Little Christ | So much, too many…
It was a few weeks ago when I begin to see “Little Christ” in the ‘religion’ heading of many friends on facebook. It’s amazing what you discover while keep in the social network communication alive. Baffled by this label, I begin to search for others who shared the same identity and realized that I knew most of them.
In an effort to uncover what it meant, I begin talking with several people who gave me an interesting explanation. “Little Christ” in a sense is that a believer should be a ‘small’ version of Christ on earth and to the world. Now who wouldn’t want this as a life’s goal? Sounds great on the surface, but when you begin to consider the implications of this attachment, it has some huge eternal problems.
First let us look at the meaning of Christian to begin with. I have heard many say that it means we are little christs. This could be no further from the truth. The word Christian is defined specifically as one who is subordinate to as a follow of Christ. In modern vernacular it would be best translated as ‘slave’. In an effort to difuse fodder over words, let’s just say that it does not mean ‘little’ or ‘like’ in nature, character or design.
Second, the idea that we are little christs or gods has a mystic and pagan root. Many cults across the world and the US use this idea that mankind is nothing more than a finite version of the infinite and that in the end, we will all be like God as lesser or in some cases, equal gods. This is pure herisy. The notion that a created being would be like the creator is at best silly and irrational. Not to count that it flies in the face of the significance of who Christ is.
We are not like Him and we are not in any form going to be Christ, even in part. However, we are to be ‘like’ Christ in that through His changing, our hearts are formed into the ‘likeness’ of Christ. And in the end, our sanctification will be Christ’s holiness credited to us, not ourselves being holy.
Thirdly, very popular and prominent preachers and pastors are spewing this garbage that God made man to be little gods all over the world. In essence, these false prophets are marring the very nature of the one who has the power to throw both soul and body into hell and mocking the very character of God and Christ who are one in the same.
Finally, if we are to consider ourselves little christs, then what is the purpose of our being? We are not to share ourselves and give ourselves in hope that Christ will be viewed, but we are to live and be the example of the Gospel which is Christ, Him crucified and risen from the dead as our Lord, Master, Priest, and King! So back to the nature of ‘little christ; it would be better said to steal the words of Paul in Philippians:
Philippians 1:27 (ESV)
27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,
This in itself reflects Paul’s testimony of, “to live is Christ” and furthermore, “I count it all as loss for the priceless gain of knowing Christ my Lord.” If we are little christs, how can we ‘count it as loss’? Our hearts should cry from the grace that we have freely rec’d to live a life worthy of Christ but not fool ourselves into thinking that Christ needs us to be him.
The problem with the church today is that we think the mission is ours, but it is God’s. We feel as though our ministry is imperative to God’s success but He is sovereign King and “ALL THINGS” are under His feet. We feel that in order for the world to be saved we must dilute the truth and give tangible evidence of humanistic benevolence and philanthropy. All the while, we push away Christ and in the end, we make him small.
Christ is already too little, let’s drop this game and become slaves to righteousness, passionate followers of the King, longing to love the “Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.”
To make much of Christ means to make less of ourselves. If we are to take the title and role of “Holy Anointed one of God, Priest, King, and Lord” then we are missing the point. Christ is his OFFICE, not his name. 2 Corinthians 2 is used as a proof text in some circles for this extended office of the believer as Christs. Let’s look at it for just a second.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 (ESV)
21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us,
22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
Looking at this piece of text in itself creates a major fallacy. You cannot take a crumb from a plate and effectively eat a meal – so we are going to have to rely on some understanding of the context. I would encourage those who like to preach and don’t know what they are preaching, to buy a solid set of commentaries that revolve around the technical issues of the language and not the ‘application’ model study guides that are so prevalent today. Nothing wrong with application, but it doesn’t apply correctly without defining and understanding the context. Here are four points that are worth noting.
- With these two verses Paul concludes his remarks on justifying his trustworthiness.
- The apostle teaches the doctrine of the Trinity by noting that God confirms believers, anoints them in Christ, and seals them with the Spirit.
- The wording in these verses—confirm, seal, down payment—has been borrowed from the legal sphere and has commercial implications.
- A degree of parallelism is evident in these two verses; each has two verbs with direct objects: confirm us and anoint us (v. 21), seal us and give us (v. 22).
Baker NTC
Paul is concluding a portion of this letter to the church in Corinth as a continuation of his trustworthiness as an apostle. If you read Acts 18 and 1 Corinthians you will have a better understanding of why Paul is continuing this approach to ‘his’ trustworthiness’. So just in context, these two scriptures are the close of his arguments about why they can trust Paul and the subject is not the believers anyway.Let’s look at these verses in pieces.
- And it is GOD – here we the crux of the Gospel and the main issue of this text. God is and always will be the central theme of His work, not man. Here Paul is dealing specifically with the fact that God has brought His covenant relationship in their lives and his life and their relationship with God can be trusted because His word can be trusted and in the word are God’s promises. So, the promises of God are legally bound to God’s own oath. See Hebrews 6:17.
