Yesterday I mentioned Isaiah 53:1-3 in a post about Models for Christ, and in a previous post I talked about various popular church models. It occurred to me that a good church model is found in Isaiah 53:1-5.
Here are the bullet points:
- No beauty that is desired
- It is despised and rejected by men
- Full of sorrows and acquainted with grief
- Wounded and bruised for the sins of others
- Brings healing to all
Yes, this passage isn’t about the church. It’s about Jesus. But as the body of Christ, we cannot do much better than take Him as our model.
Rather than model our church after Hollywood models, let us model the church after Jesus Christ, whose name and image we bear.
I just read this today in Following Jesus, the Servant King by Jonathan Lunde:
Wow, what a beautiful picture of the church! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, Mark. May we all grow into the image of Jesus Christ!
Awesome. It makes perfect sense.
Amen, Jeremy.
One question that comes up for me as I read this post is what is the best, most accurate and most empowering, perspective of Jesus as a “model” for our lives? If we have really accepted Him fully, and He is really living through us, then our lives should look in many ways much more similar to His life than to what the world would consider desirable. So, in a sense, His life is a model for how our life will look as He works in and through us. It’s not that we *strive* to do what He did, but we *allow* Him to work His work through us.
I don’t mean to split hairs. Maybe it’s a subtle distinction, but I think it’s an important one. What do you think?
Michael,
Good points. Yes, I think the “What would Jesus do?” fad was a bit off for the very reasons you state. It is not so much that we should try to do what Jesus did, but that we should let Him do what He wants through us, which, given our different personalities, time period, culture, and geography, may be very different than what Jesus did.
how can we live are lives as christ , when most of us dont know what a real relationship with christ is what would jesus do?
Great question! Life is a part of a process of trying to learn to live like Christ. Each day, as we learn a bit more about Jesus and what He is like, we also seek to bring our lives into conformity to how He wants us to live.