The life of Christ demonstrated how to become like him

Jesus is the archetype of eternal life

Jesus is the example of both the end and the means of salvation,¹ the archetype of eternal life. The role of the Lord as the archetype of eternal life is unnecessarily obscured by weak translations of the Greek word archégos (Strong’s 747), which means “the first example.”² An archégos is the first person who demonstrates something by doing it, and by demonstrating it, makes a way for others to do the same. Consider how much clearer the following verses become when archetype is used in place of the parenthesized word that the translators chose instead:

And killed the archetype (Prince) of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. (Acts 3:15)

Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a(n) archetype (Prince) and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. (Acts 5:31)

For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the archetype (captain) of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Hebrews 2:10)

Looking unto Jesus the archetype (author) and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

Jesus is not just the Prince of life, the captain of our salvation, or even the author and finisher of our faith, but the demonstration of the process and outcome of obtaining the character of the Father—the archetype and fulfillment of eternal life.

In who he is and how he became that way, the Lord shows us the process we must follow if we are to obtain eternal life. We must become the same way he is, and we must do it the same way he did it. The Lord knows the process to become like he is because he went through it. Jesus is our “forerunner”³ because he has gone to where we can follow by doing what we must do to join him there. By embodying how the Father is through learning and living according to his character, Jesus made it possible for all who would live according to his demonstration to do the same.⁴

The life of Jesus Christ was the representation of how the Father would live mortal life, the example of how we can become like him, and the demonstration of the potential of man.

The Lord’s life demonstrated what the Father’s character looks like embodied in a mortal man, here on earth.⁵ In mortality, Jesus was the visible⁶ and apparent application of the divine model to mortal life,⁷ “the image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:15) The Lord explained that his life was meant to show us how the Father is⁸ in terms that we could understand.⁹

The life of Christ provided the example of how to come to know God through becoming like him.¹⁰ We are to follow this example.¹¹ Jesus said that he sought, discovered, and did the will of the Father in all things:

I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. (John 5:30)

19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
20 For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth... (John 5)

Jesus taught that everyone who follows him would do the same:

...He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do. (2 Nephi 31:12)

True religion is to learn how God would be in every situation, and to become that way yourself. Jesus predicted that a time would come when all people would understand this, and all believers would practice it.¹² Jesus instructed his disciples to obtain and live as God would in their place so effectively that others would learn more about God by seeing their actions.¹³

It is possible to follow the example of Jesus. Jesus was special in that he was the first to acquire and live the character of the Father. He is not meant to be the only one.14 When his disciples protested that Jesus’ standards were too exacting, and even impossible, Jesus intently fixed his eyes upon them, spiritually discerning their hearts, and then said: It is indeed impossible for men, as long as they continue to think, feel, and act like men. But everything God does is possible for God, and anything God does can be done by all who think, feel, and act like him. No man can enter into the kingdom of God, except through forsaking everything in him that is not like God. (Matthew 19:26, Author’s Reflection)

Those who believe they can become like God behave differently than those who do not. It is rare to find a person who actually believes that they can become like God. One who thinks this will act and feel very differently than one who does not.¹⁵ They will purify themselves by following his example as far as they understand it.¹⁶

The life of Jesus Christ showed the fulfillment of the potential of what man can become.¹⁷ During his life, the Lord constantly called himself the “Son of Man” (Hebrew: “ ben Adam ”) as the heir of the role of Adam. Adam was the first son of God, created in his image, charged to fulfill the purpose of creation by stewarding creation as God would in his place. Instead, Adam fell, leaving a void for one of his descendants to fill. The Lord called himself “Son of Man” to demonstrate that he was fulfilling the potential that Adam had—and the potential of all mankind—by learning and living the character of the Father. In using the title, he was not making a difference between himself and others, but calling all people to reach toward their full potential: “I am living as all of you could and should.”¹⁸

Obscuring the example of Christ with artificial distance

The life of Christ was meant to be irrefutable proof that the gospel “...works for you just as it did for Christ....” (1 John 2:8, The Living Bible) The example of Christ is obscured for those who do not understand that the bodily difference between the Lord and us is a result of his decision to remain sinless as he developed the mental capacity necessary to sin. Because he maintained sinlessness, he retained power over his own life and could therefore atone for the sins of the world by enduring pain beyond what would kill anyone else. Everything else he did was through power available to anyone willing to choose to live as he did.

