There’s a great deal of emphasis today on being like Christ. This is commonly tied into and even defined as “discipleship.” The way to be like Christ, it is taught, is by imitating His behavior. I believe that this emphasis is correct. But it’s not complete.
Christian leaders have been telling God’s people that they must “be like Christ” for the last six hundred years (at least). The well-known book by Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, was published around 1418.
Some 480 years later, Charles M. Sheldon’s book In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do? was published. Ever since then, Christians have been trying to “do what Jesus did.” But this “gospel” hasn’t worked. The reason? It’s an instance of asking the wrong question. The question is not “What would Jesus do?” I believe it’s “What is Jesus Christ doing through me … and through us?”
Jesus made pretty clear that we cannot live the Christian life. Instead, He must live it through us.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Notice that Jesus Himself couldn’t live the Christian life without His Father:
“Jesus gave them this answer: ‘I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing'” (John 5:19).
“By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me” (John 5:30).
Unlike all other religions, the founder of our faith is still alive.
But that’s not all.
He lives inside of all who have repented and believed upon Him.
But that’s not all.
As Christians, we have been called to live by His indwelling life. And we can.
Note Jesus’ own words:
“As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me” (John 6:57, KJV).
A large part of the gospel is to be awakened to an indwelling Christ—not as a doctrine or theology, but as a living, breathing Person whose life we can live by.
Paul’s central message was “Not I, but Christ” and “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (See Rom. 8; Col. 1; Gal. 2; and John 14—17, where Jesus Himself spoke about His indwelling just before His death.)
Paul said, “To live is Christ,” which means that Jesus, being in the Spirit, can now serve with our hands, walk with our feet, see with our eyes, and speak with our lips.
Jesus Christ lived His life by an indwelling Father. In the same way, we as believers can live the Christian life only by an indwelling Christ.
This is not a peripheral issue; it’s a central part of the gospel.
Imitating Jesus, therefore, is not a matter of trying to mimic the outward things He did (as if we can actually do that in our own energy).
It’s rather a matter of imitating the way He lived His life. It’s to get in touch with the engine of His outward activities and to “do likewise.”
This puts us on a collision course with the issue of living by an indwelling Lord.
This post is an excerpt from Revise Us Again.
A Vanishing God
Very true. How long have we made it about how great we can be? The real answer, the real question, is how great is Christ through us? It truly is about less of me, more of Him. Holy Spirit, please will you show us how this is!?
Thanks Frank for writing. I have read all your books within the last few months and I have so enjoyed. For years I would ask myself, ‘why do we do what we do in church?’ Your books have open up Acts and Paul’s letters to my heart and mind and I so appreciate your insight. I will soon download “
Did not read through all the comments, so this may be repetitive. I agree with what you wrote. It goes along with Jesus saying “You will do even greater things than this”. If we just imitate we never do greater things. If he lives in us and sends the Holy Spirit to empower us, then we can to greater – by God’s power, just like Jesus.
this really is so central to the message when the blinders are off, that said there is something within all of us that wants to go it alone… maybe with christ only to our side or up in heaven.
Thank you for this timely reminder, its a daily reality i hope to enter into increasingly.
His Life His Life it is our boast, His Life his Life indeed.
His Life our river in which we coast, His Life our internal lead.
naturalchurch: A lot of people do. I forgive you. 🙂
Sorry Chris. South Africans think it’s the same place! (lol)
Christ living through us is the only real life. All others are poor shadows of His reality. To say WWJD, would be to assume that Christ is not present in us, with us, nor willing to guide us.
Sorry to correct you, naturalchurch, but I’m in New Zealand! 🙂
that is a big difference just like Germany and Austria!
Hi guys – I’m glad to see the comments led to such a thought provoking discussion. I think Chris is right. We are speaking about two sides of the same coin. The same Bonhoeffer who wrote about the two trees in Ethics wrote about cheap grace in The Cost of Discipleship. But I also think a blog is limited for discussing this issue in depth. It’s a bit like trying to discuss philosophy by using smoke signals. The form excludes the content, as Neil Postman used to say. I wish we could have this discussion over coffee, but that’s unlikely as I’m in Africa and Chris is in Australia!
