27. How to become like Christ

How to become like Christ

Use 2. I beseech you, make this use of it, when in the gospel you read of any expression of his love and gentleness, of his obedience and humility, in washing his disciples’ feet, and ’Learn of me for I am meek,’ &c., Matthew 11:29, and ’Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden,’ Matthew 11:28, then think this is the expression of my blessed Saviour, ’the second Adam,’ to whose image I must be conformed, and transformed, and changed; and therefore when you are moved and tempted to sin, from your own corruption, or from Satan, reason thus with yourselves: Would our blessed Saviour, if he were upon earth, do this? would he speak thus? would he not do thus if he were here now? would he not be ready to do this good turn? Surely he would; and I must be changed into his image and likeness. Therefore let me consider what my blessed Saviour would do in the like case. Surely our blessed Saviour would not stain and defile his body. He would not make his tongue an instrument of untruth to deceive others. He would not be covetous and injurious. Art thou a Christian or no? If thou be a Christian thou hast the anointing of Jesus Christ. That anointing that was poured on him as the head, it runs down to thee as a member, as Aaron’s ointment ran down to his skirts. If thou be the skirt of Christ, the meanest Christian, thou hast the same grace if thou be a Christian. And therefore thou must express Christ, that as thou art partaker of his name, so thou must be partaker of his anointing. If thou be a Christian, why doest thou thus? Doth this suit with thy profession? Dost thou carry the image of Satan, and dost thou think to be a Christian, except it be in title and profession only? No. There is no Christian but if he be a true Christian he is changed into the likeness of Christ, into his image. Therefore it is a good thought upon all occasions, every day to think what would my blessed Saviour say if he were here? and what did he in the like case when he was upon earth? I must be ’led by the Spirit of Christ,’ or else I am none of his. Therefore let us shame ourselves when we are moved by our corruptions and temptations to do anything contrary to this blessed image. And consider, the more we grow into the likeness of Christ, the more we grow in the love of God, who delights in us as he doth in his own Son: ’This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,’ Matthew 3:17. Now the more like we are to Christ, the more he is pleased with us. And the more we shall grow in love one to another; for the liker pictures are to the first pattern, the liker they are one to another. So the liker we grow to Christ, the liker we are one to another, and the more like, the more love. Who keeps Christ alive in the world, but a company of Christians that carry his resemblance? As we say of a child that is like his father, this man cannot die as long as his son is alive, because he resembleth his father; so as long as Christians are in the world, that have the Spirit of Christ, Christ cannot die. He lives in them, and Christ is alive no otherwise in the world than in the hearts of gracious Christians, that carry the picture and resemblance of Christ in them. But how are we changed into the likeness of Christ? How come we to be like him? When once we believe in Christ, we are graft into the similitude of his death, and into the likeness of his resurrection. It is a point somewhat mystical, yet it is stood upon in the Scriptures, in Romans 6 especially, at large.

How come we to die to sin by virtue of Christ’s death? and to live to righteousness by the fellowship of Christ’s resurrection? It is said we are transformed into the likeness of Christ. The phrases of Scripture shew it. But to stand upon these phrases a little.

Beloved, as it was in Christ’s own person when Christ died, whole Christ died and was crucified, but yet the death itself, the crucifying was terminate in the human nature: the human nature died and not the God-head; yet by reason of the union, whole Christ died and was crucified: the ’Lord of glory’ was crucified, as the Scripture speaks. And as it was in Christ natural, so it is in Christ mystical, whole Christ mystical was crucified, whole Christ mystical is risen again, notwithstanding the crucifying was terminate in Christ the head, not in the members. As his death was terminate in his human nature, it ended and was confined in that; so this crucifying belonged to the head, and the head rose; yet whole Christ, all believers as soon as they are one with Christ, by reason of the mystical union, they are dead and crucified in Christ their head, and risen and sit in heavenly places, in Christ their head. So then a true believer, when he is made one with Christ, he reasons thus, My corruption of nature, this pride of heart that naturally I have, this enmity of goodness, this is crucified; for I am one with Christ. When he died, I and my head did die, and this pride and covetousness and worldliness, this base and filthy carnal disposition, was crucified in Christ my head. I in my head was crucified, and I in my head now am risen and sit in heaven. Therefore now I am in some sort glorious. Therefore I mind things above in my head. And therefore because of the necessary conformity of the members to the head, I must more and more die to sin, be crucified to sin, and rise by the Spirit of Christ and ascend with him. The more I know, and consider, and meditate of this, the more I am transformed into the likeness of his death and resurrection. But to go a little further.