- God anoints his people. In anointing it is different than being the ‘CHRIST’. This English cognitive error wreaks havoc on our interpretation of scripture when we read into the text what is not there. God does the ‘covenant’ choosing of those who believe and therefore He seals them with the Holy Spirit. In that, the Spirit testifies we belong to God. See Romans 8
- God’s Anointing of his people is with the Holy Spirit, not the office of Christ. 1 John 2:20 (ESV)
20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 1 John 2:27 (ESV)
27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him. This anointing is similar to the OT practice of anointing which was symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Except here, it is the true giving of the Holy Spirit. - God’s sealing in verse 22 gives a close to this neat little package of hope. These two verses give the listener the understanding that salvation comes in this package alone. This package is conversion, faith, baptism, and then the evidence and power of the Holy Spirit. This linear illustration of the process of salvation is a reminder to the Corinthians that they are saved by Grace alone in Christ because of God’s will.
- God’s guarantee is His anointing with the Holy Spirit. Not being little Christs.
Ephesians 1:13-14 (ESV)
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
In closing, let us consider that if others look at us as Christ, then they will see a tarnished, sinful, broken, and marred image of the True Savior. The world should see Christ in spite of us as we boldly proclaim our weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon us and that we are able to proclaim the truth of the Gospel which is the hope of the lost and broken world. Besides, if we want to claim to be Christ in any part, we are saying that we are without sin. Consider the results of that kind of claim.
1 John 1:10 (ESV)
10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
If this named something
you have been carrying —
That recognition is where the work starts. A discovery call is one focused conversation: no pitch, no commitment. You leave knowing what is actually going on and whether working together makes sense.
Book a Discovery Call5 Responses
Add Your Voice
Given, Not Made – A Biblical Theology of Discovered Identity
The Image of Christ, the Two Surgeries, and the New Testament Account of the Self James H. Tippins, Ph.D. The...
Read →
God’s Unfailing Love: Embracing Grace in the Depths of Our Sin
In exploring the depths of God's love and grace, it's essential to articulate theological concepts accurately to avoid misunderstandings. A...
Read →
Blame the Church… it’s time to be honest.
The Evangelical church in America is a leading contributor to dysfunctional views on marriage, family, and intimacy, thereby distorting the...
Read →
The very reason we were created was to be fashioned after the likeness of Christ.This is what you said,
“We are not like Him and we are not in any form going to be Christ, even in part.”
This is what the Bible says,
“For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn of many brethren.” Rom 8:29
We are to be little Christ’s. The word Christ means annointed one. Jesus is the annointed one of God and He calls us to partske of the same annointing through the same Spirit that raised Him from the dead (Rom 8:11). In 1 John 2:20 it says that we have an unction (annointing)from the Holy one and we know all things.
We have access to the same annointing through the same Spirit. We can walk in the same closeness with God as Jesus did,we can walk in the same power. This truth is confirmed in John 17:20-24 Jesus prayed to the Father that we may be one in the same capacity that He and the Father were one. Jesus also said that he was giving the same glory to us that the Father had given to Him. Do you know what that glory is?
Just beacause so few walk in the annointing and closeness with the Father that is available does not a make good reason to reduce down to flesh the calling of a christian. We are called to be in this world as Jesus was in the world (1John 4:17). Jesus was powerful, purposeful, full of light and glory and all real Christians will follow suit. I say this in love and I wish you well.
Sincerely, Erin sain a servant of Christ
Erin,
I thank you for your candid and loving response. Although I agree with your tone and the inference to being “Christ-like”, the scripture is clear that the human element of being glorified will never come this side of eternity. The problem comes when so-called, “little christs” begin to invade the essence of who God is by determining that they are full of glory and anointing just like Jesus and in doing so have the same abilities, powers and knowledge as Christ. The folly comes from reading English translations of scripture as we understand them without going through the proper exegetical and critical language context. When this is done we get a ‘pre-text’ that can be formed into anything we want it to say.
In closing, we are to be light of the world and the salt of the earth, but in no case are we ever going to be like Christ except that we are going to be found in HIS righteousness and therefore in our glorified state, we will be remade to be sinless. Christ is God the creator of all things and many cults have grabbed on to the little christ analogy stating that believers will be like Christ and hold His very power and omniscience. It is here that true students of scripture must draw the line – it just is not supported in the text within its context.
Let me leave you with 1 Peter chapter 1 minus the versus 1-3:
1 Peter 1:3-25 (ESV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,
11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.
