Drive down almost any highway, and you will pass dozens of billboards. Some advertise restaurants. Others promote attorneys, vacation destinations, or the newest phone. Every one of them is trying to direct your attention somewhere else. A billboard is never the destination. It simply points people toward what it believes is worth seeing.
In many ways, our lives function the same way. Every day, people are watching us. Before they ever hear us teach a Bible class or ask us about our faith, they observe our patience, priorities, speech, reactions, and the way we treat others. Whether we realize it or not, our lives are constantly advertising something.
Paul expressed this same truth with a different image when he wrote to the Corinthians, “You are our letter…known and read by all men” (2 Corinthians 3:2). In Paul’s day, believers were living letters that the world could read. Today, we might picture them as billboards people pass every day. The illustration is different, but the principle is the same: our lives continually communicate a message. Are we advertising Christ…or something else?
One of the greatest misconceptions about Christianity is that God’s primary goal is simply to make us behave better. The gospel certainly changes our conduct, but God’s purpose reaches much deeper. He is making us like His Son. Paul writes, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory…” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
In context, Paul has been contrasting the fading glory associated with Moses and the old covenant with the surpassing glory of the new. But notice what happens to those who behold the glory of the Lord: they are “being transformed into the same image.” Christianity is not simply about learning to look more religious. God is changing His people so that Christ becomes increasingly visible in them. Paul says elsewhere that believers were “predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29).
Think about one of those digital billboards along the highway. Sometimes one image begins to fade while another gradually comes into view. For a moment, you can almost see both. That is not a bad picture of the Christian life. There are still things in us that need to fade: pride, selfishness, impatience. Yet as we continue looking to Christ, something else should become clearer: His humility, His compassion, His patience, His love. Less of us. More of Him.
That matters because every billboard points somewhere. The tragedy would be a billboard whose entire message was simply, “Look at me.” Yet spiritually, that is surprisingly easy to do. We can draw attention to our accomplishments, opinions, congregation, knowledge, or even our own faithfulness. Paul deliberately rejected that mindset: “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord” (2 Corinthians 4:5). The messenger was never supposed to become the message.
John the Baptist understood this beautifully. As Jesus’ ministry grew and John’s influence diminished, he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). He understood that attention moving toward Christ was exactly what was supposed to happen. Every life is advertising something. Some advertise success. Some advertise comfort. Some advertise politics, possessions, or self. The Christian life is meant to advertise Christ.
And there ought to be some truth in our advertising. If we claim to represent Jesus while our lives are characterized by anger, selfishness, dishonesty, harshness, or an unwillingness to forgive, what are we communicating about the One whose name we wear? This does not mean Christians must be perfect before they can represent Christ. If that were the standard, none of us could. It means the image ought to be changing. Christ should increasingly be visible.
Jesus pointed to one characteristic in particular when He said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). He was not describing superficial niceness. Rather, this is the kind of love Christ demonstrated…love that serves, sacrifices, forgives, and seeks another person’s good. John later wrote, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God,” adding, “No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us” (1 John 4:7, 12). No one has seen God with physical eyes, yet people can catch glimpses of His character when His children love as He loves.
Peter even seems to envision Christians living in such a noticeably different way that people begin asking questions. After describing lives marked by humility, blessing those who mistreat us, and faithfully enduring suffering, he tells Christians to “always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). We rightly emphasize having the answer, but notice something else: someone asked the question. Why? Because they saw something different in you. Our lives will never replace the gospel, but sometimes the life we live makes its goodness easier to see.
Jesus said, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Notice the direction. They see our works, but they glorify our Father. The billboard gets noticed, but the billboard is not the destination. Our lives are supposed to direct attention beyond ourselves to God.
So perhaps we need to ask a simple question: What is my life advertising? When my family watches me, when my coworkers listen to me, when people see how I respond to disappointment, disagreement, or mistreatment…what are they seeing? Are they seeing primarily my opinions, accomplishments, and personality? Or are they beginning to catch glimpses of Christ?
Thankfully, the answer is not to try harder to create the appearance of Jesus. Paul points us somewhere better. As we are “beholding…the glory of the Lord,” we “are being transformed into the same image” (2 Corinthians 3:18). We keep looking to Christ. We keep listening to Christ. We keep following Christ. And slowly, like an image changing on a billboard, something begins to happen.
The old image becomes a little less visible. His image becomes a little clearer. Until, more and more, when people look at our lives, they do not simply see us…They see the One we are pointing to.