Thanks, Frank. That clarifies things a bit. I was just concerned that people might think that Jesus commands no longer have any relevance to us, which couldn’t be further from the truth. But your point seems to be more about how they are obeyed: through us, by Jesus. And I agree with that.
And yes, you’re right about it being a difficult thing to discuss because of our previous programming and conditioning. I’m sure I’ve still got a lot of re-programming to do!
I’ve read your books Pagan Christianity and Reimagining church. After reading those, I decided to check out your blog.
Hi, Frank.
Although I haven’t read those two of your books yet, I’m well familiar with the concept, from Watchman Nee’s book The Two Trees. And also another book by Art Katz. (I can’t remember the name.) And I do buy into it.
What I’m getting at is that obedience still fits in there somewhere. And I think naturalchurch was trying to provide an explanation as to how obedience is fits in.
To me, obeying Christ doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t, come out of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—or judging things based on right and wrong, as Watchman Nee put it—it should be a natural product of eating from the tree of life (Christ).
If I’ve understood him correctly, I think this is what naturalchurch was trying to get across.
Thx. Chris. Obedience in the NT sense of the word is better understood as “responding” or “yielding” to our spiritual instincts. Or submitting to the Lord’s life within us, a la, the Holy Spirit or Spirit of Christ. To put a finer point on it, it’s uniting with Christ in His obedience to the Father. So He’s really the One obeying in us: “Not I, but Christ lives in me.”
Unfortunately, Western Christians attach to the word “obey” the idea of performance, self-effort, and “trying.” And it’s no different from obeying the Old Testament decrees and laws. Thus the NT becomes a “law” for Christians (so many take it that way; I once did also). Instead of a road map to find Christ and learn to live by His life. This is a subject that is very involved and nuanced. Those chapters I mentioned go into it in more detail. It’s a difficult thing to discuss because of the programming and conditioning that many of us Christians have received in approaching the NT words the same way the OT people of God regarded the OT commands.
That’s about as deep as I can go in a blog comment. Hope it helps.
btw/ how did you find this blog?
Frank, your message on living by the indwelling life of Christ blew my mind. This really changed everything for me. I agree with you that Ashley and John “get” this. Thanks for this blog and your books. They’ve changed my life. I look forward to reading the new book. Just ordered it. Didn’t realize that it’s published by the same people that put out Francis Chan’s book. Neat.
Frank, I’m not so sure Ashley and John were ‘dead on’. I think naturalchurch had some valid points, and I think they were misunderstood.
I don’t think, either, that naturalchurch is coming from an “individualistic duty-based, performance-based mindset”. Some who emphasise the points he has might be, but, having read some of the posts on his blog, I don’t think he is.
Again, though, I suspect we’re talking about two sides of the same coin.
I’ll be interested to read your post on Tuesday.
Chris: Read the last chapter of “Revise Us Again” and Chapter 8 of “Jesus Manifesto.” There’s a big difference between eating from the tree of life and eating from the knowledge of good and evil. I explain the difference in those two chapters. Ash and John appear to understand the eternal purpose. The missing ingredient in evangelical Christianity.
Ashley and John: you both are dead-on here. (I’d say “spot on” but I don’t like terms that are in vogue) 🙂 It’s very hard for evangelical Christians to break out of the individualistic duty-based, performance-based mindset. Living by the life of Christ (“not I but Christ lives in me”) is so poorly and rarely understood in our day. As you probably know, the last chapter of REVISE US AGAIN compares and contrasts a legal approach to the Lord with a libertine approach and puts those over/against the New Testament teaching of becoming what you already are in light of God’s eternal purpose. I’ll be blogging about this some on Tuesday. Blessings to you both.
Frank: I’m almost finished with the book. Me and my wife laughed out loud at chaper 3, “Let me pray about it”. We knew a guy a couple of years ago who’s reply to EVERYTHING was let me pray about it. If we asked him if he wanted to go out to dinner next Friday, that was his reply. We thought it was just us, but we found out that was his reply to everybody. We want to send him a copy of the book for free to him, with a bookmark on that chapter, but we have to pray about it. 😉
What a Lord! What a Christ! Oh if if His Bride would reckon herself dead and live in Him and He in us…then we could truly preach the gospel saying “the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Ashley and John, I am new to this blog, but if I read the comments by natural, I think that the both of you have missed the point entirely. The New Testament is full of verses quoting that we should obey Christ. This has absolutely nothing to do with legalism or the like, but rather a life that is ingrafted in the Vine, and producing fruit thereof.
