Young People's Group

We Shall Be Like Him

by Pastor Mitch
May 22, 2015

Appreciating The Great Love Of God Given To His Children

We must never lose this sense of wonder at the love of God. The apostle John wrote in his first epistle about his deep appreciation concerning God’s matchless love. This was what he wrote:

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.” 
1 John 3:1

John gave a strong exhortation for his readers to see the great extent of the love of God. They were meant to deeply appreciate how wonderful the love of the Father is when He gave us the privilege of being His children. For God, the Lord of heaven and earth, to graciously call us to be His children in itself is a great honour! Who are we, wretched sinners, to deserve even such an opportunity! Even if the world does not acknowledge and know us because it does not know personally the Lord God, it should not really matter to us. The gift of God’s love supersedes all earthly friendship. The gift of God’s love was given to us a long time ago and its effects continue to be on us. God showed forth His love by giving His son Jesus to be with us and die for us (John 3:16). His love is also seen in wanting to fellowship with us as we walk in the light (1 John 1:3). He is also just and faithful in forgiving us and cleansing us of our sins (1 John 1:9). There is also the privilege of knowing Him more (1 John 2:14). Truly, let’s also never stop wondering at the Lord’s great love!

Possessing The Great Hope As Children Of God To Be Like Jesus One Day

“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 
1 John 3:2

It is indeed a great privilege to have this status of being called a child of God. Once we are children of God, we can never stop being His. The stative verb “are” is in the present tense. This is an eternal state of being. And because we are children of God, there is the future hope that we will be like the Lord Jesus. However, it has not been fully revealed to us what we will be like in the future. We have only some understanding concerning what we would be like in the afterlife. And yet, all of us can have this perfect hope that when Christ comes for us in His second coming, we would become just like Him. Paul wrote in the text of 1 Corinthians 15:49 of how we will bear the image of the heavenly Man, who is Christ. We will be changed in a twinkling of an eye at the rapture, for corruption will put on incorruption and mortality will put on immortality! This is our great hope. And we will see Jesus face to face. We see Him as He really is. This is so amazing!

Pursuing The Great Challenge To Be Pure As Jesus Is

“And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” 
1 John 3:3

Seeing Jesus one day as a child of God brings a tremendous sense of hope to our heart. Because we would meet Him face to face one day, our challenge is to be ready to see Him. We want to be the best as we can to be like Him. If we have this hope, we would seek to purify ourselves. The word “purify” is in the present tense. It is something that we must constantly do. We would seek to be cleansed from all our sins. The apostle John wrote of how when we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and with the Lord (1 John 1:7). And the blood of Jesus would cleanse us. When we also pray and confess our sins before our heavenly Father, He would forgive us and cleanse us of our sins. Young people, let’s seek to do all we can to purify ourselves of our sins. Let’s hide His word in our hearts that we may be pure in heart. We want to be just like Him, One is fully pure. And when we do finally meet Him, He would be pleased with us.

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