“O to be like Thee, Blessed Redeemer; this is my constant longing and prayer.” It should be the prayer of every disciple of Christ.
It takes only a casual reading of Scripture to realize the genuineness, the greatness of our Blessed Redeemer. He was so good! Oh, to be like Him.
Jesus Christ was a man with no prejudice. He was certainly tempted toward such inclinations, I know, for the divine directive says, “He was tempted in all points like as are we, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). He never treated one person in some special way, while neglecting another. No matter his station in life, every acquaintance of Jesus was accorded the same respect as any other. The Lord praised Peter when he made the confession “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” saying, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” But when Peter was rebuking Him for His statement about His mission to die for the sins of mankind, He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men”
(Mt. 16:18-23). There was no prejudice in Jesus. What a joy it would be if we could rid ourselves of our pre-conceived notions, our biases, and our party partialities. Prejudice is the springboard to sin; and open mind is a fit dwelling place for truth.
Jesus Christ never said anything about anybody that did not result in that person’s good. This is not to say He was a weak, frail soul who never had any view-points of His own–far from it. Never has a man lived who stirred such controversy or had a more profound effect on the course of human events. He sternly rebuked error, inequity, immorality whenever and wherever He saw it. But His teaching was directed so that whether He spoke words of encouragement and praise or made cutting remarks of stern reproval, those words were always intended to bring benefit to he the hearer and never were they directed for purposes of vindication, revenge, or even self-preservation. He knew what to say and how and when to say it. How great it would be if we could be like Him “let all things be done to edification” (I Cor. 14:26).
Jesus Christ was completely free from selfishness. The life He lived was motivated solely by His desire to serve. He came, He said, “to do the will of Him that sent me” (Jn. 4:34),” He not only dedicated Himself totally to that commitment, but served His fellows in a way that could not be done by any other when He sacrificed Himself for our sins. Even when He was dying on that cruel cross at Calvary, some of His last thoughts were of the fallen. “Forgive them,” He said, “for they know not what they do” (Lk.23:34). What a trait! What love! Oh, to be free from selfishness. “O to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer.”
Knowing full well what would be the consequences of His answer, that it most certainly would result in His demise, when asked if He was king of the Jews, He remarked, “Thou sayest.” Realizing that to do so was to incur the disfavor of the ecclesiastical hierarchy of His day, He openly rebuked their distorted view of the law of Moses. Already convinced that to rebuke the Jewish leaders was tantamount to His death, He referred to them as “whited sepulchers” which were full of dead men’s bones.” We would do well to notice that He didn’t consider consequences; He considered truth. If we would please God today, we must be more concerned about what will happen if we don’t follow God than what will be the consequences of having done right. “O to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer.”
The Lord Jesus Christ was the most compassionate person who ever lived. How He cared! “O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem,”, He said, “how often would I have gathered thy children together…and ye would not” (Matt. 23:37). Mark’s account says He “had compassion toward’ the people when He saw their leaderless condition and “He began to teach them many things (Mk. 6:34). His compassion was culminated when He willingly gave Himself to die for the same people who reviled, blasphemed, spat upon, and finally crucified Him on a cross. What sympathy! What unmerited concern! What indefatigable grace! What boundless love.”
“O to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer. This is my constant longing and prayer.”
Dee Bowman