Living This Day In Light of That Day
N. Hunter Strength
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· 6 viewsThe beatific vision and its effect of the beatifically minded believer.
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In the mid-thirteenth century, 17-year-old Marco Polo boarded a ship and ventured into an amazing journey that would lead him to the empire of China. There he became the court favorite of Kublai Khan and for years Khan wouldn’t even allow him to leave the kingdom because he wanted Marco to act as a representative of the court as he toured the kingdom. It was throughout his journey that Marco wrote about what he saw. In his journal, he described cities that made the capitals of Europe look like roadside villages. He wrote of the emperor’s palace and how it dwarfed the castles of Europe’s elites. He wrote of how the banqueting hall of the king was so large that it could seat 6,000 guests at once and that they all ate with utensils of pure gold. He also reported massive steel production which Europe wouldn’t match for another 400 years.
When Marco was allowed to leave, two decades later, he was said to have been given such belongings that it took up 24 ships and required 600 people to journey with him. One thing we don’t understand though, is why he arrived in Venice two years later with only 8 survivors and one ship. This caused Marco’s family and friends to believe he was lying and at the age of 70, while he was on his death bed, they encouraged him to confess if he had lied about his adventures to which he whispered his famous final words, “I have not told you the half of all I saw, for I knew I would not be believed.”
An Introduction to the Beatific Vision
An Introduction to the Beatific Vision
Well, over 1300 years before this, Jesus tells us of something far greater than all the world’s most amazing empires and it is found in his beatitudes where He tells us, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” It is to those blessed creatures whose hearts are pure that Christ promises the greatest of all human desires to be fulfilled. That is, that they will see God, and this is not an isolated blessing or desire in the Scriptures.
For instance, in Psalm 17:15 David says, “15 As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.” In Job 19:25-27 “25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; 26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God, 27 Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 13:12 “12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” Titus 2:13 “13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,” and 1 John 3:2 “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.”
This revolving expectation is what is known as the beatific vision, which means, “The sight that makes happy.” This is communicated well by Augustine who said, “Because you have made us for Yourself, our hearts are restless till they find their rest in Thee.”
This desire to see God, to gaze upon the One who made us for Himself is laced throughout the totality of the Bible and is a longing that is seated within the hearts of men such as Job, David, Paul and John as we have just seen. The issue is that though we long to see Him and have texts that prove that others have that desire, we must also deal with passages that seem to insinuate that this is impossible. Such as Exodus 33:20 “20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” John 1:18 “18 No one has seen God at any time." 1 Timothy 6:15-16 “He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.”
With these things considered, we now deal with two questions. First, knowing the sinfulness of my own heart, how could I ever hope to see God if only the pure in heart will see Him? And second, if God is invisible and unseeable, is this even a hope worth having. The answer to these questions is resolved in the person and work of the Lord Jesus. It is Jesus who, according to 1 John 2:12 is the One in which we are made pure as John writes, “12 I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” and it is this same Jesus, in whom we are forgiven, that Col. 2:9 says that “9 in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;”
So, the beatific vision is the hope that one day, we will, because of Christ’s work for us, stand before Him and behold His glory and to our fullest capacity, we will know the glorious essence of the Godhead. This is the beatific vision, this is the vision that makes happy, this is the hope of the Christian, this is our joy, our longing, our motivation! That one day, as John says, we will see Him as He is and we will be made like Him.
Now, with this in mind, I want to speak to you from 1 John 3:1-3 concerning the effects of being beatifically minded, or heavenly minded, because it is here that John encourages Christians with the realities of God’s adopting love wherein we are ensured of the hope of the beatific vision. As we consider this passage, we will see that being beatifically minded has three effects. First, it reorients our sense of self. Second, it re-calibrates the hearts affections. Lastly, it reignites our commitment to holiness.
