Christlikeness

Often people like to talk about being or becoming more like Christ but underestimate the difficulty. Christ is perfect and we are imperfect people.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't try, and the good news is that the Holy Spirit helps every Christian in this. Through the Holy Spirit, God offers us help, even when we feel weak.

"It is the Spirit of God that enables us to grow and begin to keep his commandments. Each day we grow a bit by faith," Danny writes in "The Relationship of Justification and Works."

"Two of the Holy Spirit's chief delights are to show us the glory of Christ and to change us into the image of Christ," says John Stott in Life in Christ. "Sanctification is the process by which we are being transformed into the image of Christ by the Spirit of Christ."

In the book, Stott offers this example:

William Temple helped people in his day to grasp the Christian way of holiness by drawing an analogy between Shakespeare and Jesus, and declaring the impossibility of copying either. How could we ever write plays like Shakespeare's? How could we ever live a life like Christ's? It is impossible. The very suggestion is ludicrous. Ah, but if the genius of Shakespeare were able to enter us, then we could write plays like him, and if the Spirit of Jesus were able to enter us, then we could live a life like him. The good news is that although we cannot have the genius of Shakespeare we can have the Spirit of Jesus! The Christian way of holiness is not that we struggle to live like Jesus but that he by his Spirit comes to live in us.

Some verses on the Spirit's work in becoming Christlike are 2 Corinthians 3:18, Romans 8:5-9, and Galatians 5:22-23.

For more on this topic:

• "Christian love is supernatural in origin. It flows from our union with Christ in his death and the Holy Spirit working in our hearts," Danny writes in "Christian Living is Based on the Gospel."
• "When we dig into the word, God can cause incredible things to happen if he dwells in our heart," Danny says in "Christianity Is About a Relationship."
• "When a man accepts Jesus and begins to be transformed by sanctification through the work of the Holy Spirit he becomes who he was always meant to be," Danny writes in "Becoming Somone." "When we follow God in faith our lives are enriched."

Complexity in Life and Faith

Life is full of complexity. You see the multifaceted nature of everything when you study something for a day, or a year, or even decades. That's how long it takes to truly attempt to learn all the details of something at times.

The same goes for knowing the Bible, God, and living a Christian life. Often people want it to be simple: Hear the message once and respond, and that's it. Or go to church, and you've got it. Those are good thing, but there's more.

The gospel is simple in a way. But it also has a beautiful depth to it too. When you accept Christ, all you need to know are some basic truths. But after that, growing in knowledge is important.

What more is there to grow in knowledge, you may be asking. Here's a starter list to help you see what topics there are:

• Grace. The true meaning of grace.
• Law/Commands/Sin. How this relates to grace, too, but we must first see why we need and are given grace. And learning how God's commands really are good for us.
• Wisdom. Since life is complex, sometime discernment and good judgment are needed. The Bible helps us in learning wisdom.
• Love. What it means to truly live out those two commands. It is active and much more. I've created a list of 6 posts on loving others.
• How God has related to humans throughout history. This includes feeling loved and accepted by Christ if you're a Christian.
• The Trinity.

I hope you don't feel overwhelmed by the list. It's more of a privilege to think of the wealth of interesting things that help us grow closer to God.

Learning about these things can aid in living in a Christian way.

Learning About God

When we study God's Word and think through what living a Christian life means, it's important to think about who God is and how he relates to people. Often it's easy to take a passage of Scripture and only think about what that means for what we should do. That's fine to do at some point, but it's important to be sure we take time to think about what it means about God and how he relates to us.

If we never study or think about God's power and strength, and how he uses it to help us, it might be much harder to cast our anxieties and burdens on Christ (Psalm 55:22 and 1 Peter 5:7, ESV). Knowing about God's power helps us to be able to respond to God's call.

If we never study God's mercy and gentleness to his people, including us, then we might find it hard to be merciful and gentle to others and ourselves out of love.

If we never study God's pure holiness and goodness, we might not realize how extremely blessed we are to even get a chance to talk to him.

Some people worry that a lot of theology isn't practical, but how we view God and how he relates to us definitely affects the way we live. We should also of course see what the Bible has to say about humans too.

While learning the attributes of God is of great importance, it's more important to see God as he interacts in history—how the Christian God is a personal God. Read more on this in Danny's article "God Known through Actions."

Danny also wrote about how theology speaks to all areas of life in "Theology as a Meta-Discipline."

Endless Questions

Post by
Michelle Dowell, Contributor

One way questions are used in a way that is more harmful than helpful in theology is when they are endless.

After asking questions, at some point a person needs to come to a conclusion or take the information they have found and for that day decide what they themselves believe on the topic, even if it's that there isn't much knowledge on the topic.

It's impossible for a person to truly think about things if he or she is only ever asking for someone else's opinion or researching. That person needs to think about the facts and make a decision, even if it's one that isn't popular. It takes courage sometimes to stop asking questions and instead believe or make a choice.

And often people who keep asking the same questions over and over again in different forms are not comfortable with the fact that life is not perfect and we, as humans, won't be able to answer every question. (1 Corinthians 13:12 )

We need to have faith that even though we don't know everything, God does. And that's all that matters. Questions are great but when we can't find the answers after searching and thinking, we need to decide that it's okay.

Something we don't understand today might make sense later. We are going through the process of sanctification, which means that over time we are growing in the faith. There are so many things to learn and improve on in this life, and little by little we are growing and learning as God shows us and teaches us in various ways around us. In the meantime, we may need to be patient.