For the Christian, our fight against sin can be a wearisome one. There are times when we may grow discouraged by our ongoing indulgence of temptation and the frequency with which we allow unrighteousness to be displayed in our lives. The call to “be holy” as our Savior is holy (I Pet 1:15) can appear to be a goal that is impossible to reach.
While it is true that we will never be perfectly holy this side of Heaven, looking towards our Savior is exactly what we should do as we strive in our sanctification. We may be tempted to think that the life of One who is fully divine cannot be a representative model for us. Yet in his book, The Man Christ Jesus, Bruce Ware reminds us that as One who was also fully human, Jesus lived His life in reliance on the Spirit of God at work within Him. This is the same manner in which His followers are called to live. Ware exhorts us thusly:
This side of the empty tomb and Pentecost, we, too, may live lives marked by that same supernatural Spirit-wrought empowerment for obedience and faithfulness. The very resource of Holy Spirit empowerment granted to Jesus for his life of obedience and faithfulness to the Father is now granted to Jesus’s disciples as they carry forward the message of Christ, living lives of obedience to Christ, all in the power of the Spirit. [p. 38-39]
The Spirit that was at work in our Savior is at work in His followers today. What comfort and encouragement this is!
Ware continues:
Although Jesus possessed fully his divine nature, and through his divine nature he had access to infinite divine wisdom and power, he accepted instead the role of living life in dependence upon what the Spirit would provide for him for the purpose of living life as one of us, as a man with all the limitations that such a life involves. Rather than drawing upon the infinite resource of his divine nature, he prayed for help and trusted both his Father and the Spirit to bring to him what he needed. He accepted our life as his own, and in this he showed amazing humility. Marvel at this humble Son, who, though fully God, accepted living life as a man, dependent upon the Spirit each day of his life. Marvel and then worship. [p. 44]
May we too live lives of dependence on the Spirit at work within us. May we faithfully ask Him for help and trust in our Father to give us what we need. May we indeed be amazed at the Son who left Heaven’s throne room to condescend and live among us. And may we worship the righteous Savior that He is.
