What motivates you to holy living? When you are tempted by something that others think is okay but you know it is unholy, what do you think about in order to strengthen your will and resist temptation? Scripture mentions several different motivations but one of them is the promise of being thoroughly holy and perfect one day.
This might not seem logical at first. If God is going to perfect us anyway, why should we make a lot of sacrifice now in order to be holy? Why would the promise of future holiness motivate me to be more holy now? We can learn about this from John:
“But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” I Jn. 3:3 (NIV)
Here God is motivating us to be pure because He is pure. In other words, since we know that it is our destiny to be pure, to be like Christ, then it makes sense to stay on the path to holiness now because that is our true and best self. Or to put it another way, we naturally desire to be holy and knowing that God is going to make that happen encourages us to pursue our desire. Also, hopefully we love who Jesus is so much that we want to be the same way.
We find the same idea in Colossians:
“When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” Col. 3:4-5 (NIV)
Since we will have glory from God when Jesus comes we should crucify all the corruption inside us. Again, the reasoning is that since God is going to perfect us we should cooperate with Him now and throw off everything that is not part of our true future self. We can find similar ideas in Titus 2:11-14, I Pet. 1:13-15 and II Pet. 3:11-14.
Remember that we are the new Adams. We are the humans God originally intended to create. How can we cooperate with corruption when it only drags us away from the peace and joy of being a new Adam?
Knowing that God will make us perfectly Christlike helps us to become Christlike now. It gives us confidence and peace. We have the core of this Christlike life inside us now along with his Spirit propelling us forward to certain completion in the image of the astonishing beauty of God.
“Knowing that God will make us perfectly Christlike helps us to become Christlike now.”
This future hope serves as both an anchor (Heb. 6:19) and compass for orienting our lives. This life is full of trials, temptations and pain especially for the most devoted; God wants us to know that he will give us the unimaginable blessing of his own glory.
Even better, our destiny is to live in an entire society of glorified people in a New Eden. So our blessedness will be blessedness in harmony and community with God and others, just as the Great Commandment implies.
Recalling my future glorification centers me in God just as much as recalling my identity in Christ. Knowing what I will be changes my attitude about what I am. If I will be pure and beautiful and glorified then how can I participate in anything to the contrary now?
What church do you belong to? I’m Roman Catholic. so far I agree with you! Your thoughts are well stated.