² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

One day we shall be in the fully revealed presence of God – we shall see Him as He is. The promise that one day ‘the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of His glory’ will be fulfilled. (Hab). What on earth (literally) will that look like? We see glimpses in various passages which speak of his transcendent glory, power, majesty, splendour, holiness, royalty.

Ezekiel describes a figure, like that of a man, high above a throne of sapphire… as if full of fire (Ez 1:25-28). Daniel describes the coming of the Son of Man on clouds of heaven and sees all peoples, nations and people of every language worshipping him (Daniel 7:13-14). The book of Revelation is full of language that describes the sovereignty of God, His ‘otherness’. He is above all, beyond all, He is way more than our language to describe Him.

Yet, according to John we shall be like Him. How can that be? Let me quote from the ESV Study Bible on this verse: ‘”Like” does not mean “identical” to, and believers will never be (e.g.) omniscient or omnipotent as Christ is, since He is both man and God.’ But, we shall be like Him in being removed from the presence of sin, and the presence of sin removed from us; we shall be led into the whole truth and nothing but the truth – no longer needing to discern evil from good, true from false; we shall be without weakness, infirmity, frailty; our characters will resemble 100% of the description in Galatians 5:22-23; and we shall exercise authority and power perfectly under His kingship.

But, there is another truth stored in the treasure of this verse. We are God’s children now. We enter into our inheritance today. We don’t have to wait. All authority to exercise the Kingdom is given now. The invitation to walk in the power of the Spirit is given now. The invitation to choose to be like him in character – faithful, loving, peace-making etc – is given now.

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Application:

We are being transformed into his likeness (even today) with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Ask Him to come and do that in you more and more.

Optional extra: read Revelation Chapter 5 for a further picture what it looks like to see God as he is.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus transform me more and more into a likeness of You. Amen.