What Jesus became, he became through the same faith we have access to. His ability to exercise faith was through the same power of choice available to us, not through some magic power the Father uniquely gave to Jesus. No matter how advanced his spirit was, he did not arrive with any special privileges compared to anyone else. Just like you, Jesus was born as a baby, and grew spiritually through time—just as he grew physically—until he attained the full stature of the Father, just as we can grow into the full stature of the Son.¹⁹ His whole life is a testament to what is possible for you to achieve through faith, not an exposition of what can only be done through exclusive and unattainable gifts of God given to Jesus alone.

The value of the Lord’s example is severely restricted when instead of seeing him as being made a little lower than angels,²⁰ we insist that His mortal sojourn was somehow free from everything that makes mortality a trial. As plainly attested to by those who would know the best, Jesus endured a life more difficult than any of ours, with fewer privileges than any of us enjoy, and still managed to learn and live the fullness of the character of the Father against greater opposition than any of us will face.

False traditions about how and when Jesus learned who he was, received knowledge and power from the Father, and suffered all he did place artificial distance between us and the example he demonstrated. Christians can pay lip-service to Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith, but while they believe he was endowed with magic powers from birth, couldn’t possibly sin, wasn’t tempted to do so, and knew everything about himself and the Father from birth, his example provides no help to any of us in knowing how to follow it or believe that we can. By learning the truth about the progression of Jesus throughout his life, any person can grow closer to him no matter how far from him they may currently be through following the same exact patterns he did.

We should temper our assumptions about the life of Jesus by the fact that it was necessary for Jesus to face greater challenges than anyone else. Understand that any special privilege possessed by the Lord would render his sacrifice for our sins null and void. Of what worth is a sacrifice for sins by someone who is not tempted by sin?

The Lord was born sinless and chose to remain that way, just like you can

In order to see the life of Jesus as proof of our ability to live a sinless life, it is essential to understand more about sinlessness and what he faced than most people do.

To be sinless is not the same as being as God actually is, only how you understand him to be. There is a difference between fully knowing good and evil and choosing good over evil, based on what you presently know.

Jesus was born sinless, but he was not born flawless. Jesus was always perfectly reconciled to his understanding of the Father, but his understanding of the Father grew over his lifetime.²¹ As his understanding of the Father increased, he immediately and consistently lived according to what he learned. Jesus was the only man who has ever lived his whole life without violating his conscience. He never acted contrary to what he thought the Father would do in his place. Jesus was perfectly obedient to his understanding of what was best from the beginning, and his understanding of what was best improved over time.²²

Some denominations teach that Jesus had to be miraculously conceived to be free from original sin. Our ability to sin comes from the moral judgment that we gain as our bodies grow from infancy,²³ not the inheritance of judgment passed upon Adam.²⁴ Sin is a question of whether we choose against our capacity to judge what is best. Jesus did not inherit sinlessness as an invariable quality of his godhood. Jesus had the choice to sin, just as we all do. Jesus wasn’t sinless because he had to be, and none of us are sinful except because we want to be. Jesus was sinless because he did what no one else was willing to do, not what no one else was able to do. While all of us have chosen to sin in the past, we can adopt the example of Jesus from this point,²⁵ choosing to be sinless in the present and future.²⁶

Some erroneously think that Jesus was born free from any temptation to sin as evidence that we cannot follow his example of being sinless. If this were true, it would mean the scriptures are lying when they speak of how he was tempted by Satan,²⁷ the pain he endured,²⁸ the loneliness he suffered,²⁹ the disappointments he endured,³⁰ and by Peter’s suggestion that he did not have to seal his sacrifice with his life.³¹

Jesus did not have magic power to avoid temptation. Instead, he faced and conquered a lifelong series of temptations,³² proving that we could do the same and showing us how by doing so.³³ He was subject to all the temptations that we are, but he yielded to none of them.³⁴ The difference was not how difficult it was for him, but that, unlike all of us, he actually “suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.” (3 Nephi 11:11) He wasn’t immune from temptation, he simply chose to follow the Father instead.

