New Relationship Demands Righteous Behavior

I John 3:1-9, 24

Thesis: Because of the new relationship that we have to the Father through faith in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross, the Child of God must live righteously and put off the sin we once engaged in.

The believer in his new relationship to God also has a new relationship to the world.

God’s love caused Him to sacrifice to redeem mankind from his sin.

The word translated love is the term agape.

This is the term designated for God’s sacrificial love.

John uses this word to draw our attention to His sacrifice He made for us.

God sent His Only Begotten Son to redeem mankind from his sins.

The irony of this fact is that God sent His Son to make many more sons.

Those who trust Christ are called the Children of God.

From the beginning John wants to draw our attention to the relationship that we have to God.

John refers to God as the Father, not using the normal term for God in the Greek.

John emphasizes the fact that God’s relation to us is that of a father.

As a Father, God cares for us. (Psalm 102:113)

As a Father, God gives us good gifts. (Matthew 7:7-11, James 1:17)

As a Father, God does not change. (James 1:17)

John uses the term kalew in reference to calling believers the Sons of God.

The term can refer to someone calling out to another who is a distance away.

The term can also mean to name something.

Recently Matt and Lauren Weaver experienced the birth of the firstborn.

In naming him they wanted to choose a name that would distinguish him as their child.

They chose the name that they did to tell the world that he is their son and no one else’s.

God has given us the name of Children of God to distinguish us from the world as His very Own.

The children of God are not known by the world because it did not know Christ.

The word for “know” has behind it the idea of intimate knowledge.

It was a Jewish idiom for intercourse between a man and a woman.

The world does not know us in the most intimate of knowledge because it did not know Christ.

The idea is that we do not associate with the world so that they would have an intimate knowledge of us. (II Cor. 6:14)

The believer now has a hope in God that the world cannot match.

This hope is not readily known.

This hope involves seeing Christ.

The sight we have of Christ will produce a miraculous transformation.

The hope of the Children of God motivates them to different actions.

The Children of God strive for purity.

The word for purifieth means to make clean.

This purity looks like the purity of Christ.

Christ was free from sin. (II Cor. 5:21)

Christ was perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

The Children of God do not actively engage in sin.

Those who sin actively do not have a relationship with him.

Sinners break God’s Law.

Sinners react to life based upon their relationship to the Devil.

Sinners do not know God or have seen Him through His Word. (Rom. 3:10-11, I Cor. 2:14)

Christ died to remove the sins of believers.

Christ came for the single purpose of removing our sins.

He became our sin that the Children of God might receive His righteousness. (II Cor. 5:21)

He died to destroy the Devil’s works.

His death changes their relationship to sin. (Rom. 6:1-2, 13)

Whereas once they responded to life in sin, they now are free to respond to life in righteousness.

The Children of God put on righteous actions.

These righteous actions bear testimony to their relationship to the Author of righteousness.

Children of God by nature gravitate to righteousness because God’s seed has sprung up within them.

The Children of God are the offspring of God’s redemptive plan to save man from His sins.

Because of this position the Child of God is to respond with righteous actions.

The only way that a Child of God can acquaint himself with the righteousness of God is to acquaint himself with God’s revelation of Himself in His Word. (Ps. 25:4-5, 8-9)

The Children of God keep His commandments.