Quest. What things in Christ’s death did especially discover themselves to us, when we once believe, to our comfort?

Ans. Three things. In regard of us, wonderful love, that he died for us. In regard of sin, wonderful hatred, that he would die for sin. And wonderful holiness and love of grace. He shewed his hatred of sin, that he would shed his heart-blood for it; and wanting the glory of God, as it were, by feeling the wrath of God for a time, even in hatred to sin.

There were these two affections pregnant in Christ upon the cross, wondrous love for us to die for us, and wondrous hatred of sin to purge it, for which he died; and wondrous holiness, from whence hatred of sin came. Whence doth hatred of sin come, but from wonderful purity and holiness, that cannot endure sin? Thus, when the soul considers it is one with Christ, it hath the same affections that Christ had. Christ in love to us died. Can I apprehend that love of Christ when he died and was crucified and tormented for my sin, but out of love I must hate sin again? And when I consider how Christ stood affected to sin upon the cross, when he died to purge it, and to satisfy for it, can I have other affections, being one with him, than he had upon the cross? I cannot. So, whether I consider his love to me, or the hatred he bore to sin, considering myself one with him by a mystical union, I shall have the same affection of love to him, and be like him every way, to love what he loves, and to hate what he hates.

I cannot but hate sin; and, hating sin, I must act his part anew, that is, as he died for sin, so I die to sin; as he was crucified for it, so it is crucified in me; as he was pierced, so he gives corruption a stab in me; as he was buried, so my corruption is buried; and as he died once, never to die again, so I follow my sins to the grave, to death, and consumption of old Adam, that he never riseth again. So I say, the consideration of my union with Christ, that I in Christ did die and was crucified, because my head died and was crucified. And then it puts that affection into me that was in Christ, and makes me act Christ’s part, to die to sin daily more and more. These and the like thoughts are stirred up in a Christian, which St Paul aims at in Romans 6 and other places. So by the virtue of his resurrection I am conformable more and more to the graces in him; for as the power of God’s Spirit raised him up when he was at the lowest, when he had been three days in the grave, so the Spirit in every Christian raiseth them up at the lowest to comfort, to a further degree of grace, more and more; nay, when they are fallen into any sin or any affliction for sin, the same power that raised Christ when he was in the grave, for our sins, in the lowest humiliation that could be, it raiseth them from their sins daily, that they gather strength from their sins. The power that raised Christ at the lowest raiseth a Christian at the lowest in sin and in affliction for sin; for when he is tripped and undermined by his corruptions, God by that power that raised Christ at the lowest recovers and strengthens him, and makes him afresh revenge himself upon his sin. And when he is at the lowest, in the grave, the same power will raise him, like Christ every way. So you see how we are changed to the likeness of Christ.

How shall we know then whether we have the image of Christ stamped upon us or no?

If we be changed into the likeness of Christ, we shall be changed in our understandings, to judge of things as he did. His aim was to please his Father in all things. If we have the same ends, and the same opinion and esteem of things, …* He judged matters of grace and of the kingdom of God above all other; for the soul is more worth than the whole world. See the judgment that he passed upon things: ’Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all other things shall be cast upon you,’ Matthew 6:33. We must be changed in our judgment if we will have his image upon us. We must be like him in our will, in our choice, in the cleaving, and purpose, and resolution of our will. We must have the bent of our soul as his was. Our souls must be edged and pointed as his was, wholly for heaven and the kingdom of God. And so for our affections, there must be a change in them, in our love, and joy, and delight. We must love and joy and delight in whatsoever he did.

