Doctrine 8. Sanctification and Perseverance

Let's think about sanctification and perseverance in two ways: as summaries of biblical doctrine and as aspects of our daily experience.

Summaries of Biblical Doctrine

Sanctification: the fact, process, and destiny of being set apart from sin and grown up in righteousness so as to be like Jesus.

• When we are united to Jesus we are as a fact set apart from sin and dedicated to righteousness as a fact (past). See Hebrews 2.11, Hebrews 10.10, 1 Corinthians 6.11, 2 Thessalonians 2.13
• When we are united to Jesus we are in a process of being set apart from sin and growing up in righteousness (present). See 1 Thessalonians 4.4, 1 Thessalonians 5.23, 2 Corinthians 3.18, Romans 8.13, Galatians 5.22-23
• When we are united to Jesus we have the destiny of being finally set apart from sin and made mature in righteousness (future). See I John 1-3, Colossians 1.22, Colossians 1.28

Sanctification is based on the finished work of Jesus; made effective by the power of the Holy Spirit; involves our responsibility and commitment; uses tools like the Bible, prayer, worship, fellowship, the Lord's Supper, service, and suffering.

All who are 'sanctified' are 'saints'.

Perseverance: the fact that those who are united to Jesus by faith will definitely keep going to the end because nothing can separate them from God's love and because God's preserving power turns into Christians' persevering faith.

All of those whom the Father chose and the Son died for will certainly 'make it' to glory.

• No-one can snatch them from Jesus or the Father's hands: John 10.28-29
• Nothing can separate them from the love of God in Christ: Romans 8.35-39
• He who started a good work will bring it to completion: Philippians 1.6
• We are shielded by God's power through faith: 1 Peter 1.5

God's preserving work happens in and through our persevering. We should not be anxious – God will preserve us. We should not be complacent – we must persevere.

If we see Christians wandering away then we pray for them and call them back knowing that ultimately if they are truly Christ's they will return.

Aspects of our Daily Experience

Feeling like it’s too hard and you just want to give up. We’ve all been there. Maybe for some it was the stress of all the work before exams. Maybe for others it’s working in a job you really hate. Whatever it is, we all know that feeling of thinking that something is just too hard to be bothered with anymore.

Perseverance is a word we’ve probably all heard before, but maybe never really understood or thought about. According to the Oxford Dictionary, perseverance means ‘persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success’. This sounds like a pretty big thing to accomplish, but fortunately we have a perfect example to look at. Jesus.

When Jesus woke up and thought about his day ahead, I expect he might have been pretty apprehensive about going back out to preach after the crowd he was preaching to tried to throw him off a cliff. And on his way to Golgotha with people spitting on him and laughing at him all around, I think he must have been very tempted to just give in.

But that’s what makes Jesus such an incredible example for us. I may not like my job, but no one’s ever tried to throw me off a cliff. Jesus was persevering in circumstances much harder than we ever will be.

One thing that is different is that we grow and are stretched through the Holy Spirit when we persist under discouragement. The Bible calls this ‘sanctification’. Every time we struggle to achieve something, whether it’s getting through a really deep book, or cooking a meal you’ve never cooked before, we come out of it with more knowledge, experience, and understanding than we had before. This process of growth means that we come out of it better equipped for the next task that we will need to persevere to complete.

Sanctification and perseverance really go hand in hand in our journey to become more like Jesus. We persevere to achieve likeness to Jesus, therefore are sanctified by the Holy Spirit and therefore have the strength to persevere again and in a greater hardship. We persevere as disciples of Jesus in spite of our own sin, the world's opposition and the devil's worst efforts because God holds us tight. As we persevere, so we grow.

So I might not want to get out of my bed tomorrow to go to work, but I need to remember that by persevering in the small, monotonous tasks, I can become like Jesus and persevere in the greater task of fighting sin.

