How is a believer changed to be like christ

I didn't think God or Jesus would want anything to do with me. Now I look back, I can see that Jesus knew all the faults that were in my life but he still loved me. He knew that I was self-centred - working hard, drinking hard, striving for everything. God brought an incredible love into our life which I don't think I would have been able to give to my children if he hadn't been there for me. Jesus Christ came to make it possible for each of us to have a relationship with God.

He did this by dying on a cross - where he paid the massive debt we owe for all the ways we have offended him by our attitudes and actions. These offences are so serious they shut us out of contact with God, not only during this life, but for ever. Only Jesus' death and resurrection make it possible for us to be forgiven and accepted by God. Perhaps this is all so new to you, you want time to think it through; get some questions answered. Or maybe you want to know God. I am sorry I have been going my own way.

Thank you for dying on the cross to deal with every barrier I have put up between you and me. Please come and take first place in my life. Whenever anyone expresses that kind of attitude to God - asking Jesus to come into their life - they can be sure he will. Because Jesus promised to do just that and, as God, he would never break a promise. Following Jesus makes a person a Christian - a member of the worldwide family of Jesus Christ; a family committed to helping each other make a real difference in the world.

For anyone taking this step to follow Jesus, it is just the beginning. They'll soon find themselves talking to him - like any friend. That's prayer. They'll want to find out more about him from reading the Bible. They'll be keen to become involved with others in his family - that's going to a church.

This explanation of what it means to be a Christian is abridged from material supplied by Agape Ministries Ltd and used with permission. If you would like to know more about Jesus Christ and what it means to know him, the Christian Enquiry Agency can help you. There is also a website about the person of Jesus Christ where you can take steps of faith.

See the related links section. Search term:. Happiness and the creative realization of human needs and desires, individually and in shared enjoyment, are continuous themes of humanism. We strive for the good life, here and now.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

These two worldviews cannot be combined, commingled or reconciled. They are an absolute antithesis to one another. In our work we must resist at every turn the temptation to allow some accommodation to Humanism to infiltrate our work. The transforming work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the godly steward is radical and complete, and it leads to a selflessness that runs counter to the core of humanistic teachings and ethics. Stewardship has been described and defined in a number of ways.

However, in the end, godly stewardship is all about Lordship. Before it is about money, tithing or time, it is about Lordship. Our transformation has a direction and goal.

That goal is a Christ-likeness that calls us to complete and absolute obedience to God in Christ. Our fourth component requires our patience, endurance and Spirit-led determination. Transformation is, by definition, a process. It is a faith journey, a growing, reaching, and pressing on. Wes Willmer writes,. It involves a steady march of spiritual growth and change. Transformation requires a daily decision to venture on and enter into the continual life-changing work of the Holy Spirit.

It does not happen automatically or instantaneously. It has to be entered into and pursued. We must be wary of stewardship books or sermons that separate stewardship from discipleship. In fact they are one and the same. If we accept this treatise on the transformation of the godly steward then we are left to conclude that disciples are stewards, and stewards are disciples.

These words describe two foci of one transforming work of grace in us. Then come and follow me? You cannot serve both God and Mammon. Scripture is replete with calls to discipleship and holistic stewardship to the point that we must cease separating the two. They are one and the same calling, one and the same vocation.

Douglas John Hall writes,. It is for us today very close to what the prophets and apostles meant by the Word of God. For the call to responsible stewardship encounters us precisely at the heart of our present-day dilemma and impasse.

Transformation is a calling and a work that is never fully finished, yet we do not undertake it with an anxiety or franticness. For this calling is motivated by grace and therefore it is a calling of pure, joyous response.

Only as response does the ongoing process of transformation cease from devolving into mundane ritual, rigid legalism or divisive ideology. As Richard Foster reminds us,. He concludes,. As leaders, we never do the changing.

Just as Jesus performed what in His culture was the work of a slave, so we in our cultures must regard no task too menial or degrading to undertake. We are to be like Christ in His love. So Paul is urging us to be like Christ in His death, to love with Calvary love.

Do you see what is happening? Paul is urging us to be like the Christ of the incarnation, the Christ of the foot washing and the Christ of the cross. These events in the life of Christ indicate clearly what Christlikeness means in practice. We are to be like Christ in His patient endurance. In this next example we consider the teaching of Peter. In chapter two, in particular, Peter urges Christian slaves—if punished unjustly—to bear it, not to repay evil for evil 1 Peter We have been called to suffering because Christ also suffered, leaving us an example so that we may follow in His steps 1 Peter This call to Christlikeness in suffering unjustly may well become increasingly relevant as persecution increases in many cultures today.

We are to be like Christ in His mission. Must you become a better person so that God will accept you? Learn how you can know God personally. Take the next step in your faith journey with resources on prayer, devotionals and other tools for personal and spiritual growth. Learn to develop your skills, desire and ability to join others on their spiritual journeys and take them closer to Jesus. Because ethnicity is part of the good of creation, we seek to honor and celebrate the ethnic identity of those with whom we serve as well as those we seek to reach.

I believe that nothing is more foundational to the Christian life than for the believer to understand his or her position in Christ Jesus. Our position in Christ is our legal standing with God: Are we guilty or not guilty? Debtors or free? His enemies or His friends? Understanding these things makes a difference in how we live day in and day out. In His goodness and by His grace, God changes our standing — our position — before Him when we place our trust in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins.

How do we define grace? There was justice due for the penalty of our sin, but God paid that debt through the sacrificial death of His Son.

Ephesians says we were past tense — when we first believed in Jesus blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will — to the praise of His glorious grace! In other words, the Christian life is becoming in experience who you already are as God sees you. This divine order is clearly seen in the books of Ephesians, Colossians and Romans among others.

As a study of your own, read the book of Ephesians and write down all that God has done for you and that which you are called to do yourself. You should see a sharp distinction between the first three chapters and the last three with the connection between the two at Commenting on Ephesians, Watchman Nee says:.

Most Christians make the mistake of trying to walk in order to be able to sit, but that is a reversal of the true order. Our natural reason says, If we do not walk, how can we ever reach the goal? What can we attain without effort? How can we get anywhere if we do not move? But Christianity is a queer business! If at the outset we try to do anything, we miss everything.

So we want to build on that which is DONE and, through faith, be enabled to rest in the finished work of Christ meaning what Jesus accomplished by His death and resurrection and our position in Him. Before looking at that which God has done for the believer in Christ, here is a summary of the five points Chafer raises 2 :. Our position in Christ is a result of our new life in Christ from which precious experiences may grow.

For example, justification — meaning all of our past sins being covered — leads to joy and peace. The Christian position is as perfect and complete the instant it is possessed as it ever will be in the ages to come. This position has nothing to do with what we have accomplished or earned. It is based solely on the merit of the Christ. This position does not ever change. Our awareness and feelings about our position may vary day to day, but the abiding fact that we are a new creation in Christ remains.

Our position can only be known through God revealing it to us. Its reality can be grasped only by believing the Word of God.