John opens this portion of I John after talking about it being the last hour and being on guard because of the antichrist and more importantly the many antichrists that are walking the earth. V.18 He also had just informed us that those people that fall away from the faith were never really Christians to begin with. V.19 And he summed up the last lesson by telling us to abide in Him.
As we move into this lesson it seems that John is overwhelmed by the love that God has shown to those people who are His children. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” The love that God has shown us on the cross is a love that we should often look back on in awe of what God has done for such a pitiful people as ourselves. “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5:6-8-NASB At the time when we were helpless to help ourselves and dead in our trespasses and sins, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” -Ephesians 2:1-2-ESV We were dead disobedient sinners and God killed His Son for our ransom. Charles Spurgeon spoke of the feeling that he got as he thought on this transaction.
“It seemed so sad a thing that Christ should have to die, and to me it often appears too great a price for Jesus Christ to purchase worms with His own blood.” – C.H. Spurgeon Spurgeon understood something that we often miss; that we were enemies of God, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”-Romans 5:10 We were enemies of God and not at all worthy of Him killing His Son for our salvation “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt” Isaiah 53:10 –ESV Peter reiterates this fact in the book of Acts
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”-Acts 2:22-24-ESV
He chose to redeem us by killing His Son for our redemption, but this is not where it all ends. There is much more to this love that God has shown us.
We were created and wired to glorify God, “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” –Isaiah 43:7-ESV We as people were created to glorify and worship God. By design we are never fully satisfied until we are doing so. St. Augustine actually said, in modern day wording, “You made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in You”. This is where the unrealized beauty of the Gospel kicks in. Not only did Christ die to redeem us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse Himself “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us”-Galatians 3:13-ESV, but through placing our faith and trust in His death burial and resurrection we are now able to glorify God, which brings us the most satisfaction that we could ever have in this life and even more so throughout eternity. “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake.” –I John 2:12-ESV Our sins have been forgiven for “His name’s sake”, or otherwise known as the glory and fame of God. We are now able to glorify and worship God and as true believers we will do so and we will find great satisfaction in doing so.
John continues this thought further not only by showing what great love God shows to His children, but then saying “and so we are”. If you have paid attention to this point you will understand and know that John has laid down a, What it means to be a believer and has given us a few tests to test our lives by so we can “know that we are in the faith”. Those of us that are truly believers John is showing God’s great love toward us. Not only did God show His great love toward us in the sacrifice of His Son for our sins and our being able to enter heaven instead of going to hell, but He also has given our life purpose and meaning that we never could have attained on our own. And all of this because God has adopted us into His family. “he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:5-6 We are adopted into the family. In the Greek it actually is the action of placing someone as a son. We have been given all of these things and we have been given full rights and obligations of being God’s children. We have been placed as Sons and daughters of God and we are treated as sons and daughters. If you are a child of God and you begin to live in disobedience then God will treat you as a son and punish you and bring you back where you are supposed to be. “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives”-Hebrews 12:6-ESV Dictionary.com says that adoption is the act of choosing to take as one’s own. And if God has made you His own son or daughter then He will treat you as a good Father will. He will love you and bring you out of this world, but He will also punish you and make you do the right thing.
“The reason why the world does not know us is because it did not know Him”. The world did not know Jesus while He was on this earth. It was rather unfriendly to Him. When Christ was born there was no room in the inn. When he was growing up He was rejected by His brothers, and when He died He died as a horrible criminal dies. How can we expect for it to go any better for us. We are promised nothing more than suffering on this earth, but after that, in heaven we are promised joy unspeakable. We are adopted into the Family of God, we have been torn out of the clutches of Sonship with Satan and brought into the Sonship of God. And the battle lines are quite obvious because of all the work that God has done in us. We are never going to be at peace with the things of this world.
“Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil; whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” -I John 3:8-10-ESV
Because of this great love that God has shown us “we are God’s children now” through God’s adopting us, and killing His Son for our purchase (Isaiah 53:10). We are no longer “Sons of the Evil One”, but we are now “Children of God” “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.” If God has changed you and made you His then you are a child of His and all of the gifts and mercies that he bestows on His children are His. This should bring great joy to our hearts and awestruck wonder and worship to God that He would save us. That He would kill His Son for our redemption, that He would adopt us and pull us out of the world and the punishment that it will receive, and would give us a purpose in life so that we could find satisfaction and joy in this life and infinitely more so in the next. This should also prod us and move us to greater and greater heights in our journey with God. Knowing these things should push us to wake up in the morning and prepare for battle against the world at whatever the cost.
“But to all who did receive him, who believed his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” -John 1:12-ESV
Dwian Minor