Behold how great a love the Father has
bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and we are. For this
reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we
are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know
that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is.
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure, 1John 3:1-3.
We
are the children of God, yet what we are, who we are, is not fully manifested,
it is not fully expressed. We are in a process of transformation, of being
changed “from glory to glory” as Paul writes in 2Corinthians 3:18. Our Father’s
desire and design is that we be conformed to His firstborn Son, Jesus Christ
(Romans 8:29) and that just as the firstborn Son fully expresses the Father’s
glory, that the many-membered Son also manifest the image of the invisible God
(Ephesians 4:11-16; Colossians 1:24-29; Revelation 21:10-11).
1John
3:1-3 is a paradigm of transformation that is antithetical to much of current Christianity.
The passage focuses on who we are in Christ and who we are becoming in Christ,
it is not on who we once were outside of Christ. While nowhere in the Bible are
followers of Jesus Christ called sinners, “sinners” is what much preaching
continues to call Christians – this is analogous to Moses calling the twelve
tribes of Israel Egyptians as he led them to Canaan. Is it any wonder that the
thinking and behavior of Christians doesn’t change when they are taught that
their identity is that of sinner and not saint? This is not a question of
positive thinking, this is a question of Biblical thinking.
A
second element of this passage antithetical to much current Christianity is the
dynamic of spiritual transformation, rather than have the reader (or listener)
focus on his need and his shortcoming in order to motivate transformation, the
passage focuses on Jesus Christ, when He
appears we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is (see
also Colossians 3:1-3; 2Corinthians 3:17-18; Romans 12:1-2). It is not as we
behold ourselves and our shortcomings and sins that we change, it is as we
behold Jesus that we are changed into His image – yet one more reason why Jesus
Christ must be Christianity and why Christianity must be Jesus Christ. Will the
Holy Spirit reveal things in me that must change as I behold Jesus? Yes He
will. Am I to be the center of my attention? No I am not.
How
many church services have I been in which have sought to motivate change by
weekly repetition of repentance, by seeking to convince one and all Christians
that they are sinners, by not being satisfied until an atmosphere of guilt
permeates the congregation – and of course there must be (depending on the tradition)
the inevitable altar call – not so much for those who don’t know Jesus to bend
the knee in confession of sin and repentance, but rather for Christians to once
again deny their identity and birthright and start from the beginning once
again – it is as if a baseball player never knows what it is to get beyond
first base.
I
am called to behold Jesus Christ, to adore Jesus Christ, to confess Jesus
Christ, to speak of Jesus Christ; I am called to accept His evaluation of me
and the Father’s evaluation of me in Christ – and that evaluation is perfect
and complete (Colossians 2:10, Hebrews 10:10) and I no longer live as if I were
under the Old Covenant with perpetual sacrifices and a conscience filled with
guilt and sin (see Hebrews), I live as one in fellowship with the Trinity; as
one becoming who I am in Christ.
Purification
does not come about as I behold who I was outside of Christ, it comes as I
behold the holy and pure and spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world. When we preach Christ Jesus we need not manipulate to try to create
change in ourselves and others, we need only proclaim with John the Baptist, Behold the Lamb who takes away the sin of
the world!
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