Like Jesus

<p>As a boy, theologian Bruce Ware was frustrated that 1 Peter 2:21&ndash;23 calls us to be like Jesus. Ware wrote of his youthful exasperation in his book The Man Christ Jesus. &ldquo;Not fair, I determined. Especially when the passage says to follow in the steps of one &lsquo;who did no sin.&rsquo; This was totally outlandish . . . . I just couldn&rsquo;t see how God could really mean for us to take it seriously.&rdquo;</p> <p>I understand why Ware would find such a biblical challenge so daunting! An old chorus says, &ldquo;To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus. My desire, to be like Him.&rdquo; But as Ware rightly noted, we are not capable of doing that. Left to ourselves, we could never become like Jesus.</p> <p>However, we are <em>not</em> left to ourselves. The Holy Spirit has been given to the child of God, in part so that Christ <em>can</em> be formed in us (Galatians 4:9). So it should come as no surprise that in Paul&rsquo;s great chapter on the Spirit we read, &ldquo;For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son&rdquo; (Romans 8:29). God will see His work completed in us. And He does it through the Spirit of Christ living in us.</p> <p>&nbsp;As we allow the Spirit to work in us, we truly become more like Jesus. How comforting to know that is God&rsquo;s great desire for us!</p>