BECOMING WHO YOU WERE CREATED TO BE - PART 6
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these he also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Romans 8:28-30 NKJV).
As disciples of Jesus our desire and goal (and the predestined will of God) is to become like Jesus. However, it is difficult to define what it means to “be like Jesus.” Most of the definitions I have seen have to do with different characteristics that Jesus had (love, forgiveness, peace, power, etc.) As I have studied the life of Jesus, I found that there are two characteristics that defined who Jesus was and, therefore, are what we should strive for. All other attributes flow from these two.
The first attribute, which we have been talking about, is that Jesus has a pure heart and He will purify our hearts as well. The second attribute is that He is Spirit-filled. In other words, Jesus, though He is God, did not do the things He did as God, but instead did them as a man filled with God. He gave up the “omnis”, and limited himself in order to become fully human.
In other words, just as Jesus was not omnipresent (all places at once), He was also not omniscient (all-knowing). Now was Jesus really smart and did he astound people with his understanding and explanations? Wasn’t He even able to know what other people were thinking? Absolutely. However, all it takes is one thing for Jesus not to know and He is not all-knowing. So was there something that Jesus did not know?
In Mark 13, Jesus is talking to his disciples about when he would return. He has been giving them a lot of parables about how to be ready and to recognize the coming of that time. In the middle of his teaching, Jesus makes this statement, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32, emphasis mine). In other words, if you asked Jesus when he was going to return, he would tell you, “I don’t know. Only the Father knows.” And, if there is one thing that Jesus doesn’t know, then he is not omniscient (all-knowing).
Once again, this doesn’t negate that Jesus is God. He is God. But He chose to limit himself and become like me so that He could liberate me to become like Him. May I truly become who I was created to be.
