Child of God

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!"
-1 John 3:1

I think that verse from 1 John is one of the most wonderful statements in the entire Bible. We are children of God! It's actually a pretty common description of our relation to God that we find in Scripture. God is our Father, and we are his sons and daughters. Over the past week or so, I have been thinking about all of the various implications of this truth.

When approaching this topic, it's sadly necessary to point out that a lot of people have major problems with the idea of God being their father because they then view God in light of their own biological father, who may not be a good person at all. But thankfully, the fatherhood of good isn't based on the crappy fathers that exist in the world. God is what a father should be. A lot of fathers come nowhere near this, but this doesn't diminish the wonderful truth of the kind of father God is and what it means for us to be his children. So here's a few ideas that are associated with our identity as sons and daughters of God:

God's love for us isn't based on what we do or don't do
A child shouldn't have to earn his father's love, and thankfully, we don't have to try to earn God's love. In fact, it is impossible for us to earn God's love. Nothing we do or fail to do merits God's favor. But he loves us in spite of the things we do. Our sin doesn't disqualify us from God's love. That's what it's like in a strong parent-child relationship. A child might spit in his dad's face and do anything he can against him, but the father still love him because he is his son. It's like the the father in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. The son takes a good chunk of his father's money and quickly loses it in what the Bible delicately calls "wild living." When the son comes back, dirty and ashamed, the father rushes out to him, wraps his arms around him, and throws a party because his lost son had come home. The disrespect the son had shown the father didn't affect the father's love. How liberating it is to know that we don't have to earn spiritual merit badges to get our heavenly father to care for us.

God's love doesn't stop
At no point does a good father stop and say, "You know what? I used to really love my child, but I think I'm over that." A father's love lasts forever, regardless of what happens. There isn't an expiration date on his love. That's how it is with God's love for us too. There is nothing that can stop God from loving us. Even if we don't care about his love, he continues to love. Even though the world is a big crazy place and he might have a lot of crises on his plate, he loves us. Paul famously writes in Romans 8:38-39 that "neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Nothing can come between the Father's love for us. It reminds me of the movie Taken and how the Father never stopped searching for his daughter, regardless of who or what got in his way. Getting between that father and his daughter was a dangerous place to be. Satan may try to separate us from God's love. But I don't think it'll work out too well for him either.

God doesn't guilt-trip us
When a good father looks at his child, he doesn't immediately think about all of the way that child has disappointed him. A father forgives, and then that is the end of the matter. He doesn't say, "Now Billy, remember how you took those cookies from the cookie jar and then lied about it four months ago? Don't you still feel bad about that?" And yet, some people think that's exactly what God does. They think that God is always there to remind us of the ways we have messed up, and this live with an unbearable sense of guilt, even though God has forgiven them. But I don't think that's God's voice pouring guilt into their ears. It's Satan, the accuser. As children of God, we can live free from guilt because Jesus Christ has already paid our penalty. Romans 8:1 says that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." God has removed our guilt, so that now there is no one there to accuse and condemn us (Rom. 8:33-34).

We have an inheritance
Galatians 4 has a lot of incredible material about what it means to be a child of God, and one of the points that it brings out is that children receive an inheritance. In this chapter, Paul contrasts children with slaves. In Christ, we are no longer slaves, but are rather made sons and daughters of God, and he writes in Galatians 4:7, "So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir." Later in the chapter, he uses an allegory that considers the son of Hagar (a slave) and Sarah (a child of promise). Verse 30 says that "the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." As God's children, we look forward to "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--dept in heaven for you" (1 Pet. 1:4; cf. Matt. 25:34). Our Father won't leave us out in the cold. And that's something to get pretty dang excited about, I think.

We can approach God without fear
A child should have no qualm about coming to his father about anything. There is an intimacy between father and child, and Scripture tells us that, because of Christ, we have that same kind of intimacy with God. Galatians 4:6 says, "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father.'" We can come to him with any problem at any time, and he welcomes us with open arms. A child doesn't have to go to a "professional" to take a request to his father for him. He doesn't have to go through a mediator. An amazing truth is that God wants us to come to him. He is always ready to hear us. He wants us to communicate with him freely and openly. Hebrews 4:16 says we can "approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." The creator of the universe is also our loving Father. Sweet.

We should begin to look something like God
Before you come to apartment and drag me out so that you can take me to the street corner and denounce me as a heretic, let me make it clear that I'm not saying that we become gods or anything like that. But as God's children, we should begin to resemble him in some ways. We use phrases such as "Like father like son" and "A chip off the ol' block" to talk about how children resemble their parents. For an example, here's a picture of my dad and me. As I have gotten older (and decided to also grow a goatee), a lot of people say that we look alike. (Which I take to mean that we both look freakin' good in a tux.) When people look at me, they can see something of my father in me. And as Christians, when the world looks at us, they should see something of God in us. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48; cf. 1 Pet. 1:15-16). As God's Spirit works in us to sanctify us, we are molded and shaped so that we reflect the holy character of God.

What are other implications of being a son or daughter of God? What benefit of being God's child are you most grateful for or astounded by?

On a final note, if you have some time check out the story that ESPN's Outside the Lines did about Joplin here, and continue to pray for Joplin. I love that city.