Children of God!
- Jacob Ninan
It is amazing that we who were the children of the devil (1Jn.3:10), in the kingdom of darkness (Co.1:13), have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb of God (1Pe.1:18,19), made children of God (Jn.1:12), have been seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus (Ep.2:6), and made joint heirs with Him (Ro.8:17)! The apostle John was overwhelmed by the wonder of it all, all the more since he couldn't imagine what we would be when we would be glorified with Jesus (1Jn.3:1,2).
When this truth hits us, many things can happen. We will no longer imagine that we are forever tied to this world of sin, and its attractions (1Jn.2:15,16) will begin to have less and less pull on us. We will begin to focus more on the 'things above' and our mind will become more attuned to heavenly values and pleasures (Co.3:1,2). Even though we live on this earth now, we will realise that we are just passing through as pilgrims, and this world is not our home (He.11:13).
We realise we have been given these incredible privileges purely as a gift of grace from God and not because we deserve any of them. We dare not look down on anyone who has not yet come into this grace. We should fear lest we should take this grace for granted, live carelessly and bring grief to the heart of God or dishonour to His name. On the other hand we should present ourselves to God as living sacrifices (Ro.12:1), deny ourselves the lusts in our flesh (1Pe.2:11), and follow Jesus doing His will. That alone will demonstrate that we have indeed received this grace, we have understood it, and we are grateful for it.
On the contrary we should also recognise that even though we have been made children of God and Jesus Himself is our Elder Brother (He.2:11), there is a great difference between what we are and who Jesus is! Jesus is the Son of God as God Himself. We have been made children of God not in substance but through adoption into God's family (Ro.8:15;Ga.4:5;Ep.1:5). In other words, we are not gods but only created beings. It becomes necessary these days to bring out this truth in view of the teaching by many 'famous' preachers that we have become gods with a small 'g' but gods nevertheless. This is heresy and nonsense. For those who follow this teaching it becomes natural to assume great powers and authority for themselves such as speaking out and making things happen. The authority and power belong to Jesus (Mt.28:18), and we have been given the right to use that authority, not as if it were our own, but in the name of Jesus.
Focus is most important. If we try to major on doing and neglect being as a result, we distort the whole aspect of being children of God. God wants to transform us into the nature and character of Jesus (Ro.8:29), and this is what we will take with us into eternity. Without manifesting the fruit of the Spirit, won't the use of the gifts be seen as incongruent? Let us glorify God for His grace towards us, and not take glory for ourselves.