So now, my little children, abide and endure in Him, so that when He is revealed when he returns, we will have trusting confidence and not have to shrink back and hang our heads in shame before Him. If you know that He is just and faithful, then you also perceive[1] that everyone who lives faithfully and acts justly in conformity to his will[2] has been born into a new life through Him as one of his children.[3]
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the people of the world do not comprehend us is that they do not know him.
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see[4] him (spiritually perceive him) as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves from moral defilement[5], just as he is pure[6].
Seeing – Being – Doing – Becoming
There is something about this pattern embedded in what we know about life starting with when we see something.
“I’ve been watching you dad, ain’t that cool. I’m your buckaroo; I want to be like you.” “Watching You,” Rodney Atkins
“You, I wanna be like you, I want to walk like you, talk like you, too. You’ll see it’s true, and ape like me can learn to be human too.” – “I Wanna Be Like You,” The Jungle Book
See someone working (fireman, when I was a kid) and we want to be like them (brave, strong, capable) and do what they do (put out fires and save lives).
We SEE them; we want to BE like them so we can DO what they do and BECOME a particular kind of person. This is the pattern John unfolds in this chapter.
We SEE Jesus (the previous verses from last week’s message show us how Scripture allows us to do this with the guidance of the Holy Spirit)
We want to BE with him by being born into new life in God’s family
We want to DO things in conformity with his will
We will increasingly BECOME like him
See. Be with. Do. Become like. That’s the order, the progression. So let’s look at these one at a time.
SEEING
“Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.[7] But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (from that veil).[8] And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:12-18)
In other words, “the more clearly we see him, the more we become like him.”[9] The Israelites in Paul’s day saw God through the Old Covenant in the Old Testament (“when Moses was read”), but they did not have the Holy Spirit’s illumination for what they were reading. The people of New Covenant do, and as we read “with unveiled faces” we are transformed into his image as we contemplate his glory. Jesus himself established this pattern after his resurrection when he was on the road to Emmaus with two guys who didn’t recognize him:
“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself… “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:27-32)
Of course, Jesus was still there in the flesh, and so while he started with Scripture, he made sure they recognized him in the flesh later. I mean, when Jesus was here, he was always the finale. But once he ascended, we see the pattern he used continued in Acts when Philip encounters the Ethiopian eunuch:
“Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.” (Acts 8:35)
In this case, Jesus was not there in the flesh for the Big Reveal; instead, the Holy Spirit illuminates the Scripture.
God has ways of making his presence known when there are no Bibles around.[10] But when you have access to a Bible, study the Jesus in Scripture. The Holy Spirit will do the work of turning knowledge of Jesus into an encounter with Jesus, but we need to see the Jesus we are encountering.
I recommend the Bible (obviously), The Jesus I Never Knew (Phillip Yancey), The Chosen (TV series), the Bible Project videos, and Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Kenneth Bailey), The Case For Christ (Lee Strobel) and Advent: The Once and Future Coming Of Jesus Christ (Fleming Rutledge) as starting points.
BEING
Tertullian noted that under the reign of Tiberius, children were sacrificed to Saturn; across the empire, children were killed “by drowning, or by exposure to cold and hunger and dogs.” [11]How different is God the Father, who has “lavished” love on his children (3:1)
“partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4)
“transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
brothers and sisters of our Savior (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:11-12)
This is about identity. This is about our new state of being once we are in the family of God. He has lavished us with the privilege of being in his family. We are now a child of God and a spiritual brother or sister of Jesus. If we have become something new, it’s because we first saw and responded to the One who can make us new. “I see who you are; now I want to be near you. If I am in the family, I want to bear the family resemblance.”
We can’t be another Jesus – there is only one God/Man – but we can be like him through a process called sanctification. We’ve talked before about the image of baptism as similar to when a cucumber becomes a pickle. A cucumber is immersed in brine and ferments; over time, a cucumber becomes a pickled cucumber, but we just call it a pickle because that’s its primary identity now.
When we commit our lives to Jesus, we ferment “in Christ” – we read the Word, the Holy Spirit works in us, we are in a family of God’s people, the power of God our Father and Christ our brother does a supernatural work in us. In this state of being – in this new identity - we find rest, confidence, stability, purpose, dignity, value, hope, love. The first answer to the question, “Who am I?” is, “I am a child of God, invited into His family by great grace and at great cost because God wants me as His child.”