Too many disregard Jesus’ life as proof that they can live without sin by claiming that he somehow had it easier than we do. None of the temptations we face are worse than what Jesus experienced.³⁵ Jesus didn’t operate under greater privileges than us. Rather, he operated under harder conditions than anyone.³⁶ Even in comparison to the two thieves who were crucified with him, he faced substantially worse conditions, being innocent of any crime and having been beaten nigh unto death. God only allows us to be subjected to temptations for which he has provided us the power to conquer or flee.³⁷ The Lord inherited this promise from the Father, just as we do.³⁸ The Father protected Jesus from temptations beyond what he could bear, just as he does for you and me.³⁹ His tribulations were present from the beginning and escalated in intensity⁴⁰ throughout his life.⁴¹

Jesus was sinless because he loved the Father more than sin. When presented with the option of continuing in the Father’s love or preferring sin, he always chose to love the Father. Whenever you sin, it is because your love for sin is stronger than your love for God. From this point forward, you can choose to follow the example of Jesus by loving God more than sin.

The Lord learned more about who he was little by little, just like you can

Life provides each person with time and experience to discover their strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to develop beyond the identity they inherited from their parents, ideally toward the potential that God sees in them. The Lord’s life is the ideal example of how to discover and develop your potential, but this lesson is lost when we assume that Jesus knew exactly who he was from the moment of his birth.

Christians assume that Jesus had greater certainty about his identity earlier than he did. The truth is that the Lord did not fully resolve who he was until the moment he said: “it is finished” and died.⁴² Until he completed everything the Messiah was meant to do, he could not with perfect certainty know that he was the one who would do it. The uncertainty stretching across his entire life formed a significant part of the difficulty of it. Every trial he faced, from the loneliness of his daily existence to the brutal crucible he endured in the end was salted by the ever-present possibility that he was not the Christ. Even as his confidence in his identity increased, Jesus understood, from the end to the beginning, that his being the Messiah was not guaranteed by anything but his willingness to actually do the things the Messiah would do. A review of the evidence provided for who he was helps temper the assumption that he would have had high confidence in who he was.

Joseph was reported as having had three dreams about Jesus. The first pronounced that Jesus had been “conceived...of the Holy Ghost” with the purpose of “sav[ing] his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21) The subsequent dreams concerned the danger posed by Herod, who would attempt to kill their son, warned him to flee with his family, and announced when it was safe to return (see Matthew 2:13, 19-21). The weight of the content of these dreams and their implications would have been considerable evidence of the importance of the baby concerned. However, these need to be weighed against the fact that they came through the low-confidence channel of dreams, and hardly contained enough information to substantiate the common assumption of how Joseph and Mary saw their son, let alone how he saw himself.

Mary had additional witnesses of who Jesus was. She was visited by Gabriel, who told her she would miraculously become pregnant and that her son would be the promised Messiah.⁴³ Her cousin Elizabeth provided an additional witness when she proclaimed by the Holy Ghost:

42 ...Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
45 And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. (Luke 1)

Shortly after the child’s birth, Mary was visited by shepherds who told her that an angel had appeared to them and announced that “a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” had been born (Luke 2:11). Foreign wise men visited the child, “fell down, and worshipped him,” and gave him expensive gifts. (Matthew 2:11) When Joseph and Mary presented the infant in the temple, they were met by a pair of holy individuals who were inspired to prophesy over the baby. Anna, a prophetess, “gave thanks...unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.” (Luke 2:38) Simeon, a man whom God had promised would not die before seeing the Christ (see Luke 2:26), proclaimed:

