Transformed Children

1. God’s love makes us children.

“Behold!” Not glance over, not scroll past, not skim. But sit, soak, meditate, chew on, adore.

Not just a title -“called” we ARE children of God (that we should be called children of God; and so we are 1 Jn 3:1.)

Also, not “we will be...” This is a present reality as Spurgeon points out:

1 John 1 John 3:2

All the blessings of the new covenant are spoken of in the present tense, because with the exception of eternal glory in heaven, they are all to be enjoyed here. I know that I shall be one day, if I am a believer in Christ, more sanctified than I am today—if not in the sense of consecration, yet still in the sense of purification—but at the same time I know this for sure: that when I stand at God’s right hand, amid the lamps of eternal brightness, and when these fingers move with vigor across the golden strings, and when this voice is filled with the immortal songs, I shall not be one bit more a child of God than I am now.

In Paul’s most in depth treatment of the believer’s relationship with the Spirit, Romans 8:15 states:

Romans 8:15 ESV

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!”

Paul’s verse helps us see the disconnect between sin and sonship.

2. God’s glory makes us like Him.

John then discusses what being a child means for us eschatologically (when Jesus comes back) and what it means for us presently.

a. Eschatologically, being children of God makes Jesus’s return good for us.

Three reasons why it’s good for us:

1. We won’t shrink back at his coming! 1 John 2:28

This is good news because it will be terrifying.

2. We shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

1 John 3:2 ESV

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

Imagine seeing him fully as he IS. Not as He WAS.

We have begun this process according to Paul:

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

But we will fully be changed when we see him face to face

Before I talk about point 3 here, we need to ask the question: What links this passage with the following passage? The mentions of Jesus’s appearing. Why did Jesus come?

1 John 3:5 ESV

You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

1 John 3:8 ESV

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

He came to do away with everything that would keep us from Him.

3. He will come back to keep us with Him

b. Presently, being children of God means reflecting His character.

First we have the two statements in 1 John 2:29 and 1 John 3:3.

But what about John’s claims that Christians do not sin?

1 John 3:6 ESV

No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

1 John 3:8–9 ESV

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

There are many views of these claims.

We know two things:

John says Christians do not sin (present tense).

John says that if we say we are sinless, we are liars.

Other passages that denote that Christians still battle sin are 1 John 1:9, 1 John 2:1, 1 John 5:16.

So how do we deal with these apparent contradictions?

One wrong way to go about it would be to look at the present tense in this situation and say, “This means ‘continually.’” There is no textual-linguistic grounds to make that assertion.

My proposal is in John’s use of amartia in 1 John 3:8 and his equation of sin to lawlessness in 1 John 3:4.

John shows that the type of sinning he’s been talking about is what the devil does and has always done.

This can be described as “lawlessness.” This is an open defiance against God.

Is there any other texts that shed light on this way of interpreting this passage?

John 8:34

Here John uses the same language as in 1 John and the context of the Pharisees being of their father the devil makes clear that he is equating this type of sin with habitual outright rebellion against God’s authority.

Here are some personal diagnostic questions to see if you fall into this category:

How do you feel when you sin?

Good? Proud? Crushed? Remorseful?

How do you approach God about your sin?

Do you not at all? Do you come to him with a 1 John 1:9, 2:1 mindset?

How do you sin?

Is it contemplative, deliberate, and habitual? Or is it in rare moments when the old nature rears its head?

Children of God are loved and transformed by God.