Throughout this project, I have argued that Christians should take these words seriously. God truly intends to conform His children to the image of His Son. We will become like Christ.

But what does that mean for where humanity is ultimately going?

Before going further, I want to clarify what I mean by the title of this article. I am not suggesting that Christlikeness and Godlikeness are two separate destinations—as though we first become like Jesus and then leave him behind in order to become something greater. Christlikeness is already the human shape of Godlikeness. Jesus shows us what a genuinely righteous human life oriented toward God looks like: loving as God loves, showing mercy as God shows mercy, obeying God, reflecting God's character, and living in communion with Him.

The question I want to explore is slightly different:

Does becoming like Christ exhaust everything Scripture says about humanity's participation in God?

Or does Christlikeness prepare us for an ever-deeper life in the God to whom Christ himself brings us?

From Christlikeness to Godlikeness

Where Humanity Is Going

Few promises in Scripture are more astonishing.

Throughout this project, I have argued that Christians should take these words seriously. God is not merely making us slightly better people. He is conforming us to the image of His Son. Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. The fully trained disciple will be like the teacher. When Christ appears, John says plainly:

“We shall be like him.”

That is an extraordinary destination.

But I have come to see that it raises another question.

Is becoming like Christ the final destination?

At first, the answer may seem obvious. If Jesus is the Messiah, the pioneer of our salvation, and the one whose image we are being conformed to, surely Christlikeness must be the end.

But when we look more closely at the biblical story, Scripture seems to point still farther.

Jesus himself points farther.

He does not lead humanity ultimately to himself.

He leads us to God.

And that has helped me understand Christlikeness in a way I had not fully understood before.

Christlikeness is not something we eventually leave behind in order to become “more than Christ.”

Rather:

Christlikeness is the human shape of Godlikeness.

Jesus shows us what a genuinely righteous human life oriented completely toward God looks like. We become like him so that, with him, we can participate ever more fully in the goodness, love, holiness, wisdom, and life of God.

The pattern is beautifully simple:

Through Christ.

Like Christ.

To God.

We Really Will Become Like Christ

I do not want anything in this article to weaken one of the most important conclusions of the previous section.

Christians really do become like Jesus.

Paul says that those God foreknew were destined to be:

Jesus says:

Paul describes the Church growing toward:

He says our lowly bodies will be transformed to correspond to Christ's glorious body (Philippians 3:21).

And John gives us the remarkable promise with which we began:

These passages should not be explained away.

Jesus is not presented as a category of being that his brothers and sisters can never meaningfully resemble.

He is the pioneer.

He goes first.

God brings others after him.

Jesus becomes the firstborn among many brothers and sisters who are genuinely conformed to his image.

Christlikeness is real.

But Scripture never adds another sentence that we may unconsciously assume:

“And once you become like Christ, every conceivable form of creaturely growth is finished forever.”

That is a different claim.

And I do not see Scripture making it.

Jesus Himself Points Us to God

When Jesus teaches human beings what they are becoming, something remarkable happens.

He points beyond himself.

In the Sermon on the Mount, after commanding his disciples to love even their enemies,

Jesus does not say:

Be perfect as I am perfect.

He says:

Luke records the parallel command:

The ultimate moral horizon Jesus gives his disciples is the character of God.

That fits the larger biblical story.

Human beings were created from the beginning in God's image and likeness (Genesis 1:26–27).

Israel was commanded:

Jesus comes not to replace that destination but to restore humanity to it.

That is why his description of his own role is so important:

Jesus is the Way.

But where does the Way lead?

To the Father.

Peter says Christ suffered:

Paul describes the same movement:

And Jesus defines eternal life this way:

The grammar of the New Testament is remarkably consistent.

Through Christ.

To God.

Jesus is not diminished by this.

This is what makes his mission so extraordinary.

He is the Messiah who actually succeeds in bringing humanity home.

Participants in the Divine Nature

Peter takes this even farther.