Now the way to stir us up to this is to see what image we naturally carry, and to see ourselves in the glass of the law. If a man consider thus, if Christ’s image be not upon me, I carry the image of the devil, this would make him labour to get another image upon him. For, beloved, at the day of judgment Christ will not own us if he see not his image upon us. Cæsar will own Cæsar’s coin if he see his image upon it. ’Whose image and superscription is this? Give unto Cæsar that which is Cæsar’s,’ Matthew 22:20. If Christ see his stamp on us, he will own us at the day of judgment, or else not. Naturally we are all opposite to Christ; naturally we are full of pride and malice; of the spirit of the world and the devil. Get out this by all means, or else Christ will not own us at the day of judgment. He will not look on us. He cannot abide to see us if we have not his image. We must bear the image of the second Adam as we did the image of the first.

Again, the law of God was written in Adam’s heart, it is expressed and copied out. There see ourselves. There see all the curses. There see ourselves guilty of the breach of every commandment. If we understand the law spiritually, that desire of women and revengeful thoughts are murder and adultery. Understand the law spiritually, and see ourselves in that glass, see ourselves utterly condemned. This will make us fly to the glass of the gospel, that we may be changed into the image of Christ.

There is another image that we more desire to be changed into. We are transformed into the likeness of the world, cast into the mould of the times. We labour to have those opinions that the times have, and those ways of getting and rising to preferment that the world hath, and to have that carriage and disposition every way that the world hath, and so frame to the spirit of the world in all things, that so we might not be observed by others, and crossed in our pleasures, and preferments, and profits. Well, this desire to be transformed into the likeness of the world, to have the spirit of the world, what will it come to in the end? The world shall be condemned. If we will be condemned with the world, let us labour to be transformed into the opinion of the world, and to go with the stream and errors of the time if we desire to be damned. The world must be condemned. It is the kingdom of Satan, wherein he rules. Therefore there is no image or likeness for us to be transformed into, if we will be saved and have comfort, but the image of Christ; and can we have a better likeness to be transformed into than the image of him by whom we hope to be saved? than to be like him, from whom we hope for so great a matter as salvation is?

Use 2. Again, that we may be changed into the likeness of Christ, let us fix our meditations upon him, and we shall find a change we know not how, insensible. As those that stand in the sun for other purposes, they find themselves lightened and heat [ed]; so let us set ourselves about holy meditations, and we shall find a secret, insensible change; our souls will be altered and changed we know not how. There is a virtue goes with holy meditation, a changing, transforming virtue; and indeed we can think of nothing in Christ but it will alter and change us to the likeness of itself, because we have all from Christ. Can we think of his humility and not be humble? Can we think, was God humble, and shall base worms be proud? Shall I be fierce when my Saviour was meek? Can a proud, fierce heart apprehend a sweet, meek Saviour? No. The heart must be suitable to the thing apprehended. It is impossible that a heart that is not meek, and sweetened, and brought low, should apprehend a loving and humble Saviour. There must be a suitableness between the heart and Christ. As he was born of a humble virgin, so he is born and conceived in a humble heart. Christ is born and conceived, and lives and grows in every Christian; and in a humble and lowly heart, made like him by his Spirit: that is the womb. The heart that is suitable, that is the heart that he is formed in.

Use 3. Again, to be changed into this image, when we are once in the state of grace, let us look to the remainder of our corruptions. The best of us shall see that that will make us look after Christ. Look to our worldly mindedness, to our passions, to our rebellions, to our darkness and deadness of spirit, and then go to Christ. Lord, thou hast appointed Christ to be a head, to be a full vessel, that of his grace we might have grace for grace. He was ’anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows,’ Psalms 45:7, but for his fellows. I am earthly-minded, he is heavenly. I am full of rebellions, of lusts; all is at peace in him. The image of God is perfect in him, and he is a head to infuse grace, a head of influence as well as of eminence. He is not only above me, but he hath all grace for me. Therefore, go to Christ. I need thy heavenly-mindedness, and some portion of thy meekness, of thy spiritual strength. I am weak, and dark, and dead, shine on me. Thou hast fulness for me. So go to Christ, and draw upon every occasion virtue and life from Christ our head. This is to know what is meant by being transformed to Christ our head.

There are two conformities, beloved, exceeding comfortable to us, and we must meditate on both.