Article by Esther Field

Doctrine 7. Justification, Conversion and Union with Christ

We come now to the 7^th part of our ‘Doctrine Series’. What have we covered so far? Well, we have talked about who God is, firstly in His names and attributes and secondly in His nature as trinity. After discussing God we moved on to look at the scriptures answering such questions as: what does it mean for the scriptures to be the word of God? This lead on to us considering God’s decrees and creation, and then original sin. Most recently we addressed the subject of the Lord Jesus Christ considering His names, nature and atonement. There is (whether you realised it or not!) a logical progression between these past themes and the one addressed here today. What is that connection? It is the plan of redemption or, to put it another way, salvation history.

To summarise: we have sinned against God, the holy creator, which messed up the whole creation and created order. The whole of mankind is under condemnation. So, God sent Jesus (as we saw in the last article) who lived a perfect life as the new Adam then died on the cross and three days later rose again. A question, however, remains: how does that do creation or mankind any good?

Calvin states this problem very well:

“How do we receive those benefits which the Father bestowed on his only –begotten Son- not for Christ’s own private use, but that he might enrich poor and needy men? First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, he had to become ours and to dwell within us.”

Effectively, it is all very well and good if Christ has these riches (which include salvation for us) that the Father has given to him but that is of no use to us unless we become one with Christ. How does that happen? By faith and by the Spirit. When the Spirit has united us to Christ through our faith it can rightly be said that we have “put on Christ” (Gal 3:27) or have been “engrafted into him” (Rom 11:17).

How does this look practically? We all remain in danger under God’s judgment unless we are converted. To be converted is to have faith in God and his work of redemption and to ask him to forgive us. It is to start living as we were created to live- under God’s rule. If you wanted to understand this message better you should check out ‘two ways to live’.

Once we are converted we are in God’s family as sons and daughters of God the father with Christ as our elder brother. In fact, we are, incomprehensibly, brought into the divine economy! The largest consequence of this conversion is explained for us in Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Some very brief practical applications from this doctrine:

1.       The doctrine of our union with Christ should lead to confidence in our salvation. After all, if our salvation rests in Christ and we are united to him whose work is complete why should we worry? Romans 8:1-2

2.       The doctrine of our union with Christ should guard against impersonality in our religion. As Christians we are different from every other religion because of Christ. We worship a man who is God and who has actually saved us. A person though, not an idea. We don’t (and most certainly shouldn’t) worship a doctrine. And when we do share the gospel with others we need to steer clear of presenting the gospel as a set of doctrines and instead as a person- the Lord Jesus Christ.

3.       This should all lead to thankfulness and joy in our own lives and ultimately to worship. If it doesn’t it isn’t because of the doctrine but because of my lack of skill in explanation. Go and read Romans and that should do the job!

If you do have any questions post them below. I’ll do my best to answer them or point you in the direction of someone who can. 

Article by Thomas van den Broek

Be Still My Soul...

As we approach enter exam period and many return to University to submit dissertations and sit fiendishly difficult exams and test we are all painfully aware or our own weaknesses. We all struggle with feeling overwhelmed by life. But what is the answer? Surely to look at Christ more than we look at ourselves and our troubles. As the moderators of Walking Worthy we have been especially blessed by a hymn that we have found helpful in helping us to focus on Christ in the midst of troubles. We have shared it below in the hope that some of you will benefit from it as we have.

"Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side,

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain,

Leave to thy God to order and provide,

In every change He faithful will remain,

Be still m soul, thy best, thy Heavenly Friend,

Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end,

Be still me soul, thy God doth undertake,

To guide the future as He has the past,

Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake,

All now mysterious shall be brought at last.

Be still my soul, the waves and winds still know,

His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

Be still my soul; the hour is hastening on,

When we shall be forever with the Lord,

When disappointment, grief and fear are gone.

Sorrows forgot, love's purest joys restored,

Be still my soul, when change and tears are past,

All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise,

On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high;

Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,

So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.

Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine

Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine."

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

May the Lord richly bless you as you celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour.

"He is not here; for He is risen, as He said..."

