GOD IS LIKE JESUS
G
od is like Jesus. Jesus is God. These statements seem to be some of the most elementary statements Christians can make. Yet, in my experience of teaching and leading Bible studies, they have proven to be the hardest to grasp for the Christians I know. I speak with people on an almost weekly basis who refer to God as one thing and Jesus as something/someone entirely different and separate. I find myself reminding people “Jesus is God” so often that it feels like a mantra I’ve adopted.If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. John 1, Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1 (among others) all tell us this with a resounding exclamation point. Yet, we have somehow convinced ourselves that God is quite different from the Jesus we see in the Gospels. We think God is angry or upset with humanity while Jesus is a little kinder. We think God is far away while Jesus is somehow much closer. We think God is all-powerful and Jesus is some type of piece in God’s plan. God is like Jesus. Jesus is God. They are not separate. Jesus is a member of the Trinity right along with the Father and the Spirit.
I’ve found most of the time when people say “God” they are actually meaning God the Father, not the Trinity. This has caused incredible confusion and forgetfulness in many Christians I have met over the years. We have somehow divorced the person, character, attributes, and attitude of Jesus from what we view as “God”. This should not be, my friends.
In a recent episode of my podcast, Between The Creations, my guest, Lacy Finn Borgo, and I talked about this very reality insofar as it relates to spiritual formation. The episode mostly revolved around spiritual formation in children and teenagers, however, Lacy pointed out how it all really continues to apply as we age. Lacy expressed, “Let me just remind us…there is nothing in God that is not Christ-like. So, when parents ask me what is essential to helping their children know the Scriptures, I say help them know the Gospels like the back of their hand. Because letting all the richness of the Gospels and the life of Jesus shape our imagination and our minds will help us see the world”.
If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus
“There is nothing in God that is not Christ-like.” In that statement Lacy summed up so much theology, history, and even what I think is the key to our formation. The life of Jesus is what should be shaping our lives. This work and this formation help form us more and more into the image of the very God we love and serve. 2 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV) explains, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires”. Spiritual formation is the work of participating in the divine nature. We don’t become little gods, we don’t become divine. Rather, we become our truest selves—people wholly devoted to lives lived under the reign and rule of our King. Our lives are formed more and more into the image of Jesus because Jesus is God.
God is like Jesus. Jesus is God. He is the clearest representation we will ever have of what God is truly like. These realities should be the driving forces behind our spiritual formation as we seek to be transformed into the people God has always intended us to be. As Lacy said in our episode together, this reality, “will help us see the world”. May we see God, ourselves, and the world more clearly today.
You can listen to the episode here:
