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 young children. Who we are created to be, has not yet been fully realized or revealed to ourselves or others. And this "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 we will be right in front of him, and He in front of us, looking into each other's eyes and seeing the scars on His hands, feet, and side as evidence of His love for us personally. 

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

How are we not seeing him now? 

And in this seeing, how are we not only transformed but specifically made like him? 

We see this mentioned not only 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?

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, into our broken world, with all its pain and suffering and taking on human form. He did this so we too might be with him and His Father to behold and partake (share) in 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 Him and longing for Him in the same way He does. 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 Him 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 or interruption. 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. Knowing (hoping for) this moves us to draw nearer to him in greater devotion now, in this life. Learning to depend on and draw ⁴strength 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

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¹Image 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. 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. 

You eventually arrive, meet, and spend one-on-one time with this provider and healer. As a result, you are completely restored and the best you have ever been and more. 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. 

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. 

⁴the essence of this strength we receive is a sense and awareness of how much God values us. 

Is God self centered or humble?

God appears to be self-centered and in one sense ¹he is. However, due to the nature of his being three persons while also only one God, there is an "otherness" within the very being of God; he is outward and other focused and oriented - i.e. he is not inward focused or selfish.

And his other orientation is rooted in that other person being perfect, ²exactly as he is perfect. For God to be infinitely attracted to another, that "other" person must be ⁵like him...infinitely and equally perfect and beautiful. 

God is the ³greatest, most perfect, infinitely beautiful, and attractive being of all. To behold Him as He is, is to be filled with wonder and awe. 

God can not admire something infinitely that is not of infinite beauty, value, and worthy of infinite admiration. He alone is most worthy of infinite and eternal admiration. For Him to admire another equally, that other person must be equally beautiful and glorious as Himself. 

With Christ, he is the co-eternal, exact, and perfect representation (image -"other") of the Father. 

And what makes God so ³attractive, admirable, beautiful, and glorious? Certainly, the common things we recognize, such as love, wisdom, power, majesty, creativity but also His humility, an often overlooked but central part of his very being.

The greatest being in the universe is also the most humble and experienced the greatest ⁴humility of any other being. Not only did Christ go to the lowest of any being, but he also came from the greatest heights to do so. You could say the distance Christ traveled - from the "penthouse to the outhouse" of his existence - was infinitely greater than anyone had or will ever travel by virtue of His greatness and the height he came from to go to the depth he went to. No one is higher than the eternal Son of God and no one has ever gone lower or "traveled" farther - or ever will. Part of what makes Christ so great is that he went so low and He did so for others i.e. for both His Father and for us. As a result, he will be exalted above all others for all eternity. To Him be the glory, honor, and praise! AMEN!

Humility is and will always be a central quality he possesses that will evoke our adoration for him throughout eternity. His is not a humbling he experienced and took part in for its own sake but the sake of others, i.e. for His Father first (to honor and draw attention to Him) but also for you and I. 

In and through Christ, God not only knows humility, but is humble. Christ is not only the lion; but also the lamb of God. It is hard to grasp how the greatest being in the universe (the Creator and ongoing Sustainer of everything that exists) experienced the greatest humility of all and is, in fact, the most humble of all beings. 

For this and other reasons, God loves it when he sees humility in us. It is when we are most like His Son.

For a further discussion of the humility of Christ click here. 

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¹God is the cause of all things, through which everything issues forth, on which everything depends, and by which all things continue. He is, therefore, the greatest and most valuable being i.e. the beginning, middle, and end of all things. To say it another way, he is the center of attention because he is the highest being of all; not just for all things He created but for himself as well. And because he is, he is complete within himself. He needs no one and nothing but himself; everything and everyone else needs him. 

However, being the center — the Creator and Sustainer — of all things, and keeping that to oneself - i.e. being "self-centered" (selfish) - are not the same thing but two different things. God desires to overflow His love to others. He is the opposite of selfish. This was demonstrated by the Father - out of love for us - sending His Son and the Son emptying himself of His "Godness" for us. 

²It is interesting and worth noting that we are called to be perfect as God is perfect; not in the fullest sense of God's incommunicable attributes such as being all-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere present but regarding His communicable ones i.e. things that are a part of God's character that can also be a part of ours, such as love and humility. 

This adds new meaning to the truth that a great leader (King) will never ask you to do what they aren't willing to or have not done themselves. They lead by example. (A true king earns the right to be king. To have it simply bestowed on them is not being a true king. Christ was not only born the King of kings and Lord of lords but he earned the right to be fully recognized as such by his example of humility).

