Introduction:
Happy Father’s Day. Many fathers are facing many challenges due to Covid19 and the door of escape is to “let Christ be formed in you”. Every person is born spiritually dead as in Adam all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. A sinful person deals with challenges by relying on himself since he is filled with pride and sees no need for God. Such a person is only concerned about his own glory and not God’s glory. He is obsessed with the desire to acquire wealth and power to make an impression on the world. A godly person, on the other hand, relies on God and sees wealth and power as a means to glorify God by serving His interests. A sinful person can only deal successfully with challenges by overcoming his natural disposition to pride by coming to Christ and giving Him control over his life.
Step One: Come to Christ
a) Christ forgives sin
Christ is calling out to every person to free them from the burden of sin. Jesus Christ shed His blood and endued the full judgement of God on sin for the forgiveness of sin. Our salvation does not depend on anything we have done but on what Christ has done for “By grace are we saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God”. (Eph. 2:8)
b) Christ justifies the believer
Coming to Jesus Christ we are justified by faith. It is our belief in His crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection from the dead on the third day that justifies us. Justified means just-as-if we had never sinned, and without a sin nature the believer becomes a partaker of God’s divine nature.
c) Christ gives believers a new spirit
Man is a spirit; he possesses a soul and lives in a body. When a person believes in Christ he is justified and receives God’s gift of eternal life. He receives a new spirit where the Holy Spirit comes to live.
Illustration:
Coming to Christ reconciles us with God and enables us to have peace with God. To experience the peace of God we have to learn from Christ to overcome every opposition from the flesh, the world and the devil. We learn from Christ through an intimate relationship with Him whereby we yield control of our lives to Him so that He can reshape us into His image.
Application:
God reveals His love in everything He does and says. His call to “come to Him” is a call of love to save us, bless us and make us a blessing.
Step Two: Learn from Christ
a) Listen to His word
Christ immediately tells us when we come to Him, to take His yoke and learn from Him. We can only learn from Christ when we stay close to Him, listen to Him and obey what He says.
b) Renew the mind
The born-again spirit is perfect and holy and set apart as the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. His soul, his thinking, emotions and his will, however are still under the control of the old sinful nature and need to be transformed through the renewal of his mind to act in accordance with the word of God.
c) Walk in the spirit
As we renew our minds, we depart from sinful habits to lead godly lives. A godly person learns to walk in the spirit until Christ is formed in him. (Gal. 4:19)
Illustration:
To walk in the spirit requires a new spirit and a renewed mind. It demands dying to the old nature and allowing Christ to live in you and through you. The old nature is characterized by pride whereas the nature of Christ is characterized by humility. Abraham believed God and his intimate relationship with Him changed his nature. It was his new nature, a result of the covenant, that led God to inform Abraham of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham was able to intercede with God in an effective manner not only because of his covenant relationship but also because he was heavenly minded. He knew the nature of God and interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah on the basis of God’s Love, compassion and righteousness. It is only on the basis of the covenant and his understanding of heavenly things that Abraham could ask “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” Abraham’s intercession was based on what he knew about the character and nature of God. He gradually reduced the number of the righteous people in the city till he arrived at ten, the number of Lot’s family. God destroyed the city because He could not find ten righteous people but spared the lives of the righteous.
Application:
In the same way, the Lord will spare the righteous by taking them away before He destroys the world. Let us reach out to unbelievers and fulfil God’s purpose in sacrificing His Son to spare them the judgement that awaits a sinful world.
Step Three: Become like Christ
a) Have the peace of God
When we come to Christ, we have peace with God. When we learn from Him and become like Him, we have the peace of God. How many believers had the peace of God during these last months? If we had become like Christ, we would have followed all the necessary protocols and the peace of God would have assured us of God’s presence and protection. The peace of God should override our fears, our failures, and our feelings of condemnation, self-pity and bitterness.
b) Be a good steward
To become like Christ is to become a good steward of what God has entrusted into our care. A good steward recognises he is not the owner and honours and acknowledges Christ as the owner by giving Him the first and the best of what belongs to Him. A good steward seeks “first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”. (Matt. 6:33)
c) Be a servant
To become like Christ is to be a servant. We should be humble and serve in love.
Illustration:
As Christ is formed in us, His glory becomes our ultimate aim. We would gladly join the psalmist proclaiming, "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory." (Psalm 115:1) We rest in Christ and give Him glory for His past, present, and future work in our lives. The grace of God has made available all that we need to become like Christ. As believers we take hold of His grace by faith. By faith we believe and know that we are the righteousness of God because of Christ and His crucifixion. We believe and know that we are God’s children and joint heirs with Christ because of Him and His crucifixion. God has called us out of the world to become citizens of heaven but leaves us in the world as His representatives. As believers, we represent the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and have at our disposal all that we need to do the will of God.
Application:
“God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” (Jn. 3:17) As representatives of Christ we have the responsibility to share the gospel to save those who are perishing.
Conclusion:
God can only use the man who is crucified with Christ and now lives by faith in Him. Every person who has led a successful fulfilling life has lived by faith. This is the only life that honours and pleases God. Christ has defeated the enemy on our behalf so that by faith in Him and His crucifixion we can live like Christ.
Personal Response:
“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”. (John 3:16) Each one of us are the whosoever. Christ died for each one of us and we can all make the choice to belong to the whosoever and be “crucified with Christ and live by faith in Christ”, (Gal. 2:20) to the praise and glory of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!
