Exploring 1 John: We Become Like Him
1 John 3:2 - We are His Children and will see Him and become like Him!
”Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.“
1 John 3:2 NASB1995
When I began researching this single verse in 1 John 3, one that I seriously don’t remember from doing a rote “Bible in One Year” reading [I did that over and over again for years before I realized that writing and researching is the best way to gain understanding of the Bible], I was stunned at how many commentators said that this was one of the most profound statements in the New Testament. The respected and learned pastors and Bible scholars were almost afraid to try and tackle this one in sermons and messages, because they felt inadequate to bring light and understanding and wisdom to bear on what John wrote.
Well…I’m a rank amateur Bible scholar (but a believer) who learns a minuscule iota more each day that I do these devotionals, so that hesitation from the masters of the Bible was certainly intimidating to see. But I will plumb my resources for some bits of wisdom on 1 John 3:2. The first part of this verse repeats the idea that we are Children of God, NOW, but we are not quite certain what we will be at that future time. Here is what Enduring Word says about this part of the verse:
Now we are children of God: Our present standing is plain. We can know, and have an assurance, that we are indeed among the children of God. Romans 8:16 tells us, The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. If you are a child of God, you have an inward assurance of this.
It has not yet been revealed what we shall be: Though our present standing is plain, our future destiny is clouded. We don’t know in the kind of detail we would like to know what we will become in the world beyond. In this sense, we can’t even imagine what we will be like in glory.
“What we are does not now appear to the world; what we shall be does not yet appear to us.” (John Stott)
“If I may use such an expression, this is not the time for the manifestation of a Christian’s glory. Eternity is to be the period for the Christian’s full development, and for the sinless display of his God-given glory. Here, he must expect to be unknown; it is in the hereafter that he is to be discovered as a son of the great King.” (Charles Spurgeon)
It is a great unknown what we shall be like, but we can discern just the edges of this future glory now in our limited imaginations. It’s like walking this path in the photo below, with only a short distance visible to us in the soft light and the intriguing possibilities of what lies beyond the curve on the path, impelling us to continue onward (and upward).
From Precept Austin, here is what the late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, an influential British preacher and physician, said about this passage:
I suppose we must agree that nothing more sublime than this has ever been written, and any man who has to preach upon such a text or upon such a word must be unusually conscious of his own smallness and inadequacy and unworthiness. One’s tendency with a statement like this always is just to stand in wonder and amazement at it. I have never chosen, in and of myself, to preach upon this text. I have often felt that I would like to, but there are certain great words like this in Scripture of which frankly I am, in a sense, frightened; frightened as a preacher, lest anything that I say may detract from them or may rob anyone of their greatness and their glory. That may be wrong, but this is how it always affects me…
What we have here is one of those great New Testament descriptions of the Christian and of the Christian’s life in this world. A number of things inevitably must strike us on the very surface before we come to any detailed analysis. The first thing is how utterly inadequate are our ordinary, customary ideas of ourselves as Christian people. When you read this, and then when you think of yourself and what you generally see and observe about yourself and about your life as a Christian in this world, oh, how inadequate are all our ideas!
Our dutiful and mundane ideas of what it is like to be a Christian and be a Child of God are inadequate, as Lloyd-Jones states so well. Because we are Children of God, we have to understand this position and conduct ourselves appropriately (as John will note in 1 John 3:3). I like this advice from Pastor Steven Cole that I found in Precept Austin:
Godly conduct rests on our understanding of our true, great position as children of God. If you begin to see this truth and allow it to shape your identity, it works out like this: You are tempted to engage in some sin or to join the world in some degrading form of entertainment. But you think, “I can’t do that because I’m a child of God and it would disgrace the name of my heavenly Father.” Or, you’re reading the Bible and it convicts you that some of your behavior is not godly. It may be lustful thoughts or a grumbling, ungrateful attitude or words that put down others. Perhaps you frequently bend the truth to cover up your own misdeeds. But when Scripture confronts you, you think, “I’m now a child of God. I can’t do that as a member of His family.” Your new identity motivates you to grow in holiness. John begins with the foundation of our present position.
Now what about the rest of this passage, that we will be like Him when He appears, because we will see Him just as He is? I dug around in quite a few resources, but decided that I got the most out of the commentary in Enduring Word; this is rather lengthy but definitely worth reading a few times. For those who might question the perspective of this commentary, here is a Link to David Guzik’s statement of belief.
We know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is: We are not left completely in the dark about our future state. When Jesus is revealed to us, either by His coming for us or our coming to Him, we shall be like Him.
The Bible speaks of God’s great plan for our lives like this: For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29). God’s ultimate goal in our lives is to make us like Jesus, and here, John speaks of the fulfillment of that purpose.
This does not mean that we cease to be ourselves, full of the distinct personality and character God has given us. Heaven will not be like the Nirvana of Eastern mysticism, where all personality is dissolved into God like a drop into the ocean. We will still be ourselves, but our character and nature will be perfected into the image of Jesus’ perfection. We will not be “clones” of Jesus in heaven!
The Christian should long to be like Jesus, yet remember that God will never force a person to be like Jesus if he doesn’t want to. And that is what hell is for: people who don’t want to be like Jesus. The sobering, eternal truth is this: God gives man what he really wants. If you really want to be like Jesus, it will show in your life now, and it will be a fact in eternity. If you don’t really want to be like Jesus, it will also show in your life now, and it will also be a fact in eternity.
We shall be like Him: This reminds us that even though we grow into the image of Jesus now, we still have a long way to go. None of us will be finished until we see Jesus, and only then truly we shall be like Him.
We shall see Him as He is: Perhaps this is the greatest glory of heaven: not to be personally glorified, but to be in the unhindered, unrestricted, presence of our Lord.
Paul said of our present walk, For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known (1 Corinthians 13:12). Today, when we look in a good mirror, the image is clear. But in the ancient world, mirrors were made out of polished metal, and the image was always unclear and somewhat distorted. We see Jesus now only in a dim, unclear way, but one day we will see Him with perfect clarity.
Heaven is precious to us for many reasons. We long to be with loved ones who have passed before us and whom we miss so dearly. We long to be with the great men and women of God who have passed before us in centuries past. We want to walk the streets of gold, see the pearly gates, and see the angels around the throne of God worshipping Him day and night. However, none of those things, precious as they are, make heaven really “heaven.” What makes heaven, heaven, is the unhindered, unrestricted, presence of our Lord, and to see Him as He is will be the greatest experience of our eternal existence.
What will we see when we see Jesus? Revelation 1:13-16 describes a vision of Jesus in heaven: He was dressed in a long robe with a golden [breastplate]; His head and His hair were white as snow-white wool, His eyes blazed like fire, and His feet shone as the finest bronze glows in the furnace. His voice had the sound of a great waterfall, and I saw that in His right hand He held seven stars. A sharp two-edged sword came out of His mouth, and His face was ablaze like the sun at its height. (J.B. Phillips translation) This isn’t the same Jesus who walked this earth, looking like a normal man.
At the same time, we know that in heaven, Jesus will still bear the scars of His suffering on this earth. After Jesus rose from the dead in His glorified body, His body uniquely retained the nail prints in His hands and the scar on his side (John 20:24-29). In Zechariah 12:10, Jesus speaks prophetically of the day when the Jewish people, turned to Him, see Him in glory: then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. Zechariah 13:6 continues the thought: And one will say to him, “What are these wounds between your arms?” Then he will answer, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”
We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is: John made the connection between seeing Him as He is and our transformation to be like Jesus. We can say that the same principle is at work right now. To the extent that you see Jesus as He is, to that same extent, you are like Him in your life.
We can say that this happens by reflection. “When a man looks into a bright mirror, it makes him also bright, for it throws its own light upon his face; and, in a much more wonderful fashion, when we look at Christ, who is all brightness, he throws some of his brightness upon us.” (Charles Spurgeon)
I love this and plan to re-read it often! Someone we knew in this life (and if they were a believer) will recognize us in the next life because we will retain perhaps the character and appearance that we had in this life. But we will also become like Jesus!! We will also see Him in all of His Glory! Our glory is insignificant compared to that promise. Trust in the eternal guarantee that Jesus has given us if only we would believe!
My next devotional examines 1 John 3:3 - We want to purify ourselves.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - I am so blessed and grateful to be called a Child of God. Help me to continue to grow into this wonderful state and to know that I will see You and be like You when I depart this dark and mortal life. I pray the words of this hymn by Richard Baxter, written in the 1600s (from Precept Austin):
Lord, it belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give.If life be long, I will be glad
That I may long obey;
If short, yet why should I be sad
To soar to endless day?Christ leads me through no darker rooms
Than He went through before;
He that into God’s kingdom comes
Must enter by this door.Come, Lord, when grace hath made me meet
Thy blessed face to see;
For if Thy work on earth be sweet,
What will Thy glory be?Then shall I end my sad complaints
And weary sinful days,
And join with the triumphant saints
Who sing Jehovah’s praise.My knowledge of that life is small;
The eye of faith is dim:
But ’tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with Him.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.
Precept Austin was accessed on 5/3/2024 and 5/4/2024 to review commentary for 1 John 3:2.