“We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2 NKJ ).
Yes, there will come a day when our faith shall be sight, as Horatio Spafford penned in 1873. As the clouds roll back like a scroll, and the King of Glory descends – we shall see Him as He is.
As the Word of God declares, it is at this time we shall be completely changed. “This corruptible must put on incorruption” (1 Corinthians 15:53a NKJ). The completion of the transformation of our corruptible human nature as it is swallowed up in victory being completely clothed in the incorruptible nature of Christ. All erroneous perceptions and nuances we have of Him will be erased, liberating us from any misconceptions and ill-conceived perceptions of Him. We shall see Him as He is! The eternal purpose of God will be accomplished as we are in perfection made in His likeness – in the image of God. Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9 NASB ). Jesus is the image of God. And as we see Him without the veil of our flesh, we shall be completely like Him. And so it is fitting that this mortal body shall put on immortality. Our mortal body shall cease to exist as it was and shall be replaced with the same type of glorified body Jesus was given (see Luke 24:36-39; John 20:26-29). The mystery of God will be complete. The salvation of our spirit, soul, and body will be complete! For beloved, when He appears we have this confidence: we will not be destroyed in judgment, but because of the redemptive power of His blood and the regeneration of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we will be completely transformed into His likeness – we shall be like Him! For alas, we shall see Jesus as He is!
As He Is
What does this… mean? In Acts, the angels declared this same Jesus shall return. Consider it, “this same Jesus.” We know our bodies shall be changed and they will be like His glorified body. We are assured there will be no more hunger, tears, pain, or death. We know that we will not sin, or even have an appetite for sin anymore. The affections of our flesh, our fallen nature, will be gone along with that corruptible nature. Yet this is where our contemplations concerning this change generally stop. There is more to this bold-as-life portrait of Jesus than what meets the eyes of our understanding. The same Jesus, whom the disciples followed is the same Jesus that met with them multiple times in His resurrected and glorified (spiritual) body. This same Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. This same Jesus rose to His feet as Stephen looked up and declared His view of the open heaven of Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father as the stones pelted Stephen to death. This same Jesus is the same “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and yes forever” (Hebrews 13:8 NASB). “Seeing Him as He is” certainly includes seeing Him as He was, for as He is, He was. And as He was, He is. For He is the same always and forever! It is vital that we truly know and understand what this means. For we must and we shall see Him as He is and not how we think or perceive Him to be. The power of our transformation then and what God has for us now is contained in this revelation: seeing Him as He is.
When Jesus descends from heaven, He will finish what He began in us, for our perfection will be complete. We shall be like Him. Period! Yet what is finished at that moment, in the twinkling of an eye, is what every child of God should already be passionately pursuing. We should be reaching for the prize of the high call of God in Christ, which is not being an apostle, pastor, prophet, teacher, or evangelist, but a Christ one. One who has obtained this singleness of purpose: to journey into the fullness of Christ becoming Christlike. We are to become full-stature Christians – literally, Christ ones! It is for this reason that God has provided us with a vantage point that we might get a well-rounded view of the likeness of Christ.
What Jesus finishes in us at His return begins with this reality: we become like Him as we begin and continue to see Him more clearly as He is. The passage in 1 John 3:2 not only reveals the prophetic revelation regarding what happens at the return of Jesus, but it also reveals a powerful truth: we become like Him as we see Him as He is. This journey begins when the Father reveals to us that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God (see Matthew 16:17). Through the conviction of God’s Spirit, we encounter two realities: we know and own our spiritual need for salvation, AND we see Jesus in the light of who He is as our Savior, Redeemer, and Deliverer. From this point forward, God continues to draw us to Him so that we, like Zacchaeus, would get a better view of Him with each encounter with Him. He desires to dine with us (see Revelation 3:20) so that we may fellowship and commune with Him throughout our lives on this side of eternity. The result is that we become more Christlike; we shall be like Jesus. It pleased the Father long ago that we shall be like Him – conformed to the image of His Son. Transformed by the power of His love and grace.
Jesus: The Completeness of Love
In our passage from 1 John 4, John writes about love being perfected, or having its full course and coming to full maturity within us (see 1 John 4:12 AMP). This love comes from God; it does not originate in us. Our first full view of this love was revealed in Jesus Christ for He is the completeness of love. Because the love of God is foreign to our nature and our hearts cannot produce it, we are enabled to love because He loves us. As this love has its full course and comes to full maturity, we will love as Jesus loves. Again, He is the completeness of love, and He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34 NASB emphasis mine). This was a new commandment because it could not have been fulfilled before. It showed up in Jesus! The love wherewith we love others is measured to the standard of the fulness of love in Christ, and therefore it originates in Him and works its full course with us so that we love as He loves us.
Jesus possessed a heart that functioned in full forgiveness. He was full of mercy – lovingkindness. He had an unoffendable heart. When He was reviled, He reviled not again. When He was persecuted, falsely accused, beaten, and crucified, He took no offense. Instead, He prayed a prayer of mercy: “Father forgive…” (see Luke 23:34). We too must love like this. We must also have an unoffendable heart. Just as this love does not originate from us, neither do we have a heart that cannot be offended. So to become like Him, we must have a heart like His; we must possess the heart of Christ. And herein we know that God abides in us when we love as He loves.