First, Christ’s conformity to us. He was transfigured into our likeness. He became man in love to us; not only man, but in the form of a servant, base man. He took man’s nature, and man’s base condition, Php 2:8. Here is the ground of our comfort, that Christ took our form, he transfigured himself to our baseness; and shall not we labour to be transformed, to be like him, that out of love stooped so low to be like us? Let us but think of this, beloved! Our blessed Saviour took our nature on him pure and holy by his Spirit. He followed sin to death. He was conceived, and lived, and died without sin, to satisfy for sin; and now by his Spirit he cleanseth out sin. He pursued and chased out sin from his conception in all the passages of his life; so we should be like him. Drive away sin, get the Spirit, that our nature in us may be as it was in him: holy, and pure, and spiritual. Shall he be conformed to us, and shall not we be conform to him? Many such reasons and considerations there be to move us to be changed into the image of Christ.

Christ, in this work of changing, is all in all; for (1.) first of all, by Christ’s death and satisfaction to divine justice, we have the Spirit of God that doth all; for the Spirit is the gift of God’s love, next to Christ, the greatest. Now Christ having reconciled God, God being reconciled, gives the Spirit. Our sins being forgiven, the fruit of God’s love is the Spirit. So we have the Spirit by the merit of Christ.

(2.) Again, we have it from Christ, as a head, derived* unto us. We have the Spirit for Christ and from Christ. Christ receives the Spirit first, and then he sends it into our hearts. So for Christ’s sake, and from Christ as a head, we have the Spirit.

(3.) Again, from Christ we have the pattern of all grace whatsoever, to which we are changed. The pattern of all grace is from Christ. He begins to us in every grace.

(4.) Again, in the fourth place, the reasons inducing are all from Christ. For we are not only changed by power, but by reason. There is the greatest reasons in the world to be a Christian, and to come out of the state of nature. When our understanding is enlightened to see the horrible state of nature, with the angry face of God with it, and then to have our eyes opened at the same time to see the glorious and gracious face of God in Jesus Christ, here is the greatest wisdom in the world to come out of that cursed state to a better. Now, the reasons of this change are fetched from Christ, that by knowing Christ we know by reflection the cursed state out of him, and to see the glorious benefits by Christ’s redemption and glorification. These set before the eye of the soul, and then the heart wrought upon these by reasons. If Christ gave himself for me, shall not I give myself to Christ? Paul hath his heavenly logic, ’Christ died for us, that we might live to him,’ 2 Timothy 2:11. So we have the merit of the Spirit from Christ, the derivation of the Spirit from Christ as a head, and the pattern of grace from Christ, and the inducing reasons all from Christ, in this changing to his image.

(5.) Again, in that Christ is the image to which we are changed, let us learn, if we would see anything excellent and comfortable in ourselves, see it in Christ first. There is nothing comfortable in man but it is in Christ first, as the first image, the first receiver of all, Christ Jesus himself. If we would see the love of God, see the love of God in Christ our head first, in him that is God’s beloved; if we would see the gifts that God hath blessed us with spiritual blessings, but it is in Christ. We have it from our head first. If we would see God’s favour, ’This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,’ Matthew 3:17. I am well pleased in him, and in all his, that are one mystical body with him. If we would see comfortably our ill done away, our sins removed, see it in Christ abased, in Christ crucified, and made a curse. See them all wiped away in the cross of Christ. If we would see glory upon the removal of our sins, see it in Christ first. He is first risen, and therefore we shall rise. He is ascended, and sits in heavenly places, therefore we ascend and sit in heavenly places with him. All that we have or look to have comfortable in us, see it in the first pattern and platform in Christ. The reason is clear in Romans 8:29. We are elected and predestinate ’to be comformed to the image of his Son.’ We are predestinate to be conformed to Christ in all things, to be loved as he is, to be gracious as he is. To rise to be glorious, to be freed and justified afterward from all our sins, as he our surety was. We are ordained to be conformable to him every way. In a word, the flesh of Christ it was holy, it was a suffering flesh, and then a glorious flesh, now it is glorious. So our nature must be like this image. It must be sanctified flesh, by the same Spirit that sanctified the mass that he was made of in the womb. It must be suffering flesh, in conformity to him; for the flesh that he took was suffering flesh, and he had a kingdom of patience before he had a kingdom of glory. So we must go through a kingdom of patience to the kingdom of glory, and then upon conformity in holiness with Christ comes our conformity in glory. When we are content to be conformed to Christ in our suffering flesh, then we shall be conformed to Christ in our glorious flesh; for our flesh must be used as his was. It must be holy and patient and suffering, and then it shall be glorious. So in all things we must look to Christ first; he must have the pre-eminence.

