Among Seventh-day Adventist Christians, it is popular to say, “I want to be like Jesus.” But what does this involve? Is it simply a nice sounding phrase? What really does it mean “to be like Jesus”? To answer this we must know the experience of the One we are trying to imitate. What was Jesus’ life like here on earth?
Jesus—The Man of Sorrows
Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 53: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth . . . For He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was He stricken . . . Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin . . . He shall see the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities . . . He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53:1–12.
To be like Jesus means to follow in His footsteps. To follow in the footsteps of the man of sorrows, to be despised and rejected of men as He was. Are we willing to face rejection, and misunderstanding by our closest friends and family? Jesus was. Not even His mother or His disciples understood His mission. Are we willing to be despised by those around us? Jesus was. The church leaders in His day hated Him so much that they sought to take His life. Are we willing to be mocked and scorned and lied about? Jesus was. He was called a winebibber and an illegitimate child. He was hated because He sought to help the publicans and sinners.
To be like Jesus is not always easy, but if you choose to follow Jesus, you can know that He will always be at your side, and, daily, you will be growing more and more like Him as you imitate His character.
Jesus—The Miracle Worker
Another aspect of Jesus’ life that God’s people are told that they will imitate is His miracle working power. Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall He do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father.” John 14:12. Think of Christ healing the blind man’s sight, making the leper whole, feeding the five thousand, restoring the lame man to perfect health, and raising a young girl from the dead. He was always working to relieve pain and suffering and to point people to God. This is the part of Christ’s life that many want to imitate, and Jesus has said that great signs, miracles and wonders will follow His people. But what are we doing now to help those who are in need? Are we feeding the hungry, using God’s methods to help the sick and helping the needy in any way that we can?
Jesus—A True Friend
The character of the One who we want to imitate was one of true love. He was a faithful friend, who would never forsake those that He loved. He loves us regardless of what we say, what we do or how we treat Him or anyone else. If we say we want to be like Jesus, then we must become loving friends. We must learn to be a constant friend, one who loves at all times, no matter the circumstances. We must learn to speak kindly and truthfully, not gossiping behind each other’s backs. And we must learn to have sympathy and compassion for those who have fallen, just as Christ is merciful to forgive us when we wander away from His loving care.
Jesus—A Rebuke to Hypocrisy
When Christ was here He had a two-fold ministry. In The Desire of Ages, 611, 612, we read, “It was His purpose both to warn the rulers and to instruct the people who were willing to be taught.” Not only did Christ preach and teach the people who where willing to be taught, He came to expose the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Because of “their reverence for tradition, their blind faith in a corrupt priesthood, the people were enslaved. These chains Christ must break. The character of the priests, rulers, and Pharisees must be more fully exposed.” Ibid.
Jesus was in the business of saving souls, but before the people could fully receive His message they had to be loosed from the bonds with which their leaders had shackled them. They had to learn that it was the commandments of God that they must keep, not all the rules and traditions that the Pharisees had set up. “Christ declared that they made void the law of God by teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Ibid., 603.
Just think what it must have been like when Christ came, the humble carpenter, the Nazarene, and began preaching that the highest leaders of the church were making void God’s law. Are you willing to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and correct, with the holy Scriptures, those who are leading people astray?
Many people, today, think that we should never correct others. They say, “Oh, you are being critical.” But Jesus corrected those who were in error because He loved them and longed for their salvation. Jesus was willing to sacrifice Himself that others might be saved. Our work must be along this same line. Are you willing to warn those you know of their desperate condition, even if you will be despised and rejected as Jesus was?
Many in Christ’s day were not willing to make this sacrifice. Many believed on Christ, even some of the chief rulers, “but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogues. They loved the praise of men rather than the approval of God. To save themselves from reproach and shame, they denied Christ and they rejected the offer of eternal life.” The Desire of Ages, 626. You and I are challenged with that same philosophy. Are we willing to be disfellowshipped or even killed in order to stand for Jesus?
Jesus—Tempted and Tried
Jesus came as our example. “He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15. He suffered the worst temptations that Satan could invent. And these “most fierce temptations assailed Him in the time of His greatest weakness.” The Desire of Ages, 120. No one else has ever been tempted as severely as Christ was, yet through the power given Him by His Father, He resisted each temptation. All the hosts of the devil “could not bring Christ to yield even by a thought.” The Great Controversy, 623. Isn’t it comforting to know that someone has already fought the battle and won?
How did Christ receive the power to overcome from His Father? He prayed. The Bible says He spent hours in prayer, at the close of the day. He lived the life of prayer, praying for grace, strength and victory. Do you want to be like Jesus? How long has it been since you spent all night in prayer, as Jesus did?