DOING
We do what we are. A cucumber does what a cucumber does (ever seen Veggie Tales?); pickles do what pickles do. We do what we are.
· If you fish a lot, it’s because you are a person who fishes a lot.
· If you watch sports a lot, it’s because you are a person who watches sports a lot.
· If you find that you argue a lot…
· If you give to others generously and quietly…
· If you say things that tear people down…or build them up…
· If you pray for your enemies or curse them…
We do what we are. Luke wrote that there is a treasury in our hearts, and we bring forth good or evil things from it.[12]
But now we are children of God. The lavish love of the Father moves God’s children to purify themselves, “just as he is pure” (3:3) because we want to do everything we can to honor the family. If we will do what we are, then if our hearts have been made newly righteous at salvation by God, we will do the things that people who love righteousness and holiness do. This is what it means that by our fruit we will be known.[13]
The Old Covenant Jewish worshipers went through purity rituals before approaching God or entering His temple.[14] Notice how the practice of purification continues in the New Covenant, but in a different way and for a different reason.
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.”( 1 Peter 1:22)
Now, we don’t purify ourselves in order to be worthy to approach the house of God, because we are already in the family of God. We purify ourselves because we are in the house of God, with his family, and we don’t want to track dirt into his house and get his family grimy.[15]
There is a huge difference between creating our spiritual identity by what we do vs. displayingour spiritual identity by what we do. We can create a cultural identity by what we do – we can be known for something – but in the Kingdom of God, our identity is given to us, not created by us, and what we do displays that identity.
I don’t try to love my enemies because I want to be a child of God; I do it because I am a child of God. That is what children of God are intended to do.
I’m not honest on my taxes, or kind to my wife and kids, or forgiving to those who wrong me, or gentle with my speech, or generous with my money, or careful with my sexual purity because I want to be a child of God; I do those things because I am a child of God, and that is what children of God are intended to do if they want to bear their Father’s image as He intended.
A word of caution here. We want those outside the family of God to live as if they are in the family of God. Often this is because we see the wages of sin with clarity and our hearts break, or we have so experienced the goodness of the path of righteousness that we want others to experience it. Fair enough.
We want to live in a culture that shares our family values. They don’t. Why? They aren’t in the same family. What is the solution? They must see Jesus. Right now, that’s through His Word and through His people.
If there is a cucumber side of you that feels like you were born to help bring order to that cultural chaos through politics or activism of some sort, cool. It’s not like we can’t seek to offset the effects of sin while introducing people to Jesus. But don’t forget that your primary identity is that you have been pickled into the Kingdom (man, I love that I get to use that phrase in a sermon.)
Right now, if I would ask the people who know you, “Talk to me about that person,” would their first, gut-level response have something to do with the new, pickled you – that is, the child of God soaked in the brine of the Word and the Spirit and the blood of Jesus, who is now characterized by Christ in you – or the cucumber you?
I can think of a number of things that I increasingly worry characterize how people might identity me. I have been involved in a lot of things I am passionate about as a teacher, a blogger, and pastor who loves engaging the church and the culture in the pursuit of truth.
But if my legacy among those who know me well starts with anything other than the equivalent of, “That dude loved Jesus and it permeated everything he was and everything he did,” what am I doing?
You are welcome to say anything else at my funeral eulogy. You can say how much I bugged you, or how I talked about Crossfit too much, or how unorganized I was, or how I picked too many arguments, or how I imperfectly tried to start conversation on politics and ethics and cultural issues. You can say I talked too much instead of listening. You can say that I let you down or failed you, because if I haven’t already I will, and you can be honest in my eulogy. You can be nice, and talk about whatever cucumberish things you admired about me, and I mean, that would be cool too.
But none of that matters if my legacy as a child of God is not defined by being known primarily as a child of God who saw the Father, and wanted to be in His family, and then lived as a child of God that just kept looking more like his Father.
Everything else fades away. Only what’s done with Christ and for Christ will last.
BECOMING
What are we becoming? There is coming a day when Christ will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philemon 3:21) and we will be as fully as possible like him, because we will fully and clearly see him as he is. That is who we are intended to become. There are a lot of ways to talk about heaven. Here is one way. In heaven,
We will see God fully and clearly.
We will be completely in His unfiltered presence.
