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What the Bible says about Imitating God's Attributes
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Psalm 99:5

Knowing our strong tendency to imitate what we admire in others, God wants us to worship Him because of what He is and what He does. He wants us to worship Him because of His attributes and what they produce.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Why Worship God?

Matthew 15:6-9

Tradition in religion is a wonderful thing when it has a firm basis in the truth of God, but it becomes a deceitful and corrupting influence when its foundations are in the shifting sands of human thought. It is especially diabolical when it masquerades as rich and sublime while actually directly contradicting God's Word! This, for instance, is the case with calling the Pope "Holy Father." What blasphemy! Jesus Himself instructs His disciples, "Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven" (Matthew 23:9; emphasis ours). No matter how saintly any Pope might seem, he can never even in the smallest way be comparable to God the Father!

Truly, "now we see in a mirror, dimly" when it comes to the revelation of God; none of us has God's Word down perfectly. Nevertheless, there is a wide gulf between sincere seeking of God's revealed truth and blatant disregard for the plain teachings of Scripture. Keeping tradition despite God's commandment to the contrary is nothing less than idolatry—exalting human ideas and desires above God's. It is what has become known as humanism, and it is an identifying mark of false religion.

God's true church has and follows the Bible, God's Instruction Book for Christian practice, which is what religion is. It resists outside intrusions of worldly philosophies and measures all new ideas against pure, confirmed, God-breathed Word (II Peter 1:19-21). On the other side, false religions have eaten of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:9, 17; 3:1-11), mixing godly teaching with false, human self-righteousness. It is an extremely simple test but highly effective in exposing false or corrupted faiths.

Jesus says straightforwardly, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent" (John 6:29). God's efforts are engaged in getting us to believe in Jesus, sure, but believing in Jesus is far more than accepting that He died for the forgiveness of our sins—it is believing what He said for our instruction and what He lived as an example to us. It is following Him, imitating Him, obeying Him, and becoming more and more like Him every day!

So, do we really believe Him? Or, are we just treading water, ignorantly or even willfully continuing in the traditions of our parents because we are too lazy, too content, or too fearful to follow the truth? God is seeking men and women to worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23), and these are the ones who really believe. Are we among them? Have we examined ourselves "as to whether [we] are in the faith" (II Corinthians 13:5)? Do we really and truly believe?

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Do You Believe—Really Believe?

Galatians 5:19-21

If a person is walking in the Spirit, he has no conflict with the law of God. Paul uses "flesh" as a synonym for "carnality" or "human nature." The carnal mind, hating God's laws, does not subject itself to them (Romans 8:7). What we see in verses 19-21 is what carnality—what human nature—works at producing: the works of the flesh.

It produces adultery. Have you ever seen a young man—as carnal as the day is long—on the prowl after a sweet young thing? Maybe he stands on the corner, watching all the girls go by, trying to get a date, to pick her up. He has one thing in mind: conquering her and getting her in bed. He has to work at it. He turns on all his charm to seduce her.

It produces theft. Do robbers work at their thievery? Certainly, they do. Some of them actually consider it to be legitimate work, a skill. I recently heard of a church pastor who allowed himself to be convinced that gambling is legal according to God's law. The man who convinced him, a gambler by profession, labored long hours to perfect his skills in taking advantage of other people. He argued that gambling is lawful because he is working, not playing.

The flesh works at producing these things. But the Spirit is opposed to the flesh. They are at war with one another. If a person has the Spirit of God, he cannot allow his human nature to dominate his way of life. He must make a choice as to which way he will be led—by the flesh or by the Spirit of God.

The apostle says that if a person is doing these works, he is following the urgings of the flesh, not the law of God. Paul is by no means doing away with the law of God; that is the farthest thing from his mind, the last thing he would want these Christians to do. Note that he writes that people who practice the works of the flesh will not be in the Kingdom of God. Did Paul want Christians to be in the Kingdom of God? Of course, he did! But they must be guided and led by God's Spirit. If they are led by their carnal mind, they will not enter it.

Thus, the solution to sin and the struggle for salvation lies in the spiritual relationship between God and us. It lies in prayer, faith, study, meditation, and coming to know and love God with all of our being. It does not take long to realize that He is so desirable, and we want to do everything we can to please Him.

What pleases Him? When we imitate Him and live as He does. This great spiritual Being gives us elements of His mind so we can live the way He lives. God is love. And the bottom line of love, the place from which it starts, is the keeping of the commandments (I John 5:3).

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Twenty-Eight)


 




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