the incarnation - God became one of us

Some of the following thoughts are more implied than explicitly stated in scripture. I feel however it is worthwhile to consider these things as long as we understand we can not hold on to things too firmly unless they are clearly supported by scripture and aid us in better knowing, loving, and trusting God. Possibly by offering the below thoughts, others can bring forth more direct support from scripture for or against the things I discuss and whether they are in line with the overall message of scripture. 

Now to the topic at hand.

Prior to the actual event, the incarnation - i.e. God taking on flesh and blood and living among us - was only a thought in the mind of God (Father, Son, and Spirit) from all eternity past, which had not and did ¹not take place until the actual event occurred i.e. though settled from eternity past in the mind of God. It had not occurred in actual time and space prior to then. Time is real because created things are real and time matters... at least in this present existence. 

The incarnation - and all related events - occurred in real time (even though scripture says Christ was slain before the foundation of the world). Scripture indicates the decision of Christ's dying to restore mankind back to His Father was a settled matter from all eternity past before the ²actual event occurred. The ³timeless God had in some mysterious manner entered into and participated in time on an intimate and personal level. God, out of His infinite love, for the first and only time, had inextricably bound Himself to his creation through an observable, measurable act of sacrificial giving of his very being in and through Christ. 

Because all of this involved creation, we - as creatures - could (and can) relate to it - and also to God because of it. Which is exactly why God did it by His own choosing. He desired to connect with us on a level we could relate to. As one of our pastors once said, "in some actual way, God bound up his own happiness with ours." 

The creation and the rebellion of man was also the means by which Christ put His love for His Father on display in a way He had not and - I would argue - could not if not given the opportunity to act in actual time and space before a watching world or if the Son had not acted upon that opportunity - i.e. had failed to complete the task/mission given by the Father. 

This also displayed a love for us in a way we would not have fully known and could not have appreciated in the same way if we ⁴had not rebelled. 

The creation, our rebellion, the incarnation of Christ, and restoration of man were all opportunities for the Son to more fully demonstrate His love of and for the Father; and demonstrate the Father and Son's love for us, His image-bearers. 

Christ willingly and obediently took on the suffering of entering this broken world as a man and took on the cross to honor his Father. This allowed him to act on the love he always had from all eternity past for and with the Father in a new way. Not because the Father needed proof of His Son's love but so the Son could put on display, by direct and personal action, how great his love for his Father was; which also demonstrated how Great His Father was. 

In turn, this says to us, if Christ's love for the Father was great enough to give up everything for it, how great the Father must be and worthy of this same love from us. 

All of this was, in fact, a way for the Son and Father to act out their love for each other in a new and fuller way. Not to prove their love for each other but to demonstrate it to us more fully through circumstances that had not occurred prior to creation i.e. through ⁴man's rebellion, Christ's incarnation, and the restoration of mankind taking place. 

The love of the Son for the Father was so great that Christ gave up full communion with the Father, for a time, not just to demonstrate his love to the Father but so others might also see and take part in it. He was so moved by his Fathers love he longed for others to partake of it as He did. 

The "others" piece of this is evidence that this act was an overflow of the love between the Father and Son for others - not to get something from creation that God lacked but by and through creation, experience something of Himself He had not yet experienced. 

God acts out of the fullness of who he is, not out of lack or need. He, who is the source of life, love, and all things, needs nothing. He has always had Himself. Everything apart from Him depends on Him for existence. But could we say the creation, rebellion, and redemption of mankind allowed God to more fully take part in who He is through the incarnation of Christ? It is an interesting question we likely will not get the answer to fully until eternity? 

Christ's love for us was so significant He gave up, in some unfathomable way,  something of the preciousness of his communion with his Father and of his ⁵status - or at least the dynamics of the relationship changed - so he might bring others into that same communion with the Father he knew from all eternity past. 

And maybe he, in some incomprehensible way,  gained something more (different) of and from the Father, and gave something more to the Father, by bringing others into that union between the Father, Son and Spirit.

None of this came about because of anything lacking in God but out of the fullness of who He is and his desire to share Himself with others so they too might know the joy of the union and fellowship between Father, Son, and Spirit.

