However different it appears, the fundamental point that [SPOILER ALERT] God makes us his children - both in a forensic and effectual sense - is still preserved.
1 John 3:1-2
1 See what love the Father has given us, that we
should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world
does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are
God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know
is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he
is.
God’s grace makes us
his children. God’s love makes us his children. God makes us his children! That’s
the good news to hear today. If you miss everything else I say don’t miss this:
you are God’s child. But don’t miss the rest, because the good news is not just
that we are God’s children it is how we are God’s children. And in these two
verses from first John we get a taste of how God makes us his children.
First, he declares we
are his children. By the grace of his love, he declares it to be an indisputable
fact. He says, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called
children of God; and that is what we are.” THAT IS WHAT WE ARE! Not how he will
treat us as, not what we could become, but what we are. Against all the
evidence to the contrary, “But I’m human not a god” “But I’m a sinner, not
righteous” “But my friend who I hurt called me a hypocrite not a saint” “But
that neighbor lady says I’m not in the right church or did not have a true
conversion experience” against all these things that say “But I’m not even good
at this Christian thing much less God’s child thing” – against all that God’s
word speaks. And if there is one thing we can trust over our own life it is God’s
word. If there is one judgement that matters more than any other on the matter
it is God’s. And God says in the word we are his children!
Sometimes – no, all
times – we need to hear that. We need to hear a word that can speak over the
struggles, doubts, sins, and even good in our life. We need a word that says
over all those background sounds of this reality “You are mine” a word that completely
takes us into the arms of God. It makes me think of the movie Man of Steel (a Superman movie for those
unfamiliar). In a flashback scene young Superman aka young Clark Kent is
wondering why he’s so different and his father Jonathan Kent leads him into the
barn where beneath the floor he reveals to him the space ship that brought
Clark to earth. As he reveals this to him, explains why he’s special and how he’s
literally the answer to whether we are alone in the universe, Clark under the
weight of it all looks up at Jonathan and desperately asks, “Can’t I just keep
pretending to be your son?” and in one of his finest acting moments Kevin
Costner – who plays Jonathan Kent – grabs ahold of the boy and pulls him close
into his embrace and says passionately “You are
my son.” Discipleship makes us different too. It calls for a different way of
life in this world. And it is precisely when the overwhelming nature of that
calling becomes apparent that we need the word to speak over everything else and
just make us into God’s children.
The word does that when
it says, “See what love the Father has given us that we should be called
children of God; and that is what we are.” This same Word took flesh in
Jesus who spread out his arms in love on the cross and from there God embraces you
as his child. The word says it, Christ did it, so it is. I said at the
beginning if you get nothing else hear this: You are God’s child. And I
stressed that in part because hearing what God makes us is precisely the way he
makes us his children! We hear it, and by the Spirit’s grace we believe it. But I also stress it because not everyone has ever heard that truly applied to themselves.
This is one reason why
when you come up for communion, sometimes I will address you as a child of God.
“Child of God,” I’ll say, “the body of Christ given for you.” I love to do that
especially when I see visitors because you wouldn’t believe the expression on
people’s faces the first time they hear someone call them a child of God. They
get this look on their face that says “Yous talkin to me? Well you ain’t handin
that piece a bread to someone else so yous must be talkin to me.” The look is
sometimes quite emotional or stunned. I don’t always say it there, since after
all the key word when I’m giving you communion is “the body of Christ given for
you” but sometimes it’s good to put them together. After all, it is the body
and blood of Christ, it is the grace and love of God, it is the new covenant
that declares us God’s child – even all the way back to our baptism.
But that’s not the only
way God makes us his child. God’s love and grace also make it not only in what
the cross declares but what the cross affects in us. See, if God’s word really
makes you family, then being part of the family makes us into who we are. In
this case, it makes us more and more like Christ our great brother. It is as
Paul who says we are being transformed according to the image of his Son. When
I was a boy at my home church there were these three brothers. The oldest was
16 or 17 – something like that – then the next was like 6, and then the last
was like 2. I couldn’t tell at the time but now, years later, things like
Facebook have allowed me to see these two younger brothers as they grew up and
you know what? They look just like their oldest brother! I would not have
guessed all those years ago just how much alike they would be.
The author of first
John writes “Beloved, we are God's
children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is
this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”
We can’t simply look at ourselves and always see Christ within us, but as God’s
children we are made into Christ’s body. His righteousness fills and pours out
of us. Thus, the word says, “We don’t know exactly what we will look like, but
it will look like him.” That promise is as much for the renewal of our minds
and hearts and life as it is for the renewal of our bodies in the resurrection.
The author knows this when he speaks later of how we know love because Christ
died for us (3:16) and we love because God first loved us (4:19). When Paul
said we would be transformed it would come by the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2).
That is, we also become God’s children when by the grace that makes us children it
makes our lives like his Son Jesus. “So” Paul says in Galatians (2:20), “it is
no longer I but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
And the truth is, though this example is not perfect, we can see how
people resemble their family in habits and life style just as much as we can
see when siblings physically resemble one another. Families impact the way we
live. It’s why stable homes make such a difference in a child’s life. It’s why
many premarital counseling programs ask about your family history – because we
become what we are! When I first met my in-laws I did not see much of a
resemblance in my wife. But as time went on – especially after a two-week
period where I stayed alone with my in-laws – I began to see all these little
things about her in them: from her voice in a crowded room, to the way she says
certain words, to the way she watches movies. Little things, one after another,
began to become apparent that they came from her family.
When the word makes us God’s children, it makes us live as God’s
children – because we become what we are. And yes, today you might not notice
it. Perhaps nobody will today. Matthew 25 says that at the end you won’t even
know all the ways this righteousness flowed through you. But “Beloved, we are
God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know
is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he
is.” As faith draws us closer to Christ, it will do this. For by faith we hold
fast to what God does, and what he does is make us his children.
So believe it. Because God says it, Christ did it, and the promise is when it is
all said and done it will be apparent in who we are revealed to be, because
whatever that is, for people of faith it will ultimately be like Christ. How
good it is to hear from the word not only that we are God’s children, but we
will resemble our good brother Jesus. Amen.
