DAILY DEVOTIONAL – October 31, 2019
“Now What We Will Be”
Prayer: Jesus, You are our victorious King. You are alive and the Lord of the living. Our only hope of life, even in death, is in the fact that You rose from the grave. Lord, may all that we do and say be a proclamation of the hope of eternal life that we have in You. Amen.
Scripture: 1 John 3:1-3
1See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Devotional – “Not As We Will Be”
Well, if you can believe it, the month of October is already over. The snow has already begun to fall here in Omaha, Nebraska, and tonight I am sure many of you will be busy tending to the long processional of trick-or-treaters stopping at your door in costume, ready to receive their fill of candy. Or maybe you will be doing a bit of trick-or-treating yourself.
The Halloween that is celebrated today in America is something very different from the festivals and vigils that Halloween traces its origins from. Historians tend to have varying opinions on whether or not our modern Halloween comes more from the Western Church’s candlelight vigil historically celebrated on the night before All Saint’s Day (November 1st), or, if it is has origins more in line with Celtic, pagan practices and the festival of Samhain. Regardless of its origins, the Halloween we know today has become a curious mix of imagination and the celebration of death and the demonic. Truth be told, I believe if you were to ask any random family why they dress their kids up like imaginary creatures, or ask any adult why their house is decorated with witches, gravestones, blood-sucking vampires and zombies, most wouldn’t really have an answer for you. It’s just something they do because it’s just something that is done.
I know some people may think I am overreacting or being a stuffy and over-zealous pastor when I say this, but…as Christians…I would hope we give our actions and the things we celebrate a lot of thought. Why you do something is just as if not more important than what you do. I think it is a fair question to ask: Why as Christians who believe in the One true God of all things good, who is the Author of life and not death, who has provided eternal life through the death of His Son, Jesus, so that you and I would not have to know death…why, as people who believe these things to be true, do we celebrate Halloween? Why dress up as a mummy or a ghost or the walking dead? Why dress up as Mickey Mouse or Cinderella?
Now, before you think I am out to spoil all of your fun, please understand I have only asked you to consider your answers to these questions. To consider your answers as a Christian and in the light of your faith in Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life. Real, perfect, joyful, and everlasting life. I’m not saying it is a sin to dress up and celebrate the gift of imagination. I am suggesting that why we do whatever we do is important, because the things we do communicate powerfully to others.
The truth is, my friends, even the Halloween that is celebrated today provides you and I as Christians a tremendous opportunity to proclaim the truth that we know and the sure hope of life that we have by faith in Christ. The Apostle John tells us in our text for today that, “what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him.” In other words, John is saying that who we are now is not who we will be for eternity. Whether it be the moment we close our eyes for the last time on this earth, or if we come to witness the coming judgement and salvation that Christ will bring with Him on the Last Day when He returns, who we are now is not who we will be.
You and I and all of mankind are sinful. Even we as Christians who God has declared to be righteous by grace through faith in Christ, and who has in fact made us righteous in the cleansing waters of baptism, we still retain that “Old Adam”; that sinful nature we have had from birth. Because of that sin, we all physically die. We do not have to dress up as death. The very skin we have on already is dead and will die because of our sins. However, the Good News of God’s grace and mercy and salvation is that because of Christ’s perfect death and resurrection from the dead that served as our sacrifice, our physical death is no longer a thing to be feared, nor is it an end at all. Through faith alone in Christ and His victory, death is now the taking off of one outfit and the putting on of another. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:50-56:
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
In that moment, that moment of our physical death or that moment of Christ’s final return that will appear like a flash of lightning, in that moment we will all be instantly and eternally changed. That eternal life we have by faith in Christ is even ours now, hidden with Christ in heaven. In that moment, however it comes, we will put on immortality as Christ will clothe us with His own righteousness, as if we were putting on a robe, a white robe, so that we will be able to stand before the holiness of God without fear, and with only praise forever.
The Apostle John gives us a picture of this hope that is ours in Revelation 7:9-12:
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.
So, my friends, on this evening before All Saint’s Day, on this All Hallows’ Eve, remember that you are not who you will be in Christ. Remember that Christ has hidden your life in Himself, and that by God’s grace through faith in Jesus, one day very soon you will take off this mortal body and put on immortality and see the glory of your God and my God. And remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today, and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