Christ now knows the joy of seeing the love received and rejoiced in by those He gives it to; the Father first and those the Father gave to the Son. A love only possible because of his actions, i.e. Christ - at least for a time - gave up something of the most precious, full and unlimited union and communion with his Father so others might also have it for all eternity (2 Cor 8:9, John 15:11; 17:13; Matthew 25:23). And in giving and sharing it, he finds great joy (Hebrews 12:2)

  

Showing our love by our actions is the most complete way of expressing our love. Words and thoughts are important, but actions provide the opportunity to give evidence of the love we feel and speak of (or in the case of the Son and Father, had felt and spoken of to each other from all eternity past). We are this way because God is this way. We are in his image.

For a fuller discussion on God taking part in time click here. 
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¹This also means the reason Christ died - our sin - was also determined from eternity past i.e. God knew from all eternity past that mankind would rebel from their original design.

Some argue since time is not a part of God's existence but a part of the created order, God knows and sees all things as equally present. So the events of Christ's incarnation, life, death, and resurrection as a man did not occur in sequence to God as they do for us, who exist in time. Yet because of Christ's incarnation - his becoming a part of creation - they did. Though we may not find specific passages in scripture that state this explicitly, these are conclusions we can draw implicitly from other things about God we know from scripture, such as his omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. 

²Then again, since everything is present to God, he possibly has already experienced it on some level. A mystery of the Infinite eternal God who stepped into time as a man.

³when we understand that God, before creation, had not taken part in or been "restrained" by time, we know the extent to which God in and through Christ "limited" himself for our sake. 

⁴I think this partly explains why the angels are so intrigued by our redemption. They can't relate to it because it is alien to them. Possibly they are fascinated by God's pursuit of us in love - the extent of it - even when we don't fully love Him in return. Because of our redemption and also being in the image of God, we will experience the glory of God in a way the angels will not, which in part, might explain why we are higher than angels and the highest of all God's creatures. 

⁵maybe for eternity as Christ is still a man - and God - whereas before he was not confined to a local body but was everywhere present along with the Father - though the various theophanies may indicate Christ was localized before the incarnation, certainly at least for brief periods of time. We are uncertain if these were only specific manifestations at the time or the ongoing state of His existence prior to His incarnation. Christ's birth seems to indicate these prior manifestations were temporary, not His state from eternity past. 

What is interesting is even though God appeared as a man in these theophanies, those who experienced them had an obvious sense they were not dealing with a mere man. There was something about these appearances that clued them they were dealing with more. But we are not given an explanation of exactly what that was.

Abraham: Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant.” (Genesis 18:1–3)

Jacob: Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. . . . And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.”

And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” (Genesis 32:24–25, 28–30)

God binds himself to time

Christ honoring his Father by becoming a man, stepping into time, and taking on the suffering of this broken world, allowed him to act on his eternal love for the Father in a way he had never done before. He not only demonstrated his love for us as needy and lost rebels but also demonstrated his love for his Father in a new and unique way. 

Not because the Father needed proof of his Son's love, or Christ needed to prove His love for the Father, but so the Son could demonstrate the greatness of his Father and his love for him ¹in a way he had not before. 

We get a hint of the uniqueness of this when we are told that Christ "learned obedience through the things he suffered." - John Piper suggests (and I agree), this was not Christ going from disobedience to obedience, but Christ going from untested obedience to tested obedience - Christ's love for the Father was put to task, if you will, for the first time in a new and unique way. His temptations and choices were very real with real significance. 

It was this same love that moved God to create us, then restore us even after we set aside and abandoned our love and trust in him. 

The love of Christ was so great (for both his Father and us), Christ gave up the preciousness of his full glory and communion with his Father and set it aside (for a ³time) so he might bring others into that same eternal union, communion, and glory he knows and has known from all eternity past. 

And in so doing he now also knows the joy of honoring and pleasing his Father in a way he had not before by seeing this love received and rejoiced in by others (others outside of the Father, Son, and Spirit); a love drawn out of others for his Father, made possible only because of the sacrifice he made. Christ gave up something of that which was most precious to him (the constant, unobstructed, uninterrupted love of his Father) so others might also have it (John 15:11;17:13; Matthew 25:23). And in giving it, he found (finds) great joy (Hebrews 12:2)

As the Father sends me so I send you

  

In the same way that Christ demonstrated his love for the Father by his actions, our showing love by our actions is the clearest way of expressing our love for him and others. Words are important, but actions give evidence of the love we speak of. This is why Christ asked Peter three times to feed his sheep if Peter truly ²loved him. Don't just say you love me, Peter, show me. This is also why we are told that if we love Christ, we will keep his commandments. True love always results in actions.

