Who are God's Children and what will God do for them?
"But as many as received Him, He gave them the authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name;" (John 1:12)
If you have truly received Jesus, truly believed in His name, you have the authority to become a child of God. It does not say you automatically ARE a child of God, by believing in His name and receiving Him, but you ARE able to become one. The effective use of that authority comes as you walk with God in trust and obedience. It is about this great privilege of being a child of God and becoming like God that John is writing when he says, "Everyone who has the hope purifies Himself, just as He is pure". ( 1 John 3:3).
Is this true? In efforts to avoid "works theology" many times people have implied that you can be a child of God, on your way to heaven, and justified by God, while deliberately walking in darkness. But listen to what the apostle John says, who had a lot to say about being a child of God:
"By this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Everyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. " ( 1 John 3:10).
Practical righteous living is the fruit of the inner life that comes when we are born of God. There has to be a change. The change is that we go from selfish and dark ways to the way of love and faith. We may certainly do this very imperfectly at first, but it is God's will that we purify ourselves. This is actually the work of God and man together.
Have you received Jesus? Have you believed on His name? You should realize one thing about Jesus. He is totally against sin. He came into the world to destroy the works of the devil. He came to save people "from their sins" (Matthew 1:21), not to show people a way to keep sinning without having any serious consequences. We can thank God that there is forgiveness for a truly penitent sinner in this life, but sin always costs. It costs like hell.
Your Christian friends, your fellow church members, or even your pastor may not be totally against sin. You might see them practicing sin and teaching that it can be tolerated. But Jesus IS totally against sin. He is against sin because it is destructive to everything good and right. Sin kills people. Sin brings on sickness and disease, poverty and suffering. Sin maims people for eternity. It is sin which separates people from God, and enslaves them to satan, and if not rooted out, will cause them to burn endlessly in hellfire. Sin makes Christian ministers weak and their prayers ineffective. Please don't think that Jesus is cool with sin. Our God, the Bible says, is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29)
"Behold, how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!"
The true children of God will be the winners. We are made to be more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Jesus Christ is able to save us to the uttermost, those of us who come to Him through faith (Hebrews 7:25). Just as God the Father is extremely against sin, so He is extremely FOR His children.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)
God is for us when we are for Him (see 2 Chronicles 15:2), and when God is for us, no evil spirit can stand against us. Now look what else it goes on to say in Romans:
"He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up on behalf of us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8: 32)
There is nothing that God won't do for His children.
It is now up to us to believe that. Believing that will produce results.
The first area I think we need
Get your free registration and log in to view entire article
Post new comment