Seeing Him as He is

03-18-00
Richmond, Maine

1 Jn 3:1-3 “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.”

A challenging text for us today; and the key, according to John, lies in seeing Jesus as He is.

It’s interesting that John writes that “…it doth not yet appear what we shall be…” It doth not YET appear…” What doth not yet appear? “…what we shall be…” And what shall we be, according to John? “…like Him…”. How does this miraculous transformation take place? By seeing Him as He is.

It is written in the scripture: 2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

In these last days -156 years into the Investigative Judgement- It is vitally important that we see Jesus as He is, where He is, and that we know what He proposes doing for us and in us. There are issues that are very finely interrelated which may color our view of Jesus, and in certain cases, can obscure His Person and work. Errors regarding the nature of Jesus’ humanity bring doubts about the nature of our salvation and lead to compromises with sin. Incomplete or erroneous views regarding the Heavenly Sanctuary and Jesus’ mediatorial role there directly affect the foundations of Seventh-day Adventism, and have led many to abandon other pillars of present truth, embracing the erroneous concepts and subsequent failures of apostate religion. These substitutes for truth replace the Bible view of Jesus with concepts and doctrines, which reflect the human desire to pull down God’s Holy Standard of righteousness, rather than to come into harmony with God. Rather than beholding Jesus as He is, man beholds himself in his own theories and rationalizations.

James 1: 23 “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.”

If we hear the word, and do not obey it, it is because we think that we have a better way, or that God does not mean what He says. To behold ourselves means that we set as the standard of righteousness our own natural inclinations, which cannot reveal our need of a savior. We walk in darkness.

God's Amazing Grace, page 233, paragraph 3
Chapter Title: Changed by Beholding

John and Judas are representatives of those who profess to be Christ's followers. Both these disciples had the same opportunities to study and follow the divine Pattern. Both were closely associated with Jesus and were privileged to listen to His teaching. Each possessed serious defects of character; and each had access to the divine grace that transforms character. But while one in humility was learning of Jesus, the other revealed that he was not a doer of the Word, but a hearer only. One, daily dying to self and overcoming sin, was sanctified through the truth; the other, resisting the transforming power of grace and indulging selfish desires, was brought into bondage to Satan. Such transformation of character as is seen in the life of John is ever the result of communion with Christ. There may be marked defects in the character of an individual, yet when he becomes a true disciple of Christ, the power of divine grace transforms and sanctifies him. Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, he is changed from glory to glory, until he is like Him whom he adores. . . God can be honored by those who profess to believe in Him, only as they are conformed to His image and controlled by His Spirit. Then, as witnesses for the Saviour, they may make known what divine grace has done for them.

The Faith I Live By, page 150, paragraph 2
Chapter Title: Conversion and The New Life

As the mind dwells upon Christ, the character is molded after the divine similitude. The thoughts are pervaded with a sense of His goodness, His love. We contemplate His character, and thus He is in all our thoughts. His love encloses us. If we gaze even a moment upon the sun in its meridian glory, when we turn away our eyes, the image of the sun will appear in everything upon which we look. Thus it is when we behold Jesus; everything we look upon reflects His image, the Sun of Righteousness. We cannot see anything else, or talk of anything else. His image is imprinted upon the eye of the soul, and affects every portion of our daily life, softening and subduing our whole nature. By beholding, we are conformed to the divine similitude, even the likeness of Christ.

And so we understand the importance of truly beholding the Person of Jesus Christ and the holy character that He manifested among men. But what about His work on our behalf, for and in us?

In the tabernacle there were three veils, each obscuring the next portion of the work of the priests on behalf of the people. When the Lord revealed the sacrificial system to Adam and Eve, clothing them in the skins of the victims, He revealed to them the Outer Court portion of the plan of salvation where the sacrifices and offerings were made. The First Apartment system was not revealed. It was not, for them, Present Truth. Abraham saw the significance of the sacrificial victim through his trial with Isaac upon Moriah and prophesied that “God will provide Himself the Lamb for the offering”. Yet later, through Moses, God increased their understanding through the delivery of His written word, but still the First Apartment work was hidden from the people. When John in the Jordan River baptized Jesus, the pronouncement that the Lamb of God had come signaled that the sacrificial portion of the plan of salvation was about to meet its fulfillment. In the life and teaching of Jesus was revealed the First Apartment of the Tabernacle: I am the Bread of Life – the table of Shewbread or Presence; I am the Light of the World – Jesus is that light “…that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” the Golden Lampstand; John 16:7 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” – The Holy Spirit carries our prayers to God, and as the incense drifted from the Holy Place over the third veil into the Most Holy into the Presence of God, so Jesus presents our prayers and petitions to the Father – The Altar of Incense. This portion of the plan of redemption continued from shortly after Jesus’ ascension in AD 31 until the completion of the 2,300 day prophecy in Daniel 8, in the year 1844, when Jesus’ ministry changed from the Holy Place to the Most Holy Place, opening the Day of Atonement –the Investigative Judgement. Paul, writing in Hebrews 9 enters into a discussion of the Sanctuary services: Heb. 9:1-5 “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the Shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.”