Before the actual act of the incarnation, love ⁴involving sacrifice by Christ was only a thought that had not been acted out and expressed in the way it was; a thought in the mind of God (as Father, Son, and Spirit) from all eternity past that took place at a specific time in a way it had not occurred before the actual event. There was real action in real-time. Since everything is present to God and known by him this may be hard to fully grasp but is nevertheless clearly what occurred. 

The timeless God for the first time, somehow limited himself in and by time, ⁵entering into and participating in time itself. God for the first and only time, interjected himself into his creation (and specifically toward us, his image-bearers) through Christ and inextricably bound himself to it (us) in love from that point on and for the rest of eternity. Christ has a body he did not have before the incarnation - a ⁶glorified body but a body just the same. A permanent change he willingly partakes in for the honor of His Father and us. 

John 17:5  And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence (again) with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 

John 17:22  The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 

John 17:24  Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 

For a fuller discussion on God taking part in creation through the incarnation click here. 
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Footnotes:

¹When love is true it moves one to act on behalf of the one(s) loved.  Acting in love is the completion of it i.e. perfect love is not just a feeling or only words, it is more. It is acting out and upon those feelings. If there is no action there is no true (perfect) love. 

²Christ kept asking Peter regarding agape, not phileo, with which Peter kept responding...

Joh 21:15  So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love G25 Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love G5368 You." He (Jesus) said to him (Peter), "Tend My lambs." 

Jesus asked (3x) "do you agapao me..." 

G25 - ἀγαπάω - agapaō; of unc. or.; to love: - beloved (8), felt a love for (1), love (1), love (75), loved (38), loves (20).

Peter kept answering (also 3x) "You know that I phileo you..."

G5368 - φιλέω - phileō; from G5384; to love:

Thayer Definition:
1) to love
1a) to approve of
1b) to like
1c) sanction
1d) to treat affectionately or kindly, to welcome, befriend
2) to show signs of love
2a) to kiss
3) to be fond of doing
3a) be wont, use to do

³Even though the length of time Christ suffered wasn't eternal, it was infinite i.e. the depth of his suffering made up for the length i.e. it was equivalent to the eternal suffering he spared others from; the extent of his suffering was the equivalent to all suffering throughout eternity for all those who receive him. This was because of the extent of His suffering i.e. losing the infinite wealth and glory of His being for a short time was as great as losing a smaller amount of wealth by a large number of beings for eternity. It had to be in order for His sacrifice to be accepted as a sufficient exchange of life for the death He spared us from. And Christ may experience some loss throughout eternity in being not just God but also a man i.e. he will experience some form of limitation as the God/man that he didn't experience when He was the infinite Son of 

God of all eternity past. Yet he may also experience some kind of gain by being able to continue to participate in creation as a man - albeit a glorified one. 

⁴Possibly this is what is meant by God "knowing good and evil." Because God is not restricted to or by time regarding his knowing all things, in a very significant way (if not in real actual time) he and the Son also knew of the death of the Son prior to it actually happening, while still really and truly participating in this at the time it occurred. We get a hint of this when we are told that Christ "...was slain before the foundation (i.e. creation) of the earth..."

⁵Which tells us how much God values His creation...so much so He gladly took on qualities of creation - i.e. time - to bring to us eternity. This merging of creation with eternity also occurs when God units heaven with earth for all eternity. God loves and values His creation.

Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

⁶This is very significant on many levels. One is our new glorified body will be the same glorified body Christ now has. Christ's glorified body allows him to be fully God in a way he was in His pre-incarnated state i.e. His former glory as God the Son has not only been restored but I think we have good reason to think it's also been enhanced. The body Christ now has is the same kind of body we will have. We will never be God but we are like God - in Him image. The significance of this may be far greater than we can now comprehend. 

What is our eternal reward?

"...for eternity we are growing in the realization that we need God for everything, and yet in that neediness, we are fully and abundantly satisfied in all he provides." – Kyle Strobel, "Formed for the Glory of God" page 97

Note in the above quote the tension of continued growth in eternity while experiencing complete satisfaction at the same time. How does this occur? 

Strobel explains our understanding of our need for God throughout eternity is always increasing - after all, He is infinite, with no end or bottom and we are like Him with the capacity to experience him with ever increasing fullness. We will therefore never reach the height, width, fullness, or depth of His being. 

