–by Allan Pole
The God of heaven and earth invites us into His family! The Apostle John describes who we are and what we will become in 1 John 3:1-3. Please take a few moments to read these verses.
The relationship between Jesus and His people grows because of who we are and what we will be.
The Apostle John is overwhelmed by the wonder of it all. The incompatibility of the world and Jesus Christ is a recurring theme in John’s writings. The world’s failure to understand believers should not surprise us because the world did not know Jesus or the Father He came to represent.
The world does not value the benefits that come with following Christ. The world does not understand that God has chosen poor, humble, despised ones to dwell with Him forever. The world does not recognize who we are. And there are times when we wonder about ourselves. Maybe we think too lowly or too highly of ourselves.
The Bible says we are children of God. These words can become trite and empty. Because we have heard them for years, we can flippantly say, “Oh yes, children of God, kids of the kingdom. It gives us warm fuzzies. How nice of God.”
Let’s not take the title “Children of God” so lightly! God didn’t intend it to be a quaint name tag. He wants us to know that He regards us as His children. God is our Father, and the Lord Jesus is our big brother. We now bear the family name given by our Heavenly Father to Jesus. As children of God, we have a destiny—to become like our older brother.
People of the planet see us in a surface way. The world will not tell us that we are children of God, but will identify and value us by different criteria.
Let’s look at ourselves the way our Heavenly Father looks at us. Who and what do you see when you look in the mirror? When your Heavenly Father looks at you, He sees Jesus. He sees His child.
We are children of God, and this is good news. There is even better news! The best is yet to be!
The relationship between Jesus and His people grows because of who He is and what we will see.
Think about it. We worship someone who is a loser by the standards of our world. He was poor. He was near the bottom of the social ladder. He was crucified. Few people saw—and see—that He is the Son of God. If they missed that of Him, we shouldn’t be too alarmed if they don’t do cartwheels over us and our loyalty to Jesus.
The world has misunderstood and underestimated Jesus and His people. What you and I are going to be hasn’t appeared yet. What will we be like when He returns? The Bible doesn’t tell us a lot, but it tells us enough. We are going to be like Jesus. We don’t know exactly what this will look like, but we have some ideas.
After His resurrection, but before His return to the Father’s right hand, Jesus could appear in a locked room as if He stepped through the walls. The Bible explains that we now have a physical body, but one day we will have a different body, a spiritual body. Maybe He will change our molecular structure. Even more significantly, He will transform our moral character. We are going to be like Him!
Why wait to get started? Everyone with this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. He calls us to be holy or set apart for Him and His purposes. The Bible describes the “now” and the “not yet.” We are already made holy and pure through our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Theologians call this “justification” or the “now.” The Holy Spirit works in us as we walk with Him each day. Theologians call this “sanctification” or the “not yet.”
To see Him is to be transformed. Do we want to be transformed into the image of Christ? Do we want to be more and more like Him every day? If we do, we must look at Him. The more we look at Jesus, the more we become like Him. We look at Him by looking at His Word. We look at Him by looking to Him for wisdom, direction and power. We look at Him by worshipping Him.
The Bible promises that we shall see Him in all His glory one day. Sooner or later, everyone—living, dead, humans, angels and demons—will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord.
A pastor filling in for a teacher of a young boys’ class asked, “What do you think Jesus was like?” The pastor expected an answer like, “He was a good man, a teacher or a carpenter. He was like God.” But no. One little fellow raised his hand and replied, “I think Jesus was like my Sunday School teacher.”
God offers us His family name. As a result, we live between the now and the not yet.
