The progression starts with a legal relationship between slave and master. We have a responsibility to be alert to our Master’s wishes. In the Roman Empire there were slaves who were so trusted that they were empowered to act legally in business in the name of their masters.
Does that give us any insights about praying in the name of Jesus? It’s also interesting to study the servant relationship Jesus had with the Father (see Philippians 2:6-7), and how the disciples followed Christ’s example.
Many of the New Testament writers repeatedly referred to themselves as ‘servants of Jesus Christ’ (see Romans 1:1; Titus 1:1; James 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1).
The next progression in our ‘Christian’ walk is from slave to sibling. It implies a family relationship. To be a Christian means to bear a family resemblance to the Lord.
Do you remember when you started high school? Where all the teachers knew you because they taught your big brother?
Sometimes that’s a good thing, but too often it’s not. But on the other hand, if people recognize you as a member of Christ’s family because you’re just so much like Him… that’s great!
Perhaps the most profound meaning of the word ‘Christian’ is ‘being an imitator of Christ.’ That’s what christianos means—we want to be just like Jesus. Originally it was a term of mocking or derision—‘little Christs.’ Don't fear the mocking of unbelievers.
When the disciples in Antioch were called ‘Christians,’ it was probably a derogatory term. The world mocked Him. Now let us be mocked too.
Believers used ‘Christians' on themselves, as a name of honour, not of shame. They recognized that it was precisely what they WANTED to be… imitators of Christ! God is our judge!!!
Tertullian who wrote in the late second and early third centuries quoted an unbeliever who exclaimed, “Behold how these Christians LOVE one another!” Let others praise you, not your own lips.
Another unbeliever noted, “They seem to love one another before they even KNOW each other!” These early century Christians were actively living out the love of Christ, and were looking more and more like Jesus.
In Paul’s thank you letter to the Philippians, he praises Epaphroditus, the messenger who brought needed help from the Philippian church, saying, “He almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me” (Philippians 2:30).
Circle the word ‘risk.’
In those days travel was risky. Associating with a convicted enemy of the empire was risky.
In Epaphroditus’ case, the exposure to communicable disease when he visited Paul in the prison was also risky, according to verse 27. The Greek word for ‘risk’ is paraboleusthai.
Word Study
paraboleusethai (Greek):
a gambler’s term that meant to stake EVERYTHING on the turn of the dice.
In the days of the early church there was a group of men and women called ‘the parabolani,’ the gamblers. It was their aim and objective to visit the prisoners and the sick, especially those who were ill with dangerous and infectious diseases.
In 252 AD a plague broke out in one of the leading cities in the Empire in North Africa called Carthage. The people of that city threw the dead bodies outside of the walls and fled the city in terror, leaving the sick and dying to perish.
Cyprian, a Christian leader and pastor in the area gathered the congregations together to bury the dead and nurse the sick back to health. They saved the whole city because they were willing to take a risk. The church needs the parabolani, the gamblers—people whose Christ-like love makes them extreme risk-takers. People like that start to look like Jesus.
It’s been that way throughout church history. When slavery was the great threat, it was Christian leaders like British politician William Wilberforce, and in America, revivalist Charles G. Finney, and abolitionists like Theodore Weld and Harriet Beecher Stowe who risked their reputations to oppose it. In some ways these people looked like Jesus, didn’t they?
What is it that makes sinners like you and me look more and more like Jesus?
It’s the work of the Holy Spirit that does it.
Paul says. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other”
(Galatians 5:22-26).
It’s the growing work of the Spirit in a believer’s life that increasingly shapes the character and perfections of Jesus into his/her heart. “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”—is there any better way to summarize the qualities of Christ?
The Billy Graham of the 19th century, D.L. Moody, put it this way: “Love is the first thing—the first in that precious cluster of fruit… Joy is love exulting; peace is love in repose; long suffering is love on trial; gentleness is love in society; goodness is love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love at school; and temperance is love in training.”
How do we assimilate these characteristics into our own lives? How do we assimilate the nature and personality of Jesus, the love of Jesus, so that His character is formed in us?
Assimilating Christ’s Identity…
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It’s a NATURAL process of the Spirit.
“The fruit of the Spirit is love” (Galatians 5:22). The biological metaphor of fruit has a lot to teach us. Christianity isn’t a philosophy of life to work out, a methodology to be followed, or a technique to be perfected. It’s organic, it’s natural, it’s the life of God in you.
