives of His true followers.

So what does being like Jesus look like?

There’s much that can be said and written in answer to that question, but let’s look briefly at five things that stand out when we open the Bible and examine the life of Christ. To be like Jesus means we should be:

Loving. When we delve in the pages of the Bible to learn about this Man named Jesus, we learn that He wasn’t just a man, He is also fully God! And a key description of God is this: “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love,” 1 John 4:7-8 and “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them,” 1 John 4:16.

“Loving” isn’t just a nice descriptive word for God, it is what Jesus lived out in His life on Earth, providing us a perfect example of what it is to be loving. To be like Christ is to learn to love like Jesus did. You simply cannot be like Jesus and be an unloving person.

Forgiving. One of the most profound things demonstrated from the life of Christ was His willingness to forgive. Not just the “easy” things, but some of the hardest, like your enemies crucifying you:

“Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified — one on his right and one on his left. Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.’ And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice,” Luke 23:32-34.

To be like Jesus, we have to learn to forgive in the same way Jesus forgave:

“Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others,” Colossians 3:13.

Serving. The life of Christ was the definition of a life of serving lived out. The Apostle Paul encourages us to also serve God and each other, and reflects on the example of Jesus as the great servant:

“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross,” Philippians 2:3-8.

It simply isn’t possibly to live a Christlike life without living a life of serving God and others.

Giving. Jesus didn’t live on Earth as a rich man, He didn’t have money to give. What He did have was greater than money — He had Himself, and He poured out His life for all humankind.

“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” John 15:13.

You cannot give more than your life, and Jesus gave all His life, in living and dying, and being raised to life again. A few days ago I read a comment from someone who noted of Christians, “Giving should be easy.” Considering what Jesus gave on our behalf, you can’t realistically imagine being like Jesus without being a person who is giving.

A man with a mission. The passion of Christ was to do the will of the Father — He was a man with a mission and never deviated from it. Indeed, we see Jesus focusing on the work of the Father from the early age of twelve. He had gone to Jerusalem with His family for the Passover festival and had become separated from Joseph and Mary when the celebration was over. We pick up from there:

“When they couldn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there. Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. His parents didn’t know what to think. ‘Son,’ his mother said to him, ‘why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.’ ‘But why did you need to search?’ he asked. ‘Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?'” Luke 2:45-49.

Years later Jesus would say of His mission, “For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will,” John 6:38. Even as the day drew near for His crucifixion, Jesus continued to display a dogged determination to complete His mission: “As the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem,” Luke 9:51.

As disciples of Jesus, we also have been given a mission by God to be ambassadors for Christ:

“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!'” 2 Corinthians 5:18-20.

Just as Jesus was resolute about doing the will of the Father and completing His earthly mission, to be like Christ we must be just as determined to carry out our mission as Christ’s ambassadors so that God can make “… his appeal through us.”

Conclusion. In Discipleship Journal, Carole Mayhall tells of a woman who went to a diet center to lose weight. The director took her to a full-length mirror. On it he outlined a figure and told her, “This is what I want you to be like at the end of the program.” Days of intense dieting and exercise followed, and every week the woman would stand in front of the mirror, discouraged because her bulging outline didn’t fit the director’s ideal. But she kept at it, and finally one day she conformed to the longed-for image.

In a similar way, those who are disciples of Jesus are being conformed to His likeness:

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church,” Ephesians 4:11-15.

“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord — who is the Spirit — makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image,” 2 Corinthians 3:16-18.

So what does it look like to be like Jesus? It means being loving and forgiving, serving and giving, and being ambassadors on a mission. There’s more to being like Christ than just these five things. He was gracious, and kind, and merciful … and so much more! But these are a good start. When someone looks closely at your life, do they see the loving, forgiving, serving, giving, and resolute characteristics of Christ?

Scotty