Monday, March 3, 2008

The First Epistle of John: Lesson Twenty-Seven

"For you did not receive


the spirit of bondage again to fear,


but you received the


Spirit of adoption by


whom we cry out


'Abba, Father.'"




Romans 8:15


*********************




Good morning, ladies...let's begin:




"Holy Father God, our Lord and Savior, I come to You today to thank You for all You do for Your children. I praise You for calling us Yours. I thank You for adopting us into Your family and that all the promises are now 'yes' to us in Christ Jesus! Praise to Your holy name.




I see the forgiveness of my sins today in hopes that You will search me and cleanse me this day. Please forgive me and wash me new. I pray that You will fill me with Your Holy Spirit today to overflowing.




I pray for each lady here reading this study. I pray that You will walk with her daily. I pray that You will lift her up and give her strength for each issue she faces. I pray that she will earnestly seek Your face today in prayer and that she will pray without ceasing. Lift her up and carry her when she needs it. Set her feet on firm ground, Lord.




In Jesus' name...amen."




*********************




As we continue to look deeper into the concept of being called Children of God, we will read more about how this adoption had set us apart in Christ Jesus and how John, our author, wants us to remember this as we walk in this perverse generation.




1 John 3:1-3




"Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."




We looked last time at what it means to people to have the presence of a good and loving father in their lives and what consequences there are when people are raised without a loving father.




In Dr. Joel Beeke's book, The Epistles of John, (2006) he looks further into what it means to us as believers, to be called Children of God:




"Believers are not sons of God by nture. We lost the status and privileges of sonship in our tragic fall in Paradise. Adoption is only made possible when God's gracious choice calls us into all the privileges and blessings of being his children." (p.113)




During the time when John wrote this letter, he lived under Roman law and so did the believers he wrote to. Under Roman law, adoption was a legal act by which a man chose someone outside his family to be the heir to his inheritance (The Epistles of John, 2006, p. 113).




John wants his fellow believers to see the parallels between what they knew as law and what Jesus was saying when He walked among them: God the Father has now chosen YOU to be His adopted sons and inherit the kingdom.




Imagine what this meant to these 1st century Jews and Gentiles living under Roman law!




Please read:


Rom 8:15-16


Eph 1:13-14


Gal 5:18


Is 56:5-6


Acts 26:18


Col 1:12





How incredible is that?? To know that now you and I, Gentiles....foreigners....are now joined with God into His family because of His grace, is the greatest peace there is.


********************************


"Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him...."


John reminds his readers, fellow believers, that to know Christ means we will have emnity with the world because they hated Jesus.


Remember that these Gentiles and Jews lived under Roman laws where they could be burned at the stake in the Coliseum for their refusal to worship Caesar as a god. Contrast that to our times where we, in America, can worship whatever we want to worship in freedom, without the threat of violence. But John wants us to remember that our time is coming....the time when all believers will be hated as Jesus was hated:


Please read:


John 15:18-19


John 14:17


1 Cor 2:14


The Spirit of Truth was given to us through Christ. And now we, as Children of God, have this Spirit to discern right from wrong. This is why the world hates us...not for what we do wrong, but for what we do right.


********************


"Beloved now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him...."


The blessings of adoption are what should keep each Christian going especially when times get tough on this earth.


Please read:


Rom 8:18-19 & 23


Paul writes to believers in Rome that he, along with them, may suffer for a time here on earth, but the blessings that await us make suffering worthwhile.


Relationship with God- this blessing is what made the Jewish leaders want to kill Jesus and His followers because they saw that Jesus had a personal relationship with God whom He called, "Abba, Father" and now we can call God the same loving name.


Even if our earthly father is not present in our lives, we have our heavenly Father who will never leave us. We see in the world today that people are constantly searching for security. They try to find it in money, people, and material things, but they come up empty ever time. The world and everything in it is changing constantly. The world teaches evolution to its children. They grow up believing there is no purpose or plan for their lives.


Please read:


Mal 3:6


Matt 7:11


Heb 12:5-11


But our heavenly Father tells us that He is eternal: He will never change. He is a more giving Father than our earthly fathers can ever be and that He has a very special purpose for us so that His chastening is with a purpose: to yield peaceable fruit of righteousness...to be more like Jesus.


