Consider Christ So As to Become Like Him (1)

If it is so that we are changed into the image of the second Adam, Jesus Christ, then let us labour every day more and more to study Christ, so that by beholding him we may be transformed into his likeness. The sight of Christ is a transforming sight.
Let us look into his disposition and his conduct as they are set forth in the Gospels. What was his disposition and conduct to his friends, his enemies, and the devil himself?
You see how full of love he was. What drew him from heaven to earth, and so to his cross and to his grave, but love to mankind? You see how full of goodness he was: 'He went about doing good' (Acts 10:38).
See how full of zeal he was! He whipped the buyers and sellers out of the temple (John 2:15).
He was full of goodness. It was his meat and drink to do good (John 4:31-34). It was as natural to him as for a fountain to stream out.
As for his behaviour toward his friends, to those who were good see how sweet and indulgent he was.
Where there was any beginning of goodness, he encouraged it. He never sent any away, but those who went away of their own accord, as the rich young man. Christ did not send him away (Matt. 19:22). He was so full of sweetness to weak Christians; indeed, he revealed himself most to the weakest. He spoke personally with the woman of Samaria, who was an adulteress (John 4:6-26); and Mary, who had been a sinner, how sweetly did he appear to her first (John 20:11-16). How sweet he was to sinners when they repented, how ready to forgive and pardon! See it in Peter. He never reproached him for his apostasy; he never upbraided him for it; he never so much as told him of it. He only 'looked' upon him, and afterward said, 'Do you love me?’ (John 21:15).

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Glorious Freedom, pp. 110-11 [121-22]
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