Being Beatifically Minded Reorients Our Sense of Self (3:1)
Being Beatifically Minded Reorients Our Sense of Self (3:1)
The word used for, “What manner” in 1 John 3:1, is only used seven times throughout the New Testament and is always used to imply astonishment. So, for John, when he considers the love of God in making him His child, he is simply blown away. The word carries a meaning of, “What glorious and measureless love!” But it originally meant, “Of what country?” We could interpret it as though he were saying, “This love is so unbelievable, so otherworldly, so unknown that I wonder what country, or land it must’ve come from. I’ve never known something like this.” (Danny Akin, NAC, 1-3 Jn.) When John contemplates the love of God, he is utterly flabergasted. He is blown away to consider the love of God and that it has been bestowed upon him.
Of this, Burdick writes, “God loves the sinner, not because He is drawn to him by his lovableness, but because, in spite of man’s unloveliness, God sets His mind and will on seeking man’s highest good. This is what is amazing about God’s love” (Burdick, The Letters of John the Apostle, 230).
The phrase, “has bestowed” or in other translations is rendered, “has lavished” is important as it conveys the richness and permanence of the love of God. This communicates the beauty of this gift, that it is not earned or bought but is given not to be removed and what is this love? it is, according to John, an adopting love! That we are called the children of God! In many modern translations there is a exclamatory statement after this that usually reads, “And that we are!” And this all portrays an act of what, according to some scholars, is known as “legitimation” in which a father names his child and thereby makes a permanent claim to identity and ownership. Or to put it another way, this is all in the hands of the Father so the security of the child is assured. (NIVAC, 1 John). Have you contemplated that lately? The unmerited, the unearned love of God for you? That it is not by our works, orr righteousness but by His grace that He loves us and knows us as His own? That the otherworld love of God is unprovoked from start to finish?
I am often burdened when I consider how far away our protestant churches have wpandered from the beauty of the gospel of grace and how quickly we can, if we are not careful, slide into muddying up the purifying, refreshing, blessed waters of the gospel that bring refreshment to parched lips when we mix it with the law in such a way that the believer might truly believe that the satisfaction of God toward them is staked upon their own performance. Beloved, this is an unmerited love through and through and it is only ours because God chose us in Christ and in Christ we are seen as righteous and are known, now and forever, as His children. I am aware that such preaching often envokes the concern of others as though it warrants sinful or lawless living, but it doesn’t. It was this same grace that Paul preached and he anticipated the same questions when he wrote, in Romans 6:1 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid!” It is this message of radical grace that frees bound sinners to live in righteousness.
John continues to apply this doctrine of love to the darkness of life as he assures these believers that because we have been loved with otherworldly love, and transformed by it, the world doesn’t know us, because it doesn’t know the lover of our soul!
Do you feel downtrodden? Do you feel misunderstood? Do you feel as though the suns brightness has been extinguished and that you wonder in darkness alone? Have you fallen to sin again and feel as though the love of God is surely removed from you? Do not worry! He loves us with an everlasting love and our security is ensured. And though it might seem that even our closest of friends does not understand us and the circumstances of this life compel us to feel abandoned we must look no further than Calvary where God demonstrated His love for us. Gary Burge tells the story of the day they adopted their daughter and how, when they stood before the judge, he sat there in his black robe, raised his wooden gavel and with the smack of that gavel, her name was forever changed. He continues and says, “If we do not feel like a child of God, it makes no difference. A divine gavel has fallen.”