Yet, we are also always filled up to our present capacity at any given time. So there will never be a time we are not increasing in our experience of God while being full at the same time. God is not changing or getting bigger, our capacity and experience of Him is. 

But that process begins now. The degree to which we will experience him in eternity is determined by the extent of our faith in Him in this life. When we go into eternity, if our capacity to experience the fullness of God is only a thimble that will be the extent of our experience of Him upon entry. If a bowl, barrel, or an ocean we will experience Him accordingly. We will experience more of Him to the extent we have a larger capacity to experience Him.

Once we go into eternity our understanding of Him will continue to grow. The question then becomes, what capacity do you wish to enter eternity with… that of a thimble, a barrel or even an ocean? 

Either way, there will never be a dull moment throughout all eternity. Things will always be progressing and expanding. Hard to grasp but exciting to consider. 

It begins now...by faith

The realization of our need for God starts in this life at the beginning of our ¹new (spiritual) birth and increases in this life as our trust in God grows. Our experience of God also continues to progress  throughout eternity as our knowledge and communion with God grows.

What we should strive for in this life is greater faith so that we might have a greater capacity to see and experience more of God in eternity. God is our goal and reward i.e. Scripture seems to indicate our ability to enjoy and honor God in eternity will be in proportion to our faith in and faithfulness to Him now. Now we live by faith in ever-increasing degrees. Faith is the means by which we increase our capacity now to enjoy our greatest reward later i.e. God himself!

Whatever satisfaction in God we find now occurs by faith. Satisfaction will continue in the ²next life but firsthand - i e. by direct experience instead of by faith. Now our walk with him involves faith, hope, and love. In eternity faith and hope will no longer be necessary, only love. As we see God and the vastness of God's love more fully our love for him will continue to grow.

And because love will be experienced directly - face-to-face - it will also be full (according on our capacity), uninterrupted, and overflowing. We will be glorified. Our limitations - lack of faith - will no longer exist for we will be like Him and see him as he is in all his glory and love (not  quantitatively but qualitatively i.e. not in completeness but in substance). While faith and hope will cease and are no longer necessary, love remains. 

Mat 5:10  "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
Mat 5:11  "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 
Mat 5:12  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (what causes their blessed state and makes their reward great is the testing of our faith by means of struggle and persecution). 

Luk 6:22  "Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 
Luk 6:23  Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. 

1Co 3:8  He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor (labor inspired or driven by God's Spirit in us vs labor performed for the approval of others and by mere will power i.e. the labor of faith versus the labor of performance. For a further discussion on this click here).  

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¹the Spirit of God, given at our spiritual birth and now indwelling his children, is our guarantee of better things to come i.e. the fact that we have been given God's Spirit is our guarantee we will be with God in all his infinite glory one day. 

Why? His Spirit can not indwell an unclean vessel. If we have His Spirit we are and must be clean, not because of our efforts or faithfulness but because of Christ's. By this, we know we will be with Him in eternity.

²Not that we do not experience any evidence of this love by tangible provision of material needs now, but these are merely a drop in the bucket to aid us in advancing his purposes now and for our enjoyment i.e. we can not depend on these as proof of God's love. God promises in this world, you will have trouble. Material blessing will ebb and flow; God's love will not. The completed work of Christ, to restore us to the Father in the fullness of his love, is our primary proof of the greatness of that love. There is no greater evidence. 

This is a past historical event with ongoing and expanding benefits both now and throughout eternity. The face-to-face union with Jesus and the overflowing joy/bliss of that union is our primary reward and hope.

Knowing God but not fully yet!

Understanding the "already... not yet" aspect of the gospel (good news) is vital. This addresses how we are seated in the heavenly's but have yet to be in heaven. Without a clear understanding of the difference, we will not enter into the benefits of what God has already secured for us in this life. 

This involves a clear understanding and faith in who we are in Christ right now vs who we are not yet but will be one day. This concerns how we are viewed by God now vs how we will experience God in eternity.

To gain a solid understanding of this key component of the gospel (good news), we need to differentiate between our ¹legal status (standing) before God and our actual experience of God.

What do we mean by the expression "already but not yet?"

Christ already fully loves us (just as much as He will in eternity), but we have not yet experienced that love to the full extent we will in eternity.