30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; 32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
33 And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him.
34 And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;
35 (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. (Luke 2)

As impressive as these events were, they did not reveal anything close to the scope of what we know in retrospect about the mission and works of the Lord, but rather echoed the limited expectations held by the Jews for the Messiah to be a temporal deliverer in the style of King David.⁴⁴ It is easy for us to interpret Mary’s experiences through a lens of historical certainty and clarity that she did not possess.⁴⁵ She knew that her son was meant to be the Messiah, but she did not understand what that entailed,⁴⁶ and we do not know how confident she was in her expectations. Her life would have featured changes to her interpretation of her revelations about and observations of her son, along with ebbs and flows of confidence in it. Far from a view that incrementally increased in detail and confidence, her doubt in his identity probably crescendoed at his death, where the bitterness of losing her only⁴⁷ son would have been mixed with the possibility that they had both been incredibly incorrect about who he was.

Jesus had many exceptional experiences, but were any of them sufficient to remove all doubt from his mind about who he was, what he had to do, and what it would be like?

Satan’s temptation of the Lord in the wilderness centered around one question: “ if thou be the son of God...” (see Matthew 4:3 and Matthew 4:6). If he knew beyond doubt that he was the son of God at this point, why would this be any kind of temptation? Interestingly, the question would be posed again at the end of his life as mockers at the cross jeered: “ If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” (Matthew 27:40)

None of us will face a life as difficult or a mission as exceptional as the Lord’s, but all of us will face situations where we are unsure of what the Lord has planned for us and whether we will be able to measure up to it. A more accurate understanding of the Lord’s own process of incrementally discovering his identity and mission can provide us with context, strength, and an example of how to operate in full trust in God, even when we don’t yet know the full picture.

The Lord received revelation line upon line, just like you can

The life of Jesus Christ provides a powerful lesson in how to incrementally increase in knowledge from God, and how to boldly act with confidence in spite of limited information. This lesson is lost when we assume that Jesus knew all things from the moment of his birth.

There are many mentions in the New Testament of Jesus knowing something about what he was meant to do before he did it or what would happen to him before it happened. For example, he knew when his end had come, that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he would return to him,⁴⁸ that he would be betrayed, that his disciples would flee for their lives, and that he would be crucified. The question is: when did he learn these things, and how?

Jesus did not know everything the Father did, especially not from the beginning. There were certainly things that happened that he was not expecting. He continued to be surprised throughout his ministry, such as in Gethsemane when he marveled at the burden of each of the three successive waves of increased suffering required to take upon himself the sins of the world, or on the cross when his expectation that the Father would always be with him was violated.⁴⁹ We know that there are things he learned along the way. John the apostle reported that Jesus progressed in his similitude to the Father over the course of his life.⁵⁰ In Luke, we read that “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” (Luke 2:52) We also know that there were things he didn’t know, even at the very end of his life. For example, he proclaimed that no man knew when he will return except the Father.⁵¹

In conjunction, these facts can only mean that Jesus operated under the same process of revelation that we all do, subject to the same rules, possibilities, and limitations. He was led by the Father, line upon line, through a mix of information of various levels of detail and certainty, and against the backdrop of ignorance, just like all of us are.⁵² His understanding, like all of ours, was like a dark city at night, with great clarity in certain areas because of the light received on them, no information on many other spots, and interpolation of all things in between.

Jesus was required to exercise the same kind of faith amidst uncertainty that all of us do as we receive less content or confidence in revelation than we wish. If Jesus was able to accomplish his mission in spite of limited information, you can too. If Jesus was able to move forward in faith in spite of imperfect information, you can too. If Jesus was able to obtain greater revelation through living up to his present understanding, you can too.

