Children of God

Josh Elliott

John's Epistles • Sermon • Submitted 3 months ago • Presented 3 months ago

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Introduction

Illustration: Children take after their parents. Owen likes music, Lucy likes animals.

The same is true between us and our heavenly Father. We believe that those who repent and follow Jesus according to the Bible are adopted as God’s children. So if children take after their parents and God has adopted us, well what does that imply? This is the big idea behind what John writes in today’s Scripture passage:

1 John 2:29–3:10 CSB

If you know that he is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of him. See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him. Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him. Everyone who remains in him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works. Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because his seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God. This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.

If you look back over the course of history you can see sometimes there’s a habit of pendulum swinging from one unhealthy extreme into another. You can see this even in the Bible. The Israelites would go from times of faithfulness to times of rebellion. In the time of Jesus the Pharisees and their followers were pushing an extreme legalistic adherence to the letter of the law and adding extra laws from their traditions. By the time John is writing this letter he seems to be responding to people of the opposite extreme, who took the grace of God as an excuse to sin however much they wanted. In our own history we can see in relatively recent decades a kind of puritanism and extremely legalistic Christianity that enjoyed common currency for a while in North America. I would wager to say that now we are watching a culture swing to the opposite extreme. So these words of John are perhaps especially relevant to a time when people are wholeheartedly embracing every sort of sin and vice that strikes their fancy.

So what are we to do as Christians? Are we to respond by trying to snap back to a Pharisaical Puritanical legalism that demands everyone cast off their sins or be cast out of the church? Should we follow culture and say that the grace of God means we can sin now and pray for forgiveness later? Neither of these matches well with what John is teaching us about what it means to be children of God. Instead John focuses on the contrast between who we are as Christians as opposed to the children of the devil. Keeping in mind that we all used to be lost sinners in need of salvation, and John’s hopeful vision of the future today we’re going to take a look at ourselves and see

What We Were

What We Are

What We Will Be

What We Were

Illustration: My nostalgic family.

You see we tend to look back at our pasts with rose coloured glasses sometimes, don’t we? But for us as believers looking into our past should be a moment for humble reflection on where we came from when Jesus found us. Now when John is writing his letter his focus is on contrasting his readers with the ones who left the church who had been leading them astray, so his focus isn’t on reminding them that they used to be sinners. For the purposes of this sermon however I thought it would be helpful to read his description of those who practice sin while keeping in mind that this describes all of us before Jesus came to our rescue. After all Romans 5:8

Romans 5:8 CSB

But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And again Paul reminds the Corinthian church after talking about the sinners who won’t inherit the kingdom of earth that 1 Corinthians 6:11

1 Corinthians 6:11 CSB

And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Perhaps so they wouldn’t get the wrong idea and get puffed up in pride about the grace they received. So let’s read verses 4-10 remembering that this is where we came from.

1 John 3:4–10 CSB

Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him. Everyone who remains in him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works. Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because his seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God. This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.

Remember the purpose of this point is to remind us of where we came from. Why would we do that? Well it accomplishes a few things. For one it is the cure for any idea we might get that we are better than other people. Everyone who isn’t a believer is just the same as we were before Jesus saved us. The second reason is to remind us about just how amazing God’s grace is. We were sons of the devil, sinners who couldn’t really do righteousness on our own. That’s what we were when Jesus reached down to save us.

John reminds us here that one of the reasons that Jesus was sent to earth was that he could destroy the works of the devil. What are the works of the devil? His influence toward sinfulness in our lives for certain must be included. One could almost go so far as to say our past selves were in a way works of the devil that needed to be destroyed. That’s a significant part of why Jesus commanded that those who put their faith in Him be baptized, because it’s a symbol of death and resurrection. We died to our old selves and came out pure and clean and new.

Let’s not forget however that this is past tense. I think we as Christians can sometimes get hung up on our failures and our flaws. We think of ourselves primarily as “sinners saved by grace” and get trapped in these labels we give ourselves where we tell ourselves we can’t grow, we can’t become more righteous, we can’t be who God wants us to be. That’s why we won’t stop with what we were, but move on to John’s main point in this section of the letter: What we are.

What We Are

Illustration: Different titles give different privileges and access.

So if someone asks who we are, what is our answer? It might depend a bit on who is asking and what purpose their asking for. Ultimately though, we know as believers in Jesus that our identity isn’t in what job we have or the things we do, or as I heard it once said it’s not who we are it’s whose we are. We belong to God. In what way do we belong to God? Well here’s how John explains it in his letter:

1 John 2:29–3:1 CSB

Let’s skip down to verse seven:

1 John 3:7 CSB

Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Then again down to verse 9:

1 John 3:9–10 CSB

Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because his seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God. This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.

So the common thread tying all those verses together is that John is calling us children of God. We talked in our first point about the fact that we used to be children of the devil, but that’s not who we are anymore. In fact John mostly brings this up as a contrast to who his readers are. They’ve just remained faithful in the face of false teachers who came and tried to lead them away. John is reassuring them about who they are in Christ.

Now I spent a whole sermon already in this series talking about the importance of the labels we place on ourselves, but repitition is the key to teaching, a good teacher repeats and if you hear something multiple times you’re more likely to retain what you’ve been taught. You get it. So if there’s a lot of labels being thrown around about us, and even labels we’re giving ourselves, which ones are true? Well if you’ve repented and followed after Jesus than the most true label of all is that you are a child of God. If we think back to our illustration about the different access we have depending on who we are, what kind of access doest he heir of the King of the universe have? All access.

