Enduring Hope: Trusting God When the Future Is UncertainSample

Made Like Christ

Read: 1 John 3:1–3

SOAP: 1 John 3:3

And everyone who has this hope focused on him purifies himself, just as Jesus is pure.

Into the Text

The foundation of the Christian faith is that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone. By the grace of God, we are offered salvation from our sins. We accept His grace through our faith in Jesus Christ and His life, death, and resurrection. Faith itself is a gift from God. Since God in His grace has given us faith, we have the sure hope that He will bring us to heaven.

God allowed us to be His children, to be welcomed into His family because He loved us. We did nothing to earn our salvation, but by His grace alone, we are offered His love. God’s love is incredible. He justifies us from our sins because of Christ’s sacrifice. And then He transforms us into the likeness of Christ. When we become children of God through the new birth, the Holy Spirit indwells us and starts working in our lives to mold us more and more into the image of Christ. He works in all our circumstances to purify us as we wait for Jesus’ return.

As we wait, we put our hope in Jesus. He has promised to save and sanctify us, and we trust His words. When we make the active choice to put our hope in Him and His saving work in us, we are purified because we are focused on Him. And as we are made more like Christ, we grow in our understanding of God’s character, including His love.

Hope drives us to be more like Christ as we draw our assurance from the promise that one day we will be like Him. God is working in you. No matter what you’re facing today, you can be confident that He is working to make you more like Christ. Keep hoping in Him. Keep hoping in His promises. Keep hoping in His return, when you will finally see Him. God will never stop working until you are made fully complete in Jesus. We may not understand what God is doing, but whatever it is, we can be confident that He is working to make us more and more like Christ.