First John 2:29-3:1 Marks of the Child of God part 2
1 John 2:29-3 · Andrew Molloy · Jun 12, 2022
Letters of John (2022), No. 18
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261927253044

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, 1 John 2 and 3 is where we're at today. I'll read it. Beloved, we are now the sons of God, and it does not appear yet what we shall be. But we do know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure." I used the King James there, and I didn't know that, and so all those King James words tripped me up. But there are the verses, and you get the point.

Faraday has a lovely sort of three-point observation here. He says that John 3, the Gospel of John, is God's love to the world. Ephesians 5 is Christ's love to the church. And 1 John 3, where we're at today, is God's love to his children, begotten of him. And these are three types of agape love. The same love, agape, but in three different kind of forms, isn't it? One to the world, one to the church, and one to us as his children. Different forms of agape love, I would say that love to the church and the love to his children are greater and stronger and deeper than the John 3 love to the world, more intimate at least.

So just an interesting beginning point there. Here's our verse, beloved. Now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we shall see him just as he is. The word beloved is agapetos. There you see it. And you see it's worthy and being esteemed. And you see the word agape in the word, in the Greek word. So it's, we were. Our lessons had us discover that John was saying we are beloved of God and not necessarily Everyone hear me? Yeah, you're back now. Oh, I'm back now? Okay, great.

I had my headphones in there, and I have no video though, do I? No. You lost the PowerPoint. And you lost the PowerPoint, okay. Let's see. Everybody went home now, so. Yeah, I'm gonna lose the audience here. You're gonna. Yeah, and you paid big ticket price to see this.

Share screen, okay. You know, if you move closer to us, that would work better. Oh, yeah, right, right. How about that? That's good. You see that? Okay. Oh, excellent. Okay. So, are we on Beloved? You see that Agapetos up there? Yeah, we see your handout. And I can hear you now. That was my fault down here.

And the next phrase, now we are children of God. Recall from last week in verse one that it said, that we would be called children of God, and such we are. And the, and such we are, that little phrase is to emphasize the fact that we certainly are children of God. It's a present fact that we are sons of God and it's our status quo. I knew this before, but I relearned it again, but Greek has no underlining or exclamation marks or punctuation. So therefore, in order to emphasize something in the Greek, a Greek writer will repeat by repetition, repeat what he wants to communicate. And that's how you sort of use, that's how you emphasize that we are children of God.

Roger and Wiest last week said that we are continuously and permanently, we continuously and permanently exist in the state of being children of God by name and by character. Where we are here in John 3, John is transitioning from one major theme to the other. The first theme he started out with in the beginning of the epistle was that God is light, 1-1 through chapter 2 and verse 2. And then he went into living in God's light. Now he's transitioning into the second theme, that God is love. And we're going to learn about living and walking in God's love. as children, and that goes through chapter four, that's from Ironside's outline. This phrase, it has not appeared yet, as yet what we will be. And let's just tackle this, and it has not appeared as yet. Appeared is the Greek word phanerao, and it means to make visible, to the eye, And it has really physically to the physical eye or to make actual or realized. Um, I came up with to see the actual reality of it with your physical eye.

Um, it's an heiress point fact, passive voice. So it's happening to us in the indicative mood. Um, so it's an assertion of certainty about that. It's not a question of if, like a subjunctive. The phrase, what we will be, it has not appeared yet, as yet, what we will be. And that what we will be is the key phrase of this verse. It causes you to say, Gee, what will I be? You know, it's a, it kind of sets it out there. In the Greek, it's, it's an ame verb. It's E-I-M-I or esome. It's future tense, middle voice, indicative mood.

So I will be this thing in my future. It will be my reality. But we have to remember this phrase for later on in the lesson this morning, because it's a key phrase. This part of the verse, as I said, it kind of creates this question in our mind. It's a laden question, a little mysterious. What is this thing which we are going to be? And the middle voice of it has us kind of personally involved in finding out what it is that we will be in our future.

Next phrase of John 3 to is we know that when he appears. The King James, I think, I like how the King James puts this conjunction in there. Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be, but we know that when he appears, we will be like him. That but is helpful to me. I don't know, in the King James, I don't know if it's helpful to you, but it sets off a contrast there.

Oh, sorry, Roy. Go ahead. That's Bob Landry. I'm just congratulating you on being in the right version. Oh, yeah. Exactly. Yeah, I started out with King James, but then I said, oh, this is this is for the birds. Hard to understand, isn't it? Yeah. No, it's nice. It's a more poetic. Sometimes I like that poetry or that those what I say, King James words with that th at the end. And the neat thing about no here is it's factual, right? Yeah, exactly.

