Living Like Jesus

John 14:10, 24

Reading through the Gospels, over and over again we see Jesus talking about how He only does the will of the Father who sent Him. But we can’t imagine what that’s like. He can’t see God, so He must hear God, right? So, maybe God talks to Jesus, and Jesus does what He says. But then scripture says that in order to follow Christ, we must live like Christ! But didn’t Jesus have God right there all the time telling him what to do? So how can we be expected to live like Jesus?

This is a problem that we cannot solve on our own, but we try anyway. We doom ourselves to lives of frustration – knowing that peace is supposed to be within our grasp but unable to find it for long. We try to love unconditionally but fall short and end up thinking of ourselves instead - the very thing we didn’t want to do. We try to be patient, but we lose our patience. We try not to worry, but we worry anyway because if we don’t, who will? And so we come finally to the realization that this crazy, peaceless journey is the Christian Life. It’s just going to be hard because of the Fall and the fact that we are sinners. There’s nothing we can do about our sinful  nature, so PRAISE GOD for Jesus who came so that we might be forgiven and join Him in heaven one day.

But doesn’t this make a mockery of the message of Christ? Jesus said “Do not worry,” “Do not fear,” and “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Can we have it both ways? Can we follow Jesus and also fret about what we can’t control? The real question is, “why would we want to?”

When the heart of Jesus was troubled, he sought His Father and was comforted. John 12:27, 28. He was in the Father and the Father was in Him. In John 10 He says “I and the Father are one.” And then in John 15 He says
“remain in me and I will remain in you… for without me you can do nothing.”

Let’s not miss that verse from John 15. I missed it for 20 years. “I will remain in you. Without me you can do nothing.” One chapter earlier, Jesus says “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

“Don’t you know that your body is the temple of God?”

The truth is, we can live like Jesus because He is inside us waiting for us to let Him live. We have been given “every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph 1:3) through the presence of the Holy Spirit. But to live like Jesus, we must give up ourselves—not just once for salvation, but every moment of every day, just as Jesus did. Jesus knew that to submit to the will of the Father was no sacrifice, it was Life itself!

If anyone loves me, He will obey my teaching (Obedience is the proof of the love. Obedience does not equal love). This is worth truly pondering. Just because you obey His teaching does not mean you love Him! In order for you to love Jesus, you must give yourself up for Him. Your life must diminish into nothing, and His life must grow in influence until He reigns supreme.

In order to follow Jesus, we must acknowledge God as Lord over every aspect of our lives, submitting the will of our spirit to His Spirit. Then, and only then, can the Holy Spirit reign supreme in our lives. Luke 14:33 says we must give up all we have. If that was just about giving away all our possessions it would be much easier. We must now live without regard to our desires, our plans, our hopes and dreams for the future, even for the present moment. Only then, can we begin to live like Jesus. We can only claim to be His disciple if we live in submission to His Spirit.

-Randall Goodgame