December 13

When he shall appear, we shall he like him; for we shall see him as he is. - 1 John 3:2.

AND thus the likeness secures the vision, and not the vision the likeness. In the manner in which he expresses himself, many have supposed the former to be a consequence of the latter,-that we shall be made like him by seeing him as he is. But what change will take place in the Christian after he sees him? The one is mentioned here, not as the consequence, but as the proof. We shall be like him; and, as an evidence of it, we shall see him as he is, which we could not do unless we had been made previously like him.

The word “for” is frequently used not as a cause but as evidential. Thus, we say, “Spring is come, for the birds are singing.” The singing of the birds does not bring the spring, but shows that it is come. Our blessed Saviour uses the word when referring to the solemnities of the last day. He says to those on his right hand, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was a-hungered, and ye gave me meat.” Well, the greatest favour the Saviour could ask for his disciples while upon earth was, that they might be with him where he was, to behold his glory. Many followed him to see him. The Greeks said, “Sirs, we would see Jesus.” Zaccheus ran before the multitude and climbed up into a sycamore-tree in order to behold him, for he was to pass that way. Perhaps we have all sometimes been ready to envy those who saw him, heard him, and were familiar with him, while here. Well, Christians,-

“Well, we shall quickly pass the night

To the fair coasts of perfect light;

Then shall our joyful senses rove

O’er the dear object of our love.”

We naturally wish to see persons of unparalleled greatness and mental capacity.

“Oh that those lips had language! life has pass’d

With me but roughly since I heard thee last.

Those lips are thine; thine own sweet smile I see,-

The same that oft in childhood solaced me.”

Well, all the “sons of God” shall “see the King in his beauty.” We have often seen him in his works, in his word, and in his ordinances. But we shall see him as he is, in the very nature in which he was born, in which he suffered and died. We have some precious views of him now by faith. But we shall not always depend upon testimony, nor upon his own testimony concerning himself. No, we shall see him as he is. When Simeon viewed him as a babe merely, he looked at him, and said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” When the Queen of Sheba came from the uttermost parts of the earth to see the wisdom of Solomon, she said, “It was a true report I heard in mine own land: howbeit, I believed not the words until I came and mine own eyes had seen it; and behold, the one-half had not been told me.”

What then will it be with regard to the disciples of Christ, when they shall “be like him, and shall see him as he is”? This was the conviction and apprehension of John and his fellow-disciples. They knew this; and, notwithstanding their ignorance of other things, they knew that they should “see him as he is.” And they knew it, not only as a truth to be believed, but also to be appropriated, so that they could apply it to themselves.