So here's a second word, incidence of the word appears, and again it's phanerao, to be made manifest or visible with the eye. It doesn't have to be physical, it can be made just be made manifest like a like a concept or something, but I think in this verse, it really has to do with the eye. We know that when he appears, know is oida, and we studied that a few weeks ago. It's absolute knowledge, not come to by learning or reasoning or deduction, but we says it's a general truth of our future state. And he says, it's a promise. And I said, you know, it really is a promise, isn't it? That when he appears, we will be like him. That's a promise.

But we know Oida, we know it intrinsically because of our conscious a conscientiousness of being his child or being children of God, that knowledge is in us, as opposed, and I'd say, as opposed to Gnosko knowledge, which is the learning knowledge that is acquired. Important caveat. Macaulay and Wiest translate this part of the verse, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. But we know that when it appears, we will be like him.

So some versions of, or some translators have when he appears and then others have when it appears. You can go both ways. But I think along with Wiest and Macaulay, I prefer the get. And it has to do with, I won't go, it has to do with kind of inside baseball of the Greek there as to why to choose it or he there. But what is then the it? The it is, we're referring to the phrase, what we will be. And Bengel says, the what suggests something unspeakable contained in the likeness of God. Macaulay says there's no visible example of what we will be presently on this earth to show us this future state, nor has there ever been.

I had the question, I can't answer it, it's sort of an open question I came up with, is that when Christ was on earth and he was risen from the dead and he was, you know, walking around and appearing to people for that 40 day period before he ascended to heaven.

You know, he had the transformed body then, right? The new body. So I don't know if, so that's what we're going to be like, but maybe it wasn't the full presentation of his glory. Like we'll see. Again, the it has not appeared and the it is what we will be. But it is future reality for us. So what is it?

And part of the answer to that is we will be like him because we will see him as he is. The phrase, we will be like him. like is homeos and you can see that in there the word homogenous which we're all familiar with being the same as. Stoney uses a word similitude. I've never seen that word before but there it is similitude for similarity.

A question I came up to When I was studying this, so on this day, will we be like him physically and spiritually, both physically and spiritually, or will we only have a physical transformed body? In other words, will we be fully spiritually conformed to his image or not?

And that's an open question I leave with you. But I'll answer, I'll get to it later. Just want to put it out there right now. We are definitely talking about when we are raptured, even though it can be unclear from this verse too, that it refers to the rapture. And Macaulay says that because he uses those two, it instead of when he appears, he uses when it appears. So.

But I think it's really the rapture because back in 1 John 2.28, just a few verses ago, the word coming is in there, the coming of the Lord. So that's parousia and that's definitely a rapture reference. So we are in this section of being in the rapture. So that's where we are as far as timeline goes.

Because we will see him just as he is. that phrase. Because is Hoti, a conjunction for the fact that we will be like him for the fact that we will see him just as he is. And see is Hara'o. And this is interesting because this word, it's we will see with our eyes and Hara'o is definitely an eyesight type word. We'll be acquainted with our real yet future experience and we will see it. It's a middle voice, indicative, assertive fact, and it's me seeing it in the first person. And it's you seeing it, this experience of what we will be when we see him.

I spent a lot of time. I make this point that I spent a lot of time, it's a lot daydreaming about this verse because you're, you're picturing it in your mind and you're imagining it. Um, and you're going over it that way, even though it's a future reality, it's reality, but it's just not here yet. And it's, uh, it's you, it's really interesting or it's a good exercise.

Hey Roy, can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear. What do you make of this he versus it? I mean, he shall appear in the Greek. What I have is it's one word. Yeah, I can't. I don't really follow along with that. It's third person singular, so I don't see the neuter in that.

Can people hear me now? Yeah, you're back. Did I disappear for a second? Yeah, more than a second. Okay. Let's see. Let me share my screen again. How far did we get there? We were on the daydreaming. Oh, daydreaming. Okay, that's good. So I gave you a chance to daydream. Let me get the screen back. Just a passing thought while we're waiting for you, Andrew.

Yeah. The word there that says that we know this in the perfect form. We've come to know and we continue to know this. Oh, wow. Okay. The emphasis there. I probably just did not look at the The part of speech of that probably, right? I don't think I had that on my slide. That's okay. That's good to know. The Holy Spirit is so careful, isn't he? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay, share. There we go. There it is. Part of it. Continue to daydream for just a bit more. Restarting. Oh yeah. Okay.

