How are we to become more like Jesus? First of all, He and His
Word must head our wish and prayer list (Matthew 6:33). Why? We will grow into
what we most value. If it is to be popular, we will learn how to impress others
and, eventually, we will become popular. If it is to be like Jesus, we will
partake of the growth-food He provides:
·
Like newborn infants, long for the pure
spiritual milk [of the Word - Hebrews 5:12-13], that by it you may grow up into
salvation. (1 Peter 2:2 ESV)
Biblical instruction
is our growth food, and nothing can compare with it:
·
But that is not the way you learned Christ!—
assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the
truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former
manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed
in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the
likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:20-24 ESV;
also Romans 12:2)
To “put on the new self” requires mind “renewal,” according
to the Scriptures. The way we think is the way we are. To become like Christ is
to learn to think like Christ. This requires Godly instruction based on
Scripture. Therefore, Paul had written:
·
[God] gave the apostles, the prophets, the
evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of
ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be
children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of
doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (Ephesians
4:11-14)
Stability, assurance, maturity, and unity in the faith are
all products of Christian teaching. This truth is echoed throughout the entire
Bible. In fact, all spiritual blessings are associated with growing in the
knowledge of the truth:
·
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the
knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all
things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him
who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us
his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers
of the divine nature…(2 Peter 1:2-4)
Incredibly, we even begin to partake of God’s nature (2
Peter 1:5) as we grow in the knowledge of Him. Meanwhile, today’s church is
chasing after the blessings – love, intimacy, community, success, material
well-being, and even mystical encounters with God – rather than this prescribed
and necessary foundation of the blessings.
Nevertheless, Christian community is essential, but it can
only thrive when founded upon the instruction that produces “the unity of the
faith” (Ephesians 4:13). This is why the Christian community is not only
founded on the truth, but also the promotion of the truth:
·
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to
grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole
body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when
each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up
in love. (Ephesians 4:15-16)
Growth is a product of speaking the truths of Scripture in
love! We can only function together to promote growth as we function according
to Scripture, the thing that the Spirit will validate. This suggests that the
Scripture-food we ingest has to be enlivened for us by the Holy Spirit, like an
eagle which must first digest the food for her eaglet. This is why Paul
asserted that while his teachings built the Corinthian church, it could only happen through the Spirit:
·
You yourselves are our letter of recommendation,
written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a
letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit
of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2
Corinthians 3:2-3)
Paul then explained that the Jews also had the Scriptures,
which are able to transform, but it did them little good without the work of
the Spirit:
·
[Israel’s] minds were hardened. For to this day,
when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only
through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil
lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding [through the Word of God – 2
Cor. 4:4-6] the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image
from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the
Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:14-18)
Does the Holy Spirit use other forms of wisdom that might
coincide with the Scriptures? While all truth is God’s truth, it is evident
that the Holy Spirit effectually validates Scripture in a way that He doesn’t
with other forms of wisdom:
·
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is
the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew
first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)
The Lord does not use other communications to bring about
salvation, just the Good News of Jesus. This same principle seems to also
pertain to growth or sanctification:
·
According to the grace of God given to me, like
a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon
it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a
foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1
Corinthians 3:10-11)
This means that we cannot grow others through secular counseling,
building self-esteem, through an array of positive affirmations or even
kindness. Instead, kindness serves as the sunshine that can open the heart to
the Scriptures, as the sun opens the flower to its nurturing rays. It is only
the Holy Spirit who builds, and He uses the Word.
I teach a course on marriage counseling. Consequently, I was
encouraged to apply for a new program to instruct struggling couples at a local
hospital. I asked if I could bring in Scripture, and I was told that I could
not. Therefore, I had to decline. Even if I had been able to make use of sound
secular principles, which might relationally help the counselees, ultimately,
it might also contribute to their faith in their own ability to meaningfully change
their lives.
The Bible consistently condemns those who trust in
themselves. This might seem to be unfair. However, self-trust represents a
rejection of the truth of our neediness and our utter moral failures and
represents a hardened exaltation of oneself at the expense of the truth, God’s
truth:
·
Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who
trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the
LORD. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He
shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt
land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is
like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does
not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in
the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:5-8)
I had learned about the power of the Word the hard way, by
painfully losing trust in myself. I had been suffering for decades from
depression and then panic attacks. I was so devastated that I could hardly
pray, sleep, or read the Bible. However, I had no other place to turn, and so I
continued to try to read the Bible, even though I lacked the necessary concentration.
However, on a number of occasions, the miraculous grabbed ahold of me. On one
occasion, I read a simple verse, “and the Lord heard him.” A virtual explosion
of light rocked my entire being, and the depression was gone. I looked for it
but couldn’t find it.
The panic and depression returned the following day, but the
Word left me with the conviction that the Lord had heard me!
It has probably been almost 35 years since I had had the
last blast of light. However, Scripture continues to shed light in less dramatic
ways to illuminate my mind by the Holy Spirit. So often, when tormented by a
Biblical problem that I had been unable to solve, the Spirit has provided the
needed wisdom through His Word (James 1:5). What peace that has brought me!
Perhaps Moses had had the greatest mountain-top experience.
His face had been transformed as God talked to him (Exodus 34:29). However, in
time, it faded away. When He came down to the Israelites, he didn’t talk to
them about his transformational experience with God but the Words of God – the
very thing they needed to hear in order to thrive. We too are destitute if we
ignore the Words of our God.
No comments:
Post a Comment