Who We Are & Will Be

Intro: Read 1 John 3:2-10

Prayer

---

Main Text: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2, ESV)

---

God’s Child

Beloved, we are God’s Children now

• The believer begins with this as their default. regardless of what you do, when you give your life to god you are a part of his eternal family

Sin and the Believer

And what we will be

• There is a tension between the life we have now and the life we will someday have

• If we are now Children of God

• We will someday be something else

• maybe not "instead of" but rather "in addition to"

• what could we possibly be in the future that is better than being a child of god?

The Reality of an Advent Hope

has not yet appeared;

• this is an indirect hint at what we will be

• whatever it is, it's not yet been appeared or revealed

• what could this thing be?

• The Advent hope is the core belief of the Seventh-day Adventist. all other doctrines fall in line behind this truth

Lawlessness and the Not-Yet

But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him,

• The thing that hasn't appeared is not a thing it's a person and jesus as a person is wha we will be. bear with me

• The remainder of this chapter discusses the relationship of the believer and the act of sinning

• can we become sinless?

• trick question

• just because you stop sinning doesn't mean you stop having a sinful heart

• the inward change will take a lifetime

• but john asks us to stop the habit of acting in sin

• to sin is lawlesness but christ has called us to live in the law of love. continual sin is incompatible with the law of love

The Method of our Changedness

because we shall see him as he is

• we are changed into sinlessness and christ like perfection by beholding him, not by any work we do

• the reason we can't complete the transformation is because we do not see him as he truly is yet, only by the word of history and other believers, but some day we will see him with no filter or interpreter between us. it will be clear

• According to John the reason we are perfected is this, we will finally see him as he really is.

• according to john it's not an outpouring of the spirit, or some revival, it's just he simple appearing of Jesus Christ in the sky at long last

---

The why it matters

1 john 3 is a parallel between leaving a life of sin and learning to live in love toward others

i skipped a verse, verse 1 and it says:

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

appeal: to be a child of god you must be saved, but if you don't want to stop sinning there's no point in being saved. salvation is deliverance from sin. If you don't want that, you don't want salvation, you just don't want to die