Matt. 28:6

Doctrine 6. The Names, Nature and Atonement of Jesus

The names, natures and Atonement of Jesus are very much connected. Those three are also very important in describing who Jesus is and also what he did for us. One example would be his name ‘Son of God’, his nature ‘divine’ both contributed to the success of the Jesus’ atoning work for us on the cross. Jesus’ fully Godness meant that his atonement for sin was possible; he had to be wholly God (perfect) and man. We can be thankful that Jesus’ death did satisfy the law, because now we can be forgiven.

Jesus is called a few different names. Four of his names are Jesus (saviour), Christ (anointed), Son of man (man) and Son of God (fully God). The title Jesus refers to his role as saviour (John 3:16). Also the name Christ is given to Jesus referring to his anointing in the Jordan (Matthew 3:16-17), his anointing was similar to the anointings of prophets, priests and kings in the Old Testament, except that he took all of those roles. The name ‘Son of man’ is given to Jesus (Matt 8:20, 9:6, Acts13:21-22) referring to his being fully human, except that he was perfect (Hebrews 4:15). Another name given to Jesus is ‘Son of God’, referring to his perfection even though he was fully and even more his holding the place of the second person of the Trinity, therefore fully God (Hebrews 4:15). All those names point to Jesus’ perfectness for his role as saviour of the world, satisfying Gods righteous anger against sin. Consequently by Gods amazing grace we can be forgiven for ours sins and live with him eternally, if we repent of our sins and put our trust in him!

Jesus has two natures; divine and human. His divine nature is his being fully God and his human nature was his becoming like us, but he was perfect. The deity of Jesus (Isaiah9v6, Matthew11v27…) and his humanity (John8v40,Acts2v22…) made his work on the cross successful. To satisfy the just demands of God the saviour had to be fully God (perfect) and fully man. Hebrews 4v15-16 gives us another comforting/encouraging reason why Jesus was divine and human. The reason we have is that Jesus “passed through the heavens” and “tempted as we are yet without sin” (human). So Jesus not only died for us, and rose again, and he continues his work of intercession, between us and God!

So the atonement for us, by Jesus, is very closely connected with his names and natures. Some of his names are; Jesus (saviour), Christ (anointed), Son of man (human) and Son of God (fully God). Those names point to his natures; divine (Son of God) and human (Son of man). Likewise Jesus’ natures are essential in his successful work on the cross he had to be fully God and perfect man, he could only be perfect man if he was fully God. So Jesus’ death on the cross was successful and therefore we are, by Gods amazing grace, able to be forgiven our sins and live with him eternally when our life on this earth ends!!

By Samuel van den Broek

Puritan Prayer

Weakness

"O Spirit of God,

Help my infirmities;

When I am pressed down with a load of sorrow,

perplexed and knowing not what to do,

slandered and persecuted,

made to feel the weight of the cross,

help me, I pray thee.

If thou seest in me

any wrong thing encouraged,

any evil desire cherished,

any delight that is not thy delight,

any habit that grieves thee,

any nest of sin in my heart,

then grant me the kiss of thy forgiveness,

and teach my feet to walk the way of thy commandments.

Deliver me from darkening care,

and make me a happy, holy person;

Help me to walk the separated life with firm and brave step,

and to wrestle successfully against weakness;

Teach me to laud, adore, and magnify thee,

with the music of heaven,

And make me a perfume of praiseful gratitude to thee.

I do not crouch at thy feet as a slave before a tyrant,

but exalt before thee as a son with a father.

Give me power to live as thy child in all my actions,

and to exercise sonship by conquering self.

Preserve me from the intoxication that comes of prosperity;

Sober me when I am glad with a joy that comes not from thee.

Lead me safely on to the eternal kingdom,

not asking whether the road be rough or smooth.

I request only to see the face of him I love,

to be content with bread to eat,

with raiment to put on,

if I can be brought to thy house in peace.

Doctrine 5. Original Sin

We live in a world where relationships are messed up and torn apart frequently, we cannot go through one day without there being conflict in the relationships that we have. This is even more obvious with our relationship with God which we mess up on a daily basis, there in no one in the world who has not messed up there relationship with God, we are all from the beginning of our existence sinners (a sinner being some one who is not in a perfect relationship with God), we call this state original sin.

