July 31, 2025
In God’s plan of salvation, God the Son became human, lived a sinless life, and then laid down His life on the cross for the sins of humanity.1 Through both His life and death, He made our salvation possible. “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).
Throughout the New Testament, we read of Jesus living a sinless life. “He appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). (See also 1 Peter 2:22.) In the Gospels, Jesus gave testimony concerning His holiness when, in the presence of His disciples who had lived with Him day in and day out, He challenged the Pharisees with: “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin” (John 8:46)?
Not only was Jesus without sin, He was also in perfect conformity to the will of God. Jesus said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38). (See also John 4:34.)
Of course, we aren’t sinless as Jesus was, nor can we be. But we can take comfort in the fact that salvation makes us “in Christ,” so that His holiness and righteousness are credited to us. Because of His holy life and death on the cross, God imputed or credited our sins to Christ, and He also credited Jesus’ righteousness to us.
We are able to be in the presence of God, who is the ultimate holiness, because we are made holy through Christ. Because Jesus died for our sins, we are members of God’s family and can enter into relationship with the Father (John 1:12). All of this is due to God’s grace. However, the quality of our relationship with God depends on us.
Being Christlike fundamentally has to do with our relationship with God. Jesus’ perfection cannot be attained in our lives, but it can be seen as a model, an ideal for us to move as close to as possible. Jesus entered our world to do the will of His Father, setting an example for us to follow. If we are following His example, the motivating principle that guides our thoughts, actions, and character should be the desire to do the will of our Father.
The will of God in this context isn’t about finding God’s will for specific decisions (such as what career to pursue, whom to marry, etc.), but rather doing the will of God as expressed in Scripture, actively pursuing those things He has specifically instructed His children to do. Part of that pursuit is putting off sin and putting on the new self Paul spoke of (Colossians 3:5–10). By God’s grace and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can live in a more holy manner, more in alignment with His will; however, the responsibility to do so lies with us.
The progressive growth in Christlikeness isn’t something that simply happens because we are Christians. Through His grace, “He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13); yet we are also told to “not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires” (Romans 6:12). We have been delivered from the kingdom of sin and the rule that it had over us, but we still suffer its attacks. Indwelling sin has been dethroned and no longer has the same grip on us that it did previously, but it is still there, and it’s something we need to regularly face and overcome.
We are saved members of God’s family, and our sins don’t cause us to cease being His children. They do, however, affect our relations with Him. In praying for God’s mercy and forgiveness after committing sins that hurt others, David prayed: “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Psalm 51:4). When we sin, no matter what the sin, we ultimately sin against God.
Sin is more than a personal weakness, and it’s more than some area in our lives that we need to work on. Sin is a personal act of turning away from God and His will, an act against God. Of course, some sins aren’t a conscious decision to defy God, but are committed because we are ignorant or have an unguarded moment. While these are still sins for which we need forgiveness, they are different from those times when we make a conscious decision to sin, when we knowingly decide to act contrary to God’s will.
For many Christians today, there is a tendency to not take most sin that seriously. Of course, when it comes to a heinous sin like murder, we see that as obviously being serious. But we often look very differently at “a little” lying here or there, or boasting, gossiping, etc. It’s easy for us to mentally categorize some sins as acceptable, or at least not totally unacceptable. But if we are striving for godliness in our lives, that doesn’t allow for categorizing some sins as being okay. It calls for being willing to take personal responsibility for our sins.
We of course have the wonderful grace of God to help us overcome our sins, but while grace alone brings about our initial salvation, action is required for growth in our Christian life. The idea of taking action against sin in our lives isn’t a “works trip” or a campaign to make ourselves perfect, neither is the goal to reach perfection. The purpose of actively opposing sin in our lives has to do with our relationship with God and our desire to draw close to Him and stay there.
Throughout the Epistles we read of the need to take action, to “put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature” (Colossians 3:5), to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and … run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1), and to “be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish” (2 Peter 3:14).
The first step to putting this into action is to decide that Christlikeness is important to us, and that we are willing to work toward it by making right moral decisions. This calls for having personal conviction about believing, obeying, and applying what Scripture teaches about sin and then living up to that conviction. This brings about internal conflict, as our scriptural values and beliefs bump up against our “fallen” human nature and the ungodly values of the world. When they do, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we choose to obey what Scripture teaches, even when it’s difficult or goes against what we’d prefer to do.
This is where the rubber meets the road in our desire to be Christlike. At its core, Christlikeness comes from believing the same as Jesus as far as what is good and right and what is wrong and sinful. The foundation of becoming more like Jesus is being transformed in our spirit, so that our outward actions reflect our transformed inner selves. This calls for being purposeful in our pursuit of godliness.
The Holy Spirit plays an important role in our progressive sanctification; we’re not on our own in this process. Through the Spirit dwelling within us, we have the means to conform to the character of God. “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Originally published September 2016. Adapted and republished July 2025. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.
1 This article is based on key points from the book The Pursuit of Holiness, by Jerry Bridges (NavPress, 2006).
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