BECOMING WHO YOU WERE CREATED TO BE - Part 7

“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, as a man, was not omnipresent (all places at once), nor omniscient (all-knowing), he was also not omnipotent (all-powerful).  I can hear you now, “Wait a minute.  If Jesus wasn’t all-powerful, how was he able to perform all those miracles?”  That is a good question.  In order to answer it, we need to go back and look at John the Baptist’s testimony about Jesus in John 1:32-34: “Then John gave this testimony: ‘I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.  And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the holy Spirit.’  I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One’” (NIV).

In Luke 1, we learn that John the Baptist and Jesus are relatives.  That means that they grew up together and knew each other.  They had both been told about the miraculous circumstances surrounding both of their births and that they were both here for a special purpose.  Jesus was the Messiah, and John the Baptist was the forerunner to the Messiah, spreading the message for people to get ready to receive Him. 

John’s testimony says that, for thirty years, Jesus hasn’t done anything spectacular or remarkable.  In fact John said that, “I did not know him, but He who sent me to baptize with water,…”  With relatives, possibly cousins, growing up near each other, John the Baptist would have known about any spectacular.  His testimony is that he didn’t.  Thus we have to conclude that Jesus wasn’t doing any.

So what set him off?  “Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the holy Spirit.”  Jesus was able to do the miracles he did because he was filled with the Holy Spirit, not because of His own power.  Not only that, but He was sourced by the Holy Spirit and dependent upon the power of the Spirit.

Once again, this doesn’t negate that Jesus is God.  He is God.  But He chose to limit himself (Philippians 2:5-8) and become like you and me so that He could liberate us to become like Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).  May we truly become who we were created to be.