It is this radical, relentless love that reorients our sense of self because it reminds us of our unworthiness, but also of His lavish grace. This removes all boasting from ourselves, yet lifts our eyes to realize that we are an otherworldly people ravished by sovereign grace. We need not to seek the approval of men, we are accepted by God. We don’t have to bend to the trends of society, we view life with eternity stamped on our eyes. And since God has saved us, we have come alive with a hope eternal and in that is the desire to behold His glory. How does the beatific vision and this lavish grace work on us? It works on us as we are reminded that we have the expectant hope, as pilgrims, to reach heaven’s shores and to lay eyes on the One who so marvelously loves us. Pastor John Piper once said, “The gospel is not a way to get people to Heaven. It is a way to get people to God.” It, as we lead into point two, recalibrates our affections. We, who once hated God, have been wooed with love so divine that He now reigns upon the throne of our hearts as the Lord of life, and the Lord of love. So, how does living beatifically work on us? First, it reorients our sense of self. And second:
Being Beatifically Minded Recalibrates our Affections (3:2)
Being Beatifically Minded Recalibrates our Affections (3:2)
In verse two I want you to notice the contrast that John sets up as he says that we are now the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. John is teaching us that yes, we are now presently the children of God, but that there is something even greater awaits. John was just exploding with unbelievable joy and now he looks at us and essentially says, “Yes, it is mindblowing, but there is more! And what is to come is even better.”
Now, some of you may have grown up under preaching where considering the day in which we behold God was preached in such a manner that even many Christians were prone to consider the event with fear in their hearts. However, I do not find that to be the case concerning the apostles when dealing with the Church. For instance, Peter, in 1 Peter 4:13 mentions it as a time of great joy as he writes, “But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” In 2 Timothy 4:8 Paul describes it as a time of rewarding as he writes, “Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.” In 1 Thessalonians 4:18, following his discourse on that time says that we are to, “comfort one another with these words.”
And John’s presentation here is no different. He encourages us to look forward to that day as it is then that we will behold Him as He is, we will be made like Him and we will realize the fullness of our adoption. Why do we have no need to fear? Because we bear His name!
When we see Him, whatever is desired there will be present. Francis Turretin said, “God will be seen without end, loved without disinterest ever growing, praised without weariness, He will be all in all” (Institutes, Vol 3, 612).
When we see Him, there will be no more heartache, for He, as Isaiah 25:8 says“8 He will swallow up death forever, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.”
When we see Him, there will be no more discouragement Isaiah 35:10 “10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
When we see Him, we will enjoy satisfaction and rest forevermore. Isaiah 49:10 “10 They shall neither hunger nor thirst, Neither heat nor sun shall strike them; For He who has mercy on them will lead them, Even by the springs of water He will guide them.”
Of this great day, Augustine wrote, “Enter into joy without sorrow, which contains all pleasure, where every good will be, and not any evil. Where life will be vital, sweet, and lovable, and always memorial; where there will be no assaulting enemy, nor any snares, but supreme and certain security, secure tranquility and tranquil pleasure and pleasurable happiness; a happy eternity, eternal blessedness and the blessed vision of God, which is the joy of the Lord thy God. O joy above joy! Joy overcoming all joy; joy besides which there is no joy … When shall I enter into thee, that I may see my God, who dwells in thee?”
It is of that day, wherein we dwell with Him forevermore, that we will enjoy the greatest of splendors. On Earth, nothing is more sought than treasures, so Rev. 21:11 says that Heaven uses it as being filled with such, “11 having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.”
On Earth, most desire a rich inheritance, yet of Heaven, 1 Peter 1:4 “4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,”
On Earth, there is nothing more relaxing than a nice garden setting, and of Heaven Rev. 2:7 says, “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” ’”
On Earth, what brings more peace to the child shaking in the discomfort of the darkness of night, but the light of day? But of heaven, Revelation 21:23 “23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.”
Surely, we must not believe that all of these are to be understood literally, but what I believe is being conveyed is that in that place, where the glory of God will be fully known, there will be no rival. There will be no desire lacking. Augustine, of that day, wrote, “Thy God will be wholly thine, He, entire whole, will possess you entirely whole. You will have the whole and the other the whole because thou and He are one.”
Beloved, in that day, we will be free from the aches of the fallen bodies, we will be delivered from all misery and shame, we will break free from all sinful bindings. We will, in mind, see His glory with perfect knowledge, and will walk in absolute holiness. We will be like Him, not that we will be divine, but we will walk in purity as He is pure.
