Have you ever heard, or (for us older ones) said, after seeing a child, “They are a spittin’ image of …” because they look so much (or act) like their parents?
The resemblance can be uncanny.
“Inheritance characteristics” are parental traits passed on to their children, who, in turn, have no control over what they receive.
Some characteristics that are passed down from parent to child include:
• eye color
• hair color and texture
• skin tone
• blood group (A, B, AB, O)
• freckles
• color blindness
• dominant hand
• dimples
• earlobe attachment
• hairline shape[1]
But you know what is unbelievably uncanny? All of us here, sitting together and who believe in Christ as our Savior, have the same Father!
“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are” (1 John 3:1 NASB) is what the Apostle John said.
The Greek word behind the English expression “how great” is potapen; it speaks of something that has come from another country.[2]
The faithful Patriarchs had understood this, as the Hebrew writer penned:
“All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:13-16 NASB).
That is the “other country” our Father is from; that is the world He lives in! He is not ashamed to be called our God, nor are we ashamed to be called His children.
Because of that, the Apostle John would say: “For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” (1 John 3:1). And for this reason, we confess we are strangers and exiles here; for we seek that country and that city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God (cf. Hebrews 11:10).
Yet, as we sit here with the same Father, none of us come close to looking the same.
The Apostle John answers that as well: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2 NASB).
It has not yet appeared….
“This likeness in this context has to do with a physical likeness, not a spiritual one.”[3] We really don’t know what that look is right now. Vincent says: “The force of the aorist tense is [not yet appeared], was never manifested on any occasion.”[4] There may have been glimpses: When God passed by as Moses was hidden in the rock’s cleft; or Jesus’ transfiguration. But never a full manifestation. Why?
Only at the Rapture will we be able to see our Lord as He is now, for physical eyes in a mortal body could not look on that glory, only eyes in glorified bodies. And that is the reason we shall be like Him, for only in that state can we see Him just as He is.[5]
And that is why we don’t look like Him now; we have yet to receive the final inheritance. We haven’t seen what has yet to appear; thus, we cannot know what we will look like. “What shall we be?” Bengel comments: “This what suggests something unspeakable, contained in the likeness of God.”
Yet, we have seen something; something that is more than physical. It is spiritual. Unlike our natural inheritances, where we have no control over what we receive, we do have a say in what our Father has given us (that which has appeared). It is something that all of us can “look alike” because He has empowered us to do so.
“And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3 NASB).
Purity is something where we can all look alike. It is where we can be “a spittin’ image.” Not in physical characteristics, but in mannerisms that are like Him!