He says that through God's promises we may become:

That language is breathtaking.

It does not mean that human beings become God.

We do not become the Creator. We do not become infinite, self-existent, omniscient beings. The distinction between God and His creatures remains.

But Peter nevertheless uses extraordinary language for the depth of humanity's participation in God's life.

We become participants in the divine nature.

And what comes immediately afterward is especially important.

Peter describes a developing life:

faith → goodness → knowledge → self-control → endurance → godliness → mutual affection → love

Then he says:

Notice those two truths beside each other.

Participation in the divine nature.

And:

Increasing goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, affection, and love.

Participation in God does not require stagnation.

In this passage, participation in God produces growth.

Paul uses similarly dynamic language:

From glory to glory.

Transformation into God's likeness is not pictured merely as movement from evil to barely acceptable behavior.

It is movement deeper and deeper into glory.

And Paul can even pray that believers may:

These are enormous promises.

The Christian destiny is not merely escape from punishment.

It is participation.

Transformation.

Glory.

Love.

Life with God.

The End of the Story: God All in All

Perhaps the clearest passage of all comes in 1 Corinthians 15.

Paul is describing resurrection and the ultimate triumph of God's kingdom.

Christ reigns.

Every hostile rule and authority is defeated.

Every enemy is brought under his feet.

Finally, even death—the last enemy—is destroyed.

Then something remarkable happens.

Christ hands the kingdom to God the Father.

Paul carefully explains that when everything is subjected to the Son, God Himself is obviously not included among the things subjected to Christ.

Then Paul says:

That final phrase is extraordinary.

God all in all.

Paul could have ended his great resurrection vision by saying:

Christ all in all.

He does not.

Christ's reign accomplishes God's purpose.

Christ defeats the enemies.

Christ brings creation into order.

Christ's own messianic rule finally stands beneath the God who gave him that authority.

And the final declared purpose is:

God all in all.

This does not diminish Jesus.

It reveals the greatness of what God accomplishes through Jesus.

Christ is the Messiah whose kingdom succeeds in bringing creation into complete harmony with God.

Where Does That Leave Christlikeness?

This is where I think we need an important distinction.

We should not imagine the biblical story like this:

Become like Christ → graduate beyond Christ → leave Christ behind → become like God.

Revelation portrays the Lamb in the final city as the lamp. God's glory illuminates the city, and:

The throne is described as the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1, 3).

Jesus remains God's Messiah, the Lamb, the firstborn, the pioneer, the king, and the one through whom God's saving work has been accomplished.

He remains worthy of extraordinary God-given honor.

Jesus opens and embodies the human Way toward God.

We become like him.

And together, as a Christlike humanity, we live ever more fully in God.

In other words:

Christlikeness is the human shape of Godlikeness.

To become like Christ is to become loving, obedient, merciful, truthful, courageous, holy, and completely God-oriented.

And all of those qualities come ultimately from God.

Christ leads us into God.

The Restoration Unfolds in Stages

This also helps make sense of the different stages Scripture seems to describe.

When Christ Appears

John says:

“We shall be like him.”

Paul says the dead are raised imperishable and mortality puts on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:42–54).

Christians are transformed.

They truly share in Christ's victory.

They become what Scripture promised they would become:

like their elder brother.

That is not a minor event.

It is the fulfillment of God's work of conforming His children to the image of His Son.

The Millennium

Revelation then describes Christ and his people reigning together (Revelation 20:4–6).

This is not merely passive existence.

It is kingdom.

Service.

Responsibility.

Relationship.

Rule.

Participation in God's restoration of creation.

I want to be careful here, because Scripture does not explicitly tell us how much continued development occurs during this period.

It does not say:

“During the millennium, resurrected believers continue developing in these exact ways.”

But neither does it say that becoming righteous and immortal means every possible form of human learning, relationship, wisdom, experience, creativity, or maturation has instantly ended.

Those are different claims.