Ashley/naturalchurch: I think you’re talking about two sides of the same coin.
Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” (John 14:15 NLT), so we must not neglect his commands. But we also must not try to obey them without reliance upon his power within us: “… apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NLT).
John: Let me rephrase. The New Testament is full of statements like “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”; “Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him”, and so on (and there are many more!). It is impossible to read the New Testament without concluding that this is a central issue. Of course one can interpret this to mean that the issue is one of individual obedience, but that’s not what I’m saying. When you become part of Christ’s magnificent bride and discover the eternal purpose of God you begin to understand that that which is “commanded” is in fact the nature and life of God, not “things” in themselves that one should chase after. This life is essential for the consummation of the most glorious relationship in the history of the universe. One of the things it does is to produce fruit which manifests as victory over “the works of the flesh” in our space-time capsule, and so the intention behind the “commandments” are fully met. I agree: The focus is Christ, not obedience, but this does not mean that we should not carefully examine our lives in the light of Christ’s teachings (Hence my WDJC reference.) PS: I know and appreciate Frank’s work, but my theologyhas indeed been shaped elsewhere.
natural, I suspect you are new to this blog and Frank’s books. The point of the new testament is not to obey commandments. it is the revelation of God’s eternal purpose and the fulfilment of it. I was taught that the name of the game is individual obedience but it’s not. When I read From Eternity to Here it blew my mind and gave me an understanding of the bible and the christian life that I didn’t have before. I guess I assume everyone here reads these books since they post on the blog. here’s the website http://https://www.frankviola.org/frometernitytohere/
Ashley: I appreciate the comment, but you misunderstood me. I am saying the point of the New Testament is to obey the commandments of Christ, but I’m certainly not suggesting that we should do so in our own power. To obey Christ’s commandments is just another way of saying we have to live the life of Christ. Of course this is entirely impossible for the carnal man, and that is the whole point. Only when we find ourselves confronted by that which God really requires from us (as set out in the Sermon on the Mount – a life that far surpasses the Law’s requirements and the righteousness of the Pharisees) can we reach the point of utter spiritual desperation referred to at the end of Romans 7 and hinted at by the first beatitude. And only then are we ready to yield to a Higher Life that will come and do it in us. Then, when we revisit the teachings of Jesus, they resonate with the natural inclinations of the Spirit within, and the Spirit guides and empowers each of us in a personal, unique and intimate way towards obeying those teachings. To ask WWJD? is to run the risk of turning the impossible into the practical and to miss the point altogether.
Anton, I’d recommend all of Frank’s books. they are eye-openers. “Revise Us Again” sounds awesome. I just ordered 3 copies from your website. thank you for the sale!
Joey this sounds like a canned response from a Reformed point of view. I was in the Reformed tradition for a long time and what is not understood is that the cross is the basis for the resurrection life to work and operate. The resurrection life of Jesus wasn’t really understood or lived out in the Reformed churches I was part of. The exchanged life and living by Christ is something quite remarkable and it’s not just an idea. I can’t wait to read this book to learn more.
NaturalChurch, I used to think ‘what would Jesus command’ was good, but it’s still the wrong tree we’re eating from. We can’t fulfill his commands by trying to fulfill them. the same with the law of moses. I remember reading about Jesus being the tree of life in “Jesus Manifesto” and it changed everything for me. the question is what is Jesus doing through me. That’s very different from what would Jesus command or what would Jesus do. None of these work because they put the efforts on our shoulders not his.
Thanks Frank. Imitation ethics don’t do it for me either, especially if it is based on assumption. I often say to people they should rather wear a WDJC bracelet (what did Jesus command?) than a WWJD one. I don’t know how you feel about Norman Grubb’s writings, but I have been greatly blessed by his insights in this regard. My all-time favourite Grubb quote is “Christ never created us to be good. He created us to be indwelt by the good One.” Amen!
