Reading: 1 John 2:28–3:3
Do you ever feel stuck in your Christian walk? Perhaps the Lord has brought to mind unfair words of criticism you have uttered whether behind someone’s back or to their face. Perhaps the fight for purity in your thought life has you feeling discouraged. Today’s reading points us to two reasons to keep fighting and to be encouraged.
The first reason is the Christian’s new origin, we are called—and indeed are—“children of God” (1 John 3:1). John begins this section by using a term of affection for his audience, “little children.” This family phrase speaks to the respect and influence he knows he holds with them and their willingness to follow his teaching and example. The phrase, “children of God,” however, uses a different word for “children,” one that speaks to full rights as heirs within God’s family. We are able to own this new title because we have been born of the Righteous one, that is, born of Christ. When Jesus speaks of this reality in John 3, it is the Spirit who brings about this new birth (John 3:8). But John highlights here in his first letter that we are also born of Christ. As he was righteous in his incarnate life upon this planet, we have been born anew with his righteous nature. As we remain in him, we become righteous in our walk even as we already have his righteousness perfectly in our standing before the Father. (See 1 John 1:8–2:6.) In your fight against sin remember that you have been granted a new nature; you have been united to Christ’s righteous human life so that you may anticipate seeing that righteous life playing out in your own attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions. You are not stuck!
The second reason to be encouraged is that we have been granted a new destiny. And the chief treasure of that new destiny is that we will see Christ. It is fitting that our sanctification is perfected in the vision of Christ, for seeing Jesus has been the means of our sanctification from its very start. It is as we see Jesus in the preached word, in the ordinances, in our songs together, in our times of prayer—it is as we behold the Son that we become like him. (Notice we don’t become like him so that we can behold him.) So on the final day we will set aside every attitude, thought, word or action that is not like him because we will behold him in all of his glorious beauty. Thus the destiny of seeing Christ will transform us finally to be like him.
But dear Christian take note of one astounding truth that stands behind both our new origin in being born of the Righteous One and our new destiny of seeing Christ as he is. Both of these truths depend on the incarnation. It is the human righteousness of Jesus that we need to play out in our fallen and sin-sick humanity. It is the visible glory of Christ that we long to see on that day. Christ has condescended to ransom us, and in his condescension he granted us a new past and a new future. “And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (3:3).