Become More Like Jesus

Opening Question

Have you had a time you’ve needed to forgive? Share your story with your Growth Coach. Ask your Growth Coach about a time they needed to forgive and what happened.

Training

Becoming like Jesus is not about striving for moral perfection in our own strength; it is the natural outcome of a life surrendered to God. Known in Christian theology as sanctification, the process of transformation into Christlikeness is both a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit and an active daily calling for every believer. Understanding why this transformation matters and how it takes place provides clarity and endurance for the faith journey.

The Why: Purpose, Bearing Fruit, and God’s Will

To understand why we are called to become like Jesus, we must first look at God’s ultimate purpose for humanity. In Romans 8:29, the Apostle Paul reveals the overarching design for believers: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” Salvation is not merely a ticket to heaven; it is the restoration of God’s image within us, aligning our character with Christ.

Living like Jesus also serves as our witness to the world. In John 15:8, Jesus states, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” When our attitudes, actions, and speech reflect Jesus, God is glorified, and those around us catch a glimpse of His love and truth. Furthermore, walking in Christlikeness fulfills God’s clear directive for our lives. As written in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.”

The How: Surrender, Abiding, and Mindful Renewal

Transformation into the image of Christ does not happen through willpower alone, but through active partnership with the Holy Spirit.

First, transformation requires daily surrender and abiding in Christ. In John 15:5, Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Spiritual growth flows from connection, not strain. As we spend time in prayer, worship, and fellowship, we abide in His presence, allowing His life to flow through ours.

Second, becoming like Jesus involves the daily renewing of our minds through Scripture. Romans 12:2 instructs, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Truth replaces worldly patterns when we mediate on and apply God’s Word.

Finally, Christlikeness develops as we yield to the active work of the Holy Spirit within us. 2 Corinthians 3:18 describes this continuous process: “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” As we submit our choices, reactions, and motives to the Spirit, He produces in us the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Becoming more like Jesus is a lifelong journey marked by grace. It begins with a willingness to surrender and unfolds day by day as the Holy Spirit shapes our hearts to mirror the savior.

A few of the things we need to know to grow more and more like Jesus are Confession, Repentance and Forgiveness, so let’s spend some time on those now.

What you need to know about Confession, Repentance and Forgiveness

Confession is agreeing with God. Sometimes we agree with God that we’ve done something we shouldn’t or didn’t do something we should have. It’s saying He’s right and we’re going to change.

The fact we change is what’s called “Repentance”. There are two words for repentance in the Bible. The first one is Greek and it means “to change your mind”. The other one is Hebrew and it means “to turn around and go in the complete opposite direction”. Understand repentance requires we make both of those choices. Our minds are changed when we can confess our sin and repent. We turn around when we stop doing what we shouldn’t and/or start doing what we should.

James 5:16 says “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” (NLT)

Confessing our sins to one another is not about securing God’s forgiveness of our sin. John tells “But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” (1 John 1:9) So why then do we confess our sins to one another?

James tells us: so that you may be healed. When we confess our sins to one another and repent, we are restored by the one we confess to.

Is there something you need to confess to your Growth Coach? They are trustworthy people who will keep everything they can in confidence. If you need help making things right, they will help in anyway they can.

If nothing jumps to you mind, there’s no need to go searching for it. Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us and He’ll do it when it’s needed.

Confession and repentance are wonderful tools for us as we learn to love others more and more. Another tool that we need in our arsenal is Forgiveness.

Jesus told His disciples in a parable that we need to forgive each other with our hearts (Matthew 18:15-35). We need to unpack what that means.

To ancient Hebrews, our heart is the seat of our intellect, the seat of our will and the seat of our emotions. It covers covers all three and is the place we make sense of the world.

1. We need to forgive with our intellect.

Forgiveness is a choice. This an act of our intellect. If we don’t choose to forgive, we’ll never feel like we’ve forgiven.

Sometimes we don’t forgive because we think the offender won’t pay if we forgive. What it actually means is we pay if we don’t forgive (Matthew 6:14-15; Luke 6:37)

Sometimes we want to wait until the person changes before we forgive. But we’re told to forgive as Christ forgave us (Colossians 3:13) and He did that while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).

Sometimes we don’t can’t forgive because we think it means we automatically need to put ourself back in danger. It doesn’t. The root of Greek word used in the Bible for “forgive” means “to cut off, sever, release, send away.” Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation.

2. We need to forgive with our will (actions).

We need to bless those who curse us. This is an act of our will. We can bless in word or in deed. We need to obey what God commands.

Sometimes with these two parts of the heart in agreement, Holy Spirit can do an amazing work in us so that we actually feel like we’ve forgiven them. It’s amazing what happens when all three parts of our heart come into alignment. We can truly live in the freedom forgiveness brings.

3. We need to forgive with our emotions.

If you don’t feel like you’ve forgiven someone whose offended you, there is a problem. Our feelings show us the truth about what we really believe. We always feel what we believe. Our emotions are wonderful servants, but they will overrule the other two parts of heart.

When the truth doesn’t feel true, it’s because we believe something contrary to the truth, not because the truth isn’t true.

When we don’t feel like we’ve forgiven an offender we can’t ignore our our feelings. Our intellectual belief and choice to bless will only take us so far. We need Holy Spirit’s persuasion or we will not be able to forgive from the heart.

We need to feel like we’ve forgiven someone who’s offended us. We can’t ignore or push aside these feelings. Let them show you what Holy Spirit needs to heal. We all need well healed wounds.

Now the good news God wants to help us heal those wounds we have. We have beliefs attached to those wounds that cause us to feel what we feel.

Emotions are our friends, pointing us in the direction we need to take in order to identify what we really believe. Memory helps us answer the question: How did I come to believe what I currently believe which is causing me to feel what I feel? Once the lie we’re believing has been identified we can offer it to the Lord for His perspective. This is when Holy Spirit can persuade our hearts of the truth. When this occurs, forgiveness from the heart will naturally follow. Forgiveness becomes an expected outcome of being persuaded of God’s truth in our heart.

Tool

You can get more training for this at https://www.transformationprayer.org/the-tpm-process-explained-the-map/

Application

Do you have something you need to confess? Trust it to your Growth Coach. Is there someone you need to forgive? Do what you need to so can forgive them from your heart.