TEXT: I John 3:1-3

SUBJECT: What We Are #3: Children

Twenty-five years ago, I knew a young woman with a very clear self-image. If you talked to her on the phone, you would think she was the ugliest, the fattest, and the most repulsive person in the world. This is what she said about herself, and I believe she meant it.

‘She looks like a movie star’ is what the rest of us said.

Had she known what she was, she might have lived a thankful, happy, and outgoing life. But she didn’t know it, and her bad self-image had a negative affect on her life. It made her pull away from her family and friends; it caused her to drop out of high school; it got her into drinking and drugs, self-mutilation, and attempted suicide.

Her life is far better now than what it was back then, but still, it is only a shadow of what it might have been—if only she had known what she was. Not the ugly, stupid, and worthless girl she thought she was, but the beautiful, smart, and significant girl she really was.

This is all psychology, and as people who take the Gospel seriously, we know her problems have a cause deeper and wider than low self-esteem. But still, her true life was shaped by a self-image that was untrue.

What happened to the pretty girl who thought she was ugly can also happen to us if we are one thing, and think we’re something else.

What are we? Whatever Jesus Christ says we are. Only He has the right to name us—and He has named us. He has told us what we are—not what He thinks we are—but what we really are. Unlike you and me, Jesus has no opinions, no beliefs; He doesn’t have a take on things. He knows what a thing is, and He tells us what it is.

What are we?

If we do not believe in Christ and try to do want He says, we are strangers and enemies. This is what He has called us, and no matter what you or I or ‘the experts’ say, this is what we are. But, if this is what you are, it is not what you have to be. Jesus died on the cross to bring strangers into the Family of God and to make bitter and stubborn enemies His loyal servants and loving friends. You don’t have to be a lost sheep anymore—the Shepherd is calling you home! You don’t have to be runaway son anymore—your Father is waiting for you with open arms and with no reminders of what you have done or what you have been.

What the Pharisees said to damn the Lord Jesus, we say to praise Him—

What does the Lord Jesus say we are? He says we’re a number of things, two of which we’ve covered the last couple of weeks. We are disciples and we are saints. If the words sound too flattering, they are—and they’re also true. No thanks to us. We are these things because the Lord has made us these things. He Himself has said—

To be a Disciple and a Saint are high honors, but there’s an honor far higher than these. John tells us what it is, but before he does that, he says, Behold. This means, ‘Let me have your attention’; ‘Note carefully’, ‘Listen up’ or as I used to say when I taught school, ‘This is going to be on the test!’

What does this mean, the children of God? In one way, every human and angel is a child of God, because He made us all and we owe Him our respect. This is a true doctrine and is taught in the Bible.

But not here. We know it isn’t because, well, ‘angels’ are not in the picture at all, and because John is drawing a contrast between us and the world, that is, between the people who are sons and daughters of God and the people who are not.

Don’t get me wrong: God is love; He loves every one of His creatures, and proves His love in countless ways. But John is not urging us to Behold the love that causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and the rain to fall on just and unjust alike. He wants us to mull over the Divine love that makes us His children.

Underline the word, ‘makes’. The Lord doesn’t call us His children as I might call that Ferrari across the street, ‘My car’. Nor should you think that He will make us His children some day if we behave ourselves till then. No, He has already made us His children, and that’s what we are—with all our faults—right now, v.2—

Later, he says we’re going to grow up in the family and resemble our Father more and more, but even now in our infancy—with our bald heads and no teeth and clumsy bodies, and undeveloped minds—we are God’s children!

Many verses in the Bible can be cited to this effect, but none moves me like John 20:17. Our Lord has risen from the dead, and the first person to see Him is Mary Magdalene. Overcome with joy and love, she falls before Him and puts a vise-grip on His lower legs. The Lord likes her devotion, but He’s got places to be, so He sends her off to the disciples with a message—

Why do we call Jesus, ‘The Son of God’? Because God is His Father. And, if God is our Father, too, what are we? We are the children of God.

