AN example is that which is to be taken as a specimen or an illustration of the rule or standard to be followed or imitated, or, on the other hand, that which is to be avoided and disowned. But in regard to this matter, we would refer to what the Christian is to follow or imitate—according to the directions and doctrines of Holy Scripture to their own spiritual benefit and the honour of God, and how the believer is to live and act as an example and rule to others.
The question of example having regard to holy living in the fear of God does not and cannot arise truly and genuinely in the case of those who are yet without a divinely given knowledge of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus, as their Redeemer from sin. He who is still ignorant of the blessedness of the man whose sin is forgiven, through faith in the blood of Christ and the mercy of God in Him, can have no spiritual concern to follow in heart and life what is prescribed in the Word of God and according to His will, in order to conform to that will, with the praise of God in view. Christless and unconverted men and women, who affect to follow the example of Christ and His people, do so as poor creatures still blind to the glory of Christ’s sufferings to put away sin and the wrath of God, in the behalf of His people. Such in a manner endeavour to be holy while still carrying about with them the burden of the guilt of their sins along with an unbroken and hard heart. This is just another form of the superficial and hypocritical religion of the Pharisees, who practised sanctity of manners and were merely whited sepulchres. And to-day, the modern theologians and preachers are actively engaged in proclaiming features of Christian example which men should follow, to the ignoring of the dying Saviour upon whom sinners must first be brought to believe to the saving of the soul. And this is but leading multitudes toward death and the eternal world, still under the wrath of God due to them for sin.
But all who have a personal and blessed interest in the atoning death of Jesus Christ for sin, by a living faith, are under obligation to own Him as their Lord and Master and to seek “grace for grace” to follow Him, to be His disciples, to be known and read of all men as such. Of course, many vital matters enter into the consideration as to how and in what manner the believer is to follow Christ in the world. Of course, the Lord Jesus was, as the Gospels reveal and other parts of Scripture assert, holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners, and guile was not found in His mouth. And this indicates the perfection of His holy life amid men in an evil world; yet upon this the believer is to have his eye, although forced to exclaim regarding himself, “Unclean, unclean!” in the light of the Redeemer’s holiness. The child of God may say, “We cannot follow this and cannot walk according to this pattern and rule”; yet it is written, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” Indeed, without holiness no man shall see the Lord, as we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 12. This divine standard is as high as it is, and will never be lowered as it is in harmony with the revealed design and purpose of God, in foreknowing and predestinating His people to be conformed to the holy image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. (See Romans, chapter 8.)
Now in the soul of the believer there is begotten by the Holy Spirit desires after holiness and likeness to their Lord and Saviour, and along with this divine work within, they know by experience the meaning of the flesh lusting against the Spirit. Yet by the abounding grace of the Spirit, they who are justified by faith in the righteousness and blood of the Son of God do hunger and thirst after righteousness, that is holiness and likeness to their Redeemer and Lord.
Then there are particular and specific instances of Christ’s conduct and example which His true disciples are enjoined to appreciate and imitate, as when He washed the disciples’ feet (John xiii. 1-16). After He had washed their feet, and was set down again, He said unto them, “Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (vs. 12-15). He thus, by this, calls upon believers to live by grace in humility and love in relation one to another, in the following of His blessed example. How hateful is the very appearance of self-seeking, pride and uncharitableness in the professing follower of Jesus! And again, we find the Apostle Peter handling doctrine of a like nature in the second chapter of his first Epistle. Here he deals with the fact of Christ, the sinless One, suffering for His people, and by His holy attitude in His sufferings, “. . . leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (verse 21), as the Apostle says. He cites a particular feature of Christ’s example that “When he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” (verse 23). Here is the precious rule, pattern, and example for the Christian, who can never suffer anything like what the Saviour did in being reviled and threatened, even from one point of view, the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus. Let this mind be in believers which was also in Christ Jesus, that when disdained, insulted, reviled and threatened, that they seek heavenly power and grace, to be unlike their adversaries and like their Lord and Master, and return not reviling for reviling, nor threatening for threatening, but that they commit their case and cause to God at the throne of grace. In the personal life of the Christian it is not of grace to return blow for blow. The example of Christ is clear for His own to follow.
Then believers are to be an example one to another for mutual edification, encouragement, and guidance. And any Christian is an example to and for others, just in as far as he or she follows Christ. For so writes the Apostle Paul, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also as of Christ” (I Corin. verse 1). And he charges Timothy, his own son in the faith, as follows: “. . . be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” Then Timothy would not only, under the blessing of God, influence others by his preaching, but also by setting before them a godly example consistent with his Christian profession and office as a minister of the Gospel of Christ.
And it is not without significant reason that the Apostle Peter exhorts the strangers scattered throughout the provinces, who were elect of God the Father and had a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an eternal inheritance, that they were to lay aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings. Here are a people with a saving interest in the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus and are on the way to heaven, and yet they are required to watch against and lay aside these aforementioned evils, which were liable to spring up and appear to the marring of their character and profession and to hinder them as to the life of grace; and to deprive them of being an example to others in that measure and manner that they might otherwise be. This is what Peter further writes relevant to this, in the same chapter, the 2nd chapter of his First Epistle, viz., “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation” (verses 11-12). The world took knowledge of the apostles that they had been with Jesus. The gospel and godly example of the Lord’s people can in itself be used as the Most High deems fit to influence carnal persons to their spiritual and eternal welfare.
And finally, we would refer to the public testimony on the side of God’s name and claims by Joshua, when he gathered all Israel together to Shechim, near the end of his days. What an example he was to a people who were much given to idolatry and for whom the God of Israel had done so much! He called them to choose whom they would serve, if it seemed evil to them to serve the Lord. “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” declared Joshua to the people (Joshua xxiv. 15). He appeared to be much alone in his stand on the Lord’s side, but nevertheless he, unafraid and unashamed, declared his allegiance to the Lord, whatever the whole nation of Israel would do. His testimony, stand, and example had an immediate effect for good upon the people. They answered and said, “God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods” (Joshua xiv. 16); and so his example had far-reaching and beneficial effects that day in Israel and to the honour of his God. “And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old” (verse 29). And so he left behind him in Israel and in the pages of Holy writ, the record and memory of devotion to his heavenly Master, and of a godly and precious example to others.
To be enabled to follow the divine Redeemer and Lord, even Jesus, and to follow in the footsteps of His saints, and to be in measure ourselves a gracious example to others, is all of Covenant love, Covenant blood and Covenant power—all of grace.