Christ's Goal for His Church

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You know, there are some oddities in history - if you enjoy history, if you enjoy reading about history whether Christian history or secular history. History is filled with strange stories of God's providence. Perhaps one of the oddest is the story of Christopher Columbus. Every year on October 12^th, we celebrate officially Christopher Columbus Day. It of course commemorates Columbus' first voyage to the Americas in 1492. In one of the strangest and greatest quirks of history, Columbus is famous for failing. He is famous for arriving at the wrong destination.

If you are familiar with the story, you know the reason for his trip was clear. The Ottoman Turks had seized the land bridge between Europe and Asia, China and India. And the Europeans had in the meantime developed a taste for all things Eastern, all of the spices and all of the various resources that were there in China and India. Europeans had a taste for those things and so they began looking for another route to the Far East that didn't take them across Ottoman Turk territory. Columbus decided that instead of taking the lengthy and dangerous trip around the Horn of Africa, that instead, he could simply take the easy way and leave Europe and sail due west. He thought that if he sailed about 2,400 nautical miles due west, he would arrive at the islands around Japan.

But his plan, of course, was based on several miscalculations. First and foremost, there was a fairly large land mass between where he was and Asia. Secondly, many in the 1400's, as Columbus did, relied on a map drawn up in the 100's A.D. by Ptolemy, an astronomer and geographer who believed that the world was mostly land and not ocean. And so Columbus thought that Asia extended much farther east than it actually does. Another miscalculation was he underestimated the circumference of the earth by about twenty-five percent.

Ironically, because of all of those miscalculations, we celebrate Columbus Day every year. Most of the time though, let me tell you, that arriving at the wrong destination, accomplishing the wrong goal, failing in your plans, is not a good thing. It certainly won't get you in the history books. And sometimes, the consequences can be disastrous.

As we've seen over the last couple of weeks, Christ has a plan for His church. And every good plan has a final goal, a final objective in mind. It has a destination. Christ has a goal for His church. He has a target for His church. But what is the goal of the church? What is the destination Jesus has in mind for His church and how do we get there from here?

Well, Paul identifies it for us in Ephesians 4. You'll remember the flow of this passage. It's a paragraph that begins in Chapter 4:2 and runs down to Verse 16 where we're told to preserve the unity of the church. And beginning in Verse 7 and running down through the end of the paragraph, we're told one way to preserve the unity of the church is by the church functioning according to Christ's plan. Follow the plan and they'll be unity. And so, in Verses 8 through 10, Paul explained how Christ, when He led that victory march into heaven after His ascension, gave spiritual gifts – that is, a unique capacity to serve – to every believer without exception, gifts that are to be used in the ministry of the church. And then in Verses 7 and again in Verse 11 and 12, Paul explains how those gifts fit into Christ's comprehensive plan for His church. Christ distributes spiritual gifts to all the members of His church. Then He appoints the leaders of the church and then the leaders equip the members of the church. The members of the church accomplish the service of the church. And the outcome produces the growth of the church. That's Christ's plan.

But in Verse 13, Paul steps back in a sense and puts his finger on the map and says, "There, that's where you need to go. That's the destination you should be aiming for. There's the new world." Look at Verse 13 with me. It's really a monumental verse. I hope by the time we're done this morning, you'll see the, the incredible depth and profundity that's in this one verse. Verse 13, all of that plan that Christ has put in place is to happen "until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." There, folks, is the destination that Christ has in mind when He created His plan for the church. This is where He wants us to arrive. It's the new world, as it were, for the church.

Now in this one verse, Paul leads us through this, this goal that Christ has. And we can sort of work our way through it by asking and answering four important questions about this goal, this destination that Christ has for His church - four important questions about Christ's goal for His church. The first question that I want us to ask and answer is when will we reach the goal? Notice how he begins Verse 13 – "until", "until". Remember now, he's just explained His plan for the church, Christ's plan for the church in those five parts of the plan that we worked our way through. And then he says "until" – in other words, "until" measures the time this plan is to last. When will God's plan for the church be finished? The short answer, and we'll fill this out as we go through this verse, is when every single Christian arrives at perfect spiritual maturity. That's what the Greek phrase translated "mature man" literally means.