God is already fully committed to us, totally engaged in our good, and fully present with us now (just as much as He will be in eternity) but we do not yet see him face-to-face i.e. we are not yet without any obstructions, or distractions and fully in his presence (though His love and care are perfectly and fully set upon us now and every moment in Christ...in Him, we live and move and have our being).

We are totally delivered from the ultimate legal consequences of our past, present, and future rebellious distrust of God. But we are not yet presently or fully delivered from all the practical consequences of that rebellion or from being in a broken, rebellious world and wrestling with the day-to-day struggle of our own distrust. We ²still wrestle with trusting God perfectly even as His children - in the same way Christ did (though Christ did without sin i.e. he always obeyed. We often do not).

For now, what connects and brings something of - ³but not all - the glorious future blessings God has in store for us into the present, is faith. 

Faith in what? Faith that God is fully committed to us and engaged in our lives as much now as He will be in eternity. And He is working in all things for our good for those who love Him, even if it doesn't seem or feel like it presently. And He is using all things good, bad, and ugly to draw us into greater union with Him, who is life, love, and the source of all things.

In this present existence, the just - those who are legally and perfectly right before God because of Christ - live by faith. Faith is the evidence of what we hope for (confidently expect) and the certainty of things not yet seen (Heb 11:1) i.e. faith in what is already perfectly ours - though not yet fully ours in our day- to-day experience. By this faith, we bring something of our glorious future of overflowing joy and delight into the present. The more we agree with and trust in what we now have (God's perfect acceptance, commitment, and love) the more we experience something of it but do not yet fully have, i.e. the full experience and participation in what is already ours legally. 

You could say God has all of us now as much as He will ever have (regarding His complete acceptance, love, and devotion to us) but we do not have all of God yet. God is always working through all our experiences in this life to move us more in that direction practically/ experientially, to align us more fully with what has already been earned for us legally. Christ already fully took care of the legal part i.e. "It is finished."

No matter how much faith we have it will not result in the ³full experience we are yet to have in eternity i.e. we are not glorified yet with all its benefits. Glorification is real and something different from our present experience. Something will happen to us that is not yet happening. 

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Only in eternity will all tears, pain, and death be eliminated. Only then will the rest of creation be fully delivered from the corruption, pollution, and decay of its present bondage.

Yet, at the same time, we are already glorified in the eyes of God.

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified (a present reality). Rom 8:30. 

Our present existence consists of pain and suffering. For now, we primarily experience God by faith. But there are times He will give us glimpses of His infinite love providentially, i.e. we will experience something of His involvement in our day-to-day lives circumstantially. And if we are about advancing His purposes, this involvement may be very significant - just nowhere near the same level we will see in eternity.

In eternity, we will experience God fully and directly without interruption, in all the fullness of His glory, face-to-face. Now we relate to God through faith, hope, and love. In eternity, love will be central if not the only way we relate to Him. Who hopes for what they already fully have or must trust what is fully seen?  

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. - 1 Cor 13:12‭-‬13

"...then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known..."

This wording is deliberate and specific. It says our experience of God (knowing Him perfectly) is not yet full even though God's disposition of love and commitment to us (and knowledge about us - including our sin) is i.e. we are fully known (and loved) by God even though we do not yet fully know (and love) Him. 

This suggests the reason we will one day fully know him is because He already fully knows and embraces us now in our brokenness i.e. he knows everything about us, good, bad, and ugly, and fully receives and embraces us in Christ.

For a further discussion on how we know God now vs in eternity click here.

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¹Because of Christ the disposition God has towards us now is exactly the same as it will be in eternity i.e. perfect and total love and acceptance. We will be no more loved by God in eternity than we are right now. The difference will be our experience of that love. It will be different because we will be different (glorified) and face-to-face with him vs seeing him now through a glass darkly (in a mirror dimly) i.e. we now live by faith, not by direct sight, as we will one day be in His direct and unobstructed presence.

The only reason we are equally loved and accepted by God now as we will be in eternity is Christ. He took the full consequences of our rebellious unbelief onto himself and assigned his perfect obedience and the right standing he earned with the Father fully to us. In the eyes of God, we are legally, perfectly, and fully received and embraced in the same way, and as much as the eternal Son of God is...the Son of His eternal and infinite affection. We are now seated (legally established) in the heavens, but not fully (physically) present there yet.

²God seeks to eliminate that wrestling as much as possible by increasing our faith and removing our doubt as we faithfully pursue Him.

