Quit Seeking To Perfect Our Own Image: Jesus Perfects Us As We Become More and More Like Him

Our society is consumed with self, Amen? How we look – both in our own eyes and in the eyes of others, our accomplishments and abilities, our hard work ethics and legalistic bents, what we do or do not do, and a litany of other things all pointing to a people wanting to be noticed – wanting to be made much of – wanting to be accepted and loved. His desire is for us to use these giftings both for His glory and our good – one never surpassing the other. It is no wonder that in all four Gospels we are told plainly to deny self, take up our crosses and follow the Master. Who, the Apostle Paul beautifully states in Philippians 2:5-11 (NIV) we are to resemble: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” It is ours to abase, it is God’s to exalt.  

Indeed, Scripture tells us Jesus was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like One from whom men hide their faces He was despised and we esteemed Him not. That certainly does not sound like someone self-consumed and searching for man’s approval, Amen? Rather we are to be longing for God’s approval. Just as Jesus did when He came to this earth. His mission was always to do the will of His Father. He knew Who He was, where He came from, and where He was going. As believers, we do too. In denial of self we are not thinking less of self, but thinking of self, less. It is God’s love for us which gives us great value. To be sure, He left heaven and came down to earth and died for us that we could be back in relationship with Him. Now that is true value. That God desires to be with us. As King David wrote in Psalms 144:3-4 (NIV): “O LORD, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow.” 

As we walk with the Lord Jesus, emptying ourselves of selfish ambitions and the vain conceits of making much of self, we become more and more like the Master. As the great Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 (NIV): “Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”