Jesus put it this way in John 15:7, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
Producing fruit is a process. When we plant a sapling in the ground, we don’t come looking for apples the next day. When we have a baby, we don’t expect her to do algebra right away. It takes a tree at least four years to produce apples. As for algebra… well, some of us may never be able to do that!
Fruit bearing is a natural process. You may have to coax and cajole a teenager to do his math, but you don’t have to persuade an apple tree to grow apples. That’s a natural result of being an apple tree. There’s a problem, however, if the tree doesn’t produce any fruit.
Jesus says the same about us. We’re like dead branches unless we’re connected to the taproot of His life-giving Spirit. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. Our lives will be fruitless. BUT if we remain in Him, our lives will be fruitful. Abundant fruit will be the natural result. However, we must never forget that there’s a cost to living a fruitful life.
FATAL process to the flesh.
Paul told the Galatians straight up, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). It’s tempting to say that living a fruitful, Christian life is an effortless process, but this simply isn’t true. The very thing we’re called to do—assimilating Christ’s identity— is fatal to our flesh (our sinful nature and selfish desires). We can’t make ourselves patient, kind or loving on our own. Many have tried, but it doesn’t work.
Canadian Author Douglas Coupland, in his book "Life After God", talks about making the long pilgrimage to discover that in ourselves, we’re not particularly good at goodness.
“Here is my secret: I tell it to you with an openness of heart I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God—that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem capable of giving; to help me to be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond able to love."
That’s why this process of becoming Christ-like is damaging to the fallen nature in each of us.
Self simply cannot produce life. The sinful nature is so toxic that Paul uses the most violent image he can come up with. He says that those of us who are Christ-followers have executed our sinful nature.
In Galatians 2:19 and 6:14 Paul says that Christians have been crucified with Christ. It’s the work of the Spirit to convict us of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:8), and to lead us into all truth (John 16:13). Our job is to yield to His work in us, and obey His leading upon us.
Jesus reports that this fatal process is a necessary part of viniculture. “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:2).
The pruning of runners that sap the branch of its strength is necessary, just as the crucifixion of the sinful nature is necessary for the Christ-life to fill us and make us fruitful.
Bruce Wilkinson says in his classic book Secrets of the Vine that “pruning will intensify as God's shears cut closer to the core of who you are.” The more valuable the process is, the more uncomfortable the transformation will be.
Michelangelo was commissioned to create 40 sculptures for the tomb of Pope Julius II.
In 1508 the pope cancelled his commission, and Michelangelo left several pieces for the tomb unfinished, including four famous figures called The Prisoners. The works capture their title, as human forms struggling to be freed from their stone prison.
Michelangelo was sensitive to the unique character of each block of stone he carved. In each one he saw the finished piece awaiting its emancipation. Michelangelo claimed his goal in sculpting was to liberate the figure imprisoned in the marble.
The Holy Spirit is a soul-Sculptor with each of us. Each block of marble is unique. Some blocks resist the removal of excess stone more stubbornly than others, but like Michelangelo, God’s Spirit can see the innate shape that yearns to be uncovered in each piece.
He continues to chip, chisel, smooth and refine until the figure is liberated. Sculpting, like pruning, is a painful process, but it must be done if the masterpiece is to be revealed.
The flesh must be fully crucified before we are complete. That’s why this assimilation of Christ’s identity is a continuous process of Christian discipline.
A CONTINUOUS process
of Christian Discipline.
We must keep up with the Holy Spirit.
Paul says the key to becoming more and more like Christ is to stay in harmony with the Spirit of Christ. “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).
It’s as if He’s the "metronome" of spiritual vitality, and if we can only adjust our internal rhythm to His, we’ll then capture the secret of acting just like Jesus. If only it were that simple—like some perpetual motion machine, we would just naturally stay in step.
Although we all understand that we’re not machines, it’s interesting to note that even the highest precision instruments need to be recalibrated occasionally.
Paul says that Christians need to stay in a constant self-calibrating relationship with the Spirit. Let Him continually regulate our rhythms. Allow Him to set the pace and maintain it in our lives. It’s an ongoing process of deliberately staying in step.
We often take sin in our lives too lightly. We seem to have a vague idea that without Christ there’s no hope for us. Yet some of us, once we’ve become Christians, behave as though we’ve made it; as though there’s no more hard work, temptation, pain, tears or struggles in our lives.
The Bible says that “we must consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). Living this Christ-life isn’t natural or easy to us. It’s like aspiring to dance again after major surgery on your legs.
First you have to learn to walk again before you can dance. Remaining in Christ is letting Him form our steps, shape our positions and teach us the choreography until it becomes second nature to us.
