Every Christian is destined, and yes, predestined to Christlikeness. It will not be an easy journey. There will be a mountain of trials, a long, hard and rough road to the end of your days, but if you really are a Christian, you will arrive at the last mile of your life, more like Christ than you have ever been... but still lacking that final crown of glorious perfection.... Fully Christlike. Until that final coronation, the only things in your life that will have produced spiritual fruit, the only things that will last for eternity are those things of Christlikeness which have blossomed in your life."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." Rom.8:29
This is God's goal, God's entire program, the heart of His Bible, to convict us, save us, transform us, conform us to the likeness of Christ.... a conformation which begins with our humiliating fleshly "vile bodies", Then, He "changes" us, "fashions" us and "conforms us to his glorious body", which He is "able" to do... when we are saved.
Philippians 3:21 Who (Christ) shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. God explains this miraculous transformation as like unto a person's true self being completely exposed ("unveiled") as a fleshly, weak, faulty and sinful face looking into the mirror of God's holiness, His Holy Bible, and His exact image... Christ. As the person continues to observe the Christlikeness in the mirror, he/she begins to take on those same characteristics and their own human humiliation begins a transformation into that (mirror) image of God's glory, and they grow in Christlikeness, "even as from the Lord the Spirit". The Holy Spirit is the perfect image reflection of Christ and Christ of God. "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass (mirror) the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor.3:18. We Christians are already the sons (children) of God, but neither we nor the world can see the perfect likeness of Christ in us. Some will see fleeting glimpses of Christ in some Christians, in some more than others, because the image is still clouded by the flesh to varying degrees. This is because no Christian, while yet in their flesh can be completely Christlike ... but will be ... when the transformation is completed at the second coming of Christ, our resurrection and rapture into heaven. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." 1 Jn.3:2. So as we study, and look into the things of God and His word, the Holy Spirit begins to transform us into a greater and greater likeness of Christ, which the Holy Spirit also reflects even as Christ reflects the glory of God the Father as God the Son. "Who (Christ) being the brightness of (God's) glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high..." Heb.1:3. Here is an example of a young blind girl who saw Christ in a Christian man. A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago .. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly-missed boarding... ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did. The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping and no one to care for her plight. The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?" She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly." As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?" He stopped in mid-stride .... and he wondered. He gently went back and said, "No, I am nothing like Jesus - He is good, kind, caring, loving, and would never have bumped into your display in the first place. "The girl gently nodded: "I only asked because I prayed for Jesus to help me gather the apples. He sent you to help me, so you are like Him - only He knows who will do His will. Thank you for hearing His call, Mister." Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?" You may be the only Jesus many people will ever see ... in this world. |
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