FRIDAY 24th
1 John 3:1
‘See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.’
In our previous devotion I suggested that we stop and think about how great the love is that God has bestowed upon or given to us. You may have stopped and at the same time thought about all the great benefits and blessings that you have received as a result of his love. For example, we have received such an incredible salvation, this means that we have been forgiven, yes, remind yourself today that God has completely forgiven us (as we have come to him by faith) every sin that we had ever committed, no matter how vile or awful or depraved that sin might have been! He has not only forgiven it, he has blotted it out.
We have been made spiritually alive again, we have also been reconciled to God, we were afar off, but now through the blood of the Cross we have been brought near, we can come right into the very presence of God and find mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. We have also been justified, we are being sanctified and we could continue to add so many other benefits of salvation to what would be a long list. Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 1:3, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places . . .’ Notice this verse has a special phrase, just two words but they mean so much, ‘In Christ’! Yes, because of the love that God has bestowed upon us we are ‘in Christ’, I love the two words ‘In Christ’ because it shows to us that we have been placed or positioned in him who as we saw a few devotions ago is our righteousness. Therefore we are complete in him. The love that God has bestowed upon us has restored us into what we should be as men and women who were created in his likeness, Peter defines what we have were and have become in his first epistle, and I will quote the verses in reverse order, firstly 1:10, ‘Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy’ and then the previous verse, v9 ‘But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light’.
This all because of the love that God has bestowed upon us.
But the final thought for today, in all the things I have listed which we have become recipients of as a result of the love of God I have missed out (deliberately) what John had actually said in his letter. ‘See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
Wow what a blessing, the love God bestowed upon us allows us to becomeand to be called the children of God.
We will consider this in the next devotion.