The Children of God
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See how glorious a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God’s children—and so we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Loved ones, now we are God’s children; and it has not yet been revealed what we will be. But we do know that when it’s revealed, we shall be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Introduction
Introduction
In 1Jn 2:29, for the first time John speaks of Christians as those who are "born" of God...
If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who does what is right is born of Him.
It is an expression that will be used time and again throughout the remainder of this epistle -
No one born of God practices sin, because God’s seed remains in him. He cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Loved ones, let us love one another, for love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Everyone who believes that Yeshua is the Messiah is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves the one born of Him.
For everyone born of God overcomes the world. And the victory that has overcome the world is this—our faith.
We know that anyone born of God does not keep on sinning; rather, the One born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot touch him.
John seems to go to a great deal of effort to drive this idea home, it’s almost as though he believes it is important. Considering that John is known as the disciple that Jesus loved, wouldn’t you think it would be something that would be an important key to living the kind of life that Yeshua is asking us to live?
What does it mean to be born of God? I believe that it is a f a figurative expression, emphasizing that the Christian's spiritual life is a result of the redemptive work of Jesus, let’s see how Paul explains this.
You were buried along with Him in immersion, through which you also were raised with Him by trusting in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Him when He pardoned us all our transgressions.
he expands on this here:
But when the kindness of God our Savior
and His love for mankind appeared—
not by deeds of righteousness
which we had done ourselves,
but because of His mercy—
He saved us through the mikveh of
rebirth
and renewing of the Ruach ha-Kodesh,
whom He abundantly poured out
on us
through Messiah Yeshua our Savior,
so that being set right by His grace,
we might become heirs
with the confident hope of eternal life!
So in other words, being born of God implies a death to self. That death can only come by trusting God to help us live our lives in such a way that we acknowledge our own sinfulness and inability to muster any righteousness on our own. It is only through the death (symbolized by the mikveh (or baptism) that we can have new birth in God.
As a result of this working of God in our lives, we have been “born again”, and can therefore be properly called God's children - Benai Elohim.
The fact that we could be called “children of God” would have been amazing to the disciples and, in fact, most of the Jews of that era and so in our text we see John imploring us to really think about what this means...
To think about what it means to be called the “children of God”.
And by extension to think about the implications of what that should mean in our lives.
As we, ourselves pause to reflect upon this, let us notice what the passage asks us first.
As the Children of God, What are We?
As the Children of God, What are We?
We are the recipients of God’s love!
We are the recipients of God’s love!
See how glorious a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God’s children—and so we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
“See how glorious a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God’s children”
It is through the love of God that we can even become His children.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us.
The love of God was revealed among us by this—that God sent His one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. This is love—not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atonement for our sins.
For we also once were foolish, disobedient, deluded, enslaved to various desires and pleasures, spending our lives in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
But when the kindness of God our Savior
and His love for mankind appeared—
not by deeds of righteousness
which we had done ourselves,
but because of His mercy—
He saved us through the mikveh of
rebirth
and renewing of the Ruach ha-Kodesh,
whom He abundantly poured out
on us
through Messiah Yeshua our Savior,
so that being set right by His grace,
we might become heirs
with the confident hope of eternal life!
It is an honor for God to even take notice of us as one of His creatures, how much love God must have to allow us to become His children!
But along with that amazing love of God something else happens, let’s go back and take another look.
See how glorious a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God’s children—and so we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
The World does not know us.
The World does not know us.
That is, they do not truly recognize or appreciate what we have become in Christ. They may even deem us as religious fanatics, fools .
For it seems to me that God has put us, the emissaries, on display last of all—like men sentenced to death. For we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people. We are fools for Messiah’s sake, but you are wise in Messiah! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, but we are dishonored! To this very hour we are both hungry and thirsty, dressed in rags and mistreated and homeless. We toil, working with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure. When we are slandered, we speak kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the dregs of all things—even to this moment.
But this shouldn’t surprise us, after all the world didn’t really know or understand Jesus, and if we’re really honest the world still doesn’t really know or understand Him to this day.
He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him.
And so why would we not think that our lives would need to remain hidden in Him?
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Messiah in God. When Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him, in glory!
So where does that leave us? It leaves us loved and honored by God, unknown and sometimes despised by the world. This is the simple reality of what it means to be born of God, this is what it means to be a child of God.
And as depressing as that may seem, we have this assurance that Rav Shaul (Paul) gave to the Colossians
When Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him, in glory!
Hallelujah saints! This is our future! This is what God has promised us in olam habah (the world to come)! We can look beyond what our current circumstance is, or how we are seen by the world because of what our future holds - a revelation of ourselves with God in glory.
So then the next logical question to ask is…
What Will We Be?
What Will We Be?
Well unfortunately I dd my handy dandy Logos bible search - I really love being able to use modern technology to write sermons, all these resources at my immediate disposal. The problem was that none of these resources were able to give me a definitive answer. I had to come to the conclusion that John is correct.
Loved ones, now we are God’s children; and it has not yet been revealed what we will be. But we do know that when it’s revealed, we shall be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
It Has Not Yet Been Fully Revealed
It Has Not Yet Been Fully Revealed
Now, to be fair, it may be that I or rather we lack the ability in our humanness to fully comprehend it. And really I’m OK with that. But in more general terms this is what I’ve been able to come up with.
We’ll have an immortal body.
So also is the resurrection of the dead:
Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption!
Sown in dishonor, raised in glory!
Sown in weakness, raised in power!
Sown a natural body, raised a
spiritual body!
