The Bible speaks about likeness to God as something which Christians desire and seek, expect and experience, and hope and live for. (Take a peek beyond this point)
1) The Christian Seeks To Be Like Jesus. “Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children.”[1] This desire is born out of the realization that the standard for Christian life cannot be established by personal ethical conceptions or traditional ecclesiastical patterns of conduct. Seeking to be like God in all one’s actions and attitudes must be based upon the only acceptable standard for Christian development and that is God’s own moral perfection to which He has called us.[2] “You are to be perfect, as your :29heavenly Father is perfect..” (Matthew 5:1). Therefore, godliness[3] is the standard for Christian life which realizes the purpose of God in both creation and redemption. 2) The Christian Is Expected To Become Like Jesus. Emphasis is placed upon becoming, because the experience of the Christian life reflecting the restored image of God is a process, a progressive transformation into the likeness of Jesus. It is portrayed as a movement from “glory to glory.”[4] It should be expected therefore that being transformed, the manner in which we love each other and others will resemble the love of the Lord.[5]
God has granted us all that we need to live godly lives.
3) The Christian will become like Jesus. In addition to facing us squarely with personal responsibility to pursue Christlikeness, Scripture also conveys a certainty of the result of the process initiated by God’s grace. God’s eternal purpose has marked out our destiny.
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29).
[1] Ephesians 5:1; Compare 1 John 2:6, “He who says he abides in Him ought
himself also to walk just as He walked.”
[2] There are many places where the phrase “even as” or “just as” are used
to show us areas in which we are to be like Jesus.
Ephesians
4:21 “if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, (just) as the
truth is in Jesus:”
Ephesians
4:32 “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, (even
as) God in Christ forgave you.”
1 John
2:6, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He
walked.”
Ephesians 5:2 “And walk in love,
(even) as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a
sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.”
[3] Godliness appears as the Christian’s living standard in the following
texts: 1 Peter 1:3, “...as His divine power has given to us all things that
pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by
glory and virtue,” 1 Peter 1:5-7, “...add to your faith virtue, to virtue
knowledge, to knowledge self control, to self-control perseverance, to
perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness,, and to brotherly
kindness love.” 1 Timothy 2:2,
4:8
[4] “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of
the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just
as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2
Corinthians 3:18
[5] 1 Thessalonians 3:12 “And may
the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just
as we do to you,”
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