The Children of God
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we will see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth Himself, even as He is pure.” I John 3:1-3
I don’t think believers fully understand what it means to be children of God. When scripture refers to man, men, or sons, it denotes both men and women, boy and girls, unless it is specific to a certain man or men. John’s readers, as we also, needed to be reminded of the precious privilege of being able to be called sons and daughters of God. Believers are the children of God, adopted by Him. When humans adopt a child, he or she first becomes a bonafide child of those parents and by virtue of that adoption, he or she becomes the brother or sister of any other children of those parents. In somewhat of a contrast, when one repents of sin and believes on Christ, he or she becomes the brother or sister of Christ and then, because of Christ’s sacrifice, he or she is adopted by God into His family becoming His child. This is because, first, how much God loves His Son, and, secondly how much He loves people.
Many people without a firm knowledge of the way of salvation believe that all people are the children of God, but only those who have repented of sin, come to faith in Christ, and are committed to Him are God’s children. That is the only way whereby people can become children of God. Because of Adam’s and Eve’s sin of disobedience, all people are born with a sin nature which separates them from their Creator God, but God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the ultimate penalty for sin, thereby making Jesus the only way to be reconciled to the Father (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). Many assume that they are children of God, but they really don’t understand what it means to be His child, thus they don’t really know God for to really know Him is to know what is required to be His child. They don’t realize that their sin has broken their relationship with their Creator. They may not understand why they don’t have the joy that they see in those who really do know Christ. The unbelieving world walks by sight, not by the light of Christ. They can’t be privy to the knowledge, enlightenment, privileges, and hope that true believers possess by virtue of their relationship to Christ and to the Father. Matthew Henry wrote, “Let the followers of Christ be content with hard fare here, since they are in a land of strangers, among those who little know them, and their Lord was so treated before them”.
No one on this earth knows what heaven will be like, what our bodies will be like, and how life will be. We have clues from scripture. Romans 8:18 tells us that what we suffer on earth is nothing when compared to the glories of heaven. We know that there will be lots of praise and worship of the Lord, and that there will be no sin, pain, suffering, evil, or death (Revelation 21:4). We live in such a world of sin and suffering, that it is difficult to imagine a place of perfect joy and peace. We also don’t know what Jesus looks like physically except for nail scars in His hands and feet and a big scar in His side. We know that He was born into a Jewish family, thus He likely had light brown skin, brown eyes, and brown or black hair, but that is only speculation. I guess we will find out when we get there. We do know, though, what He looked like on the inside. Besides having human organs like us, we know that He was a Person of love, purity, compassion, and obedience to His Father. When Isaiah described Jesus as the suffering Savior over 750 years before Jesus’ appearance on earth, he wrote that Jesus would not attract people by His appearance, and that He would be rejected by His own people (Isaiah 53:2-4).
However, Jesus will look a lot different when He returns to earth to claim His church and banish evil. Scripture tells us that every eye will see Him (Revelation 1:7), but not everyone will see Him the same way. Those who have rejected Him will wail because they will see Him as Judge and Jury. They will finally wake up to the realization that what others had tried to tell them about their lost condition and the way of salvation will become crystal clear to them. I can’t even imagine the fear and torment that they will experience. Revelation 6:16 tells us that they will beg the mountains and rocks to fall on them so that they don’t have to face the Lord. However, those who know Him as Lord and Savior will see Jesus Christ as the most beautiful Person that they have ever seen. They will rejoice because they will also see Him as the Brother who has come to rescue them. Like His body, they, too, will have glorious bodies designed to live eternally with Him. Their minds will be free of worry, and their bodies will be free of sin.
It behooves every born-again believer to try and emulate Christ as much as possible while still living on this earth. We can’t be sinless for He is the only One who walked on this earth completely sinless and pure, but we can’t use our inherent sin nature as an excuse to not strive for purity. Our hope is in Christ and to live any other way other than to strive for excellence as we walk by His side is a contradiction of the hope we claim to have. We can’t be as pure as Christ on this side of heaven, but we can be as pure as we want to be, humanly speaking. The Holy Spirit will help us if we listen to Him and follow His lead.