Imitators of God
Notes
Transcript
Ephesians 5:1-2 ESV
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Based on the preceding verses, the apostle makes the continued argument “therefore”
1. Oneness in Christ
2. The body of Christ
3. Putting off the old man – on the new man
4. Sealed by the Spirit
Therefore, imitate God as his beloved children. But it is more than that – this is the foundation of the upcoming chapter, too. As Lloyd-Jones says this “is perhaps Paul’s supreme argument, to the highest level of all in doctrine and in practice, to the ultimate ideal. There is nothing possible beyond this.”
What does Lloyd-Jones mean? Is he right? Is this really the pinnacle of doctrine and practice? Why?
Well, to imitate God? Let’s ponder the question for a minute? Can we imitate the Lord of Glory, the Maker of Heaven and Earth? The one who is Love and Light and Perfect and without error? Can we imitate in a way that doesn’t shame? Hendrickson says “But if, by the grace of the really living God, the words, “Be still and know that I am God!” have retained some meaning for us, this crisp command to imitate him may baffle us. We stand in awe before his majesty. How can we imitate him whom we cannot even fathom?”
Let’s think of it in another way. Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt. Pick your master and then think of the futility of any of us imitating them. It would be laughable. Even with hours and hours and hours of work – my paintings, my carvings, would be an insult to call them imitations. We are kind and encouraging to children when they proudly declare their masterpieces. But, as we grow in our knowledge, we soon realize that there are a great many things that we cannot attain to. We come to realize that there are innumerable places that we will never be a master. In fact, very few of us will ever have any single area where we think we are “the best.”
Now, back to this idea of imitating God. God is so infinitely higher and better and more than da Vinci and Rembrandt, that it is laughable to compare them to Him. God made them – their minds, their hands, their eyes. God is of a scale and scope and a perfection of thought and action that to “imitate” him is an unsurmountable mountain. It is not Mount Everest, which men have conquered, it is as impossible of traveling the hundreds of billions of light years across the universe.
“Ephesians 5:1–2
Again and again Jesus and the apostles emphasized that believers should strive to be imitators of God. Now to people who are living in an age which proudly proclaims, “We have conquered space,” and which drags God down to the level of a benign Santa Claus, it may not seem at all outrageous to strive to imitate God.” – So says William Hendrickson. And he is right. We have pretended that we, as a race, have achieved such great things that it is no big step to imitate the Holy One of Israel.
But, even a cursory reading of the Word will dispel us of any notion that it is a small, insignificant thing to be told to “imitate God.” So, at the highest peak of our call to holiness is a doctrinal truth – that we must have the right knowledge of God in order to properly imitate Him.
Calvin, as I have often quoted in this series, is right – true wisdom is summed up in two things – knowledge of self and knowledge of God. We have to both know the infinite perfections and goodness of God and our complete, utter, failure to be like Him.
It is only when we have been humbled, have been broken, have given up on being able to do such a thing that we might have a chance to become what we ought. It is at that moment of humility and brokenness of our own ability and inherent righteousness, that God grants true righteousness – real goodness. And in those times we that we walk by the Spirit, we please Him.
Why by the Spirit? It is by him that we call “abba, father.” We are, beloved Children. This is how we are able to complete the impossible. We are not strangers to Him. We are not servants of Him only. We are, at the basest of our relationships with Him, as Christians, His children!
Romans 8 “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
And, because He is a perfectly good Father, we are beloved by Him. To be His child, his beloved child, is completely outside our control – just as our own natural birth happened apart from ourselves. We had no part in our conception. We had no part in our growth in the womb – other than being present. We had no part in our entrance into the world filled with air. And, we who have been born of the Spirit – owe to Him the whole of thanks, even more than we owe our own parents. Afterall, our parents had no direct control over whether we would be conceived, come to term, and be born. God is the one who opens and closes the womb.
So, in our spiritual birth as God’s beloved children, we owe Him such a thanks, such a humility. Such a response to the unmeasurable kindness and love of God to make us into His dear children should be an overwhelming love and happiness to be like Him. Because we owe Him everything and know his Goodness!
A son who refuses to be a good imitator of his good father is a poor son. Whatever good he finds in his earthly father, he ought to desire, out of love, devotion, and obedience, to imitate. And this is our position in Christ by the Spirit. We would be poor children, indeed, if we did not strive to show the world by imitation of the goodness and love of the Father of glory.
We must love then, in our imitation of God, in the same way he loves. And here, again, we are reminded of the utter impossibility of the task. Listen to what Jesus says about this love:
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” – Matthew 5:44-48
As I have tried to show throughout chapter 4 especially, the high task of Christian love is impossible without the work of the Spirit. And yet, we must work to walk in such a way that the love of God is made known by the way we live. We ought to be perfect in our love as our heavenly Father is perfect.
A sacrifice. The translation here in the ESV is not the best. Here is a better one from the New King James “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” Notice that it differs in from the ESV “a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” The ESV attaches “fragrant” only to the offering. Yet it is to both the offering and the sacrifice that the “sweet smelling aroma” is attached. They are, together, pleasing to God.
Christ’s offering of Himself, freely, as a gift is sweet. He said so Himself “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” – John 10:17-18
This was the express command of the Father to Christ. Free offering. We do not please God if we offer to Him under stoic obligation. We know this intuitively. It is not really working to please your boss if you do the work with a grudge. In the same way, a free and willing heart, eager to please the Father, is necessary. And, because those outside of Christ have hearts which are hard and dark – they can never please God. They cannot walk in love.
It is only those who have new hearts, fleshly and soft, tender. Those are the ones who can freely offer themselves in love to others and to God. It is only those whom God has, by His spirit, circumcised that can love their enemies. It is only those whom are the beloved children of God that can give themselves in love.
That is our first duty, to become children of God. Once we have become children of God, our duties increase – but we will delight to do them freely. It will be our great joy to fulfill our family obligations.
And that free offering is laid together with sacrifice. Christ gave himself freely as a sacrifice. Bloody upon the cross – offering up himself once for the forgiveness of sins. And with the further end of making Himself known by our imitating witness. Ezekiel 20:40–42 ESV
“For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your fathers.
We are to imitate God as He has shown us love in Christ. Dying for the sake of others. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” – 1 John 3:16. And now, as I have stated at the beginning, we have run into the impossible height – for which of us has ever approached this sort of self-sacrifice?
Yet, we are commanded to. We are obligated to. We are under compulsion of the Spirit to do it.
In order to have any hope of accomplishing this – we must at the base of it know that the atonement, as it is here stated, was for us, individually. We have to realize that Christ’s offering and sacrifice were for me. For you. And that it cost Him his very life. Death that belongs to us – he took upon himself.
We are always, over and over and over again in Scripture, shown that in order for true Christian love to be shown we must always have in view our own vile sin – our own destitute condition – our own selfish pride – our own hard hearts. It is only when we have the constant understanding that the atonement, the wrath of God poured out on the Son of God, that we can begin to love of as God loves.
Do you see it? Can you feel the heat of the wrath that missed you in the cross? Can you smell the bloody body of our Lord when you sin and despise your neighbor? Or, do you simply go on about your day – living as you did the day before, with no thought to the Father or to the sin that cost Him His Son, so that you might be called a child of God?
More time, much more time, meditating on the reality of these great truths is our antidote to self and will, thankfully, result in a true imitation of the impossible because God Himself will grant to us all things by that same Spirit. He will give us His love and compassion – things that we do not possess in our flesh, but in our re-birthed selves, Christ has given to us the immeasurable ability to be like Him.
Give thanks to God that You have this precious gift not only for your eternal salvation but for the immediate good of loving your neighbor and showing them, as imitators of God, the truth of God’s mercy.
And we have the promise that we can, and we have proof in Scripture that our works, as imperfect imitations as they are, can be pleasing to God. Philippians 4:14–18 ESV
Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
What a blessing. What a command. What a good Father we have.
Ephesians 5:1 (ESV)
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
“For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your fathers.
And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
This puts a great honour upon practical religion, that it is the imitating of God. We must be holy as God is holy, merciful as he is merciful, perfect as he is perfect. But there is no one attribute of God more recommended to our imitation than that of his goodness.
As dear children, as children (who are wont to be greatly beloved by their parents) usually resemble them in the lineaments and features of their faces, and in the dispositions and qualities of their minds; or as becomes the children of God, who are beloved and cherished by their heavenly Father. Children are obliged to imitate their parents in what is good, especially when dearly beloved by them.
As Christ also hath loved us. Here the apostle directs us to the example of Christ, whom Christians are obliged to imitate, and in whom we have an instance of the most free and generous love that ever was, that great love wherewith he hath loved us. We are all joint sharers in that love, and partakers of the comfort of it, and therefore should love one another, Christ having loved us all and given such proof of his love to us; for he hath given himself for us.
English Standard Version Matthew 5:44–45
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
This is the only price by which we are reconciled to God. The doctrine of faith on this subject holds the highest rank. But the more extraordinary the discoveries which have reached us of the Redeemer’s kindness, the more strongly are we bound to his service.
Ephesians Ephesians 5:1–2
Again and again Jesus and the apostles emphasized that believers should strive to be imitators of God. Now to people who are living in an age which proudly proclaims, “We have conquered space,” and which drags God down to the level of a benign Santa Claus, it may not seem at all outrageous to strive to imitate God.
Ephesians Ephesians 5:1–2
But if, by the grace of the really living God, the words, “Be still and know that I am God!” have retained some meaning for us, this crisp command to imitate him may baffle us. We stand in awe before his majesty. How can we imitate him whom we cannot even fathom?
Ephesians Ephesians 5:1–2
Rather than even faintly to imagine that we, creatures of the dust, would ever be able to imitate God, we feel like falling down upon our knees and saying, with Simon Peter, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). And we understand why John, when similarly overcome, said, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead” (Rev. 1:17).
Ephesians Ephesians 5:1–2
It is only in that spirit of awe and humble reverence that we can properly study this glorious theme of “the imitation of God.” It is only then that the Lord will lay his right hand upon us and say, “Fear not!”
Ephesians Ephesians 5:1–2
Obedience to the command to imitate him is, after all, possible. This is true for the following reasons: a. we are created as his image; b. his enabling Spirit dwells within us; and c. by his regenerating and transforming grace we have become his children, that is, imitators.
Ephesians Ephesians 5:1–2
It was an offering for he willingly brought it (Isa. 53:10). It was a sacrifice, and as such could well remind one of the fumes rising from the altar when the burnt-offering was consumed whole, symbolizing entire surrender to God.
A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Ephesians Ephesians 5:2
No one can rightly boast himself of sonship with God, who does not imitate Him.
A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Ephesians Ephesians 5:2
RIEGER:—The moral instruction of the Apostles is everywhere deduced from the marrow of the gospel, nor can it be put in practice by any one who does not stand in this gospel of peace. It is the character of love, to imitate as it may the Beloved.