MONDAY 27th
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.’
I ended our previous devotion saying what a blessing it is to be called the children of God and John says ‘and so we are’. Today if you have put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you are a child of God, and the love that we are considering here is the kind of love that the Father has given us.
John may have been recollecting in his mind as he wrote this letter something that he had written previously in the opening verses of his gospel, for there in John 1:12-13 he says ‘But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.’
Just as we are naturally born into a family, so it is spiritually, we are spiritually born into the family of God, God becomes our Father, we become his children. John says in the verse in his gospel ‘he gave the right to become children of God’ which speaks of a legal position within the family of God which has happened through adoption, Romans 8 reminds us that we have been adopted into the family of God, our status has changed from being those who were lost in a hopeless state, under the control of and slaves to the evil one to being in a place of foundness (I’ve made that word up), freedom and welcomed into the community and fellowship of the family of God. Look at what Paul says in verses 14-17, ‘For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.’
The gospel is good news, the love of God is something that we should stand in awe of as we consider it, for again as Paul says in Galatians 4:4-7 we see that the whole purpose of God coming into this world in the person of Jesus was yes to redeem us, but also to bring us into his family, to enable us to be called the children of God. ‘But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.’
Say with me today, ‘I am a child of God, he calls my name’. But then that leads to another thought we will consider in our next devotion, if you are a child of God, if I am a child of God, then we are brothers and sisters within the same family!