WHEN WE SEE JESUS…

Old age, with its increasing weakness and disabilities, is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the future. For one who has been in God’s kingdom since the age of fifteen, the thought of death holds no terror. Rather, it increases the anticipation of what is to come.

If God’s Word is true, and I have lived long enough to have put that Word to the test, then I join Paul in his desire to be with the Lord which he said, is far better. Of course, one clings to the known, and the desire to accomplish this or that before one leaves for good. However, as distant, and blurry as our anticipation is now, the call to come home is very strong.

To reassure myself yet once again, I look at the prospects recorded in Scripture. I wonder at what it will feel like to be during the transformation that instant will bring. Paul said it would all happen in a flash, faster than the blink of an eye.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 NLT
[51] “But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! [52] It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.”

Transformed! What does that mean?
Metamorphosed, like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. It went in a caterpillar and came out a butterfly. We go into the grave a mortal body, and emerge a resurrected, immortal being, just like Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44 NLT
[42] “It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. [43] Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. [44] They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.”

1 Corinthians 15:20 NLT
[20]” But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.
[22] Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. [23] But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.”

“Firstfruits” implies that the remainder of the harvest will be the continuation of the nature of the firstfruits.

So, assurance number one, we shed these mortal, imperfect bodies when we die. We rise to immortality in a perfect, incorruptible body identical to the body of Jesus! No spots of teenage or wrinkles and blemishes of old age, just perfect ageless people.

Information Technology will pale into insignificance when we see Jesus. No more need for Google and the internet. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter (now X), will be redundant.

For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12

Assurance number two, all our ignorance, misunderstanding, deception, and unbelief, will be swallowed up in perfect knowledge.

Assurance number two, we will never be ignorant again!

In these perfect, immortal bodies, we shall never suffer again. All pain, physical, emotional, psychological, even spiritual, will be excluded from our new existence in God’s eternal realm. All memory of our life on earth will be blotted out, we assume, because our earthly memories hold the pain of our suffering.

Ephesians 5:27 NLT [27] “He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.”

Revelation 21:3-4 NLT
[3] “I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. [4] He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

Assurance number three, our lives on earth, with all its sad and bad experiences, will cease to exist. We will begin a brand-new life as though it were a birth.

From the day we were born, God has wooed and won us, and begun the transformation from sinful people made in the image of Adam to sons of God being recreated in the image of Jesus.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Philippians 3:20-21

Romans 8:29 NLT
[29] “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

Paul’s goal, in everything he did, was to receive the prize for which Jesus saved and called him into fellowship with Him.

Philippians 3:12-14 NLT
[12]”I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. [13] No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, [14] I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

What was the prize Paul was  determined to gain?

2 Timothy 4:6-8 NLT
[6]”As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. [7] I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. [8] And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.”

“The crown of righteousness”? Perhaps we should call it, “the crown that righteous living receives”. A crown represents the greatest reward for an achievement. We say, “Sos-and-so’s efforts were crowned with success.”

So, what was this crown Paul worked so hard to receive. It cost him dying to self, beating his body into subjection, and suffering all kinds of hardships in his obedience to Jesus’ call and commission to take the gospel to the Gentiles?

John gives us the answer.

1 John 3:2 NLT
[2] “Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.”

Like Jesus! What a prize! It seems, though, from what we have read, that this crown is reserved for all who gave joined in the fight to received. Casual Christianity has no place in God’s hall of fame. It takes work, effort, perseverance, and faithfulness to earn that crown.

This is not about earning our salvation which God freely gives by grace through faith in Jesus. Salvation is non-negotiable, but rewards crown the effort put into our response to this great salvation.

“Am I a soldier of the cross —
A follower of the Lamb?
And shall I fear to own His cause
Or blush to speak His name?

As the old hymn perfectly inquires…

Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease
While others fought to win the prize
And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace
To help me on to God?

Since I must fight if I would reign,
Increase my courage, Lord!
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain
Supported by Thy Word.

In the name, the precious name
Of Him who died for me
Through grace, I’ll win the promised crown
What e’er my cross may be.

The saints in all this glorious war,
Shall conquer, though they die;
They see the triumph from afar
Through faith’s discerning eye.

When that illustrious day shall rise
And all Thy Armies shine
In robes of vic’try through the skies,
The glory shall be Thine.
(Isaac Watts published 1721)

Assurance number four, there is an indescribably wonderful reward for those who remain faithful to Jesus to the end.

 
So, says John…

1 John 3:3 NLT
[3] “And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.”

¹² Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you to will and to act to fulfil his good purpose. Philippians 2:12-13