We began today, as we do most days, around the dinner table with our family Bible Study. We had just begun Matthew 9, but also discussed the end of Matthew 8. We talked about that paralytic man that Jesus healed, how Jesus didn’t say “pick up your bed and walk” right away, but rather, “your sins are forgiven.” Jesus addressed the heart of the matter: physical healing is a temporary condition, forgiveness of sins is an eternal condition, granted by Jesus Christ which gives us the ability to be called sons and daughters of God! And it was after we finished reading this when I hear my unusually quiet and thoughtful seven year old (He’s usually the kid who’s quick to try and do something to make you lagh) say the words I’ve been praying for: “Dad, I want to get baptized.” I asked him why, to which he responded “I’ve been feeling like God has been calling me. I want to give my whole life to Him, and I want to be His child.” All this, and I hadn’t even had my first cup of coffee yet (I’m sipping it now, even as I write).
This is not a work of me or his mother. This is God, working on him as we go together through the word of God, as we raise him, not merely IN church, but to be a PART of the church. But we begin every day with the reminder that we are children of God. And this is the reminder we all need. Jesus lived a perfect life, died in our place, and rose from the dead three days later to grant us the ability to be new, to be children of God. And this is the identity that Satan will attack in my sons, today and every day, and this is the responsibility I have as a father to remind them of, every day. This is what I need to remind my wife of, every day, and the congregation God has given me to serve, every day. And you, who read these words, every day. Jesus didn’t merely die to remove sin. He died to make us children of God. And as sons and daughters of the Most High God, let us walk every day, not in privilege of this position, but in solemn joy, seeking to please God with how we walk, talk, live and act, to represent our Father well in everything we say, do, and think. And when we falter or fail, let us not hold on to it, but quickly and immediately run to our Father, confessing our sins, and seeking to be made right in Him, whether by His discipline, or by a Loving hand (which in his case, both are done with a loving hand). And, being His children, let us seek to draw others into that love, so that, by Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection, more may come to know this awesome and wonderful love!
John 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God,[f] who is at the Father's side,[g] he has made him known.
Galatians 3:23-29
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave] nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
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