The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 3:2-3,
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
Here is a fascinating thought! We shall be like Jesus Christ! What does that mean?
John tells us that we are now children of God. Not later, but now. Our family affiliation has changed. In verse 10 John talks of two families of children, the children of God and the children of the devil. For those of us who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith, we have changed families. This is something that took place the moment we turned to the Lord and is the permanent status we have now: today and forever.
Later, however, when he appears we will be “like him”. John tells us what we will be has not been made known yet, but we do have some clues in the pages of Scripture. We read in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
This will take place when the Lord returns for us as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, “According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
We see that we will be “changed” when the Lord returns for us. A part of this has to do with our bodies. Paul points out that today we wait eagerly for the “redemption of our bodies”. In Romans 8:23-25 we read, “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Paul’s introduction to Romans 8 is found in Romans 7:24, a chapter where he talks of the hopeless condition we are born into with a sinful nature, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
It is through Jesus Christ that we will be changed. We will finally leave this sin nature of ours behind as the Lord comes for us and our bodies are changed like his glorious body. We read of this in more detail in 1 Corinthians 15.
As for me, I can’t wait. We have a wonderful future ahead of us that the Lord has made us for!
Here is a fascinating thought! We shall be like Jesus Christ! What does that mean?
John tells us that we are now children of God. Not later, but now. Our family affiliation has changed. In verse 10 John talks of two families of children, the children of God and the children of the devil. For those of us who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith, we have changed families. This is something that took place the moment we turned to the Lord and is the permanent status we have now: today and forever.
Later, however, when he appears we will be “like him”. John tells us what we will be has not been made known yet, but we do have some clues in the pages of Scripture. We read in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
This will take place when the Lord returns for us as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, “According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
We see that we will be “changed” when the Lord returns for us. A part of this has to do with our bodies. Paul points out that today we wait eagerly for the “redemption of our bodies”. In Romans 8:23-25 we read, “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Paul’s introduction to Romans 8 is found in Romans 7:24, a chapter where he talks of the hopeless condition we are born into with a sinful nature, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
It is through Jesus Christ that we will be changed. We will finally leave this sin nature of ours behind as the Lord comes for us and our bodies are changed like his glorious body. We read of this in more detail in 1 Corinthians 15.
As for me, I can’t wait. We have a wonderful future ahead of us that the Lord has made us for!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.
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