You Can't Be Like What You Can't See

I know that it's been a while since I've posted anything on here, but I was meditating on something that I thought was pretty cool.

There are certain milestones in the Christian journey that help you to understand why things are the way they are, and help to increase your knowledge and love for the God that we commune with. I recently had one of those milestones, and it has helped me to test my own walk with God, and hopefully, to encourage people to test theirs. It came from meditating on 1 John 3:2,3 - "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. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." Let's see if I can sum up what I was thinking in a few paragraphs.
What is the big deal with sight? Why does John link purifying with seeing? I don't care who you are, you desire something. That something is usually something that you want to be good at, like music, sports, disc golf, writing, reading, praying etc. Take your pick. Everyone wants to identify with, and be good at something. I used to play the drums religiously (believe it or not). I enjoyed music and I used to go watch alot of bands play. Why did I do that? Was it because I enjoyed the music? Yes there was that, but the reason I went was to watch the people who were really good at playing music so that I could see what they did to be as good as they were, and to learn what they were doing in hopes to become better! Well John tells us that we are children of God but that we are not fully pure, because we don't yet fully see. Well we do partially see right? Yes. Well when did we begin to see? Jesus tells us that we must be born again to see the kingdom of heaven, and unless we are, we won't (John 3:3). Here again we see the issue of sight. You can't be good at what you don't see. Jesus said, when called "good teacher", that there is no one good but the Father, acknowledging his goodness on the same level as the Father. If the Father and Jesus are ultimately the highest good, what do we have to look at to be good Christians? Jesus! The author and perfector of our faith. You can't be like what you can't see. This is why John tells us that those who see Jesus this side of heaven with the eyes of the born again heart, purify themselves. Because the born again believer can see the best thing in the all creation, Jesus! As a born again believer, you have a renewed mind and a clean heart (Ezekiel 36:26,27; Romans 12:2), and like Paul, we have the ability to serve God with our renewed minds and hearts, but when it comes to actions, or the flesh, we serve the law of sin, we deteriorate, even if we are doing good things. This is because in the heart and mind we are made new (Colossians 3:10), but the flesh is not yet what it will be; glorified. (See Romans 8)
In my journey with God I can take this verse and say to myself, or to anyone for that matter, (1) are you born again? If not then you're not able to see the kingdom. And if so then (2) what are you looking at? If you are born again, the best thing you can do for yourself is to gaze into the face of Jesus, see how good he is, and thus purify yourself, because he is pure. Hope this makes sense to you because I think it's awesome and humbling.

How Do I Get to Heaven?

This is probably the most popular question that could ever be asked. It's a question that should not go unanswered, and one that every person should know. Let me tell you what I think is the answer to this question according to what the bible says. I know that there will be people who reads this that don't agree with me but I leave these things up to you to take to the bible and weigh them.

Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the life, no man can come to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). But what does that look like. How do we come to have a saving relationship with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit? Well I have to start by saying I believe that from the moment of conception we are created in sin, and therefore have a sin nature (Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12), and it is because of our very nature that we are separated from God. This means that we can perform all kinds of morally good acts (which are good, don't get me wrong) but they will always be tainted by our nature, which is far from perfect. "Sin" is a word that gets thrown around quite often without knowing what it is and the ramifications of it. Every human being, beginning with Adam, has fallen short of God's holy standard, and have profaned the very character of God himself. The bible calls this "sin" (Romans 3:23), and because of it we are separated from God, and are in need of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:20,21; Colossians 1:22,23). If sin is the very thing that separates us from a Holy God then what is it that needs to be taken care of in order to be adopted into the family of God? SIN! If we do not trust Jesus for our salvation, it means that we are an object of God's justice because of the violation of His character (John 3:18). Think about it like this. If someone were to commit some completely horrible crime against you (theft, abuse, rape, assault), would you not call the police and seek justice? Or would you forgive that person? No matter what your choice is someone has to pay the penalty. If you seek justice (which isn't a bad thing), the person who committed the crime pays. If you choose to forgive that person, you must pay the penalty emotionally. To forgive no matter what the crime or offense, it requires sacrifice. It's kind of interesting to me that so many people will seek justice if the crime is against them, but the moment we talk about God's justice for the crime against him we say, "No way God wouldn't do that!" Well trust me he would and he will.

Our culture teaches us that if we do we get. This is one principle that does not apply to God in the area of salvation. Because God is an infinite being, our debt is infinite. We only deceive ourselves if we think that we can repay the debt of sin that is owed to God (Romans 4:4,5). And it is this very thing that Jesus came to set us free from, the weight of thinking that we have to pay our debt ourselves. This is one of the many things that Jesus accomplished on the cross, OUR SALVATION! He who did not know any sin, became sin on the cross so that in him any one who believes and trusts in Jesus for their salvation becomes the righteousness of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21) Our faith in the work of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection is what saves us, not our good works (Ephesians 2:8,9). If we think that our good works earn us a ticket to heaven then Jesus died for no reason (Galatians 2:21). The moment we place our faith in what Jesus did we are cleansed from our sin that has separated us from God, sealed with His Holy Spirit as a guarantee of the inheritance that we will attain, and God looks at us as if we lived the righteous life of Jesus himself(Ephesians 1:13,14; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 5:18). The works that we do after we are saved are wrought in the finished work of Jesus on the cross, performed in gratitude for what Christ did, not in hopes to earn his love. I will say it like this, if you have children this may hit you harder. Do your children have to earn your love? NO! But they do have to embrace it. God so loved the world that he sent his only Son to die on a cross in the place of sinful people like us. That is how the love of God was made manifest. We cannot earn the love of God, it is something that is freely offered, it is something that we must embrace, and it is yours for the taking. So embrace it by faith, not by works! I hope and pray that anyone who reads this will one day know the confidence (not arogance) of knowing for certain that when you die you will be with Jesus in his Kingdom. Not because of anything that we've done in righteousness, but because of what He did in love.

"...God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him, In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

-1 John 4:8-10