Skip to main content

DeYoung: Is it any wonder then that God would want all his creation to adore his Son...?

By

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3). Is it any wonder then that God would want all his creation to adore his Son, the Redeemer who was led like a lamb to the slaughter so we could be freed from deceitful desires such as those linked to perfectionism? Christ went to a cruel death on the cross and “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9–11). God is well pleased with his Son.


God’s Motive for Us to Be Like His Son

Image result for the hole in our holinessOur desire for perfection is generally self-focused. We desire perfection as a means to be accepted or to control our fear of rejection or failure. Like Harmony, our motives for perfection often cluster around a desire for approval or significance. In contrast, God’s desire for us to be perfect is just another way of saying, “Worship my Son who has redeemed and rescued you. Worship my Son who suffered a brutal death in your place. Worship my Son who was unwavering in his mission to rescue his own, even when they behaved as his enemies.”
In addition to exalting the Son he loves, there is a second reason God wants us to be like his perfect Son. God wants us to look like his Son because he loves us. God treasures us; he wants us to have the best.

Why do you teach your children the things you teach them? Because you despise them and their annoying little ways? No, you invest in your children and teach them because you love them. You want to equip them to excel. You want the best for your children. God wants you to look like Jesus because he wants the best for you. There is nothing better than Jesus. God desires you to be like Christ because he loves you.

It’s right and proper to long to be like Christ, the perfect Son. This perfection is all about Jesus; not about us. This perfection is only attractive because it represents Christ. We long to be perfected because we want to be conformed to the image of Christ. It comes from a heart that sees Jesus as the greatest treasure one could have.

When we want to be like Jesus, this begins to be reflected in our actions. Our relationships start to change. Instead of spending our time wondering what others think of us and making our goal in relationships to keep others from being mad at us, we begin to genuinely love others instead of fearing them and their disapproval. We begin to seek the good of others, rather than solely our own good. In fact, we begin to consider their interests as more important than our own. And as we do, we start to look more and more like Jesus, our perfect Savior. This is not the product of a heart whose goal is to make us look good or to achieve some self-focused desire. This is the work of God that empowers us to grow in the likeness of Christ and thereby magnify our Savior. And becoming like Jesus pleases God.


Baker, A. (2014). Picture perfect: when life doesn’t line up. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

John Stott on the "old man" and the "body ruled by sin" in Rom 6 v 6

By
  There are, in fact, two quite distinct ways in which the New Testament speaks of crucifixion in relation to holiness. The first is our death to sin through identification with Christ; the second is our death to self through imitation of Christ.  On the one hand, we have been crucified with Christ. But on the other we have crucified (decisively repudiated) our sinful nature with all its desires, so that every day we renew this attitude by taking up our cross and following Christ to crucifixion.  The first is a legal death, a death to the penalty of sin; the second is a moral death, a death to the power of sin.  The first belongs to the past, and is unique and unrepeatable; the second belongs to the present, and is repeatable, even continuous. I died to sin (in Christ) once; I die to self (like Christ) daily. It is with the first of these two deaths that Romans 6 is chiefly concerned, although the first is with a view to the second, and the second cannot take place w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Berkoff: "The law was not substituted for the promise; neither was faith supplanted by works. "

By
  The giving of the law did not effect a fundamental change in the religion of Israel, but merely introduced a change in its external form.  The law was not substituted for the promise; neither was faith supplanted by works.  Many of the Israelites, indeed, looked upon the law in a purely legalistic spirit and sought to base their claim to salvation on a scrupulous fulfillment of it as a body of external precepts.  But in the case of those who understood its real nature, who felt the inwardness and spirituality of the law, it served to deepen the sense of sin and to sharpen the conviction that salvation could be expected only from the grace of God . L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 498–499.
Post a Comment
Read more

F.F. Bruce: ...know their father's will...

By
The NT does not contain a detailed code of rules for the Christian. Codes of rules, as Paul explains elsewhere, are suited to the period of immaturity when the children of God are still under guardians; but children who have come to years of responsibility know their father’s will without having to be provided with a long list of “Do’s” and “Don’t’s.” What the NT does provide is those basic principles of Christian living which may be applied to varying situations of life as they arise. So, after answering the Corinthian Christians’ question about the eating of food that has been offered to idols, Paul sums up his advice in the words: “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). Phrases current in worship, like “to the glory of God” or (as here) “in the name of the Lord Jesus,” were given a practical relevance by being applied to the concerns of ordinary life. Bruce, F. F. (1984). The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the...
Post a Comment
Read more