If we resist humility, submission, and suffering it is good and helpful to remember he did not, and that for our sake. 

Hebrews 12:2  looking to Jesus, the founder, and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

³A great part of what makes the Son so great, glorious, beautiful, etc - and the Father via the Son - is humility. We are all attracted to someone humble? Why? In part, because they aren't about themselves, but about others. When we meet someone truly humble, we aren't impressed with their humility but their interest in us (and others). It is far more enjoyable talking to someone who wants to get to know us or share things that might help us, rather than someone who talks about themselves, is it not? 

⁴Rooted in the essence of God's nature is the quality that enabled Christ to humble himself. However, this was not a character quality acted out and experienced to the fullest extent of its potential. We are told Christ learned obedience (humble submission and reverential trust) through the things he suffered. Christ entered into and experienced humility in a way he had not before the incarnation. 

How is it possible for the all-knowing God to learn? This is a mystery and likely had something to do with Christ's humanity. John Piper offers the following... His learning obedience was not Christ going from disobedience to obedience but from untested to tested obedience. The inclination to submit and obey the Father was inherent in the nature of Christ (God), otherwise, he would have never submitted when He was put to the test. Christ's trust in and love for the Father as a man was genuinely put to task, for the first time in a new and unique way. And in facing the most daunting suffering imaginable, he held fast and came out the other side victorious as the Lord of Lords and rightful King over all things. He is the Alpha (the Creator) and the Omega. He was raised from death to life!! This was not a hypothetical theory but as real as it gets. 

⁵The more that other person is like him the more attracted he is. Christ is the exact representation of the Father. The perfect image of God. Therefore he is most attracted to Christ. 

However, we are also in God's image, and therefore, he is also attracted to us. We are as close to being like God-Christ as possible without being Him. 

what moves us to faithfulness?

Psa 33:18  Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,

At least two things are involved in *experiencing God's working in our lives -- having his caring attention/eye on us, thereby moving/motivating us to faithfulness i.e. to obedience. 

fear of the Lord AND hope in his steadfast love                                                             

      

Fear- The utmost regard for God's absolute rule (sovereignty), majesty, power, and holiness. Recognizing these things about God is the beginning of wisdom i.e. where wise living starts.                                                              
Hope- The anticipation of being in God's presence and experiencing the fullness of who he is in all his infinite love **according to or in proportion to our faithfulness to him in this life.

"... who hope in his steadfast love..." Why do we hope in God's steadfast love? Don't we have and experience his love now? We do but only by faith, from afar if you will, not yet fully seeing Him as He is i.e. not through direct first-hand experience but "through a glass darkly..." 

Though God's disposition is one of perfect love towards us now and can not be added to or taken away from -- it's based on the perfect work of Christ, not our imperfect feeble attempts at perfect faithfulness -- we will not experience the fullness of his love until we see him face to face in eternity. 

It is this hope, the hope of complete transformation and glorification, and the promise of the fullest ***experience of his love -- which will increase throughout eternity -- this hope moves us to diligently pursue to him.

"Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he 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." I John 3:2-3

"For the one who ****sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." Gal 6:8-9. Give up what? Hope of eternal bliss/life. 

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*We must distinguish between having God's love and participating/experiencing it. Having it is based on Christ's efforts alone, not ours. We can never do enough to secure God's love for us. Experiencing and more fully participating in his love, however, is contingent on faithful obedience i.e.  "the just shall live by faith..."  For a further discussion on this click here. 

** "according to..." also carries with it a respect/fear for God i.e. God does things a certain way (according to design) and if we do not live accordingly we experience the repercussions of living contrary to that design.

***The essence of our reward is greater union with God and therefore greater participation and firsthand experience of his perfect love in proportion to our faithfulness i.e. faithful obedience. 

By "in proportion..." we mean our experience and participation in God and His love throughout eternity are in proportion to our trust/faithful obedience to him now, in this life. Our faithfulness doesn't save us but it does increase our capacity to enjoy God. God is the reward of that faithfulness. Participation in God's love throughout eternity is the reward for our faithfulness now, in this life.

****Sewing and reaping is evidence of design and a Designer.

Are we in the Spirit or not?

