Have You Seen Him?

1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

What are we to think of a ruler who rules without rules? Is this what grace does?

For some, this is the case. Grace is an allowance rather than a conformance - or better yet – a transformance.

John continues to vehemently argue against the construct of grace as an allowance because Jesus was so… graceful. Grace. Full.

After all, the Bible says there is NO sin which will not be forgiven by Christ. There is NO sin which Jesus did not die for and pay the price of. (Excepting the sin of unbelief that Jesus forgives sin.)

“Okay, I believe Jesus forgives all sin. What am I to do with this sense of forgiveness, so freely given?”

Now we come to the issue of conformance/transformance rather than allowance. Certainly, I remain a free moral agent, capable of making decisions for sin and away from righteousness. I remain capable of sin. I can even deceive myself into thinking I am allowed to sin on the basis of the anticipated forgiveness I will receive from Christ.

But John says this is not the way I will choose to live IF I am in Christ, because this is not the way Christ lives. The question is: Do I see Him? Have I seen Him? And the amazing statement John makes is that when I see Him, (when He has been revealed,) I will be like Him – because I will see Him as He IS.

I like most agree this primarily speaks of literally seeing Christ in heaven. But there is something to seeing Christ in our hearts as well, and ‘seeing’ Christ in our hearts transforms us. The “How?” question is answered by the simple statement, “If you have seen Him, you already know.” Have you seen Jesus?

-Pastor Bill