³Though a great deal of the energy and effort expended by many believers is to secure all the benefits of heaven here and now. This is sometimes referred to as the "health and wealth" gospel or the "prosperity" gospel. To assume this, does not recognize the benefit of struggle and the importance and necessity of strengthening our faith through it.

For an excellent, more technical article on the "already, but not yet" teaching in scripture click here.

Transformed by glory

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he (Christ) appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 1 John 3:2-3

As children of our loving heavenly Parent (God), we are cherished. Yet, we are still not complete/mature but only infants or very young children at best. Who we are created to be, has yet to be fully realized or revealed to ourselves or others.

Our "becoming" who we are ultimately designed to be won't be complete ¹until we see God in all the fullness of His love, beauty, majesty, worth... in a word, His glory. To see Him in this way, through direct experience - face to face - will perfectly confirm first-hand (not just by faith) that God is for us. 

We know He's for us now, but only by faith (sometimes it feels like He's against us). We will know then, by sight. We have only been told what Christ did for us, and we believe it. We weren't there to see and experience firsthand his earthly ministry - as well as his death, burial, and resurrection. ¹When we step into eternity, He will be right in front of us and we in front of him, looking into each other's face and eyes. We will see the physical scars in His hands, feet, and side as evidence of His love for us personally for the first time and throughtout all eternity as a reminder of why He is with us and we are with Him. 

We see this transformation mentioned in the above passage but also alluded to in the following two passages.

Now:

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. II Cor 3:18

In eternity:

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. I Cor 13:12

All three passages speak of beholding Christ and how this transforms us. It is either implied or stated directly that this seeing is presently ongoing and progressive, but also incomplete. 

Whether this seeing occurs now or in eternity, these passages tell us seeing is the means or mechanism by which we are changed. Something about Christ, who he is in the fullness of his glory and particularly who he is for us, becomes clear (complete) in a way it is not now. Seeing Christ results in our transformation in ever-increasing degrees now, but will only occur completely in eternity. 

In what way will we be like him?

3 related questions:

*What is it about seeing Christ fully as he is that transforms us?

*How are we not seeing him now? 

*In this seeing, how are we not simply transformed but specifically made like him? 

Christ is single in his focus and desire to honor his Father. His vision of the Father is so clear and so perfect, He is in constant rapture with the beauty of the Father. This resulted in a corresponding love for Him that is so great it ²moved Christ to love us in the same way he loves His Father by stepping out of the bliss of his face-to-face beatific view of the ³Father, ⁴into our broken world, with all its pain and suffering and taking on human form. He did this so we too might be together with him and His Father to behold and partake (share) of the infinite love of the Father along with Him. 

As a result, we too will one day have as perfect and pure a focus on and longing for Him in the same way He does for Himself i.e. between the Father and Son. There will no longer be distractions or obstructions. There will be a singleness of focus resulting in singleness of action i.e. we will behold the fullness of his glory and be so enthralled and enlivened by his beauty, wonder, majesty, and greatness we will desire, without distraction or interruption, to extol Him and conduct ourselves in such a way that brings the greatest honor to Him simply because it will be clearly apparent -- infinitely more than now -- that He is worthy of all honor. The greatness of his glory -- his great worth/value to us  -- will be seen and experienced so perfectly and fully, that we will see, experience, and realize He is the fulfillment of all our desires. It is God that has been missing, and we have longed for all our lives, even if we didn't fully realize it. We will experience, for the first time, that he is all we've ever truly desired, longed for, and sought after throughout our lives and He will be right in front of us and perfectly ours and we will be His, with no obstruction, interruption, or distraction. Think in terms of presently being separated from the love of your earthly life for an extended period and eagerly anticipating being reunited and never apart again. 

How does hoping for this cause us to want to be pure? ...everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 

The more we come to love and trust him now, the greater our capacity to behold Him as He truly is in eternity. 

Everything we go through now, good, bad, or ugly is designed to help us see him more clearly and fully now but especially in eternity. The more clearly we see him now the more we will enjoy him in eternity. He is our reward in eternity for our faithfulness to Him now, in this life.

Knowing (hoping for) this moves us to draw nearer to him in greater devotion now, in this life. Learning to depend on and draw ⁵strength from God today increases our capacity to appreciate and experience him "tomorrow" in eternity. This is our reward, God himself. HE is the reward of our faithfulness. This hope moves us to even greater faithfulness.