Why were these long prayer vigils necessary? It was because Jesus understood the enemy He was dealing with. Today we are dealing with the same enemy, and if we are not watchful and vigilant, constantly in prayer that God will give us wisdom and strength to resist the temptations the devil throws at us, we will fail.
Inspiration says that Jesus prayed with strong crying and tears. His heart was so heavy with the burden for the souls that would reject eternal life. He offered it to them freely. He said, “Here it is. Just take it, please, I am giving it to you.” But the people rejected Him! While they were driving the nails in His hands and feet, spitting on Him and heckling Him, He prayed for them. How long has it been since you have reacted like that? Do you want to be like Jesus? What a challenge that is for us.
If we want to be overcomers and have heaven as our home, we must have powerful prayer lives. That means we might have to get up a little bit earlier in the morning, or sacrifice some treasured activity to find the time to spend with Christ. We might have to deny self. Are you willing to do it? Jesus did it for you. And if you choose to spend time in communion with Christ, I promise that you will come from those times refreshed and strengthened for the day ahead.
Jesus—The Only Way
The Scriptures say we must be like Jesus to enter heaven. Therefore, we need to understand what His character is like. In Exodus 33, Moses asked the Lord to show him His glory. The Lord answered him and said, “I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” “And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” Exodus 33:19; 34:5–7.
Christ’s character is merciful, longsuffering, forgiving and abundant in goodness and truth. Do we have these character traits? If we are not merciful, gracious and longsuffering, then the Spirit of God is not living in us. It says in Mount of Blessing, 78: “If you are the children of God, you are partakers of His nature and you cannot but be like Him. Every child lives by the life of his father. If you are God’s children, begotten by His Spirit, you live the life of God. In Christ dwells ‘all the fullness of the Godhead bodily’ (Colossians 2:9); and the life of Jesus is made manifest ‘in our mortal flesh.’ (2 Corinthians 4:11) That life in you will produce the same character, and manifest the same works as it did in Him.”
Jesus is the perfect Pattern we are to copy. Some people say, “You will never equal the Pattern—He was perfect.” It is true that we are powerless to develop a perfect character on our own. But if we let Jesus come in and control our lives, His character will be revealed in and through us.
“Christ is the ladder that Jacob saw. The base of the ladder was resting on the earth, and the topmost round reaching to the gate of heaven . . . If that ladder had failed by a single step of reaching the earth, we should have been lost. But Christ reaches us where we are. He took our nature and overcame, that we through taking His nature might overcome. Made ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh’ (Romans 8:3), He lived a sinless life. Now by His divinity He lays hold upon the throne of heaven, while in His humanity He reaches us. He bids us by faith in Him attain to the glory of the character of God.” The Desire of Ages, 311, 312.
“By passing over the ground which man must travel, our Lord has prepared the way for us to overcome. It is not His will that we should be placed at a disadvantage in the conflict with Satan. He would not have us intimidated and discouraged by the assaults of the serpent.” The Desire of Ages, 122.
The way of escape has been made for us. No matter how low we think we are, He will reach us if we are willing. Will we spurn His great gift? Will we turn away thinking that He is unable to perform the promise He has made? Or will we draw nearer to Christ, and surrendering our all to Him, begin to walk in the way that He tread before us?
“The nearer we live to Jesus, the more will we partake of His pure and holy character; the more offensive sin appears to us, the more exalted and desirable will appear the purity and brightness of Christ.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 141. The reason sin does not appear offensive to us is because we are living so near to the world. The closer we get to Christ, the more offensive sin becomes, and the more we long to be freed from it.
And dear friend, we can! The apostle John had this wonderful experience. “He (John) was not only self-assertive and ambitious for honor, but impetuous, and resentful under injuries. But as the character of the divine one was manifested to him, he saw his own deficiency and was humbled by the knowledge. The strength and patience, the power and tenderness, the majesty and meekness that he beheld in the daily life of the Son of God, filled his soul with admiration and love. Day by day his heart was drawn out toward Christ, until he lost sight of self and in love for his Master . . . The power of the love of Christ brought a transformation of character.” Steps to Christ, 73.
Do you want to have this experience? Do you want to be daily drawn closer and closer to Christ Friends, we must have this experience! For, “when the character of Christ is perfectly reproduced in His people, He will come to claim them as His own.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 69. I want to be ready! I want to be like Jesus!
Kenny Shelton is the director of Behold the Lamb Ministries, P.O. Box 2030, Herrin, IL 62948.