Being Like Christ (Christian)

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. [Luke 23.34]

For all it means to be like Jesus, if we miss this most important characteristic, we have missed the point entirely. 

To be like Jesus means a lot of things: to heal, to feed, to encourage, to walk on water, and even to raise the dead. However, if we are not thoroughly convinced and faithfully exercising the basis for all this, we are exercising pure futility. That basis is forgiveness.

Every reversal of a curse can only be the result of forgiveness for the cause of that curse: disobedience (see Deuteronomy 28).  Many people today want to increase their faith, but perhaps what they need to increase is their forgiveness!

If we are to do the works of Jesus (John 14.12), then it will start with forgiveness. To be sure we understood this, Jesus made it perfectly clear:

If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” [John 20.23]

This is in perfect harmony with Jesus telling His followers they would do the same works He did! No one will do the works of Jesus without forgiving as did Jesus. It all starts with forgiveness.

To be "in Christ" and to have "Christ in us" has to be more than just religious-speak. Frankly, the world is sick of religious-speak and rightly so. However, the problem will not be resolved because the world is sick of it! The problem will only be resolved when proclaiming "Christians" (people like Christ) are actually "like Christ."

Being like Christ is being centered upon forgiveness.

Father, may we be reminded in every circumstance and situation that our primary objective is forgiveness. Help us to see that saying we are "Christians" without exercising complete forgiveness is a lie.