Jesus Set a Perfect Example
Remember that a Christian is one who literally follows the example of Jesus Christ! Jesus was the "light" that God sent into the world to show man HOW he ought to be living. "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9).
Peter was inspired to write: "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an EXAMPLE, that ye should follow His steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" (I Pet. 2:21-22). Jesus OBEYED GOD. He did NO SIN — and sin is the "transgression of the law." He obeyed God and suffered persecution willingly and in all this set us an EXAMPLE that we should follow His steps!
The apostle John wrote: "He that saith he abideth in him [Christ] ought himself also to walk [to LIVE], even as he walked" (I John 2:6).
This passage clearly shows that the true Christian must LIVE just as Jesus Christ did live — setting us an example. The New English Bible renders this in more modern English: "Here is the test by which we can be sure that we are in him: whoever claims to be dwelling in him, binds himself to LIVE as Christ himself lived."
So we are LITERALLY to follow the inspired EXAMPLE of Jesus Christ's perfect life! And we have seen that Jesus DID KEEP the Ten Commandments — LITERALLY (John 15:10).
If you really study the inspired record of Jesus' life carefully, you will see where Jesus prayed constantly on both knees to God the Father and fasted when He was in need of being especially close to God (Mark 1:35; 2:20; 9:29). You will see where Jesus literally OBEYED the fourth commandment — setting us an example (Luke 4:16, 31). You will see where Jesus refused to be drawn into worldly wars and politics (John 18:36-37).
You will see that Jesus OBEYED the commandments of God both in the letter AND in the spirit; that He lived a life of GIVING and SERVICE; and that He conducted Himself as an ambassador of a foreign kingdom or government — God's government in heaven which will soon come to replace ALL governments on this earth — and therefore had no part in the religions, politics, wars and disputes of His time.
True Christians are LITERALLY to follow this marvelous example! And Paul was inspired to write: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8).
Christ has NOT CHANGED. He will guide you to live the same kind of life today that He DID LIVE in His own human body more than 1900 years ago! And remember, Jesus "was in ALL POINTS tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15).
How You CAN Follow Christ's Example!
The apostle Paul was inspired to write: "Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is NONE of his" (Rom. 8:9). In plain language, if you are without God's Spirit you are NOT Christian!
But what good is the Holy Spirit, some will ask, What does it do? Jesus answers: "If ye love me, keep my COMMANDMENTS. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be IN you" (John 14:15-17).
Then Jesus continued by saying: "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come unto you." Obviously He was going to come unto and "comfort" BY this Spirit which would dwell IN the disciples. He stated in Verse 23: "If a man love me, he will keep MY WORDS [obeying His commandments]: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." It is obvious that both Jesus and God the Father do not come down and live INSIDE of someone in bodily form! Rather, they live IN the Christian through the Holy Spirit!
And Jesus continued by stating: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (verse 26). Notice that the SAME Spirit emanates out from Christ and the Father. That Spirit TEACHES Christ's true followers and helps them remember and apply the truth.
So it is that the apostle Paul could exclaim: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but CHRIST liveth IN me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith OF the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).
Here we see that — through the Holy Spirit — Christ comes to live His LIFE literally IN the true Christian who not only lives by faith in Christ but by the very faith OF Jesus Christ — the same faith that guided and motivated Him in His human body over 1900 years ago!
Through the Holy Spirit, then, you receive the very nature and power of CHRIST to obey the commandments, laws and ways of Almighty God! But it is actually CHRIST doing it.
However, you must surrender your will to Him, and you must REPENT of your lawlessness and ACCEPT CHRIST as your SAVIOR and as your Lord and MASTER! Then you must yield and strive to be an effective instrument in His hands!
Now can you understand?
It is actually CHRIST who keeps the commandments all over again — just as He did over 1900 years ago — in your mortal body! It is His righteousness operating in your body which you have willingly yielded to Him as His instrument.
HOW the Holy Spirit Functions
The inspired formula for receiving God's Holy Spirit was given by Peter on the Day of Pentecost, 31 A.D. "Then Peter said unto them, REPENT, and BE BAPTIZED every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38).