I believe that the reason that Paul declined to discuss the Most Holy ministry, which was keyed to the Day of Atonement (or judgement) was because the time for that truth had not yet come. The Holy Place ministry was present truth up to Oct. 23, 1844 –when Jesus got up and moved into the Most Holy Place Apartment in the Heavenly Sanctuary to begin the final work of cleansing His people. Those who reject this present truth wander in a darkness as complete as those Jews that refused to accept Jesus’ role in the fulfillment of the sacrificial system in AD 31 and remain in darkness to this day. The Light passed from the Outer Court to the Holy Place in AD 31, and in 1844 the Light passed from there to the Most Holy. Those who do not enter in by faith to the Most Holy Place with Christ Jesus remain in darkness as well.

Ellen G. White: The Early Years Volume 1 - 1827-1862, page 160, paragraph 5
Chapter Title: Heaven-directed Travels and Important Visions

Sabbath, March 24, 1849, we had a sweet and very interesting meeting with the brethren at Topsham, Maine. The Holy Ghost was poured out upon us, and I was taken off in the Spirit to the city of the living God. Then I was shown that the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ relating to the shut door could not be separated, and that the time for the commandments of God to shine out with all their importance, and for God's people to be tried on the Sabbath truth, was when the door was opened in the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary, where the ark is, in which are contained the ten commandments. This door was not opened until the mediation of Jesus was finished in the holy place of the sanctuary in 1844. Then Jesus rose up and shut the door of the holy place, and opened the door into the most holy, and passed within the second veil, where He now stands by the ark, and where the faith of Israel now reaches. I saw that Jesus had shut the door of the holy place, and no man can open it; and that He had opened the door into the most holy, and no man can shut it (Rev. 3:7, 8); and that since Jesus has opened the door into the most holy place, which contains the ark, the commandments have been shining out to God's people, and they are being tested on the Sabbath question.--EW, p. 42.

The 144,000 who receive the Father’s name written in their foreheads are also said to be those who follow the Lamb withersoever He goeth. Justification in the Outer Court: Jesus our Substitutionary Sacrifice. Sanctification in the Holy Place: Jesus Christ in us, lightening our understanding, feeding us living bread, and interceding between the Father and us. Glorification in the Most Holy: the full revelation and restoration of Godliness in our hearts and minds in preparation for Translation at His Second Coming.

If we look earnestly unto Jesus, Author and Finisher of our faith: If we follow Him step by step, receive Him as our atoning Sacrifice and Substitute, follow Him as our Guide and Example, and trust Him as our Surety and Advocate, then we will see Him as He is. If we seek from the Father understanding regarding Jesus’ work in the Heavenly Sanctuary and enter in boldly by faith for the full redemption from the power of sin - which He purchased with His own precious blood - then when He appears, we shall be like Him.

The Faith I Live By, page 203, paragraph 2
Chapter Title: The Sanctuary Of God

The subject of the sanctuary . . . should be clearly understood by the people of God. All need a knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High Priest. . . . The intercession of Christ in man's behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross. By His death He began that work which after His resurrection He ascended to complete in heaven. We must by faith enter within the veil, "whither the forerunner is for us entered." Heb. 6:20. There the light from the cross of Calvary is reflected. There we may gain a clearer insight into the mysteries of redemption. The salvation of man is accomplished at an infinite expense to heaven; the sacrifice made is equal to the broadest demands of the broken law of God. Jesus has opened the way to the Father's throne, and through His mediation the sincere desire of all who come to Him in faith may be presented before God.

Last Updated: July 20, 2002