Relationship to the world- now that we have become children of God, we are set apart from the world. We receive the deliverance from the world and all that is in it. We have received the great blessings of deliverance in Christ (The Epistles of John, 2006, p. 117). But now the world hates us because we are no longer in the darkness, but are in the light:

John 15:18-25

Ps 35:19-21

John 17:8-10

This is why the people of the world have no hope. They are left in darkness and despise the light because it reveals their actions:

John 3:19-21

Our relationship with the future- we who have been saved now have the hope of the future. We will receive a glorious inheritance! We will see the new creation before our very eyes. The world, still in darkness, has nothing but fear for the future. They see it being destroyed by Global Warming or by humanity. They try in vain to stop this destruction through.....buying a new light bulb!

What futility is this!

Contrast this futility with the hope that resides within every believer: that we shall see Jesus as He really is and we shall be like Him!

1 Cor 2:9-10

Rom 5:5

Rom 8:29

Ps 16:11

Paul tells us in Romans that the whole creation awaits the day when Christ is revealed so that the new creation will begin. What a future for us!!

Our relationship with ourselves & believers- Because Jesus is constantly working on us to perfect us, our relationship with ourselves is being purified. The world tells us that life will be good is we just learn to "love ourselves" after all it is the "greatest love of all" according to the world. But I see a lot of people in this world loving themselves to death. I see them miserably searching for love that leaves them empty.

"And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."

John writes to us that if we have this hope in Jesus....the hope of one day seeing Him as He is.....then we purify ourselves.

Col 3:12-17

Whatever we do...do it all for the glory of God. We are commanded to purify ourselves by reading God's word and what we do with our minds, bodies, tongues, etc. on a daily basis.

Rom 12:2

Purifying ourselves means loving all that God loves and hating all that God hates (The Epistles of John, 2006, p. 119). This comes through reading God's word daily so we can know what He loves and what He hates. Christians have a new relationship with themselves in that we are constantly searching the scriptures for ways to be pure: to be set apart from the world and in line with God's will for our lives.

If we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, then the final blessing of adoption comes into place: our relationship with fellow believers. If we are purifying ourselves and having a godly attitude, then our relationship with believers is greatly affected. Communion of the saints is what the church should be:

Phil 2:2-4

Being like minded means having the same beliefs and the same goal: to be like Christ.

***********************

Whew! we looked at a lot today and we only touched the surface of what it means to be called Children of God. There is so much more we could look at ,but I feel it is time we move on to the next verses in 1 John 3. I pray that you have learned more about the Lord in these last few lessons. I pray that you have seen more of His attributes. I know John was inspired to write these verses to give his fellow believers hope. I pray the Lord has given you hope today.

******************************

Life Application

Life lessons are hard to come by. Death is one lesson of life that we all will learn. This past weekend my son learned about death when he saw his beloved dog die. He saw how quickly death can happen and how helpless we are to stop it.

But most of all, he saw the sovereigntly of the God who truly loves him. His father and I saw a lesson of God's love that we can teach Nathan: how being a child of God means you are always taken care of and watched over.

The blessings of adoption into God's family are endless, but we looked at a few today. Our relationship with God is forever changed when He calls us into His family.

He will forever meet our needs and watch over us. Nathan saw that this weekend when we noticed how God made sure all of us were home together when our dog became ill. He made sure Nathan had his dad with him to comfort him while his dog died. And the Lord gave Nathan a home where he can cry without shame or ridicule.

I learned more about how much the Lord loves us by watching this weekend's events. There is comfort in the blessings of adoption into God's family. John was wise to remind his readers of these blessings and the hope that awaits us. It brings comfort to those who have experienced loss.

**********************

Until next time....

"God is not concerned with our plans; He does not say- Do you want to go through this bereavement; this upset? He allows these things for His own purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, nobler men and women; or they are making us more captious and fault-finding, more insistent upon our own way. The things that happen either make us fiends, or they make us saints; it depends entirely upon the relationship we are in to God. If we say- 'Thy will be done,' we get the consolation of John 17, the consolation of knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom....Jesus has prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far off it, and yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him, because Jesus has prayed that we may be."

-Oswald Chambers 1874-1917 (My Utmost for His Highest, 1935, May 22 devotional)

Blessings,

Ruth










No comments: