Chip off the Solid Rock
January 19, 2012For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29).
When two people have been married a while, they start becoming like each other. This happens regularly with my husband and me, even when I speak my voice is similar to his. The same also goes with the children’s voices, especially when you speak to them on the phone and they happen to be together. Over the years we have come to know each other so well that he can start a sentence, and I can finish it. I seem to know what he is thinking even when he does not say it. This amazes me and I can read him as well; and this is vice versa. Having known each other for about three decades now, we’ve spent a long time coming together.
This is even more the case when we have been spending time with Jesus Christ. We become like Him, “a chip off of the Solid Rock,” we might say. This is God’s ultimate plan for every Christian; to make us like Jesus. Apostle Paul wrote as inspired by the Holy Spirit that it is God’s plan for each of us to “be conformed to the likeness of his Son” (Romans 8:29). Even in this life, we “are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18) and “until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). He told the Ephesians that our goal is “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
In Christ, we have a new identity and a new purpose for living. The new self is “to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). We are to be like God not just in the resurrection, but even, to the extent possible, in this life. We are becoming like Jesus, who showed us what God is like when living in the flesh. We are not just hoping to be like him in the next life; we are already to be like him in this life.
Obviously, we do not need to look like him physically or try to match his physical abilities and work skills, his language skills, his knowledge of plants or Roman history. Rather, we are to be like him “in true righteousness and holiness.” In our behaviour and in our devotion to God, we are to be like Jesus Christ.
We also see this in the life of Apostle Peter as it is written; He was burned by the enemy’s fire when he cowardly denied the Lord. But when he was touched with the Holy Spirit Fire at Pentecost, he became the new-bold-and-improved Peter. The same thing that happened to him can happen to you. The same power is available to every believer. That is because when someone has been with Jesus, and by that I mean when they spend time in the Lord’s presence and spend time growing spiritually, they will become more like Him.
Before you were here on Earth, God chose you. God knew there would come a day when you would put your faith in Him. He chose you before you chose Him. And what is His goal for you? His goal is that you might become like Jesus. Amen.
Posted by Apostle Stephanie Ojo.
