Faith Test: Child of God
Introduction
One of the underlying themes in John’s letter, one that has influenced every part of the Faith Test, is that there should be a family resemblance in our relationship with God. Now we get to dig deeper into what that really means.
First, we should ask why John would even want to have that as a theme in his letter? The answer is pretty simple. We understand what it means to have a family resemblance within our families.
Let me share with some examples from my own family. My oldest son is a very good looking young man, he has been since he was a baby. Having said that, he does not really look like me. Logan was born with incredible blonde hair and blue eyes. Strangers would stop and comment about how good looking he was.
There is a very interesting picture that was taken after my daughter’s dedication. The picture is of my father, myself and my son. None of us look alike. My dad had a full head of black hair that did not begin to gray until later in life and he had green eyes. I had dark brown hair that began graying in my 20s and balding soon after that and I have brown eyes. My son is blonde and blue eyed.
Just because there is not much physical resemblance, does not mean that we are not alike. I can see a lot of things that were a part of my father’s personality that are now coming out in me. My son has a little smirk that he gives when he finds something amusing, when he does that he is the spitting image of my father. My son, who has autism, sometimes gets stuck on watching YouTube videos. Last year I caught him in my home office on my laptop. I was all ready to grab the computer away from him when I noticed that he was search for videos by my favourite rock band. I immediately brought him upstairs, cuddled on the couch and watched the videos together.
You may or may not know that our three youngest children are adopted. How does family resemblance look like there? Interestingly, I had more people tell me that my youngest son looks like me than my biological son.
But the resemblance is more than that. My son is interested in many of the same things that I am interested in. And my one daughter has picked up on my love for puns and plays on words.
The point of all this family talk is that you expect that there would be some family resemblance, whether the children are biological or adopted. That is just the way relationships work.
This is exactly what John is trying to say in his letter. One of the tests of faith is that children of God should resemble their Father in some way. This is what we are going to discuss.
Born as a Child
How seriously should we take this whole child of God thing? Is this just a passing thought that John had when writing his letter? Not at all. Being a child of God is an ongoing theme throughout the New Testament.
I am going to begin by looking at how we become children of God. Not surprisingly, John talks much about this in his Gospel as well. This is what he says in his first letter.
“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.” (John 1:12–13 ESV)
It is by faith alone that we become children of God. It is not about how good we are. When we come to God, we do not come with all perfection, we come as broken people and God takes us in as his children.
John also reports Jesus as saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3 ESV)
The whole born again concept was confusing for me for a long time. My understanding of a born again Christian was that of a person that had fully embraced a life of sin and then suddenly became a good and religious person. I was not the only one who was confused. I heard two sermons by two different ministers at the same church preaching against being born again. A statement by the one minister has always stayed with me. He said, “I don’t want to be born again because I don’t want God to ever be done with me.” That is completely misunderstanding what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus.
I have five children and I can assure you that our work was not done after they were born. The way we interact with them changes but if anything, the work is harder now than when they were babies.
What Jesus says to Nicodemus is that to be a part of the kingdom of God, one must become a child of God. That happens by being born again, not physically but spiritually. The new birth is required for all Christians, whether or not they identify as born again Christians.
This is something that the Apostle Paul teaches on as well. Here is some of what he says.
“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!”” (Romans 8:15 ESV)
“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.” (Galatians 4:4–5 ESV)
“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, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:3–6 ESV)
In these passages, Paul stresses the idea of adoption. But isn’t the idea of an adopted child mean that we are second-class somehow? As a father of three adopted children, I will tell you that is not the case. But in the cultural context in which this letter was written, that is especially not the case. There were times that a father would look at his own children and realize that none of them were a suitable heir. So the father would handpick a child or young man to adopt. The fact that the adopted child was chosen meant that there was extra respect. When the Bible tells us that we are adopted as sons and daughters of God, that is a big thing.