If Christ and his brothers and sisters are genuinely human, genuinely righteous, and genuinely serving together in God's kingdom, it is at least possible that meaningful human development continues as God's restoration advances.

Scripture gives us the kingdom.

It gives us service.

It gives us relationships.

It gives us meaningful responsibility.

It gives us Christ and his brothers and sisters reigning together.

We should be cautious about filling in details God has not revealed.

But we also should not automatically import the assumption that:

immortal = static.

The Final New Creation

Eventually even the millennium gives way to the final restoration.

Death is gone.

The curse is gone.

Peter looks forward to:

God dwells with humanity.

His servants serve Him.

They see His face.

They reign forever and ever (Revelation 22:3–5).

This is no longer humanity struggling to decide whether rebellion is better than God.

This is restored creation.

This is humanity home.

This is the world toward which the entire biblical story has been moving.

And it raises one final, beautiful possibility.

Perfection Without Stagnation

When Christians think about final perfection, we may unconsciously imagine something like this:

Everything about me is complete.

Nothing can ever change.

Nothing can ever develop.

Nothing can ever deepen.

I have arrived at the maximum possible state of creaturely existence, and eternity consists of remaining there forever.

But does Scripture actually require that definition of perfection?

I do not think it does.

Hebrews gives us a fascinating warning against assuming that perfected automatically means every process has ended.

It says that by one offering Christ has:

Whatever the specific sacrificial meaning of “perfected” in that passage, the conceptual point is important.

The same people can be described as:

perfected

and simultaneously:

being sanctified.

Perfection and process are not always opposites.

Peter likewise speaks about participating in the divine nature while goodness, knowledge, self-control, godliness, affection, and love are increasing.

So perhaps final perfection does not mean:

“Nothing about me can ever develop again.”

Perhaps it means something much more beautiful:

“I will never turn away from God again—and therefore I am finally free to grow without corruption, fear, rebellion, death, or sin destroying what God is making.”

That is a very different picture of eternity.

Imagine increasing forever in:

love.

wisdom.

knowledge.

creativity.

relationship.

joy.

understanding.

service.

appreciation of creation.

And above all:

knowledge of God.

I want to distinguish carefully between what Scripture states and what I am suggesting here.

Scripture clearly promises final righteousness, life with God, participation in divine nature, transformation into glory, and God ultimately being all in all.

Scripture does not, as far as I can see, explicitly say:

“Finite creatures will continue developing without end for all eternity.”

So I would not make endless growth a doctrine on the same level as resurrection or the restoration of all things.

But I think Scripture gives us good reason to recognize it as a beautiful possibility.

Because God is infinite.

And we are not.

This may also change how we think about Christ when he returns. Scripture presents the returning Jesus as righteous, faithful, and true. But I do not see Scripture saying that resurrection transformed him into a human being incapable of any further growth, learning, or meaningful moral choice. Immortality is not the same thing as omniscience, and righteousness is not the same thing as exhaustive maturity in every possible human circumstance.

I therefore want to distinguish between saying that Christ returns righteous and saying that Christ returns morally infallible—incapable, by his very condition, of ever choosing wrongly. Scripture clearly teaches the former. I am not convinced it teaches the latter.

If Jesus remains genuinely human, then meaningful obedience can remain meaningful. He may continue encountering circumstances, relationships, responsibilities, and experiences through which genuine human growth is possible. That does not mean Scripture predicts that Jesus will sin when he returns. It means simply that I do not think Scripture requires us to make him incapable of growth—or incapable of moral choice—in order for him to be the righteous Messiah.

And if that is true of Jesus, it becomes easier to understand how his brothers and sisters can genuinely become like him while all of them remain finite creatures whose ultimate horizon is the infinite God.

How Could We Ever Finish Knowing God?

Think about the people you love most.

You may know someone for twenty years.

Fifty years.

Perhaps nearly an entire lifetime.

And yet that person can still surprise you.

You can still discover something about her history you did not understand.

