For parents and grandparents alike, welcoming new children into our family is truly delightful. One of the joys of new babies is discovering the family resemblances we’re sure we can spot right away. “Doesn’t her hair look just like aunt Rose?” “Look at that nose! It’s his dad’s for sure!”  Each feature is even searched for clues about their future: “Oh, such long fingers… guess she’s going to play the piano.” “With those feet, he’s sure to be over six feet tall … maybe we’ll have a basketball player in the family!”

Such speculations are fun, but they don’t have much real value. After all, it’s hard to predict accurately what a child is going to look or be like ten, twenty, or forty years down the road. Even though each of us has a built-in genetic code that determines how we’ll develop physically, we can’t predict what the end result will look like.

In the Spirit realm, new birth is accompanied by rejoicing in heaven (Luke 15:10). Obviously God the Father is delighted to welcome each new child into His family. Through redemption and the indwelling Holy Spirit we receive both the right and the power to take on His likeness. “To all who received him [Christ Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12).

As difficult as it is to predict the development of naturally born babies, it is even harder to predict spiritual development following new birth. Indwelt by two conflicting natures—one sinful and the other godly—Christians must choose which nature will shape their lives most profoundly. In Ephesians 4 Paul reminds us: “You must no longer live as the Gentiles do. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (vv. 17, 22-24).

His teaching here is clear: As God’s children, we can make moral decisions that will influence how we look in the world. As one devotional writer put it, “I am free to choose by what disposition I am to be ruled.” If I want to reflect God’s glory and goodness to those around me, I will need to put to death the tendencies within me that would take me in the opposite direction.

I love these hymn lyrics: “That I, a child of hell, should in His image shine” … You can hear the exclamation mark at the end of that statement. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit could we—people who “were by nature the children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3)—become “a people belonging to God” who can display His likeness and “declare the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).

At the beginning of a new year is a natural and good time to take stock of ourselves and check for family resemblances. So as 2011 begins I’m asking: Which side of my family tree am I favoring? Could someone from outside God’s family see traits that distinguish me as a child of God? Or am I waffling back and forth, at times displaying my old Adamic nature and at other times seeking to emulate Christ? Jesus talked about the impossibility of serving two masters. By their very nature, masters cannot cooperate and share their rule. If we try to please both, we’ll end up not really serving either of them. We must decide which master will rule us—which nature will be given license to influence, shape, and change us.

If we want to please and bring honor to our heavenly Father, we must yield to the Holy Spirit who resides within us. Only by His power at work in us can we be remade in God’s image. It goes without saying that we won’t take on His likeness in one sudden and decisive event. Scripture says we are “changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18, KJV).

In human families, nothing is quite as disconcerting as family members who don’t look anything like their parents, siblings, or other blood relatives. Jokes are made about them—maybe they were left on the porch in a basket or are the product of an affair—but underneath the jokes is genuine concern: Why doesn’t this person look like the rest of us? When we are born into God’s family, there is an expectation that we will look like our new family in some way. Something of God’s nature should be detected.

Paul warned the Corinthian believers (who were in many cases acting quite contrary to the nature of God) to take stock of themselves (2 Corinthians 13:5). He didn’t want them to be operating under a false assumption about their heredity. “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” One skeptic wrote, “What impresses us about the real Christians is that they seemingly have more patience with trying people, more time for tedious people and—more distinctively—more forgiveness toward their opponents.” These are some of the characteristics that should mark those who are God’s children by new birth.

Christians may struggle with sin at times; we may not respond in a mature way when we face difficulties; we may vacillate between our new and old nature as we make decisions. However … any child of God should be capable of taking the higher ground, of acting under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit, in any given situation. This is the test Paul had in mind here, the means by which we can be sure we are children of God. If we always, in every circumstance, act contrary to the Word of God, we should question whether we have been born from above.

While there are many similarities between how earthly children grow up and take on their family’s likeness and how we take on God’s image, there are ways in which the processes are very different. In natural children, everyone begins life as a helpless baby. The goal as we grow and develop is to become more and more independent from our parents and other adults. We are still emotionally connected to our parents, of course, but the relationship, if normal, should become less dependent as we grow older.

When we look at the biblical pattern for spiritual development, we see quite the opposite. Before new birth, we are totally independent of God (or so we think), living as if He doesn’t even exist. It’s only when we are born again that we understand our utter dependence on Him, and our lives become a quest to let Him take more and more control over our lives. The goal in spiritual development is to outgrow our independent attitudes—which are sure signs of our old sinful nature—and learn how to rely on our heavenly Father in more profound ways. It’s a life of both trust and obedience.

Fortunately for us, Scripture doesn’t leave us wondering what it would look like to display God’s likeness. Colossians 1:15 says Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” and Hebrews 1:3 describes the Son as “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.” If we want to know what the children of God should look like, we need look no further than Jesus. He told His earliest disciples that if they had seen Him, they had seen the Father. So if we want to reflect our Father’s likeness, we need to seek to become more like Jesus.

Yet, we must not think that this means mere imitation. As D.W. Lambert wrote, “The Christian goal is not the outward and literal imitation of Jesus, but the living out of the Christ life implanted within by the Holy Spirit.” It is through the Holy Spirit that we are born from above and it is also through Him that we grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Adelaide Pollard’s great hymn entitled “Have Thine Own Way, Lord,” she uses the illustration of clay in the potter’s hand to describe our relationship with God. In the final verse she captures well the highest calling we can pursue as we seek to display our spiritual family’s likeness:

“Have Thine own way, Lord!

Have Thine own way!

Hold o’er my being absolute sway!

Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see

Christ only, always, living in me!”
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