11/03/W – Children of God

NT: “See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children — and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him. Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him. Everyone who remains in him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen him or known him.” (‭‭1 John‬ ‭3:1-6‬ ‭CSB)

Those who have placed saving faith in Jesus Christ have been given the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15) and grafted into the family tree of God the Father (Romans 11:17). In Christ, we are God’s children and He is our Father. God did all of that while we were still His enemies out of His great love for us. Some people believe that everyone is a child of God – but that is not so. Only those who have been redeemed and spiritually reborn are grafted and adopted into His family and considered His children. Those who do not know God through faith in Christ are not part of His spiritual family. And because they do not know God, they do not fully understand those who do, and have become His.

The great hope that we have as children of God is that at the end of this age, when Christ returns for His church, we will become just like the Lord. As we wait for that blessed day to arrive, the expectation is that we will grow to be more and more like our Father as we grow to know Him more intimately and are transformed by His sanctifying grace. Several years ago, my son spent a few months in Nepal as part of a gap-year program between high school and college. A few months after he returned, I went and visited Nepal – spending time with the same people he worked with when he was there. When I arrived, the people there immediately knew that I was my son’s father – because my son sounded like me when he talked and had the same mannerisms as me when he walked around and interacted with the people. The same should be true of us. People should be able to know what our Heavenly Father is like through their relationships with us – because in our knowing God, we have become more and more like Him.

When John wrote about people committing sins, he was referring to people that make a practice of sinning. Redeemed believers who have become children of God should not make a practice of sinning – they should make a practice of walking in purity and righteousness. Do redeemed believers commit sins? Yes, they do. John even spoke to that at the beginning of His letter (1 John 1:8-10). However, committing a sin and then repenting of that sin is much different than making an ongoing practice of sinning. Christ lived the life that He lived and died the death that He died so that those who believe in Him would be free from sin… not continue to live in it. Everything that we need to live a life of light, love and godliness has been provided to us through faith in Christ by the work of His Holy Spirit and grace. We just need to access it, apply it, and walk in it by grace through faith.

Prayer: Lord, I thank You that through faith in You, I have been adopted, grafted in and made a child of God. My desire is to become more and more like my Heavenly Father as I walk in the light with You by faith. Work in me to practice holiness, righteousness and purity more and more, and commit sins less and less the longer I walk by faith in You. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.