Word for Wednesday
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2
I am sure you have seen workplace notices such as the one that says ‘You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps.’ Or the one that says, ‘We are all nuts, every one of us. It’s just that some of us are screwed onto the right bolt.’ Well, good news, fellow nutty Christians, it’s you and me who are screwed onto the right bolt. We look about us and wonder at the insanity of a world that is shutting out the only source of true satisfaction and joy. We can’t understand how the poor lost souls can go on in their deadly sin while a free and full salvation awaits them for the taking. We shake our heads at the madness of those who sell their bodies and souls to destructive habits and fatal lifestyles. But it is the world that thinks us mad. ‘They think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you’ (1 Peter 4:4). There is no question that faithful, godly, witnessing Christians stand out in stark contrast to the world around us, so that sometimes we might seem to be from a different world. Actually, we are from a different world; we just haven’t arrived yet. And the difference there will be far greater than it is here.
Our text declares that we are now the sons of God. That’s not easy to describe, because it will take our entire lifetime to learn what it is to be a child of God, and an entire lifetime to display that relationship as we should. As a son or daughter of God, we have rights and responsibilities. Our rights include access to the full banquet of God’s blessings and promises. Our responsibilities include the great commandment, to love one another, the great commission, to spread the Gospel, and the great Example, the Lord Jesus, to imitate and follow. The more we appreciate our rights and exercise our responsibilities, the more we will be changed into the sons and daughters that our Lord desires us to be. But the really big change is still awaiting us.
‘Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed’ (1 Corinthians 15:51). With these words, Paul unfolds to the Corinthians (and us) the mystery of the Rapture, the truth that even for those of us who remain until the coming of the Lord, we will not enter Heaven in the same corrupt and sin cursed bodies that we dwell in here. We speak of the elimination of tears and sorrow in Heaven, of the replacement of pain with eternal comfort, of swapping the disappointments and regrets of earth with everlasting bliss. But speaking of it doesn’t mean we understand it. We can’t. We lack the facilities to know what Heaven will be like. And it’s not just our bodies that will change. So too will our minds, as they will be filled with the knowledge of God. Our occupation will change from the fleeting and fatal pursuits of earth to the exploration of the riches of the grace of God. Our desires for the empty cisterns and holey bags of earth will be replaced with an eternal passion to adore the Lamb and praise Him forever.
John reminds us that our eternal condition does not appear to us yet. But he assures us that the very best part of it is that we will be like our Lord, for we shall see Him as He is. – Jim MacIntosh