You can see a new dimension of his character.

You can experience love differently after suffering together, raising children together, working together, forgiving one another, growing older together, or simply sharing more life.

We do not easily exhaust even another human being.

How much less could finite creatures exhaust God?

Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God.

If God is truly infinite in goodness, wisdom, beauty, creativity, love, and life, why should knowing Him ever become boring?

Why should eternity mean reaching the end of discovery?

Perhaps entering the final creation is not reaching the point where there is finally nothing left to learn.

Perhaps it is reaching the point where nothing can ever again separate us from the One we are learning.

We are home.

We are secure.

We are righteous.

Death cannot interrupt us.

Sin cannot destroy us.

The curse cannot corrupt creation.

And before us remains the inexhaustible and infinite God.

That is not stagnation.

That is freedom.

God Is the Inexhaustible Horizon

For a long time, I think I unconsciously imagined Jesus as the absolute ceiling of human existence.

Jesus becomes perfect.

Christians eventually become like Jesus.

And then the journey is complete.

But Scripture seems to give us a bigger horizon.

Jesus is not infinite.

God is.

Jesus is not the final source of goodness.

God is.

Jesus himself lives from God, obeys God, loves God, serves God, reveals God, and ultimately brings God's kingdom to its appointed end.

And Christians become like Jesus precisely by becoming the same kind of God-oriented people.

That means becoming like Christ does not make us less human.

And becoming like Christ does not necessarily mean that every conceivable form of growth is over.

It means we have become the kind of humans God intended us to be.

Humans who love.

Humans who obey.

Humans who are holy.

Humans who bear God's image.

Humans who can be entrusted with God's creation.

Humans who live in communion with God.

Humans who can continue looking toward the inexhaustible source of everything good.

From the Image of God to God All in All

And suddenly the entire biblical story forms a remarkable circle.

At the beginning:

Humanity is created to bear God's image.

Humanity turns away.

Creation falls into corruption.

God begins restoring.

Jesus comes.

He walks the human Way faithfully toward God.

He becomes the pioneer.

He brings many sons and daughters to glory.

God conforms them to his image.

They become like their elder brother.

Through Christ they gain access to God.

They participate in the divine nature.

They move from glory to glory.

They learn love.

They become holy because God is holy.

They become merciful because God is merciful.

They become perfect in love because their heavenly Father is perfect.

Christ reigns.

The enemies fall.

Death itself disappears.

The curse disappears.

Creation is restored.

The children of God inherit the kingdom.

Christ completes his messianic mission.

And finally:

God is all in all.

That is where the biblical story was going from the beginning.

Toward God filling His restored creation with His life and goodness, through the Messiah He sent to bring His children home.

Where Humanity Is Going

So where are we going?

We are going toward Christlikeness.

But Christlikeness itself points Godward.

Jesus is the Way.

We become like the one who walked the Way before us.

And the Way leads to God.

Perhaps that is why our future is greater than merely becoming flawless versions of ourselves.

Our future is participation.

Our future is communion.

Our future is love.

Our future is glory.

Our future is knowing God.

And because God is inexhaustible, arriving home need not mean reaching the end of wonder.

Perhaps it is only then that humanity will finally be free to discover what life with God was always meant to be.

No death.

No curse.

No fear that everything beautiful will someday disappear.

No rebellion tearing creation apart.

No end to love because the One who is its source has no end.

Jesus has brought his brothers and sisters home.

Humanity has been restored.

Creation has been healed.

God dwells with His children.

And the journey that began with:

“Let us make humankind in our image”

finally reaches:

“God… all in all.”

Christ is the Way.

Christlikeness forms us for the Way.

God is the inexhaustible horizon toward whom the Way leads.

And perhaps, in the age to come, being finally home with God will not mean that there is nothing left to become.

Perhaps it means that, for the first time, nothing will ever stop us from growing deeper into His goodness.

Through Christ.

Like Christ.

To God.

And God will be all in all.