Familiarity breeds contempt they say. If you hear a thing over and over, you stop hearing it, and on some things, you need to. But not this thing! Every Christian needs to hear what he is and hear it often, every day, many times a day. This is a main reason we come to church—to hear what we are, and what we are is the children of God. And not just ‘children’, but as Paul says somewhere—

Several years ago, a family at church moved cross country and joined a church I do not think highly of. To me, the services are more like a circus than worship. The man told me something that hurt me deeply (and still does): For the first time in my life, I know God loves me. I had to wonder, was the problem with his hearing or my speaking or the whole vibe of our church? I still don’t know the answer, but I want you to know—I want the lousiest Christian here (except for me) to know that you’re a child of God, that God is your Father, and that your Father loves you—even when you royally screw up!

How do we become children of God? We’re not born His children—no one is except for our Lord Jesus Christ. John says in the first chapter of his Gospel, it’s—

Neither do we become His children through baptism—though every believer ought to be baptized.

How do you become a child of God? Let’s back up a moment: how did you become a child of your parents? That happened in one of two ways: either you were born to them or they adopted you. Which one is better? Most people assume being born into the family is, but I have a friend who’ll fight you over it. Being adopted—she says—always made her feel special; she wasn’t an ‘accident’; her parents wanted her, prayed for her, chose her when they could have had someone else! Who’s right? They both are.

In becoming the children of God, we get the best of both worlds! We are born into His family, John 1:11-13 says—

Underline the words, born of God. Two chapters later, our Lord describes it as being born again, a second birth, a heavenly birth, and a birth wrought by the Holy Spirit. Peter picks up on the imagery of his old friend, and says we are—

One of the privileges we have from being born of God is, we resemble Him; if you look like your parents on earth, why wouldn’t you look like your Father in Heaven? John picks up on this, back in our text where he says—

We are already like Him in part, but when He comes, we will be as like Him as we can be.

If the New Birth is good, so is Adoption. Galatians 4:5 says everyone who puts his faith in Christ receives—

Ephesians 1:5 says this was God’s plan all along—

Adoption not only puts you into a Family, it also takes you out of a family. The family we were all born into was the family of Adam—and his family, like their father, is fallen away from God and under His wrath. The Lord, in great love, snatches us out of that family, and puts us into His own, the family that is not fallen away from Him, the family that is not under His wrath, the family that shares in all the goodness of our Father.

Adoption is a legal matter and has no affect on how we feel. But, wanting us to feel something, God sends the Spirit of Adoption to all His children so that, when we need Him most, we can pray—

…As our Lord did in the Garden, and know He is there, and loves us more dearly than the best human father loves his favorite son.

The privileges of being children of God are staggering. It means we are permanently connected to our Father, for He, unlike some other fathers, has never disowned a child—no matter what he’s done!

It also means we have access to all He has and He gives us all we need. Reprimanding the people for thinking so ill of their God, our Lord said—

It means we are under His wise and loving discipline. Sometimes we wish we weren’t, but that’s the feelings of a small child, and not worthy of a full-grown son or daughter—

It means we always have His sympathy—even when He doesn’t step in to help us—

With the privileges of family go the responsibilities. They are, first, to love and honor, and obey our Father. Through the prophet Malachi, the Lord accused His People of thinking more of their fathers on earth than their Father in heaven—

I wonder how many of us truly respect the Lord? We all say we do, but do we? Do we honor Him in the way we talk? In the way we treat each other? In what we watch on TV? In the jokes we laugh at? I know His will for our lives is not always crystal clear, but, is there something you know He wants you to do—or not do—but you refuse to obey Him? If there is, He turns to you with the same question He had way back when—Where is my honor?

A second responsibility is to love His other sons and daughters. Nothing grieves a parent more than his kids fighting, especially when he calls them on it, and they keep it up. If it hurts parents below, what must it do to our Father in Heaven?

This is what we do when we don’t forgive them, what we do when we provoke them or exclude them or bad mouth them or trample their feelings under foot. We grieve our brothers and sisters, and our Father who loves them as much as He loves us.

A third responsibility is to believe our Father. Some kids grow up with unreliable fathers; some of the men are plain liars, others are not, but still, they don’t do what they say. What kind of Father is our Father in Heaven? I say He’s a reliable one. This means, we ought to trust Him, even when He takes longer than we would like Him to. He’s a Father we can wait on and not wish we hadn’t.

Finally, we can resemble Him. If our Father is forgiving, you forgive; if He’s patient, you be patient; if He’s generous, help people without grumbling. In a word—