If you are a child of God, you possess the Spirit of God. His Spirit is a spirit of perfect love who now fully indwells you. This is further evidence and confirmation we are totally accepted and perfectly loved in Christ. The reality that the infinitely loving Creator and Sustainer of all things indwells us is an incomprehensible wonder. 

This isn't because of anything we have done to make us suitable for dwelling. This is possible only because of Christ. 

Because of Christ's efforts, not ours, we are counted by God as a pure vessel (legally and objectively), perfectly worthy of His residence in His eyes - i.e. by his standards - not ours. If we were in any way impure, He would not and could not indwell us. God simply ¹cannot indwell an unclean vessel. His indwelling is proof we are pure and perfectly acceptable in His eyes. And because we are perfect, He indwells us. 

 

This is why Christ said he must go so that the Spirit would come. Without Christ going to the cross to address our impurity and make us legally a clean vessel for Him to indwell, the Spirit would not and could not come. Because of Christ taking care of our uncleanness, the Spirit is ours and Christ is ours and we are Christ's. We now fully possess the love of God and His infinite care is now forever set upon us. This can't be taken away, altered, or added to by us because it isn't based on anything we do, but on the work of God through Christ. 

Rom 8:9  You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 

According to the above verse, being "in the Spirit" is synonymous with being a believer. To "...not belong to him..." - or being in the flesh in this passage is the state of a nonbeliever. 

To say it another way, a true Christian cannot be "in the Spirit" on one occasion and "in the flesh" on another. This passage isn't describing a back-and-forth condition of a believer but the state of being in Christ or not being in Christ i.e. being or not being a believer, which is the same as being in the Spirit or not in the Spirit. 

According to this passage, if you do not have the Spirit, you do "not belong to him" and if you belong to him you have the Spirit, no matter how obedient or ²disobedient you are. This has nothing to do with our faithfulness. It is solely based on the faithful and completed work of Christ. 

If you are a believer and have accepted God's provision of righteousness through Christ, then his Spirit indwells you, period...full stop! You are now "in the Spirit" as well as the Spirit is in you. This is the same as saying you are fully accepted and loved by God; you are now under His perfect care and provision, i.e. God's love is in you and fully set upon you. He is fully available to you. The Spirit will not indwell you now or in the future to any greater degree than he did the first day you came to Christ. 

Shifting gears

The issue now becomes do we believe the Spirit is fully ours in this way i.e. never-ending, complete, without interruption, no matter what we do or experience. We don't always feel/experience his love in this way, do we? Why? Unbelief, which is the essence of sin and at the heart of all disobedience. By our unbelief, we can and often do grieve and quench the Spirit. Some think this means God's love stops in some way. On God's side, it never stops. But our sense of His presence may be suppressed by our rebellious unbelief and times of temporarily wandering away from Him - though He never wanders from us.

We as His children however can pull away from God in distrust, not receiving/ believing in His love that is fixed upon us. This leads to our unfaithfulness.

But this is only on our side of the relationship. When we do not trust Him, we no longer pursue Him diligently and therefore lose a sense of his love and presence. It's not that his love stopped and is no longer there and available or no longer fixed upon us, but that we are no longer in alignment with it, believing, receiving, participating in, and experiencing it. To say it another way, we may have all of God by His Spirit, but this doesn't mean He has all of us; all our focus and trust ³which drives all our obedience-faithfulness.

The key to experiencing God's love and presence is believing it is ours as described above and acting accordingly. As one 1887 hymn says, "trust and obey for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus but the trust and obey."

In truth, disobedience is the fruit of unbelief. If we truly believed in the full extent and manner of God's love we would be so enthralled by it we would gladly do all he asks us to do; it would not be a burden. 

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.1 John 5:3 (ESV)

For additional posts on having his love vs fully experiencing it click here. 

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¹For God to indwell an impure vessel, He would have to go against Himself. God cannot go along with unbelief because it is rooted in distrust. It's not like we are refusing to believe something in general but something very specific about Him, i.e. that God is not who he claims to be. In essence we are saying God is a liar. God cannot approve of this or support it. For Him to not address this would be to go against Himself. To go against Himself would be to go against all things, for all things depend on Him being who claims to be and is.

It isn't whether we fully possess the love of God, but does the love of God fully possess us. And how does it possess us? By our believing that in Christ it is set upon us no matter what we do, feel or experience and then acting accordingly i.e. acting by faith for God's honor because we know (believe) we are totally loved and perfectly under his care and therefore now desire to honor Him. 

