5: Final Conclusion on Christians being like Christ

1.         Believers will be like Christ and equal to him as fellow children of God, specifically as we will all share with him “the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). However, each believer has a different ROLE (in the body of Christ), and no one will share Christ’s which is:

o   the Head/Lord/King of Kings/Leader and Savior of the Church

o   Judge: only Christ will judge believers. Christ and the Church together will judge generally.

2.         Further, I think 1 John 3:1-3 points out that Christians will be like him because Christians will “see him as he is” – that he also had a sinful past (as Adam and David), just like each one of us, and overcame as Jesus, showing us the way to God – or, better said, being the Way to God for us. So, he is firstborn from the dead, but all Christians are following him to also be, I think Scripture reveals, the invisible image of God in each person’s unique way.

3. Psalm 139: 13-15 says,

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. ¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.”

Each person is fearfully and wonderfully made – wonderful! God intricately wove each of us. All Christians are destined to be conformed to the image of God, just like Christ, based on the Scriptures above. How amazing that in the new heaven and new earth, when everything is made right, each person will be the invisible image of God in a “awing” (a synonym for “fearfully”) way. How amazing the grace of God that we will be like Christ – imaging God - forever – in our own unique way as an image bearer of God! There is no one like Jesus. And there is no one like any one of God’s children. 

4.     In summary, according to the Bible, Christians will reign with Christ forever, are children of God, co-heirs with Christ of God, will be glorified with Christ if they suffer with him, predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ, obtain the glory of Jesus, are part of Christ’s body and one with him, play a unique and vital role in the Church, be resurrected, do miracles like Christ and even greater ones, anointed with the Holy Spirit, filled with the Spirit, have a close and personal relationship with God given they are now reconciled with Him, be fully mature in Christ and attain the stature of the fullness of Christ, be filled with all the fullness of God, the source of Christian’s everything is God also, will be perfect, will be sinless, partakers of the divine nature, judge the world with Christ, are human, need God, depend on God, pray to God, and call God the only true God, and all Christians who overcome have the right to sit with Jesus on his throne. Jesus also needs to be saved like every Christian and will be saved by grace through childbearing, not works.

According the Bible, we are co-heirs with Christ of everything except: only Jesus is King of kings, head of the Church, Savior, judge of Christians, and only he is Lord.

5.       Again, “equal” means, according to Cambridge’s dictionary, “to achieve the same standard or level as someone else”, or, “the same in importance and deserving the same treatment”. Given these definitions, based on Scripture, Christians will be like and equal to Jesus. They will achieve the same standard and level as Christ as children of God, fully mature and filed with the fullness of God – except Christ has a unique role as king of kings, lord of lords, and head of the Church. Yet Christians are just as important as Christ as they are members of his body – no member is more important than another, according to 1 Corinthians 12. And does God the Father treat us differently than Christ, or the same, as we are all His children? God does not show favoritism – would He show favoritism here (Romans 2:11)? He does not show favoritism and loves all His children equally.

Therefore, I believe all Christians will be like and equal to Jesus according to the Bible as fellow sons and daughters of God for all eternity.