Notice the end of the verse – perfection means we will all be exactly like Jesus Christ. But when does that happen? When do we become perfect just like Jesus Christ? Well, you remember what the apostle John said in 1 John 3? He says, "Beloved, now are we the children of God (it's already a reality, we're already God's children), but it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is."

So follow Paul's logic then. God's plan for the church isn't finished until all of us are perfect. And we aren't fully perfect or like Christ until He returns. That means that Christ's plan for His church will continue (when?) until He returns. Now this is so important for you to understand. God has a plan. Christ has a plan for His church. That plan began after His death and resurrection and ascension and it will continue until He returns. We don't need to reinvent the plan for the church. This is the plan He has in mind.

There are people in every generation who assume God's plan needs help, God's plan needs updating. They say, "Listen, you know, Ephesians 4 and all that went on in the New Testament church - that was fine for the first century and maybe even the twentieth century, but people today are just more sophisticated. They need something more. They need something different. We need to update the plan." But the basic plan laid down in this passage has never and will never change until what? Until Christ returns and we're all made perfect in Him. The plan should continue until the goal has been realized. And the end of the plan is when the members of the church, every single one of us, come to perfect maturity in our head, Jesus Christ.

So don't chase after the latest gimmick or fad for the church. You know you can look as you go down the various boulevards of our cities and towns and see churches that have sort of given in to the latest deal. And it's, it's interesting to watch because every couple of years, there's some new gimmick that comes on the scene and churches buy into it left and right as if Christ really needed help, as the plan is broken and needs to be fixed. Christ's plan has been the same from eternity past and it's described right here. We've discovered it together, those five simple parts. That's how it works. There will never be some new secret. Nobody's gonna suddenly uncover the lost map to success in the church, some new plan that's gonna revolutionize the church. We already have the map and it's right here in God's Word and it's very clearly laid out in Ephesians 4. So when you pick up your Christian magazine or when you drive past the church billboards and you see this new plan, this new thing that's gonna somehow revolutionize everybody's lives, realize it's not. We already have the plan and the destination – "until".

The fact that this plan is until we're all like Christ also means, folks, you can never retire from the church. You know, some people when they retire from their jobs, they think you know, I'm just gonna kind of opt out of everything, go collect seashells - you know, just enjoy life. Listen, you can only retire from involvement in the church when the people who know you best say that you are completely and perfectly like Jesus Christ because the plan is until we're all like that. Until then, this is the plan and like it or not, you're part of it. So Paul's answer to the question when will this goal that Christ has for His church be realized is when Christ returns and makes us perfect.

That raises the next question we need to look at. Who will reach the goal? When is when Christ returns and makes us like Himself. Who will reach the goal? Notice Verse 13 – "until we all". No Christian is excluded. There is, in that expression, the implication of what theologians call the "perseverance of the saints" or, perhaps better, the preservation of the saints. We all, that is every true Christian, will someday arrive at this goal. And the goal is spiritual perfection, likeness to Jesus Christ.

The apostle John, turn over with me to John 6. He loves this idea that true saints will persevere. And here in John 6, it's put very clearly. He makes the point, notice Verse 37. John quotes Jesus as saying this. John 6:37, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out." That's a fascinating verse. It underscores both God's sovereignty in salvation in two ways. It underscores sovereign election and the effectual call. Those who come to Christ will be (whom?) those whom God has chosen. That's election. And when the Spirit summons them, they will come to Christ without exception. There's the effectual call. But notice the next verse, Verse 38: "For (because, here's why that's gonna happen, here's why I won't cast them out, here's why they'll come and when they come, they'll forever be with Me because, for), Verse 38: I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." Jesus says the reason you are secure in Me, the reason I will never turn away any of those the Father draws, any of those who come to Me, is because of this - I have been sent to do God's will. Verse 39: "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

Folks, listen. Our security doesn't come from us. It's not because of your hold on Christ that you are guaranteed to one day be with Christ and be like Christ. It's because of His hold on you. And He has a hold on you because this was the Father's will. Did you see those expressions? "All that the Father has given me" – listen, folks. As I've reminded you before, our salvation is part of a much bigger plan. It isn't all about us. The reason your salvation is secure is because of something the Father is doing to His Son. It's because He has redeemed you and sought you out to redeem you and to redeem me to give us as a love gift to His Son. And the Father's not gonna let that fail. And Christ isn't gonna let that fail. All that He's given Me – it's His will that I raise them up and I give them eternal life. Listen, for Christ to fail to perfect one of those whom the Father gave Him would be a direct violation of His Father's will and folks, that's not gonna happen. We will all persevere – "we all".