Beloved, of all contemplations under heaven, there is no contemplation so sweet and powerful as to see God in Christ, and to see Christ first abased for us and ourselves abased in Christ, and crucified in Christ, and acquitted in Christ. And then raise our thoughts a little higher. See ourselves made by little and little glorious in Christ. See ourselves in him rising and ascending and sitting at the right hand of God in heavenly places. See ourselves, by a spirit of faith, in heaven already with Christ. What a glorious sight and contemplation is this! If we first look upon ourselves what we are, we are as branches cut off from the tree; as a river cut off from the spring, that dies presently. What is in us but we have it by derivation from Christ, who is the first, the spring of all grace, the sum of all the beams that shine upon us? We are as branches cut off. Therefore now to see Christ, and ourselves in Christ, this transforms us to be like his image. It is the sweetest contemplation that can be.

We see this change is wrought by beholding. The beholding of the glory of God in the gospel, it is a powerful beholding; for, saith he, ’we are changed, by beholding,’ to the image of Christ. Sight works upon the imaginations in brute creatures; as Laban’s sheep, when they saw the parti-coloured rods, it wrought upon their imaginations, and they had lambs suitable.* Will sight work upon imagination, and imagination work a real change in nature? And shall not the glorious sight of God’s mercy and love in Christ work a change in our soul? Is not the eye of faith more strong to alter and change than imagination natural? Certainly the eye of faith, apprehending God’s love and mercy in Christ, it hath a power to change. The gospel itself, together with the Spirit, hath a power to change. We partake by it of the divine nature. This glass of the gospel hath an excellency and an eminency above all other glasses. It is a glass that changeth us. When we see ourselves and our corruptions in the glass of the law, there we see ourselves dead. The law finds us dead, and leaves us dead. It cannot give us any life. But when we look into the gospel and see the glory of God, the mercy of God, the gracious promises of the gospel, we are changed into the likeness of Christ whom we see in the gospel. It is an excellent glass, therefore, that hath a transforming power to make beautiful. Such a glass would be much prized in this proud world; such a glass is the gospel.

Therefore let us be in love with this glass above all other glasses whatsoever. Nothing can change us but the gospel. The gospel hath a changing power, as you have it Isaiah 11:6, seq.: there the lion shall feed with the lamb,’ &c. ’For the whole earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,’ ver. 9. The knowledge of Christ Jesus is a changing knowledge, that changeth a man even from an untractable, fierce creature, to be tractable, sweet, and familiar. So that the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ, you see, it is a transforming knowledge, and changeth us into the image of Christ, to the likeness of Christ.

Especially upon this ground, that when we look upon Christ, and God in Christ, we see ourselves there in the love of Christ, and in the love of God; and thereupon we are moved to be changed to Christ, not by seeing Christ alone, or by seeing God in Christ alone, but by seeing God’s love in Christ to us, and Christ’s love to us. For the Spirit of faith, which is given together with the gospel, it sees Christ giving himself for me, and sees God the Father’s love in† me in Christ, and giving me to Christ. When the Spirit of faith with this appropriation seeth God, mine in Christ, and seeth Christ mine, and sees myself in the love of God, and in the love of Christ, hereupon the soul is stirred up from a holy desire to be like Christ Jesus, that loved me so much, and to be conformable to God all I can. For if the person be great and glorious, and our friend too, there is a natural desire to be like such, to imitate them, and express them all we can. Now when we see ourselves in the love of God and Christ, out of the nature of the thing itself, it will stir us up to be like so sweet, and gracious, and loving a Saviour.

There are three sights that hath a wondrous efficacy, and they go together.

God sees us in Christ, and therefore loves us as we are in Christ.

Christ sees us in the love of his Father, and therefore loves us as he sees us in his Father’s love.