Hope in Jesus is a confident state of being which leads us to be purified, so we can be more and more like Him.
“All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” 1Jn 3:3 NIV
In order for us to become like Jesus, we must place our Hope in what He has done for us. If we do not believe that Jesus took away our sin nature, that He has made us New Creations, that we have been given the gift of Eternal Life, then can we change into His Pure likeness? It would be like trying to drive over a bridge, but we have no assurance that there is actually a bridge to drive over, and so we stay where we are. But Jesus is our Bridge. We can cross over from our old, sinful MMI person (think death) into this New Creation that is being purified (think life) because we have put our Hope in Jesus. Here’s another bonus verse, check out John 5:24, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” (NIV) What an amazing promise!
It is only with, in and through Him that we can change to become purer in our motives, purer in our thoughts, purer in our speech, purer in our desires for others. If we do not believe Jesus has cleansed us, then we are still dirty inside and will continue to act like that old, filthy self. But if we have placed our Hope in what He has done, then we can continue to lean on Him and begin to act like this New beloved, holy child of God. Jesus is THE Beloved, Holy Son of God, and because we confidently trust that He has taken away our guilt and shame, that He lives within us to guide and direct our steps, that He even wants to help us live a truly successful and satisfying life here, before we get to go to Paradise…we can purify ourselves, just like He is pure. It is a process, but we can only progress towards purification if we have put our Hope in Jesus. Let’s wrap it up tomorrow…
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
March: 9- 1Pe 5:7; 10- Jn 8:32; 11- Dt 30:19; 12- Jn 3:30; 13- 2Chron 20:3
April: 14- 2Chron 20:12; 15- 2Chron 20:15b; 16- 2Chron 20:17
May: 17- Ro 8:28; 18- 1Co 13:13; 19- Php 2:12; 20- Mt 5:4
June: 21- Lk 23:42; 22- Jas 4:7; 23- Pr 22:6; 24- Mt 5:3; 25- Jn 14:6
July: 26- Jas 2:19; 27- Dt 31:8; 28- Jn 14:15; 29- Jn 8:11
August: 30- Ro 8:1; 31- Pr 4:23; 32- Pr 18:21; 33- Ps 118:24; 34- 1Jn 4:4
September: 35- Mt 16:24; 36- Isa 53:6; 37- Ps 23:1-6
October: 38- Heb 4:12; 39- Jn 15:5
40- Jas 5:16
41- 1Jn 3:1
42- 1Jn 5:12
43- 1Jn 3:3
<>< Peace, Diane