You might say, “That’s well and good, Hal. But how? This seems like an impossible standard.” This whole process is worked into us by the Holy Spirit and through the interexchange between us and God. This love begins in us when we first encounter our Savior’s love when we are saved. This love can only abound as we are led by the Holy Spirit to a fuller realization of our spiritual needs as we are convicted of areas of sin, compromise, and deception in our hearts. Through this loving process we are made pure, and “the pure in heart shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). Through this loving process, we do not encounter condemnation from God, but rather forgiveness and those who are forgiven much will love much(see Luke 7:47). As the love of God has full course, we become like Jesus – loving others as He loves.
Jesus – God in Submission; God in Authority
Jesus demonstrated all authority because He maintained Himself under authority – the authority of His Father. Jesus commended the centurion for having great faith because he said, “I also am a man under authority…” (Matthew 8:9a NASB emphasis mine), and made the point that being under authority was the source of great power. Multiple times, Jesus stressed He neither said nor did anything of His own initiative (see John 5:30; John 8:28). The works that He worked, and the power and authority that He demonstrated were solely the result of the outflow of His submission to the Father. He could only triumph over death, hell, and the grave because He submitted His will to the Father even to the point of death as He prayed, “Nevertheless not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42 NKJ). We must see the life of Jesus as God in submission. Through submission to the Father, He demonstrated the authority given to Him. His authority never circumvents the Father’s authority, will, and purposes. Through total submission to the Father Jesus declared, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18 NASB).
Too often our walk with God is a contradiction to Jesus’ walk with the Father. Too often is the phrase our walk with God nothing more than an oxymoron. The presumption of our desires and plans is often elevated to faith that we expect God to bless. On the other hand, there are things that we challenge and doubt elevating our unbelief to a form of wisdom. We claim humility. Yet the outflow of humility is submission. We boast of submission to God while excusing our lack of submission “to one another in the fear of God” (Ephesians 5:21 NKJ). Could it be we gloss over the reality that submission to God is demonstrated through our submission to one another? If we will be like Jesus, we must obtain the measure of humility and submission found in Him. As the love of God has its free course in our lives, meekness and humility take shape in our hearts and are manifested through submission. Through submission, we obtain Spiritual authority to exercise the initiatives that come from God. Herein lies the release of the working and demonstration of God’s power in and through our lives.
Jesus: Seeking and Saving the Lost
Jesus explained, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10 NASB). Everywhere Jesus went, all that He said, and all that He did attested to the salvation of God and revealed the love and glory of God to all. The rejected of society, those condemned by the religious, and those who failed God were those Jesus sought out. In fact, He is attracted to those in need. Jesus was criticized and condemned by the religious because He sat with those of ill reputations and those who were unclean. He did more than offer salvation from a platform of convenience, daily He made His way into cities, neighborhoods, and homes (and even the temple!) to seek out those who were lost.
Seated at the right hand of the Father, He continually makes intercession for us and also for His sheep that are lost. He is the good shepherd who leaves the 99 to find the one that is lost(see Luke 15:4). While many apply this to a person who strays from God and recognizes the importance of recovering them, Jesus is also referring to the sheep that are not yet in the fold (see John 10:16). These are they whom He seeks to find and save. Through you and I Jesus continues to seek and save those who are lost. What Jesus began to do and teach He continues through His Body (see Acts 1:1). You and I belong to His Body. Through you and I He seeks and saves those who are lost.
It is not enough that we pray for the lost and our society and communities. It is not enough that we just pray for the nations. Just as Jesus came into our world to save us, so must we go into the “worlds” of other people to save them. We must seek for those who will be saved. We’ve been called to feed His sheep – including those who are not yet a part of the fold! Intercession begins with prayer and is consummated with action led by God’s Spirit.
The Holy Spirit makes intercession through us in prayer (see Romans 8:26-27). The same Holy Spirit goes before us and goes with us as we, in submission to what Jesus commanded, go into the world and make disciples (see Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:19). Led of the Spirit, in love for God submitted to Christ, and moved by the compassion of the love of God intercession completes its course when we come forth from the Holy Place of His Presence in prayer and go into the world bringing heaven’s cargo destined for those who are lost! Our destiny is to become Christlike. Yet are we like Him in seeking and saving the lost? We must leave the restraints of our comfort zone, and take up our cross here. We are sent with the same commission as Jesus. We share it in common with Him. He declared, “As the Father has sent me, I also send you” (John 20:21 NASB emphasis mine).
Jesus – Communion With the Father
Jesus’ life was a life of prayer. He did more than say prayers. He had more than just a prayer life. His was a life of prayer. He makes intercession for us even now (see Hebrews 7:25).
When He prayed, He prayed until He had communion with God. In communion, He presented and shared Himself with the Father. In exchange, the Father presented and shared Himself with Jesus. Through this interexchange, Jesus maintained His relationship and position with the Father. It was through this interexchange that Jesus acquired what He would say, and gained the authority and power for what He would do. In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see this. Jesus presents Himself to the Father, “Let this cup pass from Me…” (Matthew 26:39c NASB). Here he emptied Himself and gave His will to the Father: “Yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39d NASB). This is communion.
When we pray, we must too enter into communion with God where we experience the interexchange between our heart and His so that we obtain more and more of the heart of Christ. As we empty our hearts of our resistance to God, our struggles, and sin, we have room to acquire His grace as we receive of His nature – His character and virtues. In this communion, we partake of His blood and partake of the true bread of life (see John 6:48=51). In this, we abide in Him and He abides in us, and we become one with Christ (see Ephesians 5:32). We become like Him as we encounter and see Him as He truly is.
Father, I know so much more can be shared. I pray that what is shared will make its way to our hearts. I pray that we become passionate in our pursuit of becoming like Jesus. I pray that your anointing will open our eyes to see and that your grace will transform our hearts. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hal Garms eWord Messages 