One major truth I learned as a new Christian more than fifty years ago is that God intends I be like Jesus and His Word tells me how. I’m now realizing that whatever He tells me to do also tells me what Jesus is like.
For example, God says I am to love Him with all my heart, which means that Jesus loves with His WHOLE heart, not only His Father but that is how He loves me!
This thought is profound. It brings into play another truth. On that day when I see Jesus as He is, I will be fully like Him. That means gazing at His glory is key to this transformation process right now. Simply put, knowing that Jesus loves with all His heart changes my attitude; being more like Him is being more able to love others as well. It also makes me think about other truths that show how Jesus is whole-hearted about all that He does.
For instance, His obedience is whole-hearted. This is why He asks me to do the same:
Deuteronomy 6:5. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
This great command is repeated many ways in Deuteronomy as well as other OT passages. Here are a few more commands that tell me what to do because this is what Jesus does:
Deuteronomy 30:9–10. “The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Compare this with Isaiah 53:12. “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors . . . ” Jesus’ obedience produced great fruitfulness in God’s kingdom and in His people. God says when I obey, my life will also be fruitful.
2 Kings 23:25. “Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.”
This is about David, a type of Christ and pointing forward to Him. There is no king like Jesus. No God like our Lord, “in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart” because He walked in our midst and loved us with all His heart.
Psalm 119:2–3. “Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!”
Jesus was sinless and did all His Father asked, so this is how I am to live — walking in His ways. I cannot do this in my own strength, but in Christ, God sees me as fully righteous — not my own righteousness but that of the One who did what I could not do. He demonstrated His full righteousness by “trusting in His Father with all His heart” especially when He said, “Not my will but thine be done” and went to the Cross. I’m blessed because Jesus walked whole-heartedly before God on my behalf.
Colossians 3:23–24. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Jesus tells me to serve Him whole-heartedly. This is possible only because He gave His life whole-heartedly serving His heavenly Father. This difficulty of full obedience often keeps me from it, but when my focus is on the wonder of what He has done, and on how His life has changed my life, then I become more eager — His obedience is His gift to me. In Christ, I am what He is. Keeping my eyes on who He is profoundly affects my love for Him and how I think of myself and am able to love others.
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