Conformed to Christ’s Image
Romans 8:29:
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
You are supposed to resemble Jesus Christ on this earth. He is your elder brother, so you should bear a family resemblance! When people see you, they should see Jesus.
1 John 2:6:
He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
Jesus Christ was not sick until He took your sins. He walked the earth in divine health. You are supposed to be conformed to His image. Therefore, you should walk in divine health, too.
No one who looks at someone suffering some terrible illness will see an accurate image of Jesus Christ on the earth. Jesus Christ walked in authority over sickness and gave His disciples the same authority. Being well is part of being conformed to Christ’s image.
Another part is doing the works of Jesus. If we are truly conformed to His image, we will minister to the sick and see them recover. Otherwise, we really don’t resemble Him. We are to do His works and greater in His name (John 14:12-14).
Jesus said that He was sending His disciples into the world the way God sent Him into the world:
John 17:18:
As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
John 20:21:
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
Once you understand that your destiny is supposed to be conformity to His image, it will change the way you read a lot of Bible accounts. Here are a couple of examples:
We often try to identify with the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5:25-34, whose faith made her whole. But conformity to Christ would mean identifying with the One who had the anointed clothing that others were touching. It’s one thing to touch the Lord and receive healing, but it’s another to be the one out of the street where people are trying to get your shadow to pass over them so that they’ll be healed – as happened with Peter (Acts 5:12-16). He wasn’t Jesus, but he was doing something similar to what Jesus did. Our goal should be to live as the one with the anointing, not just as someone who can receive from someone with the anointing.
Peter walked on water when Jesus told him to come, though he began to sink. We try to identify with Peter and say that we’d be the one out of twelve that would at least get out of the boat during a raging storm, expecting to walk on water. But identifying with Christ means identifying with the One who walked a long way across a big lake during a bad storm, and then caught Peter when he began to sink! That shows quite a different level of faith!
Most Christians think, “But that was JESUS doing that. God have Him Super Faith, while He only gave the rest of us Regular Faith.” But if God gave Jesus more faith than you can have, He cheated and Jesus was NOT truly a man as we are. If He was truly the Son of Man, a man like us, He had to walk in the same human limitations as the rest of us. He had to have the same measure of faith we have. Otherwise, His life was rigged and unfair.
Someone will probably chime in at this point, “No, that’s not rigged – when it came to the Spirit, the Bible says that God gave Jesus the Spirit without measure, while the rest of us have the Spirit in only a measure. Perhaps collectively the Body has the same measure of the Spirit that Jesus had, but we certainly do not have that individually. That’s even what my favorite faith teacher taught, and John 3:34 proves it!”
But the very verse cited to prove that point really proves the opposite:
John 3:34:
For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
The problem here is that the words “unto him” are not in the original Greek text – they are italicized in the King James Version to show that they were added by the translators but not part of the original text. (At least they were transparent about admitting when they did this so that those with no access to the underlying Greek text would know.) The NKJV fixes this by omitting unto him to make the text conform with the original Greek. Just about every other translation out there also omits unto him because there is no linguistic reason to add words that aren’t there.
The actual text only says that God doesn’t give the Spirit by measure.
So this verse actually MAKES the point that God doesn’t hold back part of the Holy Spirit from anybody! You have every bit as much access to the Holy Spirit as Jesus did! That has to be the case; otherwise, you could not do the works that He did, because He did His works by the Holy Spirit. That should be evident because Jesus did no miracles for the first 90% or so of His life before the Holy Spirit came upon Him.
(For a little more on this subject, see Objection: We Cannot Heal as Jesus Did Because He Had the Spirit Without Measure, While We Have the Spirit Given by Measure.)
Probably the biggest lie that gets in people’s way of being conformed to Christ is the worn-out falsely humble assertion, “I’m just a sinner saved by grace; I’m just like you except that I’m forgiven.”
If you’re a believer, you’re no longer a sinner – the Bible calls you a saint. You are identified with righteousness now, not with sin. You are a new creation and the old man is dead (2 Corinthians 5:17)! You should expect to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4), not like some old sinner. A sinner doesn’t have a chance of living the way Christ did, but for you as a saint, it’s your very nature to act like Jesus! Jesus doesn’t just see you as a trainee – He sees you as His brother or sister (Hebrews 2:11)! You aren’t somewhere way down in the pecking order; you’re a joint heir with Christ (Romans 8:17). Spiritually, you’re “cut from the same cloth” as Jesus (Hebrews 2:11). As a born-again person, you have the same level of righteousness before God that Jesus Himself has. (In fact, you can’t grow in righteousness – you will not be any more righteous for all eternity on the new earth than you are right now! You already have perfect righteousness, upon which it is impossible to improve.) Spiritually, you no more resemble a sinner than white resembles black.
People have told me that my two brothers look a lot like me. Some have commented that you can definitely tell that all three of us all came from the same place. Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers (Romans 8:29). If someone had a spiritual scope of some kind, he could look at you and say, “I can sure tell that person and Jesus came from the same place. They’re obviously siblings.” That’s God’s destiny for us – for people to see followers of Christ who act, talk and look like their older brother Jesus in every way.
Looking like Jesus also applies to your love walk. When Jesus was reviled, He didn’t revile back. 1 Peter 2:20-23 says, “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:”
God is love, and we are supposed to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1). (The Greek word translated followers in the King James Version might better be translated imitators, as it is used in that context elsewhere. Most modern translations use the word imitators here.) Paul used the same Greek word in 1 Corinthians 11:1 when he said, “Be ye followers [imitators] of me, even as I also am of Christ.”
Paul said that it was no longer he who lived, but Christ lived in him (Galatians 2:20). God’s desire is for Christ to live through us. Paul “travailed” in prayer for Christ to be formed in believers (Galatians 4:19). We should reflect Jesus. This is true in the area of being good to others, which most Christians would affirm. But it is also true in the area of ministering with His power, which is not that something most Christians consider. Some people wear items that ask, “What Would Jesus Do?” When I see that, I think, “Jesus would heal the sick and cast out demons as well as walk in love and share the gospel with others.”
You don’t have to have a prominent full-time healing ministry as Jesus did in the last part of His life. Most people are not called to full-time ministry of that type, but we are ALL ministers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). ALL of us can do the works Jesus did, because Jesus said that believers would do what He did. It would not be only a select few “ministers” who would do what He did. Believers, not just apostles or other ministry gifts, are to cast out demons and lay hands on the sick and see them get well (Mark 16:17-18).
This is God’s vision for His church on the earth – believers everywhere acting like their older brother. He wants us to attain the fullness of the stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). May we all catch this vision for ourselves!
See also: