Christ, Our Example

Philippians 2:5-7 says, “Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus; 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."

Here He is, the king of Glory. He can stay anywhere; He can go anywhere and do anything. He knows who He is. Yet what does He do – for us and for our sake? He empties Himself until He becomes nothing. The King of Glory allowed Himself to be born in a stable with goats and chickens. He had to learn a language. He had to be clothed and fed by someone. He just gave Himself away, always putting others first. He left His Kingdom, left His glory behind to show us how to live.

While we try to hold on tight to things, He is saying, Give it away. He humbled Himself and made Himself obedient even to death. What a teacher! All we have to do is follow the leader, be in unity with Him, see what He sees, go where He goes, do what he does, pray what He prays, love as He loves.

In view of Heaven, how ought we to live?

This is something I wanted to remember from a Bible Study Fellowship study of the book of Revelation I’ve been doing all year.

2 Peter 3: 10-13 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

Peter sums up what kind of people we should be. Holy and godly ones who look forward to the day of the Lord and speed its coming.

It’s not enough to go through the motions of life, knowing we are on our way to a better place. Heaven motivates whole hearted commitment to holy and godly living now. God’s Word tells us when we see Jesus we will be like Him. Because Jesus is holy and we will be completely holy when we see Him, the logical goal for every believer is to pursue holy living now. This is also God’s command and it glorifies Him when we do it.

God has not only commanded us to be holy, He commissioned us to witness for Him. Words, deeds and attitudes that reflect God’s character reveal Him to a watching world. Confession of faith in Jesus Christ carries weight only when accompanied by the proof of a transformed life. A set-apart, holy life attracts those being drawn to the Savior while convicting those who reject him.

God’s plan to establish His eternal dwelling place fuels our desire to bless our community today. Believers join the Lord in His work of redemption, bringing the justice, peace and righteousness of his kingdom, in some measure, to our world today. God gave us a mandate to fill the earth and reign over it. We are stewards charged to help all of God’s creation flourish. Jeremiah called God’s people to seek peace and prosperity for their community.

How are you working for justice in your community as you pray and wait for Jesus to complete that work at His coming?

Conclusion of Living with Assurance

Read James 2:14-26
This section of the Bible trips some people up. They argue works over faith because of these verses. But, what James is saying here is that works are evidence of our faith.

My take on good works is that when we become Christians, when the Holy Spirit takes up residency in our bodies and we become members of God’s Kingdom, not only are certain things expected of us (and the Bible is FULL of advice for how we are to live our lives – from Titus where older women are told to mentor younger ones – to Romans where we are told how to treat fellow church goers – to Proverbs, which tells us how to be a good spouse or parent), but because our direction in life is to become more like Christ, we look to Him and His words for how to live. (We need to spread the Gospel, we need to forgive as He did, we need to be His hands and feet on earth, we need to love our neighbors, etc. etc.)

So, yes, when I read, “faith without works is dead” – I think it’s very true. Can a Christian be a Christian without doing good works? I suppose – but I think it’s very unlikely.

Some other false assumptions (besides being good will get you into Heaven) –

Some people think if they just believe in God and even in the fact that Jesus lived and died they’ll get in. But, James 2:19 says, “Even the demons believe that – and shudder.”
Accepting a set of facts is not the same as being a Christian.

Others might say they’ll get in because they went to church every Sunday. Some because they were baptized – even that they responded to an altar call.

There is a difference in believing things about God and believing in God.

You can believe certain things, but unless you repent and put Christ first and in the center of your life – you are missing the boat. One mistake we often make is feeling like we can’t approach Jesus for forgiveness until we truly repent, when actually it is Christ that places a true desire in us to turn from sin, to see the love of God, the beauty of holiness, the joy of purity and then the longing to be cleansed and restored to communion with Heaven. Only then can we truly repent and only after repenting can forgiveness come. Whenever man recognizes sin and makes an effort to reform – it is the power of Christ that is drawing him. We are called to have an actual relationship with the Lord. We are suppose to talk to Him, love Him, worship Him and praise Him.

The author of this study writes: “As wonderful as the doctrine of justification by grace because of the work of Christ may be, it will be of no use to us unless it becomes ours personally. Yet having been justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, this state of spiritual warfare has been changed to one of peace. We have peace with God, make peace with others and experience a new measure of personal peace too. From our side we realize this new state imperfectly, often causing turmoil with others and within ourselves. But from God’s side this is a perfect peace with us through Christ’s blood – we still see our sins – and maybe even more so – but God looks at us through His Son’s sacrifice – and sees us as clean. We are secure after we accept this.”

Read:
1 John 5:11-13
John 10: 27-28
Ezekiel 36:25-27
II Cor.5:17

If it worries some of you that God is opening some hearts and not others – know that He calls everyone. It’s up to us to hear and respond. Read Rev. 22:17
Lord. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for not leaving us in our sin, but providing a way out – a way to You. Please continue to open our hearts to Your will. In Your Son’s Holy name we pray – Amen.



Amazing Grace Gifts