Week Five - Day Two: End of Day

Holiness has a face. This morning, we realized that the face of holiness is the face of Jesus. Now, before we end our day we have to return to a concept we brought up last week. We said last week that the Bible calls us “saints.” This word “saint” comes from the same root word as the word for “holy.” We said that that meant that we participate in the holiness of God. In fact, the Bible does much more than imply this. It flat out commands us to be holy.

That means … wait for it … that holiness has many faces. It is us! We are the face of holiness. That’s part of what Paul implies when he says that Jesus is the “first born among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29) As brothers of Jesus, we share in the family DNA; we resemble the holiness of God.

John riffs on this idea in 1 John 3. Let’s meditate on that tonight before we go to sleep.

1. Look at 1 John 3:1-3.

   (1) How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (2) Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (3) Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

   1. What are we?
   2. So why doesn’t “the world” know us?
   3. What do you think John means when he says “the world”? If you want to cheat, look back at 1 John 2:15-17
   4. What phrase from these verses strikes you tonight? Turn it over in your mind a few times.
2. Think about your face throughout today. Did you look like the holiness of God?
3. End your day by praying:

   Lord Jesus, give me the wisdom to see You as holy and help me to grow in my love for your absolute uniqueness, and Your incomprehensible perfection. May my disease be swallowed up in Your holiness so that I can be more and more like You until that day when I will know You fully even as I am fully known.

4. Lights out!