The Bible teaches that 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' Rom 3:23. There is none that has not sinned except for Christ ,who by nature could not sin. David says in Ps 51:5 'Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.' From birth we are sinners there is no point in our existence when we are not in the state of fallenness. The reason being that when Adam took and ate the fruit we being his descendants and he being our representative before God, we fell in and with him. Adam being the representative and head of the world dragged the world into sin with him (Rom5:12-17) There is no part or creation that does not suffer from Adams sin.

We are by nature under God's wrath and God's wrath is only upon sinners so we must all by nature be sinners '...among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.' (Ephesians 2:3 ESV)
One may say what about babies who don't have a chance to sin they cannot naturally sinful, however the bible makes it plain that death is a result of sin and only sinners die and yet God constantly through the old testament commands the killing of infants (the taking of the land of Israel). Or in the case of sodom and Gomorrah Lot is the only righteous one there and God destroys two entire regions, it would be exceedingly unlikely that in two entire regions including two large cities there would be not even one baby and if there were not any the cities would have been dead next generation any way so God would not have needed to destroy it.

The desires of a person stem from and define who a person is, (by there fruit shall ye know them) and we know that man's desire is evil 'And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.' (Genesis 8:21 ESV) The Hebrew word for youth there referring to the early days of a mans existence including child hood and infancy. The normal state of man is utterly and completely evil all the time from conception onward, except for one man, Jesus.

Jesus is referred to as the second Adam in Rom 5:1-21 'he came to brake the power of sin and to undo all that Adam had done by taking the fruit. He came to put humanity back on course for having a good relationship with God. He broke the chains of sin and has made those who believe in him holy and blameless in the sight of God and make us dead to sin and alive in Christ. 'For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.' (1 Corinthians 15:22 ESV), Romans 3:22-26 ESV. We became the bride of Christ and became part of him in order that our sins could be put on him and his righteousness be put on us, what a swap! ''We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.' (Romans 6:4). See also Romans 5:1-21 for a very comprehensive summary of Christ's work for us and undoing what Adam had done.

What does this mean for us in our relationship with God and man?
First it is a call for us to tell the world the good news of the gospel and seek to rescue fellow man from the chains of sin.

Second. It is a call not to be discouraged. We know that now through Christ we are in a proper relationship with God though we still mess up. When God the Father looks at us he sees Christ and Christ's righteousness not our sinfulness. Yet we know that in our lives we do stubble and fall, we are not perfected we are being sanctified (made holy) we will never be perfect till we die and are raised. Yet when we do fall on this earth we can have confidence that God still loves and cares for us because of our unity with Christ.

Third. Paul likens our human lives as a battle, it is a battle that is already won, but it is still a battle that we must fight in. Our captain is Christ our fellow soldiers are our Christian brothers and sisters. In a battle, you fight together as one army not as a bunch of individuals, the roman army (upon which paul bases his analogy) was as successful as it was because they fought together united under one commander. Paul was charging the church to do the same, to stand as a unified fighting force. We as Christian are to help each other in this life to become more holy and to help when we see a fellow soldier fall. We are to fight together we are too mutually support and seek to bless our brothers and sisters. If you see a brother or sister fall you are to help. We should together be helping each other to overcome the sins that stop us from being conformed to Christ's image. If you see the fault of another you should do two things, first see if it is a reflection on you, you see their fault because it is your own. And second go to the person and tell them what you think they are doing wrong so that they know, very often people do wrong unknowingly, God uses fellow Christians to show our failing points.
We are naturally sinners yet we as Christians have been redeemed by Christ and are being sanctified by his word and are being brought from one degree of glory to another 2 Cor 3:18, part of this transformation is brought about by believers helping each other see and over come each others faults.

By Richard van den Broek

Doctrine 4. Providence, God's eternal decrees, Creation

We have already looked a little at who God is and how it is that he chooses to reveal himself to us. Here we are going to examine three ways in which God reveals to us his lordship over all things. Just as a man displays his ability to cook by his dishes and an architect his ability to design by his buildings so God displays his lordship over all things by his works.

