Can you imagine meeting Jesus face-to-face? What would you say? What would you ask him? What do you think he would ask you?

It’s amazing to think that one day we will actually get the opportunity to see and speak with our Lord. 

Until then we learn about him and hear his voice in Scripture. Augustine said that when we read the Psalter we can “recognize in it the voice of Christ”* since he himself quoted them and would have read or sung them in synagogue since the time of his youth.

But let’s also not forget what we read in 1 John 3:2-3: “we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”

Those of us who hope in Christ are becoming more like him. Do we sin? Yes. Do we stumble? Yes. But God’s Spirit leads us forward. As ambassadors we seek to reflect the one who is our ultimate hope. And we strive with God’s help to reflect him—not only to God, but to one another.

To one another.

The great reformer Martin Luther wrote: “Each person ought to become to the other a kind of Christ, so that we may be Christs to one another.”**

Let’s carry forward the forgiveness which we see so freely given by Christ, and in so doing reflect the author of our hope to one another.

Let’s carry forward the love which we see so freely given by Christ, and in so doing reflect the author of our hope to one another.

Let’s carry forward the wisdom which we see so freely given by Christ, and in so doing reflect the author of our hope to one another.

Can you image homes like that, churches like that, and a nation like that?

“Each person ought to become to the other a kind of Christ, so that we may be Christs to one another.”

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Notes:

-*As quoted in the psalter used by the Trappist monks at the Abbey of the Genesee in New York State.
-** Martin Luther, ed. Timothy J. Wengert, The Freedom of a Christian, 1520 (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2016), 525.
-The Up Devotional is published 5 days a week (Monday-Friday) and returns on March 24, 2025.
-Bible quotes are from the NIV.