It's interesting by the way, isn't it, that Paul includes himself here? He says, "until we all attain". Here Paul inserts himself back into the text with the readers. And that's a, really a fascinating point because Paul is an apostle. Paul has been in Christ for thirty years by this time, by the time he writes this letter. And in just a few short years, he will lose his life for the cause of Jesus Christ, but he still includes himself. "Until we all attain to (that)" – in other words, the apostle Paul, as an apostle of Jesus Christ thirty years into his Christian life, as an apostle handpicked by Christ, appeared to by Christ, given revelations by Christ, he says, "I haven't arrived yet either."

Now folks, if Paul didn't arrive at spiritual perfection in this life, neither will you and neither will I. But here's our great hope. Paul says we all will arrive. We will arrive. It will happen. Now I don't know about you, but this is a great source of joy to me that in spite of my current struggles with sin that I am growing toward a goal. That goal is Christ's likeness and someday, in spite of who I am, in spite of my own heart, in spite of my own struggles, I will be like Him because I will see Him just as He is. Philippians 1:6 promises us that, doesn't it? "He who began a good work in you" – listen, you didn't start your salvation. God did. God initiated that. He who began a good work in you, He will be faithful to complete it. He will carry it out unto completion until the day of Jesus Christ, till Christ returns. This should give you fresh energy, fresh strength, in your own battle with sin. Don't give in. Don't give up. Don't stop fighting. Someday, you will be like Jesus Christ. Who will reach the goal? Paul says we all will. All of those who have come to embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will arrive at this destination.

The third question that Paul asks and answers here is how do we reach the goal? How do we reach this goal? Verse 13 explains in interesting language. He says this plan that Christ has is gonna go on "until we all (every Christian without exception) attain (until we all attain)." Now that's not a word we use very often in English and it's probably not the best translation of the word from the Greek text either. This word that's translated, the Greek word that's translated "attain" is used some nine times in the book of Acts literally. And literally, the word refers to travelers arriving at an actual destination. For example, Luke writes in Acts 21:7, "When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais." We "arrived" – there's our word. We arrived. When this word is used metaphorically, it simply means to arrive at a goal. So maybe a better translation would be this - until we all arrive.

Now obviously there is, in that word then, a word picture. Paul intends to help us think about the journey toward Christ's likeness a certain way. By choosing this word, he's given us, giving us an illustration of the process of spiritual development. Our spiritual growth resembles a long journey. There's a starting point. There's the trip itself. And ultimately, there is the arrival at the destination. The starting point was (what?) our salvation - that moment in time when God drew us to Himself, when He gave us the faith to believe, when He gave us repentance. And we responded, we saw the beauty of Christ, and nothing else mattered. We wanted Christ. That was the starting point. That began a journey. The journey itself is this entire life. Every moment, every day you live in this life, you are on a journey. You will never arrive at the destination in this life. You are on a journey. The final arrival at the destination comes when you die or when Christ returns. That's when we arrive. It's a great picture of our spiritual development, isn't it?

But there's another picture in this text. In this same paragraph, Paul uses the growth of the human body as an illustration of our spiritual growth and development. Look at Verse 13: "mature man". A mature adult man is the idea. Verse 14: "no longer… children", Verse 15: "grow up", Verse 16: "the growth of the body". So then, Paul means us to compare our spiritual growth to, to a long journey that we're on and we won't arrive at the destination until we die or Christ returns. And he also wants to think of it as the physical growth of our bodies.