12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,
15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
SPIRITUAL FORMATION AND C.S. LEWIS’
“LITTLE CHRISTS”
C.C. Lewis’ phrase “little Christs” (possibly borrowed from Martin Luther) has been pounced on by the Spiritual Formation adherents to promote their doctrine of deification: The “I AM “ movement in the Church today. “Men are becoming God.” It is assumed that in “Mere Christianity,” when Lewis referenced believers as “little Christs,” he simply meant reflections of Christ. But he says, “The Church (?) is to make us into little Christs.” And, “Christ stands beside you to turn you into one.” And, “Every Christian is to become a little Christ.” This seems plausible since it is Christ’s imputed righteousness that God sees when He looks at us. But if the word ‘little’ is removed, the text then says “…to make us into Christs.” Scripture refutes this, declaring how God transforms us to be like Christ, not ‘into’ a Christ.” (I John 3) (II Corinthians 3:18) So, Lewis’ seemingly symbolic rhetoric of a believer being “made into,” “turned into,” and ‘becoming” a “Christ,” does hint of transformation into a (non-Biblical) deified Man. This is verified as he continues with a misquote of Psalms 82:6. “[God] said…that we were “gods” and…He will make the…filthiest of us into a god or goddess…an immortal creature…” And with, he says, “a long and painful process.” This is sanctification, but the end result is “gods,” so, is deification. This view is also identical to the teachings of John Lake, a charismatic who says, “God’s purpose through Jesus Christ is to deify the nature of men…You are incarnate.” “His Life, Sermons, and Boldness of Faith.”
*Pastor James Tippins – “The idea that we are little christs or gods has a mystic and pagan root. Many cults across the world and the US use this idea that mankind is nothing more than a finite version of the infinite and that in the end, we will all be like God as lesser or in some cases, equal gods. Scripture is clear that the human element of being glorified will never come this side of eternity. And [some of] these ‘little christs” begin to invade the essence of who God is, by declaring they possess the same abilities, power, and knowledge of Christ. We cannot ever take His title, for “Christ” is His office, not His name. God anoints us with His Spirit, not the office of Christ. And to promote us as “Christs” does not make less of us, and Christ more. It should make less of ourselves, yet we want to give evidence of humanistic benevolence. And, if others look at us as Christ, they will see a tarnished, sinful, marred image of the True Savior. So, if we want to claim to be Christ in any part, we are saying we are without sin. Consider the results of that claim.” (https://jamestippins.com/2009/03/little-christ-so-much-too-many/)
When the Holy Spirit transforms believers, they become the children of God, the sons of God, the brothers of Christ, the friends of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the body of Christ, but never the “christs of Christ.” Christ has one Body made up of many believers. He doesn’t have many Bodies. And, finally, Lewis’ phrase ‘little Christs” is totally synonymous with the occultic names of the coming Satanically transformed men in the last days: Barbara Marx-Hubbard’s “Natural Christs,” the Catholic “Little ‘I Ams’, the Charismatic “Little gods,” and Alice Bailey’s “god-Men.” The coming “Divinity of Man” – men transformed by Satan to follow the anti-Christ.
SPIRITUAL FORMATION’S “TRANSFORMATION”
“Becoming God, Becoming Christ”
“Natural Christs, Little Christs, Little “I Ams,” “Little gods,” “God-Men”
“…My little moment of incarnation, my little “I am” echoes the great ‘I Am’…”
Richard Rhor, “The Divine Dance, The Trinity and Your Transformation” p. 2216
“Every Christian is to become a little Christ. Christ [will] turn you into one.”
C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity” pp 153, 154
“Settle yourself in solitude and you will come upon Him in yourself. —Sister Teresa of Avila”
― Richard J. Foster, “Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth” 1978 p.96
“The key to self-transformation resides in the practice of the spiritual disciplines.”
Dallas Willard “Spirit of the Disciplines” (Chapter 5)
“If we all ‘join the dance’, we can…become one with the Trinity.” Gary Moon, Soul Care, (Spiritual Formation)
.”We become like Christ in the context of authentic, Christian community.“ Paul Petit,
Dallas Theological Seminary, “Foundations of Spiritual Formation”.
“Your prayer must be turned inwards, not towards a God of Heaven…but towards God who is closer to you than you are aware.” Richard Foster, “Prayer- Finding the Heart’s True Home”
“We must allow “the truth of our Belovedness [to] become enfleshed in everything
we think, say, or do. This entails a long…painful…process of…incarnation.”
Henri Nouwen, “Life of the Beloved”
“God said (in the Bible) that we were ‘gods’ and He is going to make good His words.
He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or a goddess, an immortal
creature…The process will be long and painful.” C.S. Lewis – “Mere Christianity”
Paul Crouch, Charismatic Preacher, Trinity Broadcast Network
“I am a little god. Critics be gone!”
Jan,
Thank you for your thoughts and the detailed supply of heretical authors who hold to the view that the body of Jesus are becoming “Messiahs” (Which is what Christ means). I’ve long known that Lewis was a mystic, it’s obvious in Mere Christianity. This cause for this article was a young man that I’ve mentored for 16 years who went to a summer camp in college and was taught this while on mission. The group was connected to many of the cults of Christendom who tend to move young people to an experience of the divine than to the knowledge of God through Scripture. This lent him to believe that maybe he could realize something more about God within himself rather than what other men had written in Scripture. It’s a sad day that so may cults form not only the minds of their adherents, but they also confuse the saints. I pray for discernment daily for the Lord’s people. Thank you again for this great comment.
Thank you for your thoughts and additions to this discussion. I have since learned that most of the people who adhere to this idea are highly mystical and rarely expositional in their argument.