For a further discussion on glory, I offer the following:

Created for glory II

Crowned with glory and honor

Giving and receiving glory

Why God calls us to glorify him

________________________________________Footnotes:

¹Imagine experiencing some devastating loss so great you almost die. As a result, you've completely lost all your strength, and all your senses... hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, and smelling, were significantly impaired. Then someone from a distant country, with the expertise and unlimited resources to restore you, heard of your plight and began to send you costly and rare treatment at no cost to you. This allowed you to keep going and get well enough to eventually come to the clinic where you are promised you'll be completely restored and made even better than before your loss. As you stabilize and begin to recover, your hope grows and you increasingly look forward to your trip to meet this person who has been treating you from afar at his own cost. 

You eventually arrive, meet, and spend one-on-one time with this provider and healer. Though you have corresponded and spoken to him many times and you feel you knew him pretty well, you now finally see him and discover he is even kinder and more caring than you could ever imagine. As a result, you are completely restored and the best you have ever been and more.

²This love from His Father overflows and moves Christ to love us.

³The Father also gave up something of this in sending Christ to us. 

⁴Imagine someone stepping out of a pristine environment into a toxic one to rescue those dying from toxicity. 

⁵the essence of this strength we receive is a sense and awareness of how much God values us. 

God "needs" us?



Excerpt from my book "HOW WELL DO I KNOW GOD"

12. God by His own design and choice "needs us" in order to experience Himself fully again.

There is also another vital change that occurred within the person (not the essence) of God by His design and choice. He purposely disrupted that complete and perfect union and love within the Trinity - experienced from all eternity - in order to allow others to enter into and participate in that glorious community of Father and Son, in, by and through the Spirit. 

The significance of this is that presently not all who will enter in have yet done so. Until those God has designed to join in His union of love enter, the constant uninterrupted love He had from all eternity past is not at this present time fully complete in the same way it was prior to the incarnation. In some mysterious sense it will be  incomplete until all God has designed to enter into that community do so. 

Why? Since God chose to share His love with us God broke the circle of love within the Trinity as children in a circle might unlock hands to allow others to join in and play. The desire to open the circle and necessity to be fully united again wasn’t from need but choice; a choice to share the overflow of joy and fullness of Himself with us. He did this freely, but He also did this really and truly. This was not some symbolic gesture but a real severing of something vital within His very being. (Otherwise, why would Christ have cried out in agony, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”). Yes the Father and Son are reunited but the reason Son came and the Father sent Him is not finished yet. The sending of His Son was and is a real and true sacrifice by God the Father as well as God the Son. The very God of the universe gave up that which He valued above all things -- His Son and the uninterrupted union, fellowship and community of His Son from eternity past in, by and through the Spirit in order that we might share in what He had (yes, He loves us that much!!!). A union He will again have, but in some mysterious way doesn't presently have with *complete fullness (though the union of the Father and Son has certainly been restored). Until all those that God intends to join in do so, His love is some inexplicable way will not be *totally complete and whole again in the same way it was before the creation and the fall of man and will be once again throughout eternity. In short, there is an element added by God Himself that is **not yet fully complete because it now includes those He has set His love on, who are not yet fully participating in that love in the way the Father and Son are. This union is presently incomplete - not just for us but also for God in some way - until all those He has set His love on have joined hands, so to speak, to reunite and complete that circle again. This is simply an extension of the loss God was and is willing to experience so that others might participate in the very Being of God in His endless love.

It may be argued that to ensure this complete reuniting of the Godhead again there had to be a certainty of it occurring. Something of such magnitude and so fundamental to God’s being would not be left to chance. The surety of God’s “reunion” could only be guaranteed if it was determined that all who were intended to enter into the community of God would, in fact, do so while at the same time giving those creatures real choice. This is an infinite concept of which the finite, you and I, cannot now fully grasp. A mystery of man's choice and God's choosing, which we will not understand until eternity or possibly may never fully understand.

But even in our finite understanding, there is God's design and a reminder that we are not God or entirely independent of God. These things humble us and require us to trust God in a way we wouldn't if we comprehended all things. And isn't this the heart of fallen humanity's dilemma? Isn't this the essence of pride and unbelief and even in part explains why He does not tell us everything? With every fiber of his being, fallen humanity resists having to be dependent on and totally, unconditionally trust God in all areas including our understanding of His ways.  In truth, the thought of not fully understanding these things scares us for it requires us to trust instead of control.