The Lord learned about his potential from the scriptures, just like you can

How did Jesus manage to memorize, process, live, and extrapolate the scriptures beyond those around him? Some would say that he had some special power that made it easier for him, but any special advantage Jesus possessed would void the example he provided and the sacrifice he made. Instead, he used the tools available to everyone then and now, but with greater heed and diligence than they chose to exercise.

The fact that Jesus was incredibly familiar with the scriptures is shown by his frequent quotation and intentional fulfillment of their contents.⁵³ In the Lord’s time, copies of the scriptures were handwritten, expensive, and rare. Most people would only have access to the scriptures through memorization and recitation of the copy held at the local synagogue. Those with much greater access to the scriptures marveled that Jesus could have known them as well as he did in spite of not having been formally trained in their contents.⁵⁴ The increased familiarity Jesus had with the scriptures over his peers—in spite of equally limited access to them—indicates how much more effort he exerted over the same experiences they had with them.

His example in developing proficiency in scripture is perfectly applicable to the modern world. How often do you think Jesus thought about the scriptures he heard each Sabbath? Do you think he only thought about them while they were being read, or do you think he frequently thought about them throughout the week? Do you think he listened with an academic perspective, as the scribes did, or did he actively think about his daily life and how he could improve based on what he heard? Do you think he relied on his religious leaders to teach him what the scriptures meant, or do you think he actively questioned the status quo? Do you think he limited what he learned to whatever the synagogue leader chose to teach about, or did he search out his own questions? Do you think he passively listened to what was taught, or do you think he extended the lesson with prayer and direct revelation?

The example of Christ in learning and applying the scriptures has special significance to learning about his character. After all, the Old Testament he had access to was full of prophecies about who and how he would be.⁵⁵ You not only have greater access to most of the material that Jesus had, you also have access to many other subsequent scriptures that even more thoroughly describe his character. Just like Jesus, you can use those scriptures to learn more about the character of Christ and gain stronger reasons to live that way yourself.

The Lord grew in power with God incrementally, just like you can

It is widely assumed that Jesus had greater power than he did, earlier than he did. If Jesus had a fullness of power from birth, how could any of us follow his example?

If Jesus was born with all the power of the Father, why aren’t earlier miracles recorded in the New Testament?⁵⁶ The simplest possibility for why there are no stories of Jesus performing miracles in his childhood is that there were none. Several aspects of his story support this probability.

As soon as Jesus began working public miracles, he was followed everywhere by a mob. If he had worked miracles before, how could they pass by the attention of the small village in which he lived, where the people reacted to the start of his public ministry by asserting that there was nothing special about him.⁵⁷ One possibility is that he worked miracles, but kept them to his family. It is not likely that such privacy could exist in such a small town, but if it could, why were his brothers among those who disbelieved in him after the start of his public ministry?⁵⁸ While Mary’s behavior at the wedding of Cana suggests that it wasn’t the first time she had seen Jesus perform a miracle, it is not improbable that she was merely hoping for a temporal solution. After all, by that time Jesus had cared for her for many years, she would have had countless examples of his ability to solve problems, and he was exactly the one she would ask for help if she needed it.

Regardless as to when Jesus began performing miracles, there is no reason to believe that he began life with any special powers. Everything he did and everything he received was done and received according to the same laws of cause and effect that we are all subject to, all of which require choices on our part, and all of which develop as we grow into the ability to make moral judgments for ourselves.

The Lord had incremental interactions with heaven, just like you can

Some discount the difficulty of the Lord’s life, the power he wielded, or what he accomplished by believing that he had frequent interaction with heaven that made this easier than it would be for anyone else. Many Christians assume that the Lord’s interactions with heaven came only because he was the Christ, and that they were far more numerous than those described in the gospels. Under such assumptions, the value of the Lord’s life as an example to follow in seeking and obtaining interactions with heaven is lost. The truth is that the Lord’s life provided an example of incremental interactions with heavenly visitors at significant and appropriate times during his life, and serves as a template for all others to follow.