We might say that God displays his lordship in time through his work of providence, his lordship at the beginning of time through his work of creation and his lordship before time (we might say in eternity past) through his eternal decrees.

Providence is described by the WSC (Westminster Shorter Catechism) as: “his most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing of all his creatures and all their actions.” We might further categorise ‘general providence’ as God’s upholding and sustaining of the universe and ‘special providence’ as his extraordinary work in the life of his people.

John Frame speaks of providence like this: “In providence, God controls everything (government and preservation); he reveals himself authoritatively; and he becomes present to the world he has made.” [1]

Creation is God’s act of bringing all things into being. Genesis 1v1 says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” John tells us that this act of creation was comprehensive: “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” John 1v3

How did God perform the work of creation? “And God said…” Gen 1v3,6,9,11 etc. “In the beginning was the word…” John 1v1. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made…” Psalm 33v6.

Why did God perform the work of creation? Paul says in Col 1v16: “For by him all things were created… all things were created through him and for him.”

Wayne Grudem says: “The doctrine of creation reminds us that God is sovereign over the universe he created. He made it all, and he is Lord of all of it.” [2]

God’s eternal decrees are described by the WSC as: “his eternal purpose according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass.” We affirm that God is in control of all things (he is sovereign), the doctrine of his eternal decrees teaches us that this control results from a plan. Again, John Frame puts it like this: “Because he has a reason, a goal, a purpose for everything, he is able to make all things work together for good.” [3]

Psalm 33 says that the counsel of the Lord stands forever and the plans of his heart to all generations. His plans stretch to before ever he created the universe. Perhaps the most wonderful of God’s eternal decrees is his purposing to bring to himself those he has redeemed by the blood of Christ; we call this the decree of election.

We owe to God all honour because he is the Lord of Lords; through creation he is revealed as Lord of our history, through providence he is revealed as Lord of our present and through his eternal decrees he is revealed as Lord of our destiny.

Questions for consideration:

1) How will God’s lordship through creation, providence and his eternal decrees change the way you present the gospel to unbelievers?

2) How will God’s lordship change the way you pray?

3) Will you resolve to make his lordship known?

Article by: David van den Broek

[1] John Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord p19
[2] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology p309
[3] John Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord p20

Doctrine 3. The Scriptures

Scripture is God’s Word. We have two written forms of God’s word to us. Firstly, we have the inspired word, namely, the writings of people who were inspired by God (e.g. the Pauline epistles). Secondly we have the record of the words that God himself spoke (e.g. the Ten Commandments). These are both parts of and make up the whole of Scripture, the holy books we know as the Bible.

As Christians we believe that the Scriptures are the inspired, inerrant word of God. As such, they have authority and are absolutely necessary to our spiritual lives.

There are many verses that claim that Scripture is God’s word. Examples include 2 Timothy 3.16 (All Scripture is breathed out by God...), Hebrews 1.1-2 (In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers the prophets...) and 1 Corinthians 14.37 (...the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.)
Scripture not only proclaims itself to be God’s word, we also see this in the fulfilment of prophecies, most notably to do with Jesus. The list is vast and varied: Genesis 3.15, Isaiah 7.14, Micah 5.2, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53 and more.

Being God’s word, the Scriptures have no errors. John Frame puts it like this, ‘"Inerrant" simply means "without error," or "true" in the sense that we normally speak of true sentences, true doctrines, true accounts, true principles. Were God to speak to us in person, "directly," none of us would dare to charge him with error. Errors arise from ignorance or deceit; and our God is neither ignorant, nor is he a deceiver. Similarly, we dare not charge his written Word with error.’ [1]

Also as God’s word, the Scriptures have total authority. Again to quote John Frame: ‘The authority of Scripture is nothing less than the authority of God himself...’ [2]. Therefore if we doubt or disobey Scripture we are doubting and disobeying God himself. Scripture is not to be taken lightly.

Scripture is also vital for our lives. Jesus quoted Scripture by saying, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ We need to have a good diet of Scripture if we’re to grow and flourish in our spiritual lives.

