Thread: "See 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" (1 John 3:1).
"See 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" (1 John 3:1).
Posted : 13 Sep, 2011 06:36 AM
Devotional
It is not strange that the fact of his adoption should meet with much misgiving in the Christian's mind. Why not? It is a truth so spiritual; it flows from a source so concealed; and it has its seat in the profound recesses of the soul. The very stupendousness of the relationship staggers our belief.
To be fully assured of our divine adoption demands other than the testimony either of our own feelings, or the opinion of others. Our feelings�sometimes excited and visionary�may mislead us. The opinion of others�often fond and partial�may deceive us. The grand, the divine, and only safe testimony is "the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Rom. 8:16).
There exists a strong combination of evil, tending to shake any Christian's confidence in the belief of his sonship.
Satan is ever on the watch to insinuate the doubt. It was his tactic with our Lord himself: "If you are the Son of God..." (Matt. 4:6). It would not appear that he ever actually denied the truth of Christ's Divine Sonship. The utmost that his temerity permitted was to suggest a doubt to the mind, leaving it there to its own working. If our blessed Lord was thus assailed, then it is no marvel that his disciples should be exposed to a like assault.
The world, too, presumes to call it in question. "The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him" (1 John 3:1). Ignorant of the Divine Original, how can it recognize the Divine features in the faint and imperfect copy? It has no vocabulary by which it can decipher the "new name written in the white stone" (Rev. 2:17). The sons of God are in the midst of "a crooked and twisted generation" (Phil. 2:17), illumining it with their light, and preserving it by their grace, yet disguised from its knowledge, and hidden from its view.
But the strongest doubts touching the validity of his adoption are those engendered in the believer's own mind. Oh! There is much there to generate and foster the painful misgiving. We have said that the very greatness of the favor, the stupendousness of the relationship, startles the mind and staggers our faith. "What! To be a child of God! To have God as my Father! Can I be the subject of a change so great, of a relationship so exalted? Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you should exalt me to be a King's son? Is this the way of men, O Lord God?" And then, there crowd upon the believer's mind thoughts of his own sinfulness and unworthiness of so distinguished a blessing. "How can it be�with such a depravity of heart, such carnality of mind, such rebellion of will, such a propensity to evil each moment, and in everything such backslidings and flaws, does there yet exist within me a nature that links me with the Divine? It seems impossible!"
And when to all this are added the varied dispensations of his Heavenly Father, often wearing a rough garb, assuming a somber, threatening, and crushing expression�oh, it is no marvel that, staggered by so severe a discipline, the fact of God's love to him, and of his close and tender relation to God, should sometimes be a matter of painful doubt. It is no wonder that thus he should reason�"If I am his child, reposing in his heart, and sealed upon his arm, why is it thus? Would he not have spared me this heavy stroke? Would not this cup have passed my lips? Would he really have asked me to slay my Isaac? Would he really have asked me to let go of my Benjamin? All these things are against me."
Be alert, O redeemed child of God. In ways like these, you will constantly be tempted to question the fact of your adoption.
