Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
Jesus is unique. There is no other name given under heaven by whom we can be saved from the coming wrath of God. But there are ways in which the saints of God are like Jesus. "What did Jesus do that we don't do?" asked Preacher Clark that Sunday afternoon. Other than suffer as the Lamb of God for the sins of the world, it is difficult to find anything done by Jesus that any anointed servant of God does not do. But even concerning the Lord's suffering, Paul said in one place that he was suffering to "fill up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body" (Col. 1:24). Paul wasn't saying Jesus failed in anything; he was only saying that in order for the family of God to be guided aright, more suffering is necessary.
Jesus said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." But he also told his disciples, "Ye are the light of the world." And they were the light of the world as long as they were in it. In our time, you and I bear the responsibility of being the light of the world. Neither Jesus nor his disciples are any longer the lights of the world because they are no longer here in it. That may sound startling, but it is only what Jesus himself said. The responsibility to bring God's light to men is now ours, not his. He shined while he was here; now he asks us to do our part. If the household of faith in our time does not shine with God's glory, then there remains on earth no light of God among men.
In what other ways are obedient children of God like Jesus?
He remitted sins, and then anointed his servants to do the same (Jn. 20:23). He performed mighty miracles, and then told his disciples, "the works that I do shall ye do, and greater works than these." He lived, as his Father does, without sin, and told his followers to do the same (Mt. 5:48). He was "the stone that the builders rejected", and Peter later called the saints "living stones" (1Pet. 2:5). He was sanctified by the Father (Jn. 10:36), and he prayed that all who believed on him would also be sanctified (Jn. 17:17). The Father sent His Son into the world (Jn. 10:36), just as Jesus later sent others.
There is very little that Jesus was that the children of God are not also to be. And if believers walk in the Spirit that Jesus' sacrifice purchased for us, then we will become a perfect image of the Son of God, just as Jesus was the perfect image of God (Heb. 1:3).