John’s letter to the saints (us included) just gets better and better. Chapter three in our Bibles starts with such encouragement and cause for joy:
See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him. Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. 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.
1 John 3:1-3 CSB
He has just written that we know God is righteous, and because God is righteous, those born of God are made righteous through faith in Christ. It’s nothing we deserve, can earn, or justify—this righteousness, this right standing with God is made ours in Christ. It’s a gift that’s ours for the taking. That’s why it’s easy to feel John’s excitement when he says,
See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children!
I want to put a question mark there to ask, “Don’t you see that great love of God for us? He’s made us his children after all!” Do you see it? Can you grasp how amazing it is that God loves us so much that he sent his only Son to come and pay the price for our salvation? It’s out of love that he made it possible to know his righteousness—to gain right-standing with him.
But not only that, there’s more to come!
As if the righteousness we have with God through Christ wasn’t enough, there’s more—what we will be in eternity. We don’t know what it will look like, but what we do know is that it will look like Jesus, because “we will be like him.” We will gain a glorified body that also enables us to see Jesus in all his splendor. How cool is that? How amazing? How awesome? There are no words adequate to describe how things will be, how we will be, when standing in his presence for eternity.
Because of this, our desire should be to live more and more to his glory today.
We live a life worthy of Christ because we’re blown away by the love that led him to redeem us in the first place. When someone puts their confidence in you to do a good job, you want to live up to that confidence by doing your best. It’s the same in our spiritual journey. Because God’s “invested” in us by purchasing us through the blood of his Son, we strive to live up to his expectations. It’s not a works-oriented faith, but a life that does good and remains pure because of the love that has been poured into us in the first place.
Are you blown away by the love of the Father? What does that do to you? Lead you to worship? To get on your knees in gratitude and prayer? Lead you to confess your sin? Lead you to live more in the likeness of Christ?
I pray yes for this and whatever it takes to glorify God to a lost and dying world.
I’m attaching a link to a song that relates to these words of John today. Why should we gain from his reward? I have no idea other than because of his unconditional love for us. That is overwhelming and worthy of our lives.
Grace and Peace
Thank you for the reminder of the truths found in theses verses in 1 John your posts have a way of causing me to slow down as I read and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to the deepest parts of my soul. God’s glory is found in abundance in these verses. Thank you for writing—for sharing.
His word is rich and full of treasures, if we just stop and dig. I learn so much from this practice, and thus the reason I write. Glad you were blessed today by his word.