I can recall reading a story with my children many years ago about a group of missionaries who went to a remote island to witness to the people. For some reason, most of the group had to leave, but one of the missionaries stayed. Many years later, another group of missionaries showed up, not realizing that a missionary was already living there. When this new group of missionaries started talking to the inhabitants about Jesus, they immediately got excited and started telling the missionaries, “We know who Jesus is! We know Him!!! He lives in our village!!” They took the missionaries to a humble hut, and to their surprise it was the lone, original missionary who stayed after his group had left years prior. Apparently, that missionary never gave the people a formal Bible study. He just lived amongst the people and exhibited the character of Jesus Christ. He lived with them, ate with them, and worked alongside them. He taught them a better way of life. He loved them. The character of God is love. This missionary was behaving in a godly manner amongst the people.
Imagine living in such a way that you are mistaken for Jesus! What a wonderful mistaken identity to take on. Yet this is what God is waiting for. This is His absolute desire for us. One of my favorite authors states it like this: “Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.”1
The scriptures support this very idea. In Matthew 24:14, Jesus Himself says, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” The world needs to witness “the power of God unto salvation” in every believer’s life (Romans 1:16). “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” is the reality of Christ living within the converted believer for all to see (Colossians 1:27). This is the fruit of a godly life for the Christian.
Many Christians say they believe that Jesus Christ is coming again. Everything happening in the world is screaming that something is about to happen here on planet earth. But greater than the world events and prophecy being fulfilled all around us is God’s desire to make His people godly. 2 Peter 3:10-11 says this: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness.”
If we really believe that Jesus is coming, that reality should cause us to pray about and conform to His image by learning to be godly—i.e., manifesting the character of God. The character of God was revealed through His son, Jesus Christ. Modeling Him and being like Him is what godliness is. We must spend time with Jesus daily, in prayer and in the word of God, to know who Jesus is and what He truly is like. He will make us holy. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we become transformed into His image.
Call to Action
The grace of God brings us salvation through Jesus Christ, and this grace teaches us how to live.
“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:11-14).
I want to pray to be godly every day. Don’t you?
All scripture taken from the King James Version
- Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons (Battle Creek, Michigan: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1900), 69.