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
Now I say this, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and what decays cannot inherit what does not decay. Behold, I tell you a mystery:
We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed—
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last shofar.
For the shofar will sound,
and the dead will be raised incorruptible,
and we will be changed.
For this corruptible must put on
incorruptibility,
and this mortal must put on immortality.
But this is the part that kind of messes with my mind, and it’s something that both Paul and John hint at.
We’re Gonna Be Like Jesus!
We’re Gonna Be Like Jesus!
Not sure what to say about this except what the Word says, so I’ll try to parse it out here.
Loved ones, now we are God’s children; and it has not yet been revealed what we will be. But we do know that when it’s revealed, we shall be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
Paul also says that we will be like Jesus when He comes and that we will bear the image of the “One from heaven”
And just as we have borne the image of
the one made from dust,
so also shall we bear the image of the
One from heaven.
Paul says to the Philippians that all of our aches and pains will go poof because
For our citizenship is in heaven,
and from there we eagerly wait
for the Savior,
the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
He will transform this humble body of ours
into the likeness of His glorious body,
through the power that enables Him
even to put all things
in subjection to Himself.
So even though we can’t possibly comprehend in this world what that might be like, I can imagine that it is pretty mind-blowing because well I’ll let Paul tell you.
I charge you before God who gives life to all things and Messiah Yeshua who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. This He will reveal in His own time—the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or is able to see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
Yeah, we’re gonna have a certain glow to us. I mean talk about letting your light shine. If we’re going to shine like that in the world to come, we should be inspired to start practicing that glow up here on earth.
For our citizenship is in heaven,
and from there we eagerly wait
for the Savior,
the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
He will transform this humble body of ours
into the likeness of His glorious body,
through the power that enables Him
even to put all things
in subjection to Himself.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters whom I love and long for, my joy and crown—stand firm in the Lord in this way, my loved ones.
John also has something to say as to how this hope ought to influence how we live. And this brings us to our third point.
What Should We Be?
What Should We Be?
Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
We ought to be motivated by hope.
We ought to be motivated by hope.
Notice that John says that “everyone who has this hope...” , the earnest expectation of the emissary is that we all will be like Jesus when He comes. Where would he get that expectation? Do you think that every thing that Yeshua taught when he was on the earth was written down? What did John himself say?
There are also many other things that Yeshua did. If all of them were to be written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself will have room for the books being written!
So then, it is clear that John has an understanding and a hope based upon something he learned from being a literal follower of Messiah, most certainly from a conversation he must have had with him. This hope of which John writes, of course, is the earnest expectation that in the Olam Habah (the world to come) we will be like Jesus when He comes.
He goes on to state that because of this, there is something that we need to be doing in the here and now. What does he say?
Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
We must be actively and diligently involved in purifying ourselves.
We must be actively and diligently involved in purifying ourselves.
The Greek word for "purify" is hagnizo {hag-nid'-zo} which means “to make clean, i.e. (fig.) sanctify”
It is closely related to the word for “holiness”, which in Greek is hagiasmos, {hag-ee-as-mos'}, meaning “holiness, sanctification”
It therefore involves the idea of being “set apart” for a holy purpose, which is the goal and should be the pursuit of all Christians.
Pursue shalom with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
It is this hope of what we will become, this hope that Jesus will transform our earthly body and give us a glorified body that should give us, as children of God, the motivation to work oward purity (hagiasmos or holiness) - the very holiness that is seen in The Lord Jesus Himself.
The logical question then, is “how can Christians purify themselves?”
The first step is to appropriate the cleansing power of the blood of Messiah.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Only then can we hope to be truly holy and without blemish .
Husbands, love your wives just as Messiah also loved His community and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, having cleansed her by immersion in the word. Messiah did this so that He might present to Himself His glorious community—not having stain or wrinkle or any such thing, but in order that she might be holy and blameless.
But we also have an obligation to remove ourselves from things that would defile us.
What agreement does God’s Temple have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God—just as God said,
“I will dwell in them and walk among them;
and I will be their God,
and they shall be My people.
Therefore, come out from among them,
and be separate, says Adonai.
Touch no unclean thing.
Then I will take you in.
I will be a father to you,
and you shall be My sons and daughters,
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.”
Therefore, since we have these promises, loved ones, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Putting it All Together
Putting it All Together
By virtue of God's love for us, and His working in us, we can truly be called the “children of God” the Benai Elohim! But, to become a child of God, and truly remain such, we must be willing to cooperate with God.
When our faith joins with the working of God, we can become His children!
You were buried along with Him in immersion, through which you also were raised with Him by trusting in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Him when He pardoned us all our transgressions.
For you are all sons of God through trusting in Messiah Yeshua. For all of you who were immersed in Messiah have clothed yourselves with Messiah.
As long as our faith remains strong, we have the assurance of receiving the promises God has made.
Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you has an evil heart of unbelief that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day by day—as long as it is called “Today”—so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Messiah, if we hold our original conviction firm until the end.
Let us fear then! Though a promise of entering His rest is left open, some of you would seem to have fallen short. For we also have had Good News proclaimed to us, just as they did. But the word they heard did not help them, because they were not unified with those who listened in faith.
Therefore, do not lose your boldness, which has great reward. For you need perseverance so that, after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet
“in a very little while,
the Coming One will come,
and He will not delay.
But My righteous one shall live by emunah;
and if he shrinks back,
My soul takes no pleasure in him.”
But we are not among the timid ones on the path to destruction, but among the faithful ones on the path to the preservation of the soul.
Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, so that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
May the love our heavenly Father has shown in making us His children, serve to motivate us to remain faithful to Him!