Concerning Heaven, Adoniram Judson wrote, “When Christ calls me home I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school.” And C.S. Lewis said, “Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.”
This is the beauty of the beatific vision, Church. That we will see Him as He is and, in a moment, all of Earth’s most glorious attractions will fade away as though they were simply insignificant. In that time, we will be like Him, free from sin to serve and adore Him forevermore.
In longing to see Christ as He is, we will learn to examine the world in a better light, which leads to my final point which is that:
Being Beatifically Minded Reignites Our Commitment to Holiness (3:3)
Being Beatifically Minded Reignites Our Commitment to Holiness (3:3)
One question we might ask is why doesn’t God just take us to be with Him upon our salvation? Or we might wonder why He continues to delay the beatific vision. Now, there are many correct responses to this question, but one writer, correlating our longing to that of someone trying to open a bag wide enough to fit a large item inside, said, “This is how God stretches our desire: through delay, stretches our soul through desire, and makes it large enough by stretching it.”
Or, as is often said today, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” And in considering the beatific vision, our hearts are made to pursue holiness in light of the expectant hope of Christ. Now, here, in 1 John 3:3, we find that we are called to purify ourselves. This is not teaching that we are, in some way, pursuing justification through our efforts at sinlessness. John has taught throughout his letter, in places such as 1 John 1, that we have been initially purified by the blood of Christ. Rather, what we are seeing here is that the more we who are saved walk with the Lord in this expectant hope, the more conscious we will become of our sin and the more eager we will be in striving, by the power of the Spirit, to make war with our sin. The heart in which we are to do this with is described well by Dr. Matthew Barrett who writes:
Out of what spirit then does such a consecration occur? The pilgrim on his way to see the King does not say out of a spirit of reluctance, “I suppose I must prepare myself for the King.” As if he is sacrificing something better to enter the king’s palace. Instead, he says out of a spirit of exuberance, “I cannot believe I have the privilege of entering the presence of the King! I must get ready to meet him.” The pilgrim who believes his King is waiting on his arrival does not run out of mere duty but expediency. Godliness is galvanized by the chance that he, a mere mortal, might see the King of the ages, the immortal, invisible, the only God, to whom belong honor and glory forever and ever.
It is with such desire that we think of Paul’s letter to the Philippians where he said, “13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Are you at war with your sin? Are you striving against it? We must be aware of how sly sin is and how quickly it can dwell within us often undetected. Do you let the smile of Christ upon you, or the expectation of hearing, “Well done.” Stir your heart and motivate you to press forward until that day? Is Jesus Himself the catalyst of your Christian walk by which you are motivated?
Conclusion
Conclusion
John Piper once said, “The critical question for our generation—and for every generation— is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisurely activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?” What this doctrine centers upon is not the thought of some really nice, relaxing place free from troubles. Rather, it centers upon Christ in whom we find all delights. And because He is there, it is truly Heaven.
As we conclude our time together, I would like to ask whether you have found yourself delighting in Christ, longing for Christ, pursuing Christ, or whether you have found yourself seemingly bored with Christ or the thought of eternity with Him. If you have, I want to call you to ask God to use the passage we have considered tonight to rekindle your zeal for Him. That you would bask in the love of God and, in turn, find it as the catalyst by which you relentless pursue Him until that final day.
And as He does that, may we find ourselves appreciating the means of grace as a foretaste of that day. May we find ourselves encouraged to evangelize those around us as we are awestruck that we march onward towards our King. And may we find our days filled with bright hope in anticipation for the day that we see Jesus.
It is this doctrine that gives bright hope for tomorrow, that we are the children of God and we will one day be with Him forevermore and it is this doctrine that should serve as a lens through which we estimate what we place value on in our daily lives. Revelation 22:4 “4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.”
Benedictory Verse:
1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 NKJV
23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.