"Beloved, now little children of God we are, and not yet has it been revealed what we will be. But we are having come to know that if He should be revealed, like Him we will be, since we will see Him as He is."
-Beloved. Yes, we are loved - by God, Who has brought us into His family. That right there oughta be enough to put us on shouting ground! And we are loved also by John, our brother, this one who journeyed with our Savior in the flesh and who suffered so much for His sake and who loves us enough to take the time to write us this note of encouragement and exhortation.
-And yes, we are God’s children. He has brought us - the ones believing in Jesus - into His family, and we are so deeply loved! He is our Daddy! While this reality is perhaps not so physical, not real visceral in this life, there is some tremendous and practical positional truth to this at this point, there is a spiritual reality to all this, which gives rise (or should) to overflowing comfort and unspeakable joy in the here and now. But wait, there’s more!
-There is more to the story. There is still more yet to be revealed. John says it has not yet been revealed what we will be. He says there will be some yet-to-be-seen tangible physical reality which will become readily apparent when we finally are in the presence of our heavenly Father, face-to-face. John says we will be like Him. There will be some kind of obvious family resemblance - which makes sense, doesn’t it? Kids generally grow up to resemble their parents. I think he’s basically saying here, you know, it would make sense that as God’s children there would be some kind of family resemblance, right? And while there should some emerging hints of it at least in this life, we can’t fully see what that is this side of eternity. But take my word, when that day of revelation, that glorious day of rejoicing comes and we finally see God our Father in person, we will see the resemblance. It will be unmistakeable. "Yes, I see the resemblance" - that’s what people say, isn’t it? And that’s what we’ll say.
-There is more to the story. There is still more yet to be revealed. John says it has not yet been revealed what we will be. He says there will be some yet-to-be-seen tangible physical reality which will become readily apparent when we finally are in the presence of our heavenly Father, face-to-face. John says we will be like Him. There will be some kind of obvious family resemblance - which makes sense, doesn’t it? Kids generally grow up to resemble their parents. I think he’s basically saying here, you know, it would make sense that as God’s children there would be some kind of family resemblance, right? And while there should some emerging hints of it at least in this life, we can’t fully see what that is this side of eternity. But take my word, when that day of revelation, that glorious day of rejoicing comes and we finally see God our Father in person, we will see the resemblance. It will be unmistakeable. "Yes, I see the resemblance" - that’s what people say, isn’t it? And that’s what we’ll say.
-And grab hold of this: We will be. Like. Him. Just the way God intended it from the very beginning - made in His image, right? Like Him. Not in all His manifold infinite perfections, but there will be these ways in that day in which we finally fulfill our destiny and fully reflect as we were originally intended the glories of our breathtakingly good Father, our heavenly Maker, this One Who made us and has remade us to be like Him. And isn’t it just like Him, to bring this whole creation story full circle, that that which He set out to create in the beginning and which was subsequently marred and broken and renderered almost unrecognizable by sin, should be set right, finally finished and fully restored? Paradise and the glories of God on full display for the enjoyment and celebration of all God’s creation, first and foremost of which are the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve - the crown jewel of all creation, who are the children, the offspring, if you will, of God Himself. Life - the universe itself - as it was always intended to be. What a day of glory THAT will be...!
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