So there is a sense in which God presently acts out of need, but it is not a need for us but a need for Himself (you may wish to review my earlier section on God's "dependence" on himself). What makes God independent is the interdependence of the Trinity. And it is the perfect giving and receiving of value/worth/glory within the Trinity that gives God the greatest joy and pleasure. But by His choice and design, He has temporarily disrupted that inter-dependence along with the complete fullness of the love and joy of it in order to allow others to share in it. And by our sharing in it we reflect back to God that love and glory that originates within Him alone. God was simply so happy, joyful, and full of love, that He longed for others to know and experience what He had been experiencing within the Godhead from all eternity. The overflowing joy, love, and delight of beholding and delighting in the glory of each other within His triune being. As a result, He was willing to set aside for a time, the completeness of it so others could enter into it. Sacrifice became an inherent part of God's makeup through the incarnation of Christ. Now, the reuniting and the fullness of the flow of God’s love again - by His choice and design - require our union with Him. So by His design i.e. His self imposed choice we are now a part of His experiencing Himself fully and perfectly again. The end result is not just our rejoicing in God's perfect and complete love but in His rejoicing in it again (“Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began) and our rejoicing in it along with Him. This will be the ongoing celebration throughout eternity beginning at the wedding feast of the Lamb.

The wonder of God’s perfect plan is truly beyond our understanding. Praise Him for He is full of wonder! To Him be all worth and majesty both now and for all eternity, for from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory!

In summary, when we think about how God made us exactly as we are so we would best be able to commune with Him; to love Him and to be loved by Him most, we had to be like Him as much as possible while at the same time still dependent creatures. And the way man turned out from the creation to the fall to procreation and our present state of rebellion (a choice) with all the suffering and pain it has caused is all part of God’s perfect overall plan to bring about our greatest possible union with Him and His greatest possible glory. This is God’s plan; that we might know and experience Him as He experiences Himself as much as possible for created beings to do so. In order for that to occur, I would suggest every aspect of how things have occurred and will occur is the deliberate design of God toward that end. Nothing is an accident or by chance, but deliberate and purposeful. Every aspect of how we were created, our ability to doubt God, to rebel, fall, and the consequent suffering to mankind and the rest of creation were all necessary and intentional, to satisfy this overriding purpose for our existence, which is for as many as possible to be conformed to the image of His Son as much as possible in order that we come to know and experience all that God is to the greatest extent possible thereby glorifying Him. In short man’s rebellion and fall along with the consequent pain and suffering and God’s redemption of man was not God’s backup plan to a messed up original plan but was the original plan from eternity past in order for God to achieve this end. All things occur in order for us to enjoy and appreciate God in all His love, joy, splendor and glory to the greatest degree possible. Of course, this is only the reasoning and speculation of a finite mind within the boundaries of scripture and no doubt falls far short of grasping the fullness of one of the greatest mysteries of God.

*Or possibly God is fully in union now but will experience it in a greater way by our being united with Him in quantity as well as quality. 

**It could be argued that since the complete number of those who will eventually join in this union is already decided, the union is actually complete as far as God is concerned i.e. in His mind, however, just as something real in time occurred in the incarnation of Christ (though already complete in the mind of God) so too, those coming to Christ who have not yet come is a real occurrence as well. Since we are touching the fringe of the garments of the infinite; these thoughts are only a feeble attempt by finite minds to grasp the infinite within the boundaries of scripture. We not claim perfect understanding by any means, but we can seek to reason within the boundaries of scripture and attempting to grasp what we may never fully understand. But in doing so we must hold to these things lightly i.e. not dogmatically. And that is ok. The need to make everything work out logically may have more to do with pride than a necessity in order to be true i.e. we can not rule it out as true because we can not make it work out logically.

Why explore things that are only inferred in scripture and not stated explicitly? Because some explicit statements and teachings appear to contradict other explicit statements. For example, there is no evil in God yet God knows good and evil. Also, Christ is fully man yet fully God and God are one in essence yet three distinct beings. What do we do with these paradoxes and seeming contradictions? We should not ignore them because we can not fully make sense of them but attempt to see how they might work and fit together and what, if any, benefit can be gained in doing so.

Some may feel this is fruitless. I would suggest the opposite. Click here for a discussion of the value of paradox.