Behold, What Manner Of Love! - Part 2

Objective: To exegete 1 John 3:2-3 emphasizing the point that our Savior’s sure and imminent return should motivate the believer to live holy just like our Savior Jesus is holy….

1Jn 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this cause the world knows us not, because it knew Him not.

1Jn 3:2 Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is.

Last time we left off in the text where John says:

…we shall be like Him…

This statement has more to do with physical likeness, not spiritual likeness. If you know Jesus Christ as Savior you are already spiritually like the Lord—we call this sanctification. You have been sanctified or set apart to be spiritually like Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:11 says, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”

The word sanctification also refers to the present work the Spirit of God is doing in the life of the believer. You are more spiritually like the Lord each day through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 2:11 says, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.”

But one day we will be ultimately sanctified as we are transformed into the physical likeness of the Lord. Philippians 3:20-21 says, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”

The word “change/transform” means, “to change the outward expression by assuming one put on from the outside.” In other words, this is not a change from the inside out but a change from the outside in.

1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” In 2 Timothy 1:10 the Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel…”

We shall be like Him! John Gill comments on this saying, “we shall be like him…in body, fashioned like to his glorious body, in immortality and incorruption, in power, in glory, and spirituality, in a freedom from all imperfections, sorrows, afflictions, and death; and in soul, which likeness will lie in perfect knowledge of divine things, and in complete holiness…”

Have you ever had that feeling after a hard day of work where you couldn’t wait to get home so you could throw off your work clothes and get into something more comfortable? Well, one day God will strip off the believer the mortal and put on the immortality; He will strip off the corruptible and put on the incorruptible.

* Obesity will be no more!

* Hypertension will be no more!

* Diabetes will be a thing of the past!

* Heart disease will be history!

* Cerebral Palsy and MS will be done away with!

* Gout, arthritis, osteoporosis and hardening of the arteries will be annihilated.

* Alzheimer won’t be remembered!

John writes, “When He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

When some think of Jesus, the picture that naturally comes to their mind is an image of a man with long hair on a painting or an actor playing the role of Jesus in a movie. But the book of the Revelation describes our Savior very differently.

As you listen to what I’m about to read, please notice that when we try to describe to someone something that is very large we say something like, “It was as big as an elephant.”

John could hardly find the words to describe Jesus in all His glory so he has to associate what he saw with what he was familiar with. Keep this in mind as you hear his description of Jesus:

Rev 1:13 …in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.

Rev 1:14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire;

Rev 1:15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters;