#DailyDevotion We Are Children Of God By God’s Hand

February 4th

Read John 1:1–18

Joh 1:9-14  The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.  (10)  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.  (11)  He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.  (12)  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,  (13)  who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.  (14)  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 gives us a brief history of the incarnation of the Word or Son of God and his work and reception that will be fleshed out in the rest of his gospel.  It is a great and marvelous thing that the Creator of the cosmos would enter into the cosmos and become part of it.  In fact he became man.  He became flesh and dwelt among us.  John, James and Peter saw his glory on the mount of transfiguration.  They saw the divinity of the One they ate, drank, slept and traveled with. We see in this gospel the Jews as a whole and in particularly the Jewish leadership rejected Jesus as their messiah, the Son of God and the son of David.

 

We have a great promise to us who will receive this gospel of John and believe and trust in its proclamation.  Some try to pervert verse 12 into some sort of prequalification of the gospel but it is nothing of the sort as seen by verse 13 but let us not be taken off track but those who abuse God’s Word.  We are offered this free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.  We made a promise of light, life and salvation through Jesus and his Word.  It is offered freely to us.  It is delivered to us through those who already follow and believe in Jesus.  There is nothing left to do but to receive (which is a passive verb my nature) and believe (the response of having received this great gift).  He gives us the right to become children of God.

 

Now a child has to be born.  But God’s children are not born in the natural way nor by human agency.  We aren’t children of God by blood—we’re not born Christians of Christian parents.  We aren’t children of God by our will (it isn’t our decision which brings it about or causes it).  We are children of God by God’s hand.  How does that happen?  Jesus tells us in chapter 3.  We are born of God in the waters of baptism where the water and the Spirit (Word Eph. 5:26) overflow us and cause us to believe in the name of Jesus whose name we are baptized into.

 

Only those who would reject the gift of God would want to make this out to nothing more than human obedience.  It is the exact opposite.  It is the Father’s means of making children for His kingdom.  Anyone who wishes to reject it is free to reject their calling as God’s children as well.  It’s like little children saying to their parents—“I didn’t ask to be born of you!”  But in God’s baptism he makes you his child whether you like it or not.  Don’t be a brat.  Receive the gift of salvation with joy and thanksgiving and praise God for his great working in you through these humble means.

Lord Jesus Christ, ever give us faith to believe in the great and wonderful promises made to us in baptism, that we might live our lives even now as children of the Heavenly Father. Amen.