²If you are willingly and flagrantly disobedient, you may wish to search your heart to make sure you are His. We all sin but to knowingly, willfully, repeatedly sin might be evidence you don't know Him (and certainly don't trust Him and His love well, at a minimum) and a reason to examine your faith as to whether you are a true believer and have ever truly received God's love. 

³So does God's love, by his Spirit, drive our obedience or our faith? Yes...both! God's love moves us to obedience but without faith that His love is fully and perfectly ours, we will never participate in it or act upon it.

finite or sinful

Is there a difference between being finite and being sinful - i.e. limited vs rebellious?  If so, what is it?

Because we are finite - we are not all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful or everywhere present - and because we depend on things outside of us to exist - air, food, water, shelter, even ¹love - we are limited (unlike God - who needs no one or no thing - we are not self-sufficient), therefore we must trust. We must look to and depend on other persons and things apart from us to sustain us; to keep us going. Take away any of the things mentioned above, and we die. We can do many things because we are like God but we can't do everything i.e. we are not God. We must have certain things to continue living. 

Being finite, dependent, or limited has nothing to do with sin - unbelief - rebellion, and everything to do with whom we are as dependent creatures or beings. It is who we are and how we are designed. This difference is sometimes called the creator-creature distinction. It is the denial of our dependence that is our problem. This is at the heart of the sin question which we will shortly look at more closely.

If someone incurs loss or is inadvertently harmed due to our limitations, have we done something wrong? We have heard stories of children being injured, abducted, or having their lives taken because something occurred outside of a parent's control. When this happens, like an audio file set on a loop, the parent replays the circumstances that lead up to such an event ... "²what did I do wrong... what could I have done differently ... how could I let this happen ... I am a terrible parent ... I hate myself ... etc?" It is in these situations we are forced to face our limitations directly and most intensely. The reality is the parent could have done everything within their power and still not have prevented a tragic outcome. 

Yet we rarely admit our limitations. When such a tragedy occurs what do we do? Do we seek almighty God, the genuine source of life, wisdom, and love - on which we are dependent for all things - or do we blame ourselves or even blame him?

Christ tells us, "To whom much is given much is required." So wouldn't the opposite also be true; to whom little or nothing is given, little or nothing is required? God doesn't expect or require rocks to willfully look up to, depend on, and praise him, only humans. Why? Rocks aren't designed to, we are. Only we are like God.

Being sinful however means we choose - it is deliberate, not inadvertent - to use what we have to try and be independent of God. Therefore we use things only for our benefit, not others, be they God or our fellow human.

There is a difference between intent and ability.

We can intend good things but not be ³able to bring them about on our own. This is being finite. It is not wrong, it is who we are as finite creatures. We are not the Creator. 

When we have the ability or resources available to do something for the benefit of others, but choose not to, this is being rebellious and sinful. 

But to shame ourselves for not doing something we don't have the ability to do is also wrong.

Limited but capable

Though we are limited we are also capable of doing far more than we recognize. We cannot use our limitations as an excuse to not use what we do have for God's honor - i.e. use what He's given in a way that acknowledges and honors Him as the giver and others as worthy of our love-effort.

Personally limited with access to unlimited resources

If we are a child of God we also have His Spirit and unlimited access to Him, who is without limits and with unlimited resources. If we are about His business he will give us whatever we need to accomplish whatever He's given us to do. 

This is the part of the purpose of prayer and why we are invited to call on him. What we don't have within ourselves, we have access to in and through Him. The only thing that limits our participation in God and His unlimited resources is us - i.e. our not looking to, depending on, and trusting God in accordance to who we are (finite dependent creatures) -- and who He is (the unlimited, all-knowing, everywhere present, all-powerful and all-loving God) ... the I AM.  In a word we must have faith in the infinite unlimited God to do things beyond our limitations.

A prayer...

God, do for me what I cannot do for myself; do through me what I cannot do by myself. Help me to clearly see what I can do and give me the strength to faithfully carry it out for your glory. 
 
For a further discussion on the nature of our rebellion click here ______________________________________________________________

¹Some might argue love is not a necessity for life. However, research indicates otherwise. For more click here. 

²A spiritually healthy and whole parent would likely be filled with grief over the loss or harm to their child i.e. their focus would be on the child and God, not themselves. 

³Certainly, sheer determination can result in greater outcomes than being passive but the greatest determination does not make us all-powerful. It doesn't even make us complete or sufficient for what we were designed for.