By Peter Amsterdam
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As Christians, we are called to be more like Jesus—to have more of His goodness and godliness in our lives, and less of the weights and sins that hinder us. While we are forgiven for our sins because we have accepted Jesus’ sacrifice, this doesn’t cause us to automatically stop sinning, experiencing the effects of sin in our lives, or affecting others through our sins. Our salvation—the reconciliation with God we receive through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross—is not only meant to determine our life in the hereafter; it is also meant to transform the life we live today, every day.
It is through this daily transformation that we develop the relationship with our Creator that we were meant to have, and we experience His joy, peace, and fulfillment because we live with a deeper understanding of God and a fuller relationship with Him. Our overall focus as Christians is on living life as the people of God, the new creations that Scripture says we are. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
By studying the example of Jesus’ life and what He and His early followers taught about living as new creations in Christ, we can learn and grow in Christlikeness and Christian character. In order to do so, it helps to look at some aspects of the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the Epistles. Connecting reference points throughout Scripture can help us gain a deeper understanding of the importance of imitating Christ.1
The Old Testament
One of the main storylines conveyed throughout the Old Testament is the understanding that God’s relationship with humanity is one of covenant. Scripture tells us that the Creator of all things entered into a covenant with humanity whom He created: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Genesis 1:27–28).
Later, God renewed His universal covenant with humanity when He said to Noah: “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth” (Genesis 9:9–11).
God then entered a specific covenant with Abraham, telling him that through him He would bring forth a great nation, and that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations” (Genesis 17:4–5).
Centuries later, God delivered Abraham’s descendants from slavery and oppression in Egypt, and because of this they became His covenant people (Leviticus 26:12). As partakers of their covenant with God, there were things that the Hebrew people had to do to keep their side of the covenant agreement. The general narrative of the rest of the Old Testament is that God was continually faithful to the covenant in spite of Israel’s consistent failure to keep it.
Because Israel was in covenant with a holy God, they were meant to be holy as well. They were called to be a “holy assembly” (Exodus 12:16). Holiness involved obedience to God—obedience given out of love and gratitude (Deuteronomy 6:20–22). God’s people were called to love God with their whole being: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
Righteousness for the Jewish people involved obedience, and that obedience meant separating themselves from what was deemed defiled, not worshiping other gods, and being consecrated for God’s own use. Besides centering their lives on living according to God’s mandates, it also meant living as a community of faith. Being God’s covenant partner meant living in a way that was patterned after God and His revealed will and Word.
Through His words to them recorded in Scripture, God revealed His character to Israel. They learned that He was faithful, holy, just, and merciful. He described Himself as “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6–7). The prophet Micah said: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).
Because God revealed His character to the covenant people, they were meant to imitate Him. They were to be holy, just, merciful, loving, and forgiving.
The Gospels
The Hebrew people looked forward to the time when God would act on their behalf as was spoken of in Scripture. God met this expectation by sending Jesus, and through His life, death, and resurrection, brought about a new covenant. “[Jesus] took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood’” (Luke 22:19–20).
This new covenant was foretold in the book of Jeremiah: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. … For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:31–34).
In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees held that to be righteous and holy required strict adherence to the Law given by God, and that the people of God were those who rigidly followed the Law. They focused on adhering to the letter of the Law, without giving proper attention to the principles of love, mercy, and forgiveness, which stood behind the Law. They believed God was pleased because they obeyed the rules of Jewish piety and followed the Law to the letter.
Jesus disagreed with them. He proclaimed that the people of God were not those who appeared to be righteous due to their strict law-keeping, but rather those who knew they were sinners, regretted their transgressions, and humbly asked God for mercy and forgiveness. God accepts such people and rejects the proud who claim they have no need of forgiveness. He made the point that we can’t merit God’s favor by what we do; we can’t make ourselves righteous in God’s sight. Instead, our righteousness comes from God, freely bestowed through unconditional grace.
Righteousness is God’s gracious gift, given to us through the sacrifice of His Son. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). But this gracious gift isn’t the end of the story; it’s only the beginning. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, believers become the people of God, partakers of the new covenant. In gratitude for what God has done for us through Jesus, there is the expectation that we will reflect God into our world, and we will live in a manner that brings Him glory (Matthew 5:16). It is here where living Jesus’ teachings comes into play.
Like the Hebrew people of the Old Testament, we know the revealed character of God. However, added to that, we have the life of Jesus as a further example of God’s love, mercy, and goodness. Jesus revealed further truth about God through His teachings and example. He preached the kingdom of God, He taught us to understand that God is our Father, and He lived His life as a pure reflection of Him.
Within the Gospels, we find that Jesus pointed to His own example as the pattern for godly living. For example, He challenged His disciples to love each other according to the pattern of His love for them. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Jesus exemplified submission to His Father’s will, which eventually took Him to the cross. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).
Jesus dramatized the life He desired for His disciples through symbolic acts, as seen on the occasion when He washed their feet. Jesus took water and a towel, and washed the feet of each disciple, a task that a servant would normally do when guests entered a dwelling (John 13:3–10). When He was done, He announced the symbolic nature of His act: “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (John 13:12–15).
When His disciples were disputing over which one was to be regarded as the greatest, Jesus said to them: “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:25–27).
Jesus wasn’t merely conveying a message about doing the specific things He had done; it was deeper than that. After washing the feet of His disciples, He didn’t admonish them to simply love as they had seen Him love. Instead, He said: “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). They were to love as He had loved them. Each of them had personally experienced His love directly, and they were to love others in the same way.
The motivation to be more like Jesus doesn’t come from admiration for a historical character whom we want to emulate. It is the outflow of gratitude and love to the one whose love we have personally experienced.
Author Stanley Grenz explains:
We do not look to him only as the main character in a story from a bygone era on whose life we can reflect and thereby draw instruction. Rather he has loved us and has sacrificed his life for us. To this personal experience of Jesus’ great love, we find ourselves compelled to respond with gratitude and love. Hence, rather than merely patterning our lives after his, we enter into relationship with him. In this relationship we desire to live as Christ would have us live, that is, to have Christ formed in us.2
Jesus’ death on the cross saved our souls, radically changed our lives, and made it possible for us to be in relationship with God, with whom we will spend eternity. Gratitude and love for Jesus laying down His life so that we could become members of God’s family is the underlying motive for wanting to be like Jesus.
Originally published January 2016. Adapted and republished October 2026. Read by Jon Marc.
1 The concepts in this article are based on Stanley J. Grenz’s book, The Moral Quest (IVP Academic, 1997).
2 Grenz, The Moral Quest, 116.
