Stand or Be Ashamed in Shame at His Appearing (1 John 2:28-29)

“And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.” (1 John 2:28-29 NKJV)

No one can escape from standing face to face before Jesus Christ the Lord of glory. When would it be? No one knows the times and seasons, even the Son of Man (Matthew 24:36, Acts 1:7). But it is not difficult to see that the encounter would be happening right at the end of physical life for each individual. Two possibilities lie ahead to each of us when the time comes, either standing in confidence or being ashamed in shame.

Yes, only two cases lie ahead for all the humans, either standing or collapse, salvation or destruction, life or death, eternal life or eternal condemnation. There is no middle ground in between the two. Only one choice will be left in the end. Till then, abide in Him now, John says. Live deeply in Christ Jesus the Lord now and to the end.

What does it mean to abide in Him? John describes what it means earlier in this letter. Since the light shined upon us, we entered into the family circle of God forever. We have been born again as the beloved children of light. We have been reconciled with the Father through the price of our Lord Jesus Christ’s death. The broken relationship with God has been restored when we entered into the realm of faith on the cross of Jesus Christ.

So, we are in God and Jesus Christ the Lord. Fellowship follows after the restoration of relationship. Relationship is what we are and fellowship, what we have. Relationship indicates our new identity as the children of God and fellowship, our experience of His presence in our midst now. Relationship is that we are in Christ and fellowship, that Christ in us.

To abide in Christ Jesus, we eat His flesh and drink His blood every day. That is what our Lord Jesus says in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum (John 6:59).

“Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:53-58 NKJV)

Practically, abiding in Him means continual reading and meditating the word of truth in the midst of pressures and stress. Life is tough and challenging. Storms come one after another. Of course, good times come as well. However, we experience bitter sweetness even in good times.

Life is complicated and complex, and hardly answerable in a word. Some say that, some, this, and yet some, another. Life is uncertain and thereafter at times scary even. Nonetheless, we have to move on forward, not backward, for we are alive. All needs desperately the light to straighten up all the distorted and twisted viewpoints on what the life really is.

That is why we must live deeply in Christ Jesus. God is light. There is no distortion or twist in Him. There is no decline either to the right or to the left. He is the perfect balance, the wholeness in full. When we abide in Him, we are gradually growing like Him in the way of thinking and understanding and deeds. We are budding and developing His likeness in length, width, height, and depth.

The act of death of our Lord Jesus Christ is once for all and forever acceptable by the Holy God. The avalanche of His grace is forever overflowing upon us who fail and stumble at times after the birth. When we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and forgives our sins and cleanses us from our unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). We are continually clothed with Christ Jesus who is our righteousness.

Then, when He appears, we are confident and bold, standing in His sight, because we have been cleansed and washed away from guilt and shame and clothed with the righteousness of God all along the way through continual living in Jesus Christ. We can stand with boldness in His presence, not on our own, but on His unending provision of grace and mercy.

On the other hand, those who have not practiced righteousness will be ashamed before Him at his appearing. The NASB translation renders that they will shrink away in shame at His coming. They are not born of the Father, but of the father of lie, the devil. That is why they do not practice righteousness. They live in illusion and delusion, not in reality.

Choice is ours, even God willing. Live on our own, or live deeply in Him. Stubbornly deny and reject the love of God, or continually accept Him and remain under His tender care. Go far and further away from the hand of God, or come nearer and closer to His bosom. Keep walking in the counsel of the wicked and unrighteous, or delight the law of the Lord and meditate it day and night.

“Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor stands in the path of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so,

But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the ungodly shall perish.” (Psalm 1:1-6 NKJV)