"Hope Is Fulfilled by Christlikeness" (1 John 3:2)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/29/2024 11:28 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  “Hope Is Fulfilled by Christlikeness”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  1 John 3:2

 

            Message of the verses:  “2 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.”

 

            As one looks at this verse they can come to the conclusion that heaven is very attractive for believers, and the reason is because there believers will not only see the Lord Jesus Christ, but will become like Him.  Now concerning that dramatic and eternal change, the apostle Paul wrote the following in 1 Corinthians 15:49-53:

 

“49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. 50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

 

            John MacArthur writes “Even though all who exercise saving faith in the person and work of Christ now…are children of God (cf. Rom. 8:14-18), it has not appeared as yet what they will be when they experience what Paul called ‘the freedom of the glory of the children of God’ (8:21).  It is then that ‘the Lord Jesus Christ…will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself’ (Phil. 3:20-21; cf. Ps. 73:24; Rom. 9:23; 1 Cor. 15:42-49; Col. 3:4; 1 Thess. 4:16; 2 Thess. 2:14; 2 Tim. 2:10).  As a result, believers will be like Him, because they will see Him just as He is.  God has promised to bring about such a climactic transformation because ‘those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among ma brethren   

(Rom. 8:29).  That transformation will make the redeemed perfectly holy and righteous, with a pure capacity to worship and glory God in a totally satisfying, joyful, undiminished fashion forever (cf. Rev. 5:11-14).

 

            “It has been rightly said that imitation is the highest form of praise, and this transformation will be a supreme tribute to Jesus Christ—that He is the Chief One, the prototokos, among many who are made like Him.  Those whom the Father has elected to salvation through the Son will be made like the Son, conformed to the image of Christ.  He will be the first among His elect and redeemed humanity who will join with the holy angles to praise and glorify His name, reflect His goodness, and proclaim His greatness, as they worship Him endlessly.”

 

12/29/2024 11:59 PM