Children of God

THOUGHTS FROM JOHN’S LETTERS

CHILDREN OF GOD

In his Gospel John reported a conversation in which Jesus told Nicodemus that unless he was ‘born again’, that is ‘born of the Spirit’, he was unable to see or to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:1 – 8). In his first letter, John refers to this concept of rebirth or new birth several times:

2:29 – ‘everyone who does what is right is born of him.’

3:9 – ‘No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.’

4:7 – ‘Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.’

5:1 – ‘Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God ...’

5:4 – ‘... for everyone born of God overcomes the world.’

5:18 – ‘We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.’

Most of these verses point out the evidence that shows or proves that a person is ‘born of God’: doing what is right, not continuing to sin, loving one another, overcoming the world. Only one of them identifies the one critical thing without which a person is not ‘born again’, not a child of God: the belief that Jesus is the Christ (5:1).

John referred to this critical belief in the first chapter of his Gospel:

‘Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God’ – John 1:12, 13.

In 1John 3:1 – 3 John focuses on this connection between being ‘born of God’ and being ‘children of God’: In language similar to Paul’s, John refers to the immeasurable love of God for us – ‘lavished on us’. And he sees the evidence of God’s great love for us in that fact that we are ‘called children of God’.

About this truth that those who believe in Jesus Christ are ‘children of God’, John states:

‘That is what we are’ – it is more than just words; we actually are ‘children of God’.

But our identity as ‘children of God’ is not known or understood by ‘the world’. Just as ‘the world’ did not recognize Jesus, the Son of God, so it does not recognize Christians as ‘children of God’.

We are ‘children of God’ right now; but ...

We ourselves do not realize the full implications of being ‘children of God’ – ‘what we will be has not yet been made known’.

But one thing we do know – that when Jesus returns we will be, instantly, ‘like him, for we shall see him as he is’.

Just as Paul wrote of the transformed bodies that Christians will receive at the return of Christ (1Corinthians 15:35 -54), John here writes of the inner transformation that will occur when we see him as he really is in all his power and glory: we will then reflect that glory, restored completely to the image of God. As Paul states: ‘Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully ...’ (1Corinthains 13:12). When Jesus returns, and we actually see him as he really is, then, and only then, will we cease to be sinners who sin.

It is in response to this glorious hope that John says ‘Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure’ (3:3). The sure and certain return of Christ, and the sure and certain ‘we shall be like him’, stimulate those who are ‘children of God’, those who are ‘born of God’, to a continual process of purification – an on-going, present tense, putting off of anything that defiles, of anything that is contrary to the nature of Jesus Christ, and anything that is contrary to the nature of God, our Father.