Hope and Be Pure

"...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."

~1 John 3:2b-3

Is it not marvelous that the weapon of our warfare against sin and the method of our being made more like Jesus is by simply looking to Him and His promises by faith? In our verse for today, the apostle John shows us the radical simplicity of sanctification: by trusting that when Christ suddenly appears, He will make us perfect and free of sin just as He is. Do not our hearts melt when we consider how Christ has not only done the work of salvation for us, but has also made the means of our sanctification so simple? Sanctification and the battle against sin are not easy, but the means are simple, and for that we bless our gracious God. The Bible tells us to simply "Look unto Me, and be saved..." (Isaiah 45:22), that we being saved are to be, "looking unto Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith." (Hebrews 12:2), and that while we are tested through trials and suffering, "we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:18)

Friends, do not underestimate the power of a look. Consider the negative: Whatever you look upon, the longer you look upon it, the more you desire it, and the more you desire it, the more you will idolize it and therefore worship it. Now if what you look upon starts with anything but Christ (even if it be something good in itself), we will strip it of the value that God has given it, thereby perverting it in the sight of God and be eventually consumed by its reign in our lives.

But now consider the transformative power of a beatific vision of Christ: Christ's greatest desire for His people is 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." (John 17:24) The Puritan theologian John Owen in his work The Glory of Christ writes of how Jesus' desire is not stagnant until He returns to take us to be with Him but that believers may and should behold Christ's glory (in part) even now. As we look unto Jesus through His Word, pray over eternal things, speak of it with brothers and sisters in fellowship, and seek His glory through Christian service, we are "being changed from one degree of glory to another." (2 Corinthians 3:18) Thus in looking upon Jesus, we love Him for His goodness and greatness and we desire to spend more time with Him. In the process, we become "imitators of God as dearly beloved children." by the power of the Holy Spirit revealing Christ's loveliness to us (Ephesians 5:1).

Now how is it that meditating upon the truth of our future glorification (laid out in today's verse) will make us more like Him? There are three reasons for the potency of this hope:

1) Because it reminds us of the joy of His imminent return during which He will cleanse the world of all sin and rid it of all evil. Therefore, we are not to become comfortable with this sinful world and its ways, and we are to fight to prevent worldliness from seeping into our lives.

2) Because it reminds us that He is Himself pure and sinless and therefore being one with Him, we no longer desire anything that is contrary to His holy nature.

3) Because it reminds us that there is an eternity that awaits us in which the sin we now wrestle with and even occasionally enjoy will be entirely extinct from our being. Therefore, we ought not to crave that which will soon be eradicated forever.

And what a sweet thought this is! To know that at the end of our daily battle against the temptations that batter us, the Captain of our salvation (Hebrews 2:10) will suddenly appear to cleanse His brothers and sisters, purifying them in an instant with the mere sight of His glorious radiance and clothing them in righteous robes of white. Then, in that Beulah land, our hearts shall be at rest, our souls fully satisfied in the Lover of our souls (Song of Solomon 3:4), and our bodies made perfect like His to serve Him wholly with perfect zeal, gladness of an undivided heart, and unalloyed love for Him.