I’m not a fan of those ‘What Would Jesus Do’ wristbands for exactly this reason. It is indeed the wrong question to ask, and can lead us to only focus on Jesus in the midst of a crisis or when there is a big decision to make. But that’s not how it works, is it? God wants to conform our character to his in an ongoing process, so that we naturally do what Jesus would do…
Great post, Frank. We need the same kind of relationship with Jesus that he has with his Father, don’t we! It’s a relationship that is close, constant, trusting, and expectant of constant conversation so we can hear where to go and what to do moment by moment.
You reminded me of a meeting we had in February when the Spirit of Christ spoke into our lives about the importance of hearing him.
One of the difficulties with this journey with Jesus is that it’s so much simpler than we expect. In our search for something deep and ‘spiritual’ and complex and religious we discount the fact that it’s just a simple but intimate conversation with the King of the universe day by day and moment by moment! How could I possibly do better than listen to the Shepherd and follow him?
This is an absolutely vital truth! Thanks Frank:)
Wow! What a difference this thought makes. I think, especially in light of the use of the idea of “imitating Christ” to shove people into ministry, guilt them into it sometimes, this is such an important distinction to make. Thank you so much!!
My understanding of Scripture, and my personal experience, is that Jesus is not doing much through us if its not pointing people to His accomplishment for us on the cross, which has very practical implications in our daily lives.
When I take my eyes off the cross, I walk outside the path of the daily, self-denying, unable-to-boast grace that Jesus is offering me, and that through me, speaks grace into people’s lives in very practical ways. When I read the Bible as if its about me, I go away ultimately disappointed, and have very little to offer a hurting world. When I read it knowing its about Jesus, His life for our example, His death for our salvation, and His resurrection for our assurance, I am greatly encouraged, and His grace working through me in this way becomes very powerful indeed.
Hopefully those thoughts are helpful.
I love the picture!
It’s such a relief that Christ wants so much more than me trying to copy Him by my own power. He wants to actually live through me by His life! So freeing…
I haven’t gotten very far yet, but I’m enjoying the book so far.
C’MON! YES!
Tracking with you on this! I am writing discipleship materials, as well as classes for my church and this is right where I’m at!
We come from diverse places in the Body, but are hearing the same Spirit. I love that.
My favorite promise (this week) fits this, it’s in John 14:23 – “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we (Jesus and the Father) will come to him and make our home with him.”
Maybe I should read your books..
Right on Frank!
Thomas à Kempis GOT IT ALL WRONG …despite the idolization of his book by Protestants as well as Catholics!
Jesus came and died for His Followers so that He could come to live in us so that He could live His life through us …like you say.
Thanks for sharing the truth that needs to come from more pulpits!
Blessings,
Gary in Toronto
A beautiful teaching thanks Frank, but I must say that I do not believe (as Gary) that Thomas Kempis got it ALL wrong. Eph 5:1 “Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children”. I am always amazed when I watch our youngest son of 2 how he “imitates” his father – without even knowing it of course. This imitation is spontaneous! It comes from his life within. It is not rehearsed or copied, it just lives. May we all, as beloved children learn to imitate our Father in heaven from His life within.
subtle difference between living yielded to Him so that He can help me out in my life….
verses letting Him live out His life…since He’s All in all…and He is gathering His people unto Himself…
the first honors “my purposes for me” …the latter honors the eternal purpose of the ages….
I am grateful to read “inner-life truths” with a reverence to Christ and the eternal purpose that’s fulfilled in Him…(that aspect of the eternal purpose, in particular, was crucial in my understanding of the revelation of living by His life)…
Thanks Frank – He’s awesome today….and the next, and the next, and the next…
Apart from me you can do nothing, always good stuff.
Instead of being “in His steps” perhaps we should be “in step with Him.”
Amen, Steve! Great thought!
Wonderful article Mr. Viola! This witnessed to me greatly and I know it will to a few of my dear friends who are struggling with this. We can easily get caught up with performing perfectly like Martha (or was it Mary?) rather than sitting at the feet of Jesus, absorbing all of His nature.
I’m glad you said this, Frank; I’ve thought exactly the same thing myself (about those bracelets people wear). We’re not just trying to imitate the historical Christ, we’re learning to let the real, present, risen Jesus live through us!
Chris: Thanks. This is a major point of JESUS MANIFESTO and FROM ETERNITY TO HERE. More detail in those books and in the new one, REVISE US AGAIN.