So the point I make at the end here is, and I can't answer this because it's just, you're thinking about it and it requires you to just think about it, is when we're transformed into our new bodies, our transformed bodies, is the act of seeing him, is that when we become him? Or is it when we are pulled up in the rapture, caught up in that when we're on our way up to meet him, is that when we are changed? So does seeing him change us or do we change a moment before we see him?

And I don't know the answer to that thought. Benny, do you have any thoughts about that? I have Zane Hodge's commentary on that in his book. The clear implication of this statement is that the sight of our Lord Jesus Christ in His glory will be automatically transforming for each child of God. This agrees with Paul's teaching that even now our spiritual transformation takes place as we behold our Lord's glory in the mirror of the scriptures.

Compare 2 Corinthians 3.18.

Okay, great, great. So that's Hodges, so he thinks that. Now, Weiss makes a statement that he doesn't think it means that, like, but. So it's probably 50-50 with a lot of people, but I like that. I like that thought that when we see him, that's when we are changed.

Thank you. Yeah. I was thinking that, you know, in times past, that I mean, if you looked upon God as a mere human, it would destroy you, you know. So I would think that you would be transformed before so that you could look upon him. And that's a good point. I've thought that too before, you know.

We have to have our physically transformed bodies and our new eyes to see His glory and otherwise, yeah. Just a lot of questions there because, you know, Paul saw Him on the road to Damascus, so is that So he saw him, but was it the full thing that we're going to see? Maybe it's a different level that we're going to see. It all happens in a twinkling of an eye, so I don't think it's going to matter when. Right. We're not going to be able to daydream about it on the way up this morning, right? Okay, so we'll leave that question open.

So the ultimate key to this verse is, and I think what the it is, is Philippians 3, 20 and 21. And that's, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our body from our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory. And there it is. by the exertion of the power that he has even that with by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself. That word citizenship, we're going to do a quick little study on this first, is pulituma. Okay, am I back? Yeah, your audio is. Boy, do you have my screen? Yeah, we lost the power point. No screen. Okay, no screen. It must be, is it my internet that's unstable?

Could be. It appears to be. There it is. Okay. Did we, did you hear the Pultuma? Yeah. Yes, we started there. Okay. So, and how was your daydreaming this time? Not as long. Okay, right. So our Pulte Tuma is in heaven, the city or state to which we belong. It's like we eagerly await here in a foreign land to be extracted from this place, this hellish place perhaps, and where we groan in these decaying corruptible bodies.

That's sort of the thought here. Transform. is metaskamatsio, to change, and conformity is sumorphous. And that's that word that J.B. Stoney had for similitude. And you know that metaskamatsio is like metamorphous, metamorphous, right? That's what's going to happen there on that day. Do you guys still have me? Yes. Okay, excellent. So the body we receive in 1 John 3 to today's verse is similar to or molded on the body of his glory. It is an imperishable body. And here's what it is, right? It is an imperishable body, not perishable. It is not in dishonor, but in power and glory.

And that's from 1 Corinthians 15, 42 through 44. By Christ's personal, energetic, powerful working, and it's going to take an incredible amount of power to think of that, to first raise all the dead and give them this new body and then take us up in the air and give everyone who's alive a body like his own. Just a tremendous amount of power. Okay, so here's the next verse, verse three.

And everyone who has his hope fixed on him purifies himself, just as he is pure. And hope is the word elpis. It's a favorable and confident expectation in either an unseen thing or a yet future thing. That's vine. And I like what my dad had several years ago, and he said that hope is absolute certainty of a future or unseen things of God is how he defined hope. Purifies, the word purifies is hagnizo, active voice, indicative mood. It's the act of cleansing from defilement. like in the Old Testament times with priests and the people of Israel and things like that.

Do you guys still have me? Yeah, we've got you there. Excellent. Just a case in point here, there's a definite article with the hope and it's this specific hope. Oh, okay. Yeah, you talked about that earlier where there's no emphasis in Greek. Oh, yeah, right. Very emphatic. It's this specific hope. All right, yeah, and a definite article is also an emphatic point, isn't it? Yeah, but it also has a pronoun, this specific one. Anyway. Great, okay.

Here, the word peer is hagnos, being free from defilement and not contaminated. And it's the same root as the word for holy. Alfred says that it's not to be taken as a man being able to purify himself. And Alfred says that he quotes John 15 five, apart from me, you can do nothing. But it's hope, rest, the hope, as Roy pointed out, the hope, resting on Christ. and the hope of being like him, changed by him physically, that arouses our desire to be free ourselves from defilement, the defilement of the flesh and the spirit, just like he is. Interesting point from Uist here is that God is called Hagios or holy. Do you guys have me? Yes. A little warning sign just came up on my screen. We'll cough every once in a while. Someone say Amen every once in a while. Amen.