Now that is so important that you get this mindset because we live in a culture, a Christian culture, where there are flawed views of spiritual growth and development. There are two very popular views of spiritual growth or sanctification that absolutely deny these two pictures – the picture of a long journey or the picture of the growth of the human body. And it's easy for us to, to want them to be true because they're easier. There's the Keswick view – perhaps some of you have heard of it. That's spelled K-e-s-w-i-c-k, Keswick view. The Keswick theology says, "You know that struggle with sin you're having? The problem is you are trying to deal with your sin. If you would just stop trying to deal with your sin, if you would (and this is a common phrase they have) let go and let God do it, then you would have victory." The first major step, they tell us, toward spiritual development is surrender to God, abandonment to God. I must recognize my own inability, stop trying to change and just pray for God to change me and wait for Him to sort of give me this zap.

Another flawed view that confuses many Christians is the Pentecostal or Wesleyan view, Pentecostal or Wesleyan view. This view teaches a sort of second blessing, a second work of grace. You get saved and then, at some later moment in your Christian life, there's this crisis, a moment of spiritual crisis when God suddenly and radically either delivers me from all prevailing sin or from one particular dominating sin. In a simple act of faith, they say, I receive the gift of spiritual victory just as I received salvation. In fact, they often use the illustration of a coin. If you have a coin in your pocket, they would say on one side of that coin is salvation and, you know, you're saved. You still have that coin in your pocket. And someday, you realize, "Oh! The other side of that coin is sanctification. I just need to pull it out and cash it in and I get sanctification in a moment's time just as I got salvation in a moment's time."

The problem with both the Keswick and the Wesleyan theology is that both of them teach sanctification is something God does directly without any means, without any human effort, when Scripture teaches that He uses our effort and the Word of God primarily. Jesus said, "Sanctify them through (what?) the truth; Your word is truth." And also, both of those views teach that sanctification is something that happens suddenly. In a moment of spiritual crisis, I go from one level, a flat line of defeat, to spiritual life of victory.

But Paul says our spiritual growth and development isn't like that at all. It's like the incremental growth of the human body. The body grows slowly and steadily, at times almost imperceptibly, and then there will be a period of time like when children reach the age of puberty that there's a, maybe a burst of growth, but it's slowly over time, always toward maturity. And the process of sanctification is like that.

It's like a long trip. Yesterday, I flew back from California and in two hours and thirty minutes, I travelled a thousand miles. It, it never ceases to boggle my mind. If I had driven that distance today with automobile, it would've taken about twenty-four hours, one day. But if I had travelled that same distance before 1800, before the, the revolution of steam engines and cars and airplanes, that same trip would have taken me months. That was the way it was in the first century.

And Paul uses the image of a trip to describe our sanctification. It's measured not in moments and not in hours and not in days, but in months and years. The pursuit of Christ's likeness is a lifelong process, not a one-time event, but we're always growing and moving toward that direction. It's not the perfection of our life, but it's the direction of our life. If you can't look back, Christian, if you can't look back and see spiritual progress, spiritual growth - if you are still exactly the same today as you were a year ago or exactly the same today as you were ten years ago - then there's something desperately wrong with your spiritual life. And in fact, you may have no spiritual life at all because where there is real life, there is always growth. Perfection is only possible in heaven, but likeness to Christ is to be our never-ending pursuit here. We will not be fully like Christ until we die or He returns, but we are to pursue that goal. And it is a process of slow, steady growth, taking one step after another, until we arrive at the destination. The entire Christian life - get used to this, get this in your mind – it is a long journey so you might as well choose to enjoy the ride.

I hope this is an encouragement to you because we can so easily be distracted by this false teaching. I remember when I was a young college student (I've shared this with you before) new in Christ, I found myself attracted to books that promised instant spiritual maturity. You know, I read some of the deeper life theology by guys like Watchman Nee that argues there's some sort of crisis point you reach and you're suddenly victorious. You're instantly transported to a much higher level of spirituality. Or I'd see a book like Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret, and I'd buy it thinking this must be it, this is what I've missed. They sell a kind of Star Trek sanctification - you know, just beam me up. It's an absolute deception and lie. There are no shortcuts. Spiritual growth is just as slow and painful a process as physical growth. It's like a trip that sometimes doesn't seem like you will ever get there. You know, it's like your kids an hour into a twenty-four-hour drive: "Are we there yet?" That's how we are as Christians, isn't it? Why aren't we there? But just take the next step and someday, you'll arrive at the destination. The Chinese proverb says, "A journey of thousand miles begins with the first step." Just take the next step.

