I Am Becoming

But as many as received Him,
to them He gave the right
to become children of God,
to those who believe in His name:
John 1:12

I intended to get back to this thought much earlier. This verse had so much in it, I felt like I needed to draw a line with one thought and come back to another. So here we go...again.

There are those in this pluralistic, universalistic, relativistic world in which we live who like to repeat a post-modern mantra that assures everyone, everywhere, "We are all God's children." And I hate to be the one to break it to them that it's just not true. It might be more accurate to say we are all God's creatures, or at least His creation. We do belong to Him in the sense that all things are in His hand. But when people say it these days, what they mean is, "We are all God's children, and He loves us all, and He will bring us all to Him, no matter what road we take." It sounds nice, but it's just not true. Instead, it is a dangerous and damning lie.

I'm not trying to be exclusive or elitist here. I'm not on some pompous religious pedestal saying that I'm a child of God, but you're not (using you in a general sense) because you don't see things my way. Rather, I'm trying to make a point that Jesus made multiple times in His teaching.

There were those around Jesus who thought they were on the path that led them to God simply because of their genealogy, their bloodline: We are Abraham's children. But Jesus informed them God could raise up children for Abraham from the rocks. Later, the Apostle Paul will write that not all who are born of Israeli lineage are really of Israeli faith. They were only truly Abraham's children if they followed the faith of Abraham. At another juncture, Jesus went on to tell them that their actions toward Him showed who their real father was: If they were children of God, they would receive Him, but instead their attitudes and lifestyles proved they were children of the devil--a liar, thief and murderer. People didn't like it then, and they certainly don't like to think about it now.

Think about the words to Amazing Grace...how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. In lots of hymnals, that designation has been changed from wretch to soul. People don't want to be reminded of the wretchedness of sin, even if that's exactly what they've been saved out of. And they certainly don't want to be labeled wretches before they're saved. They're just souls, simply souls, poor souls maybe who've lost their way, but souls. Not wretches. Not sinners. In fact, in the post-modernistic church, they're not even calling sinners to repentance anymore; they are inviting pre-Christians to make Jesus a part of their lives! After all, we don't want people to feel bad about the condition their soul is in. We want them to feel good, not like wretches. So we make up things like, "We are all God's children, and He loves us all."

Look back at that verse in John; what does it say? As many as received Him, He gave the right to become the children of God. Just because you are born doesn't mean you are automatically a child of God. You have to be born again, so that you can become...become a child of God. It isn't our birthright to be called God's child; we must do what is necessary to become the child of God. And what is necessary is that we receive Christ as our savior. I'm glad that I did, because I was once a wretched child, offspring of my fallen father and under the control the control of my spiritual father the devil. But once I claimed Jesus Christ for myself, took Him as my own, I gained the right to become the son of God!

Children of God

But as many as received Him,

to them He gave the right

to become children of God,

to those who believe in His name:

John 1:12

His own brothers did not believe in Him, at first; they thought he was unbalanced and insane, an embarrassment to their family. One time they wanted Him to do miracles to prove who He was, the next time they wanted Him to come home quietly.

The members of His local church rejected him as unqualified, for they had known Him from His childhood, they knew His family, and they knew He had no formal training as a teacher. When they did ask Him to speak, He made the most outrageous claims and they wanted to stone Him to death.

The multitudes followed Him for bread and miracles, but when His teachings became difficult to understand and implement, all but the twelve left Him and eventually cried out for his crucifixion.

The leaders of His people refused to accept Him for who He was, even though they should have known Him from the Scriptures, because He did not fit their predetermined mold of who they thought He should be and what they thought He should do. With each increasingly demonstrative miracle, they sought to put an end to His life, eventually succeeding only to be surprised when He didn't stay dead.

Some did not receive Him. But some did. Some confessed Him as Lord upon their first meeting and served Him until their dying day. Some received His touch and His teaching, loving and worshiping Him to the very end. Some believed, and in doing so received eternal life. But perhaps the greatest thing of all--greater, I believe, than forgiveness, than healing, than the gift of the Holy Ghost; greater even than eternal life itself, is what the Gospel says about those who received Christ. To those who received Him, He gave them an inalienable right.

We hear a lot about people and their rights today. We have an entire Bill of Rights in our nation, dedicated to the preservation of our individual liberties, enumerating such rights as the freedom to say what we want, to worship how we want, to publish what we want, to gather where we want. Some fight for the rights of the unborn, others for the rights of animals, others for the rights of immigrants, still others for the rights of minorities, of alternative lifestyles. Some fight for the right to choose, the right to bear arms, the right to vote. But through Jesus Christ, we have the greatest right of all.

To those who received them, He gave the right...

He gave us the freedom...

He gave us the liberty...

He gave us the privilege...

He gave us the ability...

He gave us the honor...

He gave us the power...

To those who received Him as Lord and Savior, as Master and Teacher, who received Him as the Light and Life sent from heaven by God, who received Him as the very Word of God, to those who received Him, He gave the right to become the Children of God!