We say that God is called Hagios or Holy, but he's never called Hagnos or pure. Christ is hacknos or pure because of his human experience. His absolute sinlessness cleanses. Let me read this. His absolute, perfect, sinless, cleansed, undefiled life attained while living on earth during his lifetime is how he was pure. He was pure by experience.

Just as, that little phrase just as is Kathos from Kata and that's the word for according to or setting up a standard. So the standard of our being pure or purifying ourselves is Christ's purity. That's the standard. So, Andrew, the idea here is that every man that has this specific hope purifies himself.

So. Are we not purifying ourselves in the absence of this hope? I mean, it seems like it's conditional. But yeah, maybe not. I mean, we all have this hope, right? Right. Just having that hope doesn't make us more in Christ, really, or does it? Yeah, that's what I'm trying to understand. Well, that's a good point. Maybe what if some of their believers, but what if they don't have the hope? What if they don't know about it? Oh, is that ignorance or is that a lack of growth? Yeah, I'd say a lack of well, both really.

Right. Could be both. This is fellowship again, it's always in view here. The one in fellowship is walking in a manner pleasing to the Lord, but also personally benefiting. There's an intimacy here that is in view by John. Right. By fixing our hope on him. Right. That's good. Right. Because we know this. We came to know it. We know it now. Yeah. Recognize him. It's not that we might recognize him. We will recognize him. Right. Right. And doesn't John says that a lot, doesn't he? You know this. Yeah. That's good.

The phrase, he is pure, Christ is pure, just like it's used just as God is love or God is holy, or I am he. It's a status quo essence, a verbal phrase. So while it's true that Christ is holy in his essence, he is, and this is the point I made before, he is also pure by attainment. He earned it here on earth by his sinless life.

You know, in a sense, this is kind of identification played out, isn't it? And hope is something that's guaranteed, is it not? I mean, we haven't experienced it yet. But as we have that hope, it places us in the mind of Christ and in the new nature we have. And that does purify. Do you see where I'm going with that? I'm not quite sure. Well, in our focusing on Christ, we are purifying. in our condition. Well, it starts with position Jim. It does. Position is there. It's perfect. We won't lose it.

In our condition, we either focus on Christ or we don't focus on Christ. If we don't focus on Christ, we're not Purified. Well then that hope doesn't ultimately work towards the growing us in grace, right? That's why Paul emphasizes set your mind on things above.

Yes. Set your affections on things above. This is an ongoing thing. Yeah. Hey, I'm back. So, you probably don't see my screen, do you? We see your name. Okay. Wow. I hope, I hope, I'd hope this class would go better with the technology but we are without hope today. We don't rely on technology. Right. No, but we can rely on, we're going to see him as he is. How's that? Can you see that? Yeah, we can. Great. Oh, so did... I got to the end here. Did I say this? I just... When I restated the verse 2 into verse 3 down at the bottom? No, we didn't hear it. Okay, so... I just... I did this.

We know that when He appears, we will be like Him. Because we will see Him just as He is. And because Everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself, just as he is pure. I just put this, and I don't know if I can do that Greek wise, but it helped me tie the two verses together. And I was just wondering if you guys find that helpful. By adding, because everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

I'm probably breaking a rule of Greek, though, by doing that. Well, we'll let you do that. Okay. So here's a summary slide I came up with. The two verses are above. And I kind of borrowed or stole this from my dad. Probably owe him a a finders fee or something, but you have these, your life, which is the circle and people going around the circle of life, I guess, and they, they're putting their hope on, on Christ and his glorified body. And it's another verse that is really key to these two verses this morning is Colossians 3, 4, when Christ, who is our life is revealed. then you will also be revealed with him in glory. And so we have that, the hope, that fixed hope on him presently. So I think I just took that from my dad who made a slide like that, except his, his was his little illustration was a person having a faith on the essence of God and things like that.

So there it is. What time is it? What time do we have? Oh, I'm a little over. So maybe I should stop there. I have a final thought slide, but I think I'll leave that out this morning due to time. So sorry about all the technical difficulties this morning. And is everyone still with me?

Yeah. Okay. You're fine. Great. Okay. Yeah, there we go. So I'll wrap it up here and I'll close in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this, this lesson. And we thank you that someday we will be just like your son in bodily and we'll grow in the grace of and knowledge of his image spiritually. Right now, while we are on earth, we thank you for these things. In Jesus' name, Amen.