Paul has answered the questions when do we reach the goal? When Christ returns or I die. Who will reach the goal? Every Christian without exception? How do we reach the goal? By the slow process of a journey or physical growth. And that brings us to the final and most important question. What exactly is the goal? What exactly is the goal? Verse 13 goes on to say: "until we all arrive at the unity of the faith, and at the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." We're on a journey, but what is the destination? When we finally arrive, where are we? Where does the church's journey end? Well, Paul here describes the end of our journey in three ways. There are three objectives we should be seeking to arrive at – the unity of the faith, the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God and thirdly, to a mature man. While none of those will be true in perfection here, this is the goal that should occupy our energies.

Notice the first one. We should arrive at unity in doctrine, unity in doctrine – that is, what we believe. Notice he says: "until we all arrive at the unity of the faith." The article "the" before "the faith" makes it clear he's not talking about your believing or my believing. He's talking about a body of doctrine. That's how that phrase is often used in the New Testament. We are united in this body of doctrine that we believe. We saw that back up in Chapter 4:5, didn't we? There is "one Lord, one faith", one common set of beliefs that we embrace. As we mature, we all come together to better understand and more impassionately embrace the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. True unity, you see, is not based on feeling. It's not based on experience, but on truth. True unity is not about standing and holding hands and swaying back forth singing "Kumbaya" in some giant stadium. It's built on agreement about what we believe, the fundamental doctrines that distinguish all true Christians. Those are the doctrines that we should be united in and willing to fight for.

We can have fellowship with other Christians who don't agree with us on some things because we have a common faith – the "faith once for all delivered to the saints" as Jude describes it. So we can fellowship with an R.C. Sproul with, without agreeing with his eschatology because we agree on the fundamentals of the faith. How does all that happen? How do we come to be united in doctrine in a church like this? Well, when the gifted men that Christ gave His church teach God's people the Scripture, then the people of the church become united around one body of truth, one body of Christian doctrine. God's truth is not divided. It's not fragmented. It's one united whole. And so when people are fragmented, it's because they have not yet come to understand the unifying truth of the Scripture.

At the Shepherds' Conference, there were more than 3,000 pastors there from different denominations, different backgrounds, and yet we were united (why?) because we agreed on the, the fundamentals of the Christian faith. We were united in the essential doctrines. And so we could stand side by side and worship our Lord together and fellowship together across the table in spite of those smaller differences. That doesn't mean we're gonna agree on what the tenth toe on the beast means, but we'll all be united in "the faith". So the first objective in Christ's plan for His church, when everything functions the way it should function, is that there will be a unity in doctrine. We will be united in what we believe, on the fundamental Christian doctrines, instead of, notice Verse 14, being like "children, tossed here and there by… every wind of doctrine." There's gonna be unity in doctrine.

Secondly, there's gonna be unity in our devotion to Jesus Christ, unity in our devotion to Jesus Christ – not just unity in what we believe, but unity in who we love. Notice that second expression. He says in Verse 13: "until we all arrive at the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God." The Greek word for "knowledge" here speaks of more than salvation knowledge. It speaks of a growing, intimate relationship, an intimate relationship built on full and accurate knowledge. It's like the relationship that grows in, in a good Christian marriage where initially, marriage is great. You know, as I tell young couples, the first year of your marriage will be better than any year single, but when you've been married twenty years, you wouldn't go back to year one for anything in the world. That's how it is with our growing in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. The first few moments as a Christian are better than any moment we had ever lived before, but when you've been in Christ and you've grown and you've developed, you wouldn't go back to that first moment for anything in the world. There's a growth in our knowledge at an intimate level.

You see, believers, we are united on more than knowing doctrine. We are united on knowing the person of Jesus Christ. This is so essential. It's so easy for people to make Christianity about something other than Jesus Christ. You cannot be a true Christian without knowing essential facts about the Christian faith, but knowing those facts doesn't make you a Christian. You may be utterly informed about the Christian faith and not be a Christian.

