WWUTT 418 We Shall Be Like Him?

Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification in 1 John 3

Salvation is, from beginning to end, the gracious work of God. We've been justified in Christ Jesus, we are being sanctified in Christ, and we will also be glorified with Him when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of 1 John 3. This week we've been looking at verses 1 through 3. Have I even gotten into verse 2 yet? I think I did yesterday. Beloved, we are God's children now.

So let's start there again, 1 John 3, and we'll read these three verses again. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God, and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

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.

I don't know if you recognized it or not, but here in verse 2, we have justification, sanctification, and glorification mentioned in this one verse. Beloved, we are God's children now. There's justification.

In Christ Jesus, we've been adopted into the family of God. We have been justified, we've been purified. Before God, we are declared by Christ as innocent. Remember we read earlier that we have an advocate before the Father in the Son.

Jesus is advocating for us before God. He is speaking favorably about us on our behalf to God the Father, and it is because of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our sins, His atoning sacrifice.

The debt has been paid, nailed to the cross, as Paul talks about in Colossians 2. It is finished, tetelestiai, as we read about in John's gospel. The debt has been paid, and we stand before God justified.

That's the event. When we come to Christ, we're immediately justified, but we've not yet been fully sanctified. So justification is the event, declared innocent before God. Sanctification is the process.

It's basically justification in action. And so we go through this process of being made holy. So we're immediately justified, but we have yet to be fully sanctified. And that's the next portion of verse 2.

We are God's children now, justification, and what we will be has not yet appeared. That's sanctification. So we have yet to become something else. We are justified before God and we are His children, but now we have to grow up.

Now we're growing as His children, just as you, who are parents out there, who have children. They're not going to remain two and three years old. They're going to grow up into mature boys and girls, 10, 11, 12 years old, and then become young men and women, 15, 16, 17 years old.

They are growing up. They are maturing. They are growing in knowledge, in behavior, in character. And so these are things that we need to grow in as well as the children of God. Think of what Peter said our faith should be supplanted by when he was talking about growing in this process of sanctification in 2 Peter 1, confirming our calling and election in Jesus Christ.

He said, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control. Self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness.

Godliness with brotherly affection, brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.

For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. We also have it said by James in James chapter one, that we should not just be hearers of the word only, but doers of the word. First John or I'm sorry, first John James 1 22 be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

In Hebrews, we are told about those who should have been a little bit more mature. Remember they should be teachers themselves by this point, but still need milk instead of solid food. Hebrews chapter five, verse 11 about this.

We have much to say, and it's hard to explain since you've become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

You need milk, not solid food for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

So there is an expectation there that we would grow up in our faith, that we don't remain children, but we grow and we mature. Paul puts it this way to the Ephesians in Ephesians chapter four, beginning in verse 11.

God gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. When each part is working properly, makes the body grow, the whole body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Consider this, that if you stay in immaturity in your faith, the rest of your brothers and sisters in Christ will be that less mature in their faith also. But if you grow up in your faith, the whole body of Christ matures.

This affects the whole body. It's not just about you, but it's also about service to the rest of the body of Christ. One more passage to read for you here in first Corinthians chapter three, where once again, Paul says to this group of people also that they should be more grown up in the faith than they are.

I brothers, this is first Corinthians three, one, I brothers could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food for you weren't ready for it.

And even now you are not yet ready for your still of the flesh for while there's jealousy and strife among you. Are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? And so Paul was rebuking them that they would grow up in their faith, no longer acting, excuse me, no longer acting like infants in Christ, but they would be mature men and women of God.

We also have the statement that is given in second Timothy chapter three, that the man of God, it is by the word of God that we are trained in righteousness so that the man of God may be fully equipped for every good work.

Let us grow up into men and women of God. So that's the sanctification process that John is talking about here. First John three to beloved. We are God's children now, even when we grow up in our faith, we're still going to be the children of God, but we should not remain infants, but rather grow in knowledge and in maturity in the faith.

What we will be has not yet appeared. And so we are going to be more as we grow in knowledge, in the knowledge of God. And then the next part of that verse, the glorification part, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.

We will be glorified as Christ is glorified. First John, I'm sorry, first Corinthians 13, 12. Now we see as though through a glass darkly, but soon we will see face to face. And then we will know just as we are fully known.

And I think also back to Romans chapter eight, I got to turn there. I didn't have this marked Romans chapter eight, beginning in verse 28. We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined.

He also called those whom he called. He also justified and those whom he justified. He also glorified with Christ. We will also be glorified and we will be made to be like him and see him as he is. The process of salvation from beginning to end, justification, sanctification, glorification.

It is all the work of God according to his word. Verse three, and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. In other words, if we would call ourselves the children of God in Jesus Christ, our Lord, then let us live as Jesus lived.

Let us purify ourselves as he is pure. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, end of Matthew chapter five, be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Let us pray. God, our father, we thank you for this adoption that we have received in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And so perfect us in your love that we would be perfect as you are perfect. Not that we are already perfect, but we seek to make it our own as Christ has made us his own. Teach us these things as we go and let this word of Christ dwell in us throughout our day.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.