Encountering the Warrior KingSample

Day 3: Renovation of the Heart

If I get Jesus back, if I recover the one true King, then I’ve got a real shot at recovering who I myself am—who I have it in me to be, how I’m known in heaven…my true self who bears the image of the King. And that is exactly what God has arranged. Jesus became like me so I could become like him.

This is what Romans 8 is all about: Jesus became like us “sinful man” by clothing himself in flesh and taking on the sin of the world so we could become glorious men like him. What has the prince of darkness done to our hearts to blunt us to this truth? What spell has dimmed our perception of Jesus so that we don’t intensely desire to be like him?

What the Father wants to do in us, and what the Spirit is joyfully committed to working out inside our heart, mind, will, and soul, is a renovation where the blueprint is gloriously and simply Jesus. My prayer is “Father, remake me to be like the Son.”

This renovating process is called sanctification. It’s another word for being transformed from the inside out into who you and I truly are as each of us bears God’s image uniquely. It won’t happen in a moment, renovation; it’s going to take some time. All great works of art do. But make no mistake: this is the reason God saved us in the first place, to see us remade.

The growth process will be stunted, though, if we don’t have a hero we want to be like, the Warrior King. Knowing Jesus by name—all his names—is a good place to start. Exploring his identity can help us discover ours, since he is the one whose image we are being conformed to (Romans 8:29).

What if we could truly feel and think that way, believe in our bones that nothing could be wilder or greater than to be like the real Superman, the God-Man, the Son of God and Son of Man? After all, that’s his purpose in redeeming us. As C. S. Lewis aptly wrote, “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.”3

As you ponder all this with God today, consider asking Him:

Father, how did my young heart look for purpose and validation from my abilities or skills, or from the opinions of others?

Jesus, how do you want to remake me to be more like you in this season, settled in who you say I am, and how you see me?

Spirit, open my mind to the ways my mind is dulled to who Jesus truly is. How have I misunderstood Jesus? Where did the kingdom of darkness deposit subtle lies that produce these false ways of seeing Jesus and get in the way of trusting him with more of my story?