We will say and do (doxology and worship[16]) whatever we say and do in the New Heaven and New Earth in perfect accordance with what God made us to do.
The hard, messy work of sanctification will be over because our transformation into the image of Jesus will be complete. Finally J
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[1] There is a change of verb from ‘if ye know’ (ἐὰν εἰδῆτε) to ‘ye know that’ (γινώσκετε ὅτι). The former means ‘to have intuitive knowledge’ or simply ‘to be aware of the fact’ (1 John 2:11; 1 John 2:20-21): the latter means ‘to come to know, learn by experience, recognise, perceive’ (1 John 2:3-5; 1 John 2:13-14; 1 John 2:18). ‘If ye are aware that God is righteous, ye cannot fail to perceive that &c.’ Comp. ‘What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt understand (get to know) hereafter’ (John 13:7); ‘Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou perceivest that I love Thee’ (John 21:17): and the converse change: ‘If ye had learned to know Me, ye would know My Father also’ (John 14:7; comp. John 8:55). Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges
[2] díkaios (an adjective, derived from dikē, "right, judicial approval") – properly, "approved by God" (J. Thayer); righteous; "just in the eyes of God" (Souter). See 1343 ("dikaiosynē). ["Righteous" relates to conformity to God's standard (justice). For more on the root-idea see the cognate noun, 1343 /dikaiosýnē ("righteousness").] 1342 /díkaios ("righteous, just") describes what is in conformity to God's own being (His will, standard of rightness); hence "upright." HELPS Word Studies
[3] gennáō – properly, beget (procreate a descendant), produce offspring; (passive) be born, "begotten." HELPS Word Studies
[4] horáō – properly, see, often with metaphorical meaning: "to see with the mind" (i.e. spiritually see), i.e. perceive (with inward spiritual perception). HELPS Word Studies
[5] 1 John 3:3. The duty which our destiny imposes. ἐπʼ αὐτῷ, “resting on Him,” i.e., on God as Father. Cf. Luke 5:5 : ἐπὶ τῷῥήματί σου, “relying on Thy word”. ἐκεῖνος, Christ; see note on 1 John 2:6. ἁγνός also proves that the reference is to Christ. As distinguished from ἅγιος, which implies absolute and essential purity, it denotes purity maintained with effort and fearfulness amid defilements and allurements, especially carnal.
[6] hagnós (an adjective, which may be cognate with 40 /hágios, "holy," so TDNT, 1, 122) – properly, pure (to the core); virginal (chaste, unadultered); pure inside and out; holy because uncontaminated (undefiled from sin), i.e. without spoilation even within (even down to the center of one's being); not mixed with guilt or anything condemnable. HELPS Word-studies
[7] “Some think that Moses’ veil was to protect the Israelites from being harmed or frightened by the brightness. More likely, the veil was to keep them from seeing that the glory was fading away because of the temporary and inadequate character of the old covenant (Ex. 34:29–35). By contrast, Paul needs no veil, for the glory of the new covenant ministry does not fade away.” (ESV Reformation Study Bible) The Old Covenant offered transient glory. (King James Study Bible Notes)
[8] “Wherever this Gospel is received, there the Spirit of the Lord is given; and wherever that Spirit lives and works, there is liberty, not only from Jewish bondage, but from the slavery of sin - from its power, its guilt, and its pollution.” (Adam Clarke) Charles Stanley adds we are free from struggling to “become righteous through self-effort.”
[9] Expositor's Greek Testament. The Orthodox Study Bible adds more detail:
The work of the Holy Spirit brings liberty (v. 17), freeing us to behold God and have open access to Him. Created as the image of God, we see His uncreated image, the Son, the glory of the Lord (v. 18; see 4:4–6)… through the Son's deified humanity (see 1Co 13:12; Jam 1:23–25… in the power of the Spirit. As we behold Him, we become what we were created to be.
[10] “When Muslims Dream Of Jesus.” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/muslims-dream-jesus/
[11] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the New Testament
[12] Luke 6:45
[13] Matthew 7:15-20
[14] John 11:55 and Acts 24:17-18
[15] “Only he who habitually does righteousness is a true son of the God who is righteous; just as only he who habitually walks in the light has true fellowship with the God who is light (1 John 1:6-7).” Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges
[16] Hat tip to last week’s message :)