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One of the most incredible ideas in the Bible is that people are created to be like God. In the beginning, God made humans in his image, in his likeness. When Jesus was born, God took on the likeness of humans. An ironic reversal: the Maker of humans became a human. 

But, as if that's not enough, this God who put on flesh gifted his likeness to humans yet again. Jesus traded in his perfect, sinless nature to become sin. And he gave us his righteousness such that we are transformed and transfigured to be alive in him. 

CHRIST MAKES US LIKE CHRIST

We're not like a painting or a statue that lifelessly resembles someone. We are so much a part of the life he has shared with us that we are one with him. The miracle and mystery of the Gospel is that what is true about Jesus is true about you and me.

He does not give us a mask to cover our face but fills us with his own life. And he has credited us with his death - we have died - and promised us his resurrection - he will raise us up. 

…he has credited us with his death - we have died - and promised us his resurrection - he will raise us up.

This is the astounding beauty of the Christian doctrine of salvation. But, it is far too easy and far too common for the Church to talk about being like Christ as a goal, job, and strategy. "I just want to be more like you, Jesus." We assume becoming holy (AKA sanctification) is something yet to be done, and that is ours to do. Or we say that behavior and actions must meet specific criteria to validate salvation. 

More mature Christians sometimes, even if subtly, look down upon the less mature. Or they allow them to look up to them as somehow more like Christ because of their determination or devotion.

The subtlety can be so self-deceiving. The less mature are handed expectations that if they do x, y, and z, they will be more like Christ. Or worse, if they don't do x, y, and z, their very faith is in question. What starts as an intent to encourage ends up as a false gospel with an ultimatum. 

CHRISTLIKENESS IS A REALITY, NOT A POTENTIALITY

Christlikeness is not a goal that motivates us to improve our behavior. It is not the finish line of a marathon if only we last the entire 26.2 miles.

Many of the friends I've been privileged to disciple over the years wrestled deeply with this - as do I. The best I could do was encourage them to step out of the shadow of what they believed God was expecting of them. To question whose expectations they were exhausted by. 

There really does seem to be a widespread issue here: people everywhere live under moralism's influence. We point reactively to the Scriptures about imitating Christ (for example, John 13:15, 1 Cor. 11:1, Phil. 2:5, 1 Thess. 1:6, 1 John 2:6).

…people everywhere live under moralism's influence.

We insist that people who believe in Jesus really live like it. And we expect them to progressively look more and more like Jesus. After all, what will attract unbelievers to Jesus better than our striving to be like him? 

While I heartily acknowledge that Christlikeness is a significant biblical theme, I think we rarely get it right. Don't miss this: I've seen far more people trying to hide their shame about how not like Christ they are than people who live in uninhibited celebration of the life Christ has shared with them. Or they compare themselves to the less holy instead of eagerly celebrating scandalous grace with those who didn't earn it and still don't deserve it. 

I've seen far more people trying to hide their shame about how not like Christ they are than people who live in uninhibited celebration of the life Christ has shared with them.

GETTING HONEST ABOUT BEING LIKE CHRIST

Why is this the narrative of the modern Church? Why can't we admit we're obsessed with becoming more Christlike instead of with the likeness Christ gives us (remember the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?)? Why do we resist acknowledging that most of the world isn't looking for Christ in the Church anymore? That what the world finds in the Church is rarely the unadulterated proclamation of the finished work of Jesus? 

The only thing less Christlike than insisting others become more Christlike is imagining you are more Christlike than them. Or anyone, for that matter. To really talk about Christlikeness, we need to look more closely at what Christ is really like. The Jesus we see in the New Testament didn't ask us to attend more services, give more money, make the world more holy, or read our bibles more often. 

The only thing less Christlike than insisting others become more Christlike is imagining you are more Christlike than them.

Jesus asked us to believe in him, to join him in his trust of his Father, and to spread the word. Jesus came to break our false security in a life of making God happy because God is already as delighted in us as he is in his own Son.

So, Christlikeness is not an endeavor for you to see through; it is the gift of God he promised to see through. Let us, with Paul, regard everything we have made of ourselves as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:8). 

Christlikeness is not an endeavor for you to see through; it is the gift of God he promised to see through.

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