“Even as He is pure” (I. John iii. 3).
God is now aiming to reproduce in us the pattern which has already
appeared in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Christian life is not an
imitation of Christ, but a direct new creation in Christ, and the union
with Christ is so complete that He imparts His own nature to us and lives
His own life in us and then it is not an imitation, but simply the
outgrowth of the nature implanted within.
We live Christ-like because we have the Christ-life. God is not satisfied
with anything less than perfection. He required that from His Son. He
requires it from us, and He does not, in the process of grace, reduce the
standard, but He brings us up to it. He does not let down the
righteousness of the law, but He requires of us a righteousness that far
exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, and then He
imparts it to us. He counts us righteous in sanctification, and He says of
the new creation, “He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as He is
righteous.”
Lord, live out thy very life in me.