The Process of Becoming Like Christ

Jer. 18:1-6

Our theme for 2025, “God’s will is to become like Christ in this life.”

 

Romans 8:29, “For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren.”

 

Even though this is God’s will for all human beings, it is hard to accomplish within our own power.

 

To become like Christ requires change and change is unwelcome and painful.

 

To become like Christ is not a natural work but a supernatural spiritual work of God, through His word by the Holy Spirit.

 

Becoming like Christ does not happen overnight, it takes time and effort on our part.

 

God saves our soul through his work on Calvary, where He paid the penalty for our sin and grants us heaven.

 

But the body we live in is the flesh, which has a strong desire to please the flesh, we cannot become like Christ living in the flesh.

 

Romans 7:24, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 

 

But, God knew the challenge of becoming like His Son, and He has given us His Word, and Spirit to change us into the likeness of Jesus. 

 

But, we are not all there yet, and God is not pleased with us, as he was not pleased with Israel in our texted today, Jeremiah 18:1-6.  Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet because of Israel’s sinful state, how they had fallen away from God.

 

But God says to Jeremiah, I am the potter, and they are clay in my hands, and I can fix their brokenness.

 
  1. The assignment to the prophet- vs. 1-2

  2. The lesson at the potter’s house- vs. 3-4

  3. The sovereignty of God and His will- vs. 5-6

 

There are a lot of things I can’t fix but there is nothing God can’t fix

 

All of us have been broken by life and we need God to fix our brokenness

 

The fix for our brokenness is to become like Christ, where there is no kryptonite that has your name on it.

 
  1. The assignment to the prophet- vs. 1-2.

“The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.” 

  1. Sometimes we have to get in the right place to hear the voice of God.

  2. Jeremiah needed an object lesson about the power of God.

  • God uses many images to describe his relationship to his people: The Shepherd and sheep; Husband and wife; Father and children and here the Potter and wheel. And in every relationship his people are depending upon Him to survive.
  1. The message is, God is the Potter and Israel is the clay



 
  1. The lesson at the potter’s house- vs. 3-4.

“And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”

  1. God does not have much to work with, clay.

  • Clay is just dirt from the earth with little value
  • Clay is easily marred by lack of rain and heat from the sun.
  • Clay gets hard, brittle and cracks
  1. God made man perfect, but sin has marred the image of God and now is broken by many things.

  • Israel was broken by sin and rebelliousness
  • We are broken by sin, flesh, world, and Satan.
  1. The good news is God can fix what has been broken.

  • The fix is making us like Christ, and this is a process worked by God.
  • Sometimes God has to break us to remake us.

Vs. 4, “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”

 

The picture of the potter and the wheel

 

Image result for Jeremiah Potter Clay

The Potter’s hand is always on the clay and never leaves a vessel that he is making.

 

If the Potter moves his hand, the vessel flies off the wheel and is totally destroyed

 

But also, the potter can crush the clay whenever He deems necessary, not to destroy it but to make it again.

 

The process God is remaking, molding, shaping our lives into the image of Jesus

 

The process is painful, but the gain is worth the pain.

 

There is a purpose in the pain, the purpose is to fulfill God’s will of becoming like Christ!

 
  1. The sovereignty of God and His will- vs. 5-6.

“Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel,”

  1. The message in the process is God is in full control of what’s going on in your life.

  2. When we will not work the Word of God nor allow the Spirit of God to change us, then God says, I will crush you to remake you.

  3. God has invested too much in our lives to allow us to stay like we are.

  • Romans 8:32, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”