Purifies Himself (2-7-13)

1 John 3:3 - "And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."

The doctrine of the rapture is not merely something for Christians to sit around and discuss or debate, but the doctrine of the rapture, the imminent return of Christ, should have an effect on the way we live our everyday lives. All throughout the New Testament we're given instruction on how we should be living in light of the soon return of Christ. The first response or application we're going to look at is in 1 John 3:2-3 which says - "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." The doctrine of the rapture should have a purifying effect on the believer. When Christ comes in the clouds and calls us up to Himself, we will finally be like Him. I like the way the hymn writer put it -

"Then we shall be where we would be,
Then we shall be what we should be,
Things that are not now, nor could be,
Soon shall be our own."

When we see Christ we will be perfectly transformed into His image. All throughout our lives we are being tested and purified and sanctified in order to make us more and more like Him and one day this process will be complete and we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. The fact that we are going to meet Him face to face at any moment should cause us to purify ourselves. The thought that in the next few minutes I could be face to face with Christ my Savior should cause me to clean all the junk out of my life and live a life free from those things that hinder my relationship with God. In Hebrews 12:1-2 we're exhorted to - "lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Here we're told to lay aside the sins which so easily ensnare us because sin will obviously hinder our walk with God. And we all agree that, yes, we should seek to be free from our sins. We recognize that God has saved us from the penalty of them, but we still have a desire to live in sin. But the closer we get to God the less enjoyable and the more painful we realize sin really is. The extent to which we gaze upon Christ is the extent to which we are changed into His image, and it will culminate at His coming. When we see Him we will be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. As we continue to grow closer to God we have more of a desire to live a godly life and to put away sin and yet we still give into it. This is the conflict that Paul talks about in Romans 7:19-23 - "For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members." As we learn to yield our bodies to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit begins to give us victory over the flesh rather than producing the works of the flesh we begin to bear the fruit of the Spirit.
But that passage in Hebrews 12 doesn't only talk about sin, it also tells us that we should lay aside the "encumbrances" or the "weights." There is a distinction here, so what's the difference? Weights are things in our lives that are not necessarily bad in and of themselves, but they're just worthless. Things that consume our time and have no eternal value. Our lives are full of weights, things that are slowing us down spiritually and distracting us, or taking our time away from things that matter, and we need to get rid of these encumbrances. In both of these areas, both with sin and with weights, one of the things that will most motivate us to cast off these things is the thought that Christ could come at any moment and take us up to be with Him. We don't know how much longer it will be. It could happen today. Don't you want to be able to say that in the short amount of time you were given you used it to become more and more like your Savior, and that the time He gave you on earth wasn't wasted?
In 2 Peter chapter 3 Peter is talking about the end times and the events that surround it, and he says in verse 14 - "Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless." The way that you live your life is going to show whether or not you believe that Christ could come at any moment. "Everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." We may give lip service to Christ’s immanent return, but if this doctrine does not affect the way we live it just shows that we don't truly believe it. The way that you live your life will give testimony to whether or not you really believe that Christ is coming again. "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." The doctrine of the rapture will have a purifying effect on your life, but only if you believe it.

2 Corinthians 7:1 - "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."