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We Shall Be Like Him · Logos Unveiled

The Bible Devotional The Forge The Pulpit Statement of Faith The Altar

The Epiousios · Day 294 of 365

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The Epiousios — ἐπιούσιος, the “daily” of “give us this day our daily bread”. It stands in and , and nowhere else in Scripture.

Wednesday, 21 October 2026

We Shall Be Like Him

3 min read

The Primary Text

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”— (KJV)Read 1 John 3 in full →

The Lexicon

ὅμοιος (homoios) — Adjective

From the Greek ὅμοιος (homoios), meaning like, similar, of the same kind. Semantic force: The word denotes genuine resemblance rather than identity. The New Testament never says believers become what Christ is in essence, but that they are conformed to His likeness. Theological depth: The cause John assigns is beatific vision — likeness produced by sight. Transformation is presented as the effect of seeing Christ as He is, not as an achievement completed beforehand.

Supporting Scriptures

The Satisfied AwakeningOld Testament

“As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”

(KJV)

David expects the same consummation: satisfaction when he awakes with God's likeness.

The Changed BodyNew Testament

“Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”

(KJV)

Paul names the mechanism — Christ shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.

The Exposition

John holds three time-frames in one sentence. Now: we are the sons of God, present tense, settled. Not yet: it does not appear what we shall be. Then: when he shall appear, we shall be like him. The middle clause deserves attention, because it is the one believers most often treat as a problem. John concedes that the future is genuinely obscure — the evidence of what you are becoming is not yet visible, including to you. He does not resolve that by describing the glorified state. He resolves it by naming the mechanism: "for we shall see him as he is." The transformation is caused by the sight. Which means the ache you feel at the gap between what you are and what you should be is not a sign the promise is failing. It is precisely what "it doth not yet appear" predicted. The logic of the last clause is worth pressing, because it inverts the order we assume. We expect to be made fit and then permitted to see — purification first, then the reward of sight. John says the reverse: we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Seeing is not the prize for having been transformed. Seeing is what does the transforming. That principle is already at work, in smaller ways, in the life you have now. Nobody becomes patient by resolving to be patient; people become patient in the company of patience. The soul takes the shape of what it looks at, slowly and without being asked, which is why what you contemplate matters more than what you intend. And the address at the front of the verse should not be hurried past. Beloved. Everything John says about the unfinished state, the obscurity, the not-yet-appearing, is said to people he first calls loved. The uncertainty is real and it is not the frame. It sits inside a settled affection, which is the only condition under which anyone can look honestly at how unfinished they are.

The Altar

Bring the specific gap between who you are and who you should be to God today as evidence of an unfinished promise rather than a failed one.

Daily Reading & Meditation

Passage:

Focus: Hold all three tenses together: what you are now, what is hidden, and what sight will accomplish.

Ask yourself: Do you read your remaining faults as evidence against you, or as work still in progress? Both are honest readings. Only one of them matches this verse.

Father of glory, now I am Your son, and it does not yet appear what I shall be, but when He appears I shall be like Him. Let the ache of that gap remind me by Your Holy Spirit of an unfinished promise rather than a failed one. I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, whom I shall see as He is. Amen.

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