Souls That Bear His Image Bright

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him.
1 John 3:2

Adopting a son is one way to ensure that the family name will be passed on. The family likeness, however, is not so easily transmitted!

Adoption into the family of God is different. There you receive both a new name and a new nature—the nature of God’s Son. The nature of purity, holiness, godliness.

Being loved by him would be reason enough to rejoice. But John adds that “we shall be like him” when we see him face to face. Isaac Watts offers praise for that fact in these majestic stanzas.

WALK WITH ISAAC WATTS
Behold, the amazing gift of love

The Father hath bestowed

On us, the sinful sons of men,

To call us sons of God!

Concealed as yet this honor lies

By this dark world unknown,

A world that knew not when He came,

Even God’s eternal Son.

Our souls, we know, when He appears

Shall bear His image bright:

For all His glory, full disclosed,

Shall open to His sight.

A hope so great, and so divine,

May trials well endure;

And purge the soul from carnal sin,

As Christ Himself is pure.

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
When you’ve received so much from the Father—life eternal in the family of God and all its accompanying blessings—the challenge to “well endure” trials doesn’t sound so unreasonable.

Not when you have a Father to whom you can cry “Abba,” one who cares for his own like a tender shepherd, one who knows each of his children by name. Now would be a good time to bow in gratitude for such an “amazing gift of love.”