Children of God

DEVOTION 1JOHN CHILDREN OF GOD 1 John 3:1-3 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. NIV We are children of God. How great is that? Surely there are people in the world that have absolutely no idea what that means. In fact, they cannot understand our faith, or our lifestyle. Sure they see us, and wonder how we could be so gullible to believe that mumbo jumbo stuff. Maybe some of them believe they are Christians simply because they were born in America and they have some concept God exists, but really have no clue what being a child of God means. Some simply refuse at accept the fact God exists and so how could they know us either? But we know what it means and that we are included in the inheritance he has for his children. Now exactly what that is, and what we are going to look like and be like when we receive it, when we step into eternity, we really are not sure, because God has not fully disclosed all of it to us yet. That is to a certain point what faith is all about. When we think what it is going to be like, to be like him, to be like Jesus, what a glorious though it is. That is truly when we will shed this body, shed the imperfection of this shell and become perfect without any sin at all, a completely pure being. Yes we are in the process of becoming a pure being, by being in Christ. We cannot even come close to purity unless we are in Christ. In fact, it is Christ who makes us pure, that is how we purify ourselves by the hope in Christ for our salvation. As children of God we are seen by him through the blood of Jesus and he sees us as pure, innocent of sin. Of course we should not continue to live as those who are not children of God. Of course we should make every effort to keep from sinning, from living a lifestyle of sin. Yes, we should try with all our strength and determination to resist temptations. But it is our hope in Christ, not our ability to be perfect and without any sin, which makes us pure. This is a wonderful truth, for if it was up to us, we could not qualify to be called children of God. If it was up to our efforts to justify, sanctify and purify our beings, we would be in great distress, for we cannot do it. But our hope is in Christ, in him we are all of that and more. It is a little difficult to understand just how it works considering we still struggle with some sin in our life, but it is the truth and that will set us free from the bondage of a life of complete sin, a life that leads to death. We are the children of God.