Since your old self must be buried or baptized for the remission of SIN, you must REPENT of sin! Recall that "sin is the transgression of the law." So you must repent of BREAKING GOD'S LAW!
You must be baptized in a watery grave as an outward acknowledgment of the death penalty you have brought on yourself by disobeying the LAW of your Creator, and of your willingness to let the old self die. Then, after real repentance of your rebellion against God and your own carnal ways and desires, and fulfilling the ordinance of humility in being baptized and accepting Christ's shed blood as payment for your past sins in FAITH, you are PROMISED the "gift" of God's Holy Spirit. Then, through His Spirit, CHRIST places His nature within you — His love, His faith, His strength to overcome your own weaknesses and the temptations of Satan and of this world.
The LOVE you receive through God's Spirit is not mere human love, but the very love of God, "because the LOVE of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Rom. 5:5).
Now how does this love operate? Let Christ's WORD give the true answer! "For this is the love of God, that we KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS: and his commandments are not grievous" (I John 5:3).
It is through GOD'S love placed in us by His Spirit that we are enabled to KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS!
Not through your strength, but through the spiritual POWER which God's Holy Spirit imparts, you CAN follow the perfect example of Jesus Christ. You CAN yield to let Jesus live the same kind of life in you which He DID live over 1900 years ago — keeping the same laws of God, worshipping on the same Holy Days which GOD ordained, remaining separate from this world's society, politics and wars, and — through constant Bible study, earnest prayer, occasional fasting, and consistent spiritual overcoming and GROWTH — you can yield to let God literally fashion you in HIS spiritual image to be born of Him in the resurrection as His LITERAL son — possessed of His very nature!
This is, in fact, the very PURPOSE of your existence!
Identity of the True Christians
Down through history, God has always set apart and marked those who truly serve Him by keeping His commandments and His LAWS. The apostle John was inspired to write:
"He that saith, I know him, and keepeth NOT his commandments, is a LIAR and the truth is not in him" (I John 2:4).
The true God doesn't even hear our prayers unless we keep His commandments! "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight" (I John 3:22).
GOD further states: "Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the DOCTRINE of Christ, HATH NOT GOD. He that abideth in the DOCTRINE of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this DOCTRINE, receive him NOT into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds" (II John 9-11).
The true teaching — the matter of OBEDIENCE to the true God and His LAW — this is of PARAMOUNT importance in the eyes of the God of your Bible!
Even in the final book of your Bible, the book of Revelation, this standard of OBEDIENCE is used as a sign of IDENTITY of God's true Church down through the ages.
Notice! Speaking of the true Church which has to flee from the Devil at the time of the end, God says: "And the dragon [Satan the Devil] was wroth with the woman [the true Church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 12:17; 14:12).
And, at the very END of your Bible, as His final message to YOU, God states: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that DO HIS COMMANDMENTS, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (Rev. 22:13-14). You might write for our free booklet entitled Where Is God's True Church Today?
Now You KNOW!
Now you know what true Christianity MEANS! It means yielding yourself to let Jesus Christ literally LIVE His life in you! It means surrendering to the will of your Maker — and KEEPING HIS COMMANDMENTS through the POWER of His Spirit within you!
It means living a life of constant prayer, Bible study, constant overcoming and OBEDIENCE to the will of God the Father — following the perfect EXAMPLE of Jesus Christ which He set that you should follow in His steps — growing in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ — His WAYS, His LAWS.
True Christianity means being able to state sincerely, as the Apostle Paul: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but CHRIST LIVETH IN ME: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith OF the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).
True Christianity means really doing all this LITERALLY — remembering that Jesus Christ is the SAME yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), and that He will live the SAME kind of life in you today that He did over 1900 years ago. In a true Christian today, Christ will keep the same commandments He DID keep on earth, worship on the same days He DID observe while on earth, live the same WAY of life He DID LIVE on earth well over 1900 years ago!
Strive to study God's Word so you can apply all the details of this tremendous principle to every phase of your life — by accepting the true Christ as Savior and Living LORD — learn to LIVE as Jesus Christ did live through His Spirit within you!
Then — through His POWER — you will be made FIT to live forever in the glorious WORLD TOMORROW!