Seeing is becoming.

I’ve always been fascinated with the effects of light. I used to stare at brightly lit scenes, close my eyes and examine the negative images in my head. The detail can be incredible. Later in life when I got into photography, I noticed that a camera flash fired in a totally dark room created a vivid enough image on your retina to allow you to navigate safely through the space … even though you had been plunged back into utter darkness.
 
Last week near the end of the sermon, I said that gazing at the glory of Christ has transformative effects on your life. By gazing … I do not imagine an experience like John’s, but the encounters we have with Jesus as we seek to know Him in His Word. Long concentration on His attributes, or some flash of insight that the Holy Spirit brings; these stay with us even in our darkness. God blesses the reading of His Word and deepens our knowledge (cognitive and experiential) of who Jesus is. As we see Jesus truly, as His image and character are burnt into our hearts … we become more like Him and carry His image into a darkened world.
 
Again, 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “We all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” Pastor John Piper writes about this verse,
 
We become like what we treasure enough to spend time focusing on. Some say, “Seeing is believing.” This text says, “Seeing is becoming.” You become like what you behold. 1 John 3:2 says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now. It does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He appears we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.” To the degree that we can see Him now, we are changed into His image. When He comes to be seen in His full glory, our transformation will be completed. And it all happens because of seeing Him—gazing steadily at Him.
 
Start gazing!
 
 
 

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