Imitators
of God
“Therefore be imitators of God,
as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you
and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a
fragrant aroma.”Eph. 5:1,2
NASB
“Be ye therefore merciful, as
your father is also merciful.” Luke6:36
In
order to imitate God, we must have an idea about what He is like.
What is his nature , his personality ? How does He deal with people?
God has sent his Word and his Spirit to reveal himself to us. “And
the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory as of the only
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14
Jesus
came to earth to reveal God to us. He said “I
and my father are one”
And “If you have
seen me, you have
seen the Father”. The
Apostle John knew Jesus well and he said
“God
is
Love”, and also
“God is Light.” To
See God in action, we need only to observe Jesus as he interacts with
the people he encounters, as recorded in the gospels. He told his
disciples that he came “not
to destroy men's lives, but to save them”.
Jesus told the fearful “do
not be afraid”.
He told the sinner “ your
sins are forgiven you”.
He told the sick and the handicapped “be
healed”,
and they were made whole.
Jesus
declared his purpose and defined his mission in the synagogue at
Nazareth when he read from the book of Isaiah one sabbath day. “
And when he opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To
preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke
4:17b-19 Listen
also to His open invitation to us; “
Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give
you rest, Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke
is easy and my burden is light.” Matt.
11:28-30
With
the enablement of His grace, through His indwelling spirit; we too
can be liberators, as we point people to Jesus and allow Him to live
through us. ( I speak to those who have been born again, and are new
creations in Christ Jesus - otherwise you have nothing liberating to
give.) Let us be like Jesus and offer people rest, not like modern
day pharisees and lawyers who lay heavy burdens of debt and
obligation upon peoples backs, and yet, hold themselves blameless and
free.
Some
have a distorted view of God; seeing Him as primarily a judge who is
always angry at people, quick to chastise us and rub our faces in
our mistakes, while occasionally giving us a pat on the head when we
do well. These people are still living under the law, and tend to
believe that our acceptance by God is based upon how well we follow
his rules. When born again believers try to mix law and grace
together, the results are often disastrous. Jesus fulfilled the
requirements of the Law on our behalf, He brought us grace and truth;
he came to save the world (all of us), not to condemn the world. The
laws of the old testament were given to show us our need for God's
forgiveness and mercy. “The
law of the Lord is perfect” ,
but we are not. “The
law is
holy”,
and we are not. “For
what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God
sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might
be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
spirit,” Rom. 8:3,4
God the Father sent his son Jesus who took upon himself the
punishment that we truly deserve. “For
He has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him.”
2Cor. 5:21
We
see from these scriptures that we are made righteous by the blood of
Jesus; therefore it is not presumptuous for a born again Christian to
declare himself or herself to be righteous, we are only agreeing with
the word that God has declared over us. Those who truly trust God and
believe his word know that his grace is the reason that we are so
blessed and forgiven, it is not due to our worthiness or our efforts.
If you believe that He has made you righteous, you will begin to act
righteous, if you believe that you are still a sinner (despite the
shedding of Jesus' blood), you are not resting in the finished work
of Calvary, and you have only your own weak efforts to rely upon as
you struggle to imitate Christ. Without the knowledge of God's grace
and his mercy toward us, a person will continue to believe that sin
is unavoidable; attempting to rationalize and redefine sin, until it
becomes almost a virtue in the sinners twisted opinion. Meanwhile,
the unrepentant sinner continues to suffer the effects of sin and to
reap a harvest of trouble and shame. People will go through all kinds
of mental gymnastics to Justify themselves and quiet their troubled
consciences. It is much easier to admit your sin and go to Jesus for
a new start as a redeemed and forgiven child of God. God's freely
given grace will then empower you to become a better person, as he
develops character in you through the fruits of his indwelling
spirit. “ The
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom.
6:23
The
word grace means un-deserved favor, preferential treatment. Romans 3:24 says that we are
“justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ” ;
That
being the case, we are called to extend grace and mercy to those
around us, as imitators of Christ! Jesus never made light of sin, or
overlooked the presence of sin: on the contrary, his perfection and
the light of his holiness and truth, exposes sin; but he extends
forgiveness to all who will receive it by faith, to those who accept
Him as their redeemer and Lord.
Some
may say they are 'saved by grace', but believe that their salvation
can only maintained and retained by doing and saying the right
things. A person who believes that salvation is perpetuated by
works, will always feel a certain amount of condemnation and doubt,
due to the fact that they never know if they have done enough to
merit God's favor and keep their salvation. Due to this distorted
and false doctrine that is taught in some circles, the misguided
follower of Jesus is under the belief that any unconfessed sin, even
sins of omission, can land the disobedient child of God a permanent
spot in the pits of hell.
(As though God's forgiveness is
conditional, and the Blood of Jesus only washes away certain sins!)
Those
who see their god as angry and critical, tend to be angry and
critical to others. The big board in our eye blocks our vision and
distorts our view of things. We spend our time trying to remove
specks from other people's eyes and showing them their faults, rather
that showing them God's grace, and passing on his mercy and
forgiveness. Spiritual pride will make us forget that “all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God”
Rom. 3:23
The Christian who mixes works and
grace also likes to take credit for the good that he does, and
forgets to give God the glory for His grace and providence. When we
base our right standing with God on our works, we forsake the riches
of his grace, and are left to struggle with life's problems and
dilemmas with our own puny resources. When we don't find our rest in
God, we tend to deny others rest. Our lack of peace results in a life
of turmoil and uncertainty, and yet, we continue to try and help God
by passing on bad advice to any who will listen.
The
Apostle Paul said to 'cast our cares on him, because he cares for
us.' Let us commit our way to our Heavenly Father, and walk in His
light, trusting in his grace as we imitate Christ, and allow him to
change us 'from glory to glory'. Give yourself a break, quit beating
yourself up, and cut others some slack for a change! Imitate Christ
as He lives through you in the person of his Holy Spirit, and let's
love one another as Christ has loved us.
Chuck Loubert 12-21-08
©2008 Charles J. Loubert
