Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. (1 Peter 2:21)
In one sense, the answer is easy. Is Jesus our example? Yes. Jesus is our example, but not only our example, and imitating Him is not the foundation of our faith.
Christ’s Unique Redemptive Work
Before writing that Jesus left us “an example, so that [we] might follow in his steps,” Peter first claims that “Christ suffered for you”—that is, in a way that we do not suffer on behalf of others. When Jesus suffered at the cross, He “bore our sins in his body”; He healed our wounds through His being wounded for us (1 Peter 2:24). We were the ones straying like sheep, and His unique work for us redeemed us from our sin that we might live in holiness (1 Peter 2:25).
In His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has done for us—those who are joined to Him by faith—what we could not do for ourselves or for someone else. We cannot die to redeem fellow sinners from the eternal consequences of their sin. But Jesus, as God Himself and the perfect Man, substituted Himself for sinners at the cross. Christ suffered for us who believe in Him.
At the climax of the four Gospels is Jesus doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. The first and main point of the Gospels isn’t to copy what Jesus does but, as John writes so plainly, to believe in Jesus: “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).
Imitating Christ as His Disciples
O, how rich are the Gospels for seeking to follow in Jesus’ steps! The heart of His achievement is inimitable, and yet His human life, words, and acts teem with wonderful imitability. Like us, He is truly human, seeking to glorify His Father as He lives in human flesh and blood and against the opposition of sinners and the course of this fallen world. Jesus is both our unique expiation (atonement for our sins) and our universal example of the Christian life.
Jesus Himself called His followers to learn from Him and follow in His steps. “Take my [easy and light] yoke upon you,” He says in Matthew 11:29, “and learn from me.” This, in fact, is what it means to be a “disciple” of Jesus—disciple means learner. His disciples are those who learn from, and follow the example of, His life and teaching. So, when Jesus washed His disciples’ feet the night before He died, He said: “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (John 13:14–15).
While we cannot replicate the redemptive merit of Christ’s life and death, we can—indeed, we will—imitate the self-humbling, self-giving love He demonstrated, whether with towel strapped around His waist or with His body nailed to the cross.
The Apostles also exhort us to take Jesus as our example. Paul says, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who . . .”—and then he rehearses the self-humbling pattern and glory of the cross and resurrection (Phil. 2:5–8). Likewise, John writes in his first letter, “Whoever says he abides in [Jesus] ought to walk in the same way in which he walked—that is, in the way of self-giving, God-glorifying love (1 John 2:6).
The Power of Christ’s Indwelling Spirit
So, what does it mean for us as Christians to live “godly lives”? Paul captures it in especially memorable terms in 1 Timothy 3:16, where he writes, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness.” Yes, godliness. What might this include? We might expect a swift list of virtues or righteous deeds. Instead, Paul follows with the centrality of the God-man’s example for the godly Christian life. We get a hymn about Jesus:
He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.
You want to know what godliness is? Look to Jesus. He is “godliness” incarnate. So, Christians have often called godly affections and actions “Christlikeness.” At the heart of our faith is His inimitable redemptive work, and the supreme example of Christian living is His wonderfully imitable human life.
We read the Gospels and marvel at His movements. We stand in awe of His irreplaceable accomplishment for sinners, and we watch Him interact and pray, preach and show compassion, retreat for rest and return to minister grace. We observe His love, His patience, His wisdom, and through the power of His indwelling Spirit, we seek to follow in His steps.
Ligonier Ministries