If Jesus received so many angelic visitations, why are only three recorded? The first recorded instance of Jesus being visited by angels was after his long fast and temptation in the wilderness. The only other two stories of Jesus interacting with angels was his interaction with Moses and Elijah on the mount and an unnamed angel in Gethsemane. What if these were the only visits by angels he experienced? There are many people who have entertained angels more than three times. Some of them are alive today.

Many assume that Jesus must have had many angelic visitations because he was the most righteous man who ever lived. While righteousness is a criterion for angelic visitation, it is not the only one. The more righteous you are, the fewer the angels you need to visit you, and the fewer there are who have anything to offer you. What, exactly, could any angel do to help Jesus? The angels who ministered to him after his fast could have brought him food. Moses and Elijah did not minister to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, but rather the reverse. The angel in the Garden provided information to him that he did not have, which helped him decide to finish taking upon himself the sins of the world and sacrificing his life.

Jesus did not have greater access to angels than you or I. If anything, the conditions under which they could visit him were more constrained, not less. Angels are limited in their ability to visit those for whom their visit would deprive the opportunity to exercise additional faith, making them less likely to visit Jesus for at least two reasons. First, he had grown incrementally to have greater power than anyone else and, second, any angel who visited him would have given him additional witnesses of his identity and mission, if only in their obeisance to him. On both counts, angelic visitations would have prevented his expression of faith. Angels don’t come to make hard things easy for you. They come to make the impossible possible. Angels will not come to do for you what you could do yourself. This is why angels did not minister to Jesus during his trial with Satan, only after.

Jesus did not have special access to angels. He obtained interactions with angels the same way anyone else does. Because the same laws are in play for all, you can receive angelic ministration if you follow the example of Jesus. Exert yourself to your full capability. When you exhaust your resources, God will provide more, and he will use heavenly angels to do so whenever no earthly angels are available with sufficient capabilities and willingness.

Jesus heard the voice of the Father infrequently, and only after passing the same trials we all face

While Jesus described that he felt as if the Father had forsaken him while on the cross, many people assume that, until then, he had a constant, unbroken, instant, verbal line of communication with the Father. It’s impossible to approach an accurate understanding of the suffering the Lord endured while holding to the incorrect idea that he had access to the Father that extended beyond what anyone has who is equally obedient to him.

There are exactly three times when the Father is recorded as speaking in an audible voice to Jesus.

At his baptism, a voice from heaven was heard to say: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) Christians assume that this voice came only for the sake of John, whose mission was to testify of the identity of the Messiah, and that Jesus had heard the voice of the Father many times before, potentially even having regular and more involved interactions with him. But what if this was the first time Jesus heard the voice of the Father? What if, just like everyone else, the Lord had to strive to learn and live more like the Father for years before he heard his voice?

The next time the Lord is described as hearing the voice of the Father is at the Mount of Transfiguration (see Matthew 17:4-5). Just as at his baptism, the voice is directed towards a special audience—in this case, Peter, James, and John—further stressing the point that it was no light thing for anyone—including Jesus—to hear the audible voice of the Father.

The final time the voice of the Father is recorded is six days before the last passover, when Jesus explicitly says the voice did not come for him, but for those with him.⁵⁹ What if part of the Lord’s trial wasn’t getting to the point where he would hear the Father’s voice, but getting to the point where he would do the Father’s will without needing to? This theory is supported by the trial from Gethsemane to the cross, where Jesus “cried with a loud voice...My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)

Any special privilege that made his life easier than ours would void his purpose of demonstrating the example of how each of us must live. As far as we know, Jesus never received the voice of the Father when he was lonely, when he was tired, when he was sad, when he was unmotivated, or when he struggled to believe in himself. He heard the voice of the Father when John needed to know who he was, when Peter, James, and Andrew needed to know who he was, and when his disciples needed to know who he was. If we want to follow the example of Jesus, we will not seek the voice of the Father—or any other manifestation of his power—to rob ourselves of the trial of faith, but only to increase the faith of others. God’s power does not exist for our convenience, but to further his own purpose.