I had this illustrated for me very early in my Christian life and experience. Not long after I became a Christian, I went off to Christian college and we went out on Saturday nights and I began preaching in a prison. And I still remember the shock of meeting this man there in prison who was, at that point in my life, one of the most knowledgeable men in the Bible I had ever met. And he was in prison for murder. That rattled my world. And the reason is because knowledge does not necessarily equate to relationship. You can't have relationship without knowledge, but having knowledge doesn't mean you have a relationship. Christianity is not accepting a collection of dogmas. It's embracing a person. It's about devotion to Jesus Christ. In fact, if you want to test the genuineness of your faith, just ask yourself this question: "Am I personally devoted to Jesus Christ? Does He matter more to me than anything else in the world?" That's the confession of a true Christian.

While we know Christ, we long to know Him more. That's why back in Chapter 1:17, Paul prayed "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him." That's why Paul, late in his Christian life in Philippians 3, says after he talks about his salvation: "(but I want to know him more), that I may know Him." We are united in a growing, intimate knowledge and devotion to Jesus Christ. That's what Christ wants to happen in the church. As the church works, as you fill your role and as I fill mine, we become united in doctrine – what we believe, but we also become united in our devotion to Jesus Christ.

There's a third goal, a third objective - not only unity in doctrine and unity in devotion to Jesus Christ, but thirdly, unity in likeness to Jesus Christ. We have unity not only in what we believe and in who we love, but in who we resemble, who we look like. Notice what Paul says in Verse 13. He says I want us all, "we will all attain to…a mature man." Maturity literally means perfect or mature I should say literally means perfect or complete. In this context, it's about children and growing up so it has the idea here of being fully mature, the idea of full development, mature adulthood. I want you to grow up to be a mature adult in Christ is what Paul is saying.

Notice the contrast in Verse 14 with children. We are to arrive at the destination of being a mature or perfect Christian. Paul says we all should become this. Listen, God isn't just concerned that I or the other elders become spiritually mature, but that every Christian in this church - if you are one who professes the name of Jesus Christ, God is concerned that you be spiritually mature.

The next phrase in Verse 13 sets the standard for maturity. When do you know if you've arrived at maturity? You know, we have sort of, we have signs of maturity in our world. You can do certain things when you reach age thirteen and, and for example in the Jewish culture, you become a son of the commandment, you become a, a spiritual adult at that point. In our culture, we have the age eighteen when you can do certain things, age twenty-one. There are these standards of maturity. How do we know as a Christian when we arrive at maturity? What's the standard? God doesn't let us set the standard. God doesn't grade on a curve. Here is the standard, look at the rest of Verse 13: "to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" - in other words, when you are like Jesus Christ.

You know, we talk about that a lot. We use that language. We talk about being like Christ, Christ's likeness. It's very confusing to some people. Let me tell you what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that you will ever share the attributes of deity that Christ has. It doesn't mean that you will ever be like Christ as Christ is God. You will always be human. What it does not mean is that you will become someone else. You know, some people read the verse like in Galatians where it says, you know, "I am crucified with, with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, it's Christ who lives in me." And they teach that means that it's almost like you, who you are and your personality, sort of dies and you go away and Jesus actually lives through you in the sense that you kind of cease to exist. That isn't what this means either.

It means that you are to be like Him in the moral attributes He has that can also be ours as humans. Let me put it differently. It means to measure up to the fullness of the virtue that belongs to Jesus Christ. It means to possess all of the moral qualities that make Him the man, the human that He was and is. If you wanted to put more flesh on that, you could look at Galatians 5. I, don't turn there, but you remember the fruit of the Spirit. What's the presence of the Spirit produce in our lives? Love and joy and peace and longsuffering and gentleness and kindness – all of those things. Those are qualities that reside perfectly in Jesus Christ and you and I are to reflect those moral qualities. That's Christ's likeness – when we are morally like Jesus Christ, when our lives are characterized by the same qualities as His human life was. When we fully embody the qualities that Christ has, we will have arrived at the goal.

