Lesson 21: God’s Sovereignty in Making Us Like Jesus

Ephesians 4:11-13 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

God did not save us just so we could get our fire insurance and sit around doing nothing until we get to heaven. God also plans for us to become mature, or in other words, to become a little more like Jesus before we get to heaven. Hopefully we are all praying to be more like Jesus. But our problem is that we mistakenly think this process of becoming more like Christ comes naturally, or that we have the ability to live just like Jesus on our own. But stop and think about this attitude. If you and I could live the Christian life on our own, then why would we need a Savior? This is nothing more than spiritual pride.

God rids us of this arrogance by allowing a few difficulties into our lives so we find out quickly that we do not have the ability to live like our Savior. We have a knack for sinning! We also learn quickly that the only way to be rid of our sinful behavior is through the purifying hand of God, which sometimes comes in the form of difficulties. This is what Peter said in 1 Peter 1:6-7 - "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."


This "testing by fire" that Peter is talking about is an illustration of a smelting furnace. A smelting furnace was a red-hot furnace for purifying raw gold after it was mined. As the raw gold was melted down, the impurities would rise to the top and be skimmed off. When the goldsmith saw his reflection in the liquid gold, he knew that he had pure gold. The point is, the gold was not put into the furnace to destroy it but to purify it, to make it better.

Christian suffering might be in the form of persecution because of a Christ-like life, or as trials and testings such as illness, sorrow, or financial troubles. Suffering is always used by the God of love to refine our lives. It burns out the rubbish from our life, makes us humble, purifies us, and increases our faith.

Like the goldsmith, God keeps us in the furnace until He can see the reflection of Jesus’ face in our lives. God is more interested in how much we resemble His Son than in how much work we do for Him.

* When was the last time you thanked Jesus for the difficulties in your life?