If we look back over our lives, we discover that we naturally imitate who we admire, observe, hang around and think about most in our lives.  God gave me good people, people who loved Him well.  These people came into my life at just the right time to show me a better way to respond to difficult people, challenging circumstances, or those times of waiting on God that no one likes!  I conclude that these people were a gift from God who pointed me to Christ in them.  I observed how Jesus led their lives while learning how to live a life pleasing to God as I matured in my thinking and behaving I followed Jesus.  I haven’t fully arrived, but I’m not where I was thanks be to God!  I am still a work in progress.

Godly people who impressed me most had relentless, tenacious strength, wisdom, and hope.  I often would say to these admirable people, “I want to be like you when I grow up!”  This was spoken as a compliment to the Holy Spirit “fruits of Christ-like character displayed in their lives of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5)  Who I was really admiring was Christ in them!

Come to find out, they were imitating Christ, the One who is the perfect standard in which to measure our lives.  They would always be the first to say, “I’m not perfect, I’m perfectly forgiven by Jesus.”  “Don’t follow me, follow Jesus.”  Imitators of Jesus know that they cannot do life without the power of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit teaching, guiding, comforting, encouraging, and challenging them to live a life led by His love, mercy, and grace.  It’s a package deal.  You can’t have one without the other.  Jesus living in us is the secret sauce of living life to the full as we imitate what He did. (Colossians 1:27)

Jesus teaches us to be like the Father in character and do what He says because God is God and we are not. God knows what lies ahead on our journey—we do not. God loves us beyond our human ability to love for God is the origin of love.  The more we come to know God, the more of His love expands within us.  That’s how God works. 

Like Father, like Son.

John 5, The Message

What the Father Does, the Son Does

^19-20 So Jesus explained himself at length. “I’m telling you this straight. The Son can’t independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does. The Father loves the Son and includes him in everything he is doing.

^20-23 “But you haven’t seen the half of it yet, for in the same way that the Father raises the dead and creates life, so does the Son. The Son gives life to anyone he chooses. Neither he nor the Father shuts anyone out. The Father handed all authority to judge over to the Son so that the Son will be honored equally with the Father. Anyone who dishonors the Son, dishonors the Father, for it was the Father’s decision to put the Son in the place of honor.

²⁴ “It’s urgent that you listen carefully to this: Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge, has at this very moment the real, lasting life and is no longer condemned to be an outsider. This person has taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living.

^25-27 “It’s urgent that you get this right: The time has arrived—I mean right now!—when dead men and women will hear the voice of the Son of God and, hearing, will come alive. Just as the Father has life in himself, he has conferred on the Son life in himself. And he has given him the authority, simply because he is the Son of Man, to decide and carry out matters of Judgment.

^28-29 “Don’t act so surprised at all this. The time is coming when everyone dead and buried will hear his voice. Those who have lived the right way will walk out into a resurrection Life; those who have lived the wrong way, into a resurrection Judgment.

^30-33 “I can’t do a solitary thing on my own: I listen, then I decide. You can trust my decision because I’m not out to get my own way but only to carry out orders. If I were simply speaking on my own account, it would be an empty, self-serving witness. But an independent witness confirms me, the most reliable Witness of all. Furthermore, you all saw and heard John, and he gave expert and reliable testimony about me, didn’t he?

^34-38 “But my purpose is not to get your vote, and not to appeal to mere human testimony. I’m speaking to you this way so that you will be saved. John was a torch, blazing and bright, and you were glad enough to dance for an hour or so in his bright light. But the witness that really confirms me far exceeds John’s witness. It’s the work the Father gave me to complete. These very tasks, as I go about completing them, confirm that the Father, in fact, sent me. The Father who sent me, confirmed me. And you missed it. You never heard his voice, you never saw his appearance. There is nothing left in your memory of his Message because you do not take his Messenger seriously.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jesus and His Father work in tandem for one purpose:  To save the world God loves who do not yet believe or know Him. 

Verse 24 clarifies the benefits of believing in Him: “Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge, has at this very moment the real, lasting life and is no longer condemned to be an outsider. This person has taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living.”

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

John’s passionate gospel theme is “that they might believe” in Jesus, God’s Son.  Only then can we know the Love of God and experience His love flowing through us. 

“And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” John 20:30-31, NKJV

Don’t miss Jesus!  Listen to Jesus.  Believe and be saved.  It’s a matter of life or death!

The more we love Jesus, the more we want to imitate the way He responded to people with love.  The more we learn about Jesus, the more we begin to behave like He taught us. The more we trust in Jesus, the less we worry.  The more we realize the depth of love He has for us, the greater our love is for others.  Christ is more and our earthly desires become less.

“Remain in Me and I will remain in you” –Jesus, John 15:4 

“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2, NLT

Like Father, like Son, like sons and daughters, joint heirs with Jesus!  Wow!

Lord,

I want to be more and more like you as I grow up in your love, mercy, and grace. Thank you for teaching us how to live with why to live a life pleasing to You.  Thank you for the power to overcome and run from all that is not you.  Thank you for saving my soul and making me whole.  Thank for opening my blinded eyes to see your glory at work in me and all around me in others.  We cannot do life without you.  I don’t want to do life without you in the lead.  You are Life!

In Jesus Name, Amen