This is what the Scriptures teach, isn't it? Romans 8, you remember Romans 8:29? "Those whom God foreknew, He also predestined (He predetermined your destiny and here's what it would be) that you would become conformed to the image of His Son." Galatians 4:19, Paul says, "My children, I am in labor until Christ is formed in you." Colossians 1:28, "We proclaim Christ, admonishing every man, teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ." Philippians 3:14, "I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call… in Christ Jesus." And that upward call, that prize, is Christ's likeness.

Listen, an essential element of the goal of the church and of every Christian individually is to morally resemble Jesus Christ. Your life and my life looks like His life looked when He lived it out on earth. How in the world does that happen? How can we as sinful human beings, as far from that goal as we are - how do we get there? One step at a time. 2 Corinthians 3:18, explains how we become Christ-like. It says this: "We all, with unveiled face, are beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, (and as we behold that) we are being transformed (the Greek word is the word we get our word 'metamorphosis' from, we are being metamorphosized) into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." In other words, folks, as you and I look at Christ in the mirror of His Word - as we see Him, as we stare at Him, as we think about Him, as we meditate on who He was and what He did - the Spirit does something amazing. He metamorphosizes us into the same image day by day in that slow, painful process that resembles physical growth.

Perhaps you've had the opportunity, as I have to visit the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. It is one imposing statue. From the foundation of the pedestal to the tip of the torch, it stands a hundred yards high. Just to put that size in perspective, she is 35 feet across at the waist. Ladies, don't you feel a little better about yourselves? Her index finger is 8 feet long. One of her fingernails is 13 inches by ten inches and weighs three and a half pounds. Her sandal is 25 feet long. That's a size 879. If you stand at the base and look up, she absolutely towers over you.

That's exactly how Christ towers over all of us morally and spiritually. The standard that He sets when we look at the pages of the New Testament seems absolutely unreachable, doesn't it? But God in His grace has decided to make us like His Son and He will. Someday, we all will measure up to the stature (not the statue, the stature) of the fullness of Jesus Christ.

Those are the objectives. We will be, because of the plan of Christ, united in doctrine, united in devotion to Jesus Christ and we will be united in this wonderful reality of likeness to Christ. That's the goal of the plan. That's why the church functions the way it functions. This is what Christ intended to happen out of the overflow of the church acting the way He designed it to act.

There are a number of people in our congregation who work for the airline industry or who did at one point. And all of us are reminded of the airline industry because we live so close to DFW and we see those huge airliners coming in. When you think about air travel, what do you think is the most important element of a successful journey? What is the one essential component that ensures you arrive where you wanted to go? Some might say, "Well, a compass." Others might say, "Fuel, you can't get anywhere without fuel." Others would say, "Well, a pilot, you have to have someone to fly the plane." Those are all essential, but you can have all of those elements and still not have a successful journey.

The foundational element of a successful trip is having a destination. In Ephesians 4:13, Paul reminds us of the destination of the church. Here's what He intended the church, when it works together, to do – that we would all arrive at the new world. And the new world would be united in doctrine, united in devotion to Jesus Christ and united in likeness to Jesus Christ. Embrace the goal. Embrace the destination. And remember that you will not arrive there today or tomorrow or next week or next year. It's a journey. It's like physical growth. You will not arrive there until you die or Christ returns, but here's the good news. If you are truly in Christ, you will arrive. Let's pray together.

Our Father, we are so encouraged to know that our lives are in Your hands and not our own. Father, we thank You that You have begun a good work in us. We acknowledge that we didn't save ourselves, that we didn't seek You, but You sought us out. You drew us to Yourself. You effectually called us and You began that good work and, O Father, we thank You that You will be faithful to complete it.

In the meantime, O God, help us to embrace the journey, to embrace the process as slow and difficult and painful as it may be. Father, help us to remember that we are to be relentless day after day in pursuing these goals, individually and as a church corporately. Father, I pray that as this church fulfills the plan, as we carry out those five components of the plan, that You would produce these things in us - that as a church, we would be united in our doctrine on the essential matters of the Christian faith, that we would be united in our devotion to Jesus Christ in our love for Him and that we would be united in a growing similarity to the moral character of Jesus Christ. For it's in His name we pray and for His glory. Amen.