An encounter in John 3:1–7 gives us a profound starting point for understanding the heart of GOD concerning our lives. Nicodemus came to JESUS at night and began with an observation: “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from GOD; for no one can do these signs that You do unless GOD is with him”.
John 3:2 Nicodemus was fascinated by the results. He saw the works, the signs, and the achievements. This is often the natural orientation of man. We are drawn to what people produce, what they accomplish, and the visible results that follow their lives.
But JESUS immediately redirected his attention from what He was doing to what man must become. “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of GOD– John 3:3. JESUS was bringing Nicodemus beyond the outward evidence into the deeper work of GOD within a man. The works were indeed significant, but they flowed from something deeper. What JESUS did was an expression of who HE was. This is an important principle: the fruit of a life is ultimately connected to the nature from which that life operates.
Therefore, the starting point of the Christian life is not achievement but regeneration. We are born again, become children of GOD, and then begin the lifelong journey of being conformed to the image of CHRIST. This is the common destination of every believer. Romans 8:29 makes this remarkably clear: “For GOD knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like HIS Son…”.
GOD’S intention is not merely that we accomplish things for HIM, but that we become like HIS SON. Christlikeness speaks of a deep transformation in our character, conduct, desires, values, responses, and pursuits until our lives increasingly reflect CHRIST.
This gives us direction in a world where people constantly construct and adopt identities for themselves. Culture offers us countless definitions of who we should be, and men often build identities around their achievements, affiliations, perceptions, personalities, and preferences.
But our ultimate identity was not designed to be self-created. We were created to reflect CHRIST. Therefore, there must be a continual work of surrender, breaking, renewal, and remodelling not according to our perception of ourselves, but according to GOD’S standard revealed in HIS SON.
This is where 2 Corinthians 3:18 becomes significant:
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the LORD, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the SPIRIT of the LORD” Notice the progression: beholding and becoming. There is something powerful about exposure. What we continually behold, hear, engage with, and give ourselves to eventually influences the formation of our lives.
Our repeated exposure shapes our imagination, desires, values, and responses.
Therefore, if we desire to fulfil the Father’s purpose of conforming us to the image of HIS Son, we must give ourselves deliberately to the revelation of CHRIST through the Word. The Word becomes a primary point of contact. We see a progression: Exposure produces revelation, and revelation, received and lived, produces transformation.
Becoming like JESUS is not merely the result of learning information about HIM. It involves sustained exposure to HIM through HIS Word, fellowship with HIM, and obedience to what HE reveals. But this transformation also has a process. Fruit does not appear instantaneously.
Scripture says of the righteous man:
“He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season…”— Psalm 1:3. There are seasons in GOD’S dealings with us. There are moments when what we have learned in the secret place is brought into the realities of everyday life. This is why Hebrews 5:8 says concerning JESUS: “Though HE was a SON, yet HE learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”
Life became a classroom in which obedience was expressed and demonstrated. In the same way, there are things we encounter that give us the opportunity to see what we have learned in the Word become reality in us. A revelation may be received in a moment, but its formation in our character often requires a process. The situations we face, the people we encounter, the pressures we experience, and the opportunities to choose obedience become instruments through which GOD works CHRIST into us.
Therefore, life is not separate from our spiritual formation. Life becomes one of GOD’S classrooms for Christlikeness. This is why becoming like CHRIST has a profoundly practical dimension. It is not merely something we study; it is something that must find expression in the way we live.
How do we respond when we are misunderstood?
How do we treat those who cannot advance our interests?
What happens to our character when we receive authority?
How do we respond when our plans are interrupted?
What do we do when obedience becomes costly?
These moments reveal whether what we have learned has merely entered our minds or has begun to shape our nature.
GOD knows that people may never see all our achievements, but they will encounter who we have become. They may never know the full extent of our gifts, accomplishments, or labour, but they will experience our character, our responses, our values, and the CHRIST we carry. GOD is therefore not merely interested in people encountering a gifted man or an anointed woman. HE desires that they encounter CHRIST through us. That is divine priority.
Not merely that we do great things for HIM, but that we become people through whom HIS nature can be consistently expressed.
And this journey has no place for complacency. We move from glory to glory from one measure of revelation to another, from one dimension of obedience to another, continually being transformed by the HOLY SPIRIT into the likeness of the One we behold.
The goal is not simply to become more accomplished.
The goal is to become more like CHRIST.
