Three Passages On The Transforming Power Of Beholding Jesus
In previous posts, we explored how the Holy Spirit renews our minds and transforms our lives when we look to Jesus and see His glory, in other words, when we see with faith Jesus for who He is. When we draw near to Jesus and see Him clearly, greater than any challenge, more wonderful than any temptation, and bigger than anything else we face, God uses this to change our lives.
Today I want to share the profound hope found in three key verses that highlight the transformative power of seeing Jesus in His glory. And by that, I mean, seeing God’s unconditional love for us in Jesus Christ, seeing Jesus’ authority over everything we face, His compassionate care for us when we hurt and grieve, His unparalleled wisdom and guidance through whatever we face.
In John 6:40, Jesus makes a promise to anyone who believes that all who look to Him in faith will have eternal life.
John 6:40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
The Father delights when we look to Jesus and believe in His Son for eternal life with God. He wants this for you! Seeing Jesus through what the Bible records, seeing the promises of God fulfilled in Him, beholding Jesus for ourselves yet through the eyes of the apostles who witnessed Him changes our relationship with God and our eternal destiny.
Beholding Jesus for ourselves yet through the eyes of the apostles who witnessed Him changes our relationship with God and our eternal destiny.
This is only the beginning of what Christ does in us.
2 Corinthians 3:18 beautifully describes how “we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit actively changes us to reflect Christ as we slow down and take in who He truly is and we see the difference He makes.
Carve out time to reflect on Jesus. Slow down to see Him in His Word. Listen and be with Him in the craziness of life.
Finally, 1 John 3:2 assures us that however great or gradual, these initial changes are just a taste of the full glory to come.
Looking forward to the radical changes awaiting our future, John assures us, “when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.“
It is an engaged relationship with God in Christ that changes us.
Once again, it is being in His presence, beholding our Savior, seeing our Lord just as He is, savoring, trusting, and allowing Him to fill our vision that changes us. It is an engaged relationship with God in Christ that changes us. At the end of the age, we will see Him and be completely changed. At that point, will will see Him forevermore and our transformation will be continual.
What hope-filled anticipation that gives during life’s struggles!
In seasons of fullness or of doubt and weariness, turn again and again to Jesus. Not some Americanized Jesus. Not some therapeutic Jesus. Not some smaller version of Jesus that we can control. But see Jesus, look to Him to the point that you regain joy and hope, for who He reveals Himself to be not only in Scripture but in the reality of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.