.png)
Read 1 John 2:6
The Point: We become more like Jesus when we abide in Him, when we serve and follow Him, and when we obey His commandments.
It is a tall order “become like Jesus.” Jesus is a perfect, is sinless God/Man. It is an impossible order. Jesus is sinless, perfect and Holy. Jesus is God. We are sinful, imperfect, unholy and always have a sinful nature within us.
“Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins,”
--Ecclesiastes 7:20
This is a sobering thought. IF this is the case then what hope is there for humanity if it is impossible to become fully like Jesus?
1. Jesus lived a Holy Life on Earth so that we may live a righteous life through His example.
“the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
--1 John 2:6
With Easter coming up we will be reminded of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but we often forget about one important aspect of Jesus—He lived a life on earth. Jesus’ life is so important. Jesus was a baby, and grew up into a boy, then grew up into a teenager and eventually a man. Mary and Joseph were His parents—imagine raising Jesus! That would have been the easiest parenting job. Christ lived a perfect and righteous life on earth to show humanity how they ought to live according to His plan and righteousness.
We may live righteous and blameless through the power that Christ gives us—not on our own power. Jesus has set the perfect example for how we are to live our lives in this life.
Jesus teaching the high priest at 12 years old – Luke 2:41-52
Jesus resisted temptation – Matthew 4:1-11
Jesus water baptized – Luke 3:21-22, Matthew 3:13-17
Jesus turned water into wine – John 2:1-12
“Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
--John 20:30-31
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
--2 Corinthians 5:17-21
2. We Owe it to Christ to live Righteous lives because He Sacrificed His Life to Save Humanity (Us)
“the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
--1 John 2:6
The word “ought” is so important in this scripture:
Opheiló, ὀφείλω -- To Owe
αὑτός is found in the same sentence combined with this word, the is a determinative pronoun and gives a specific emphasis to Opheilo. This emphasis is an “owing to something or someone.” Given the subject of this sentence is Jesus Christ this is what this verse is literally saying in the original Greek:
“the one who says he abides in Him [owes it to Jesus Christ] to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
--1 John 2:6
This is a huge deal! John is reminding the churches he is writing to that they owe it to Jesus to live a righteous life. It is similar to Paul reminding the church in Corinth about being ambassadors for Christ.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
--2 Corinthians 5:17-21
If we claim to be Christians and abide in Christ then we must show signs of fruit that can only come from Christ Himself. WE need to be careful on what we claim if we are not willing to owe it to Christ to live righteous lives. This owing to Christ signifies that Christ paid the price for sin, death, therefore we owe a debt not to our sin but to Christ Himself. This debt is paid by living righteous lives pleasing to Jesus and following His commands. We follow His commands because we love Christ and want to please Him not because of obligation but because we love Him.
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
--John 14:15
We will always be sinful and never be fully sanctified until we are in heaven with Jesus after our earthly death.
The Point: We become more like Jesus when we abide in Him, when we serve and follow Him, and when we obey His commandments.
Comments