WE MUST SPEND another day on this verse: “But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:2–3). Note: “We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”—the assumption underlying this is tremendous. It is this: if you really see Him as He is, you simply cannot become other than like Him. Everything else will fade out, and this will possess you. He will be so overwhelmingly beautiful and gracious that you cannot do other than fall at His feet and cry out to be like Him. Coercion? No, it is the coercion of reality upon unreality. Unreality collapses in the presence of reality.
Then the reason we are not like Him is that we do not see Him as He is. We see a distorted caricature of Him—a kill-joy, a pale Galilean at whose breath the earth is turned to ashes, a no, a cosmic policeman with a heavy night stick raised, the all-seeing eye watching for faults and sins, a dead Jew who taught a code of love and died of a broken heart, a dead issue in a world of progress. These are only a few of the mistaken views we have of Him.
Some asked, “Why wasn’t Gandhi a Christian?” The reply is that he never really saw Jesus through the racialism of South Africa. The fact is that when Gandhi in that next world sees Jesus as He is, he will probably fall at His feet and say, “My Lord and my God.”
One of the leading communists of India came to our ashram at Sat Tal and spent some days. He said to his companion at the close of his visit: “Why these people really expect to get me sooner or later. That impressed me most.” Yes, we expect to get everybody, for if they really see Him as He is, they will want to be like Him. Now they are seeing something else.
O Blessed Lord Jesus, when the scales of misinformation and caricature fall from our eyes and we really see Thee, we cannot but seek Thee and want to be like Thee. If we don’t want to be like Thee, we will not want to live, and so, perish. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: When I see Jesus as He is, I can’t stand seeing myself as I am—I must change.
