Children of God and the Hope of Seeing Christ

John asks the reader to stop and marvel at the Father’s love: believers are called the children of God. The identity is present, but its final form is still future—“it doth not yet appear what we shall be.” What is known is tied to Christ’s appearing: “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” The hope is not escapist speculation but a transforming expectation; the one who has this hope purifies himself. This passage develops the Gospel of John’s new-birth language and pushes it toward final transformation. It also looks toward the new creation, where God’s servants see his face. The Christian story therefore moves from new birth now to likeness to Christ when he appears, with holiness in the present shaped by that future.