But being a child of God isn’t just about the material gains that come with it, it’s also about becoming like God, and what is God like? Well John points out that God is righteous and there is no sin in Him. So if we are supposedly children of God, shouldn’t we be righteous? Shouldn’t a child of God be marked by a lack of sin and abundance of righteousness? Surely we shood since God’s seed is in us, His dna so to speak. That’s why John says that the test of righteousness makes it obvious who is a child of God and who is a child of Satan. That’s the same thing Jesus was saying when He said in Matthew 7:15-20

Matthew 7:15–20 CSB

“Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.

Now we can’t make this point without stopping to take note of the order of things here. In the last verse of chapter two John says that “everyone who does right has been born of him.” That’s present tense action because of past tense reality. We already have been born of Him, and that’s how we can do right. Not that we are born of Him because we do right, but we do right because we have been born of Him.

So what? How does this affect our day-to-day life as Christians? What should we be doing differently? Honestly sometimes as Christians, and maybe this is just me, we can get a bit of a defeatist attitude about sanctification, or in other words growing more like Jesus. We get stuck in this attitude that says that we’ll never grow, we’ll never get better. Why set goals I’m never going to meet? Why be someone I’m never going to be. The Bible says we’ll never be perfect in this life, so why not just settle for where I am now and wait until Jesus transforms me later.

That’s not the reaction the Bible expects from us as believers. The fact that we are children of God means that even now we share in His essence. Our attitude should be that since we have been made God’s children how can we not change? How can we not grow more like Him every day? It’s a paradigm shift from thinking of yourself as a stuck sinner saved by grace to a growing thriving child of God. And the remedy for those times that we hit the wall isn’t to give up and wait until God transforms us in the next life, but to look at our hope in the next life and see it as inspiration to be the best we can be now.

What We Will Be

Illustration: Caterpillars inside of cocoons.

If our situation is analogous to a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, than we are in the cocoon, or chrysallis stage. A caterpillar doesn’t know what it’s going to become when it becomes a chrysallis. John says this about Christians in this time of transition and transformation:

1 John 3:2 CSB

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is.

So our future is in part uncertain. What we can be certain about is that Jesus will win and all will work out for good for those who love God. Those things are incredibly certain and well attested in Scripture. Some of us have fun speculating about the rest. Personally I find it interesting to talk about some of the more mysterious things the Bible says that are open to interpretation, like about what our resurrection bodies will be like. By way of reminder the Biblical teaching about the afterlife is that when we die we will be with Jesus, but there will one day come an event where Jesus returns to earth to judge the living and the dead, after which we will be resurrected in New Bodies on the New Earth. Paul writes about this in 1 Corinthians 15:50-55

1 Corinthians 15:50–55 CSB

What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption. Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality. When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting?

Now Paul before this talks about the nature of the resurrected body we’ll have and at most what He says is that it will be heavenly instead of earthly, which doesn’t tell us much except that it will be different in nature to the bodies that we live in now.

What John assures us is that we will be like Christ in some way, which is the most important thing. Jesus already has His resurrection body, since He was the firstborn from the dead as the Bible calls Him. We know that the disciples didn’t recognize Him right away when He appeared, but that He also kept the scars from the crucifixion. So we know that we’ll be so different that we’re almost recognizable, but at the same time that the things that happened to us in this life will still have an impact on us in the next.

You may rightly ask, what’s the point of this? I know some people get frustrated with future prophecy stuff in sermons and in the Bible because of how much of it is unclear speculation, but it’s in the Bible for a reason. John doesn’t bring up our future transformation for no reason at all. All Scripture is God breathed, even the quick sentences that we sometimes pass by. So why does John bring this up when talking about righteousness and sin showing the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil? Well he gives us the application in the next verse.

1 John 3:3 CSB

And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.

So the future destiny we have as children of God should be our inspiration to purify ourselves now. In other words to avoid sin and do righteousness. If you are in Christ one day you will be perfect. The interesting thing is that John doesn’t say that everyone who has this hope should purify himself, he just assumes it as a fact. They will do it. That’s because again, righteousness and growing more like Jesus isn’t something you do to earn God’s favor, it’s something God does in you when you abide in Him.

Conclusion

Now it’s possible that when you hear the words that John says in these verses it might inspire a touch of fear. It might cause us to question just how righteous we are, and to wonder whether that might mean we aren’t really children of God. That’s not at all what John is trying to do. He’s not trying to guilt struggling Christians into giving up on their growth as disciples. He’s trying to inspire beat up Christians that there is hope, that they are not failures and fools but Children of God who WILL grow in Holiness. With that idea firmly in mind let’s re-read what John wrote in

1 John 2:29–3:10 CSB

So children of God how should we live differently because of God’s word today? How should we go out of this building as disciples and grow in our own discipleship while reaching others for Jesus? We should leave here in confidence, knowing not only that we can “purify ourselves” and grow in holiness, but that we will. Philippians 1:6

Philippians 1:6 CSB

I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Not after the day of Christ Jesus, but until the day of Christ Jesus. God expects and to grow now, and it will be by His work in us by the Holy Spirit. Remember it’s not the fruit of Josh, or Fredericton Christian Church, it’s the fruit of the Spirit. It’s our responsibility to abide in Him, it’s His responsibility to grow the fruit.