1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word this day that we
observe the Festival of All Saints’ Day is taken specifically from 1 John 3:1-3
and verses 4-10. It’s entitled, “We Are God’s Children,” dear brothers
and sisters in Christ.
2.
In
1 John 3:1-2 the Apostle John says, “1See
what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children
of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did
not know him. 2Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will
be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him,
because we shall see him as he is.” Here
John says that we’re children of God! Amazing! But it wasn't always this way.
When we first entered this world, it was as God’s enemies. God also had other
words to describe our first status—foolish, disobedient, and enslaved. But, now
because of God’s grace given to us in Jesus, our Heavenly Father calls
believers by new names. We’re his
servants, a nation, his royal subjects, priests, saints. But the dearest term
of all is that he calls us his children. God the Father has adopted us into his family
through Holy Baptism. St. Paul writes in Galatians 3:26 that we’re all God’s
children through faith in Jesus, for all who were baptized into Christ have
been clothed with Christ.
3.
To
be called God’s children isn’t a
condescending term. The point isn’t to
make us feel like babies. The point is to make us feel loved and important. God
the Father has obligated himself to do for us what all good fathers do for
their children—provide for our needs, give us protection, and guidance. He
provides us with a sense of being worth something. He’s there for us in
emergencies just as good fathers bail their children out of trouble. When we
need help, when we pray, we don’t have to feel as though we’re talking to a
stranger. We’re talking to our Heavenly Father! We can call on a relationship
that was his doing, his adoption, not ours.
4.
Because
we’re now wearing Christ’s holiness through our baptism, we have eternal life
in us already as God’s children, His saints. We don’t know as yet exactly how
our heavenly bodies will differ from our earthly bodies. But, we can get a
pretty good idea that it’ll be wonderful, because we will be like Jesus.
Imagine that. Jesus loves us so much
that he kept his body even after the resurrection and ascension, just so that he
could remain our human brother forever! Paul says in Philippians 3:21 that by
the power that enables Jesus to bring everything under his control, he will
transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Wow! If
these are the promises waiting for us, why would we go off looking for
something better?
5.
For
now, that father-child relationship isn’t visible to the rest of the world.
Frankly, to the naked eye, we don’t look like heavenly royalty. But even if we
don’t get any respect from the rest of the world, that’s no cause to doubt the
Father’s love—most of the world couldn’t figure out that Jesus was God’s Son
either.
6.
1
John 3:3–10 says, “3And
everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 4Everyone
who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
5You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no
sin. 6No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on
sinning has either seen him or known him. 7Little children, let no
one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is
righteous. 8Whoever 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. 9No 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. 10By 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.”
7.
By
now you’ve seen a pattern: John hates the concept of “cheap grace.” The idea that we can just call on God for
forgiveness and then live any way we please. God’s grace is free, but it’s
expensive. It claimed Christ’s life to give it, and it demands ours as we
receive it. Immediately after comforting us with the message that we’re God’s
children, John challenges us to act like God’s children. There’s a connection
between our justification, God’s “not guilty” verdict, and our sanctification, the
way in which we live our lives for God. With regard to justification, we say, “We can’t.” With regard to
sanctification, we say, “Yes, we can.”
8.
God
the Father has transformed our identity from death row criminals into beloved
children. He anointed us with the Holy Spirit in order to give us saving faith
in Jesus and also to change our lives. This doesn’t mean that we’ll achieve
total purity on this earth. John scolds such thinking in 1 John 1:8: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive
ourselves.” What John means is that Jesus came to destroy sin. He came to
declare war on sin, which in every case is lawlessness against the will of God.
Sin is evil. So people redeemed by Christ, who are now God’s children, hate sin
too. So we declare war on it too as God’s children.
9.
Still
less will we let sin characterize our lives. As we grow in our faith as God’s
children, we grow also in our determination to let go of behaviors that make
God angry. A consequence of the words “I
love God” is “I hate sin.” Proverbs 8:13 says, “To fear the Lord is to
hate evil.” John is straightforward: People who have stopped their struggle
against sin are spiritually dead. True believers may fall into sin, but they
never surrender. True believers may fall into sin, but they repent, welcome
Christ’s forgiveness, and affirm their desire to change.
10.
“Let no one deceive you,” says John. False
teachers working for the devil are tricking Christians into abandoning their
struggle against sin. You must admit that there’s a certain diabolical logic to
that view. If we have forgiveness in
Jesus, if our bodies are going to die anyway, and our true destiny is to live
in heaven, what does it matter if we live in sin right now? Why struggle so
hard for chastity, sobriety, and gentleness when adultery, heavy drinking, and
violence are so much fun? They only seem like fun. Actually, they’re
part of Satan’s rebellion against God. Satan isn’t the jolly king of hell. He’s
the twisted and evil mind behind sin. Whoever is driven by Satan’s evil will
share his fate of being cast into the pit of hell. Who would want that? As Paul
wrote, “We died to sin; how can we live
in it any longer?” We’ve been born of God, says John, we’re God’s children.
God became our Father through our Savior Jesus.
11.
These
issues are urgent today. People bristle at any attempt to steer away from
sinful behavior by misquoting some famous Bible passages: “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone” and “Judge not, lest you be judged.” In order to live out what John is telling
us to be God’s children, it will be necessary for Christians to learn how to
take correction from others. A prideful spirit listens to nobody. When we’re
caught in a sin, God wants to use other Christians to bring us back, but that
can’t happen if we’re too full of ourselves to listen and repent. Proverbs
15:32 says, “He who ignores discipline
despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.” Proverbs
17:10 adds, “A rebuke impresses a man of
discernment more than a hundred lashes a fool.” If someone you know is
caught up in sin, will you speak to that person? And will you let other people
give you that word of correction when you are sinning?
12.
On
this All Saints’ Day the words of the Apostle John cause us to stand in awe of
His great love for us. It’s too
wonderful for us to comprehend. We
praise and thank God our Heavenly Father for making each of us His
children. We pray that the Lord would
strengthen us in the confidence and comfort of knowing that we are His
children. We ask that He would help us
act like the children He has made us through our Lord Jesus and that He would
bless our lives as a witness to the power of His love and grace. Amen.
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