The Faith I Live By

August—Walking as Christ Walked

Jesus Our Perfect Pattern, August 1

Imitating Christ

He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. 1 John 2:6. FLB 219.1

We have before us the highest, holiest example. In thought, word, and deed Jesus was sinless. Perfection marked all that He did. He points us to the path that He trod, saying, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Matthew 16:24.^{1The Review and Herald, April 26, 1906.} FLB 219.2

Christ unites in His person the fullness and perfection of the Godhead and the fullness and perfection of sinless humanity. He met all the temptations by which Adam was assailed, and overcame these temptations because in His humanity He relied upon divine power. This subject demands far more contemplation than it receives. Christians strike too low. They are content with a superficial spiritual experience, and therefore they have only the glimmerings of light, when they might discern more clearly the wonderful perfection of Christ's humanity, which rises far above all human greatness, all human power. Christ's life is a revelation of what fallen human beings may become through union and fellowship with the divine nature.... FLB 219.3

Men and women frame many excuses for their proneness to sin. Sin is represented as a necessity, an evil that cannot be overcome. But sin is not a necessity. Christ lived in this world from infancy to manhood, and during that time He met and resisted all the temptations by which man is beset. He is a perfect pattern of childhood, of youth, of manhood.^{2Manuscript 31, 1911.} FLB 219.4

The life of Christ has shown what humanity can do by being partaker of the divine nature. All that Christ received from God we too may have. Then ask and receive.... Let your life be knit by hidden links to the life of Jesus.^{3Christ's Object Lessons, 149.} FLB 219.5