How wonderful that God has given us his word so that we can not only know his will but also know him. And if those are the benefits of reading and applying Scripture to our lives, why would we ignore it or fail to be excited at the thought of spending time getting to know it better?

Questions for thought:

- What’s your attitude to God’s word? Are you excited about it or do you see it as a chore?

- Do you have favourite passages of Scripture? If so, why are they favourites?

- How do you go about reading the Bible? Daily? With a bible reading plan? On your own?

Learn more:

- Theory: Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, chapters 4-8

- Practical: How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth, Gordon D Fee and Douglas Stuart

[1] John Frame – Is the Bible Inerrant? (http://reformedperspectives.org/files/reformedperspectives/theology/TH.Frame.inerrancy.html)
[2] Ibid

Post by: Ruth van den Broek

Doctrine 2. The Trinity

Occasionally in history a belief has been the cause of massive division and contention. Throughout the history of the church, apart from contention over grace/works salvation, the greatest source of contention has been over the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. The main reason for this has to be because of the dullness of the minds of men when trying to understand God, and our pride. You see, as Christians we try to work out who this God is that we worship and we fail. We fail because we start off by believing that we actually can understand God; a grave error. As soon as we try to start to fit God in a box so that we can understand Him we end up with a god of our own inventing. The study of God (theology) must always be done reverently and humbly. With that in mind I’ll seek to explore what God tells us about himself in the Scriptures.

The Scriptures claim that: God is one God in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

1. Firstly God says that He is one. Deuteronomy 6:4 says “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (Also: Isa 44:6, Isa 45:21-22, 1 Cor 8:4-6)

2. God is also a fellowship: three persons. Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’” There is no Old Testament that verse that explicitly states God’s tri-unity most (including this verse) don’t prove more than the plurality of God. However, this does not mean that we don’t know that God is trinity. In Matthew 28:19 Jesus commands the church to make disciples of all nations “baptising them in the name [singular] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. Here Jesus explicitly states that the one name of God (remember from last week’s article that God’s name summarises all that He is) is that of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit and thus Trinity. Furthermore, throughout the scriptures, when the Persons of the Trinity are spoken of, the attributes of God are ascribed to them.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it like this: “There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.” Berkhof also, very helpfully, states the doctrine of the trinity like this: “a. There is in the Divine Being but one indivisible essence. b. In this one Divine Being there are three Persons or individual subsistences, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. c. The whole undivided essence of God belongs equally to each of the three persons. d. The subsistence and operation of the three persons in the divine Being is marked by a certain definite order. e. There are certain personal attributes by which the three persons are distinguished. f. The Church confesses the Trinity to be a mystery beyond the comprehension of man.”

These two statements of the unity and plurality in God are hard to understand because they are talking about a God who is so much bigger than our brains! We must be convinced that we are to take God at his word and fit together these two statements without trying to make them ‘fit’, though there are some helpful ways of trying to understand how it works.

The fact that God is trinity has many, many very exciting implications in the Christian life. The biggest one as far as I am concerned is the fact that with a God who is fundamentally relational (he is love) it makes perfect sense for us to relate to one another. When I build a relationship with others around me (be that, friends, family, postman or Mr. nobody-knows-who-he-is) I am imitating God! More exciting than that, the closer I become to another in a relationship, the more I am imitating God. We are relational because God is. Which means a few things:

a. We should seek to imitate God. For all of us that means developing healthy, godly, relationships with others. How are your relationships?
b. We should be warned. To consistently back out of relationships with others (for whatever reason) is to deny our nature and, more importantly, the image of God in us. This will have long-term harmful consequences and doesn’t please God.
c. We must be encouraged. If God wants us to imitate Him, of course he’ll help us when we are struggling in relationships. It may be that you struggle trying to develop a relationship with somebody who consistently annoys you, rejects you or worse. Well, that ground is familiar to Jesus so speak to Him about it.

Are you an imitator of God and do you delight in it?

With any comments or questions that we could discuss about all of this, please comment below :).

Article by Thomas van den Broek