Sometimes I try to prove that I’m a cool mom by sending memes to my kids. (Anyone else try this?) I recently sent one to my 18-year-old son, who is in his first semester of college. It says that our 7-year-old selves couldn’t wait to be an adult, and then pictures a cat doing all the mundane tasks of adulthood: driving, drinking coffee, brushing its teeth, washing dishes, and so on. It’s true that sometimes adulthood seems overrated.
This month we’re spending three weeks looking at 1 John 3:1. Last week we heard John’s call to stop and pay attention to this saving love that the Father has lavished on us in Christ. Today we keep reading and see that this love causes us to be called children of God. Being God’s child doesn’t provide an escape from the stress of adulthood, but it promises security in the midst of life’s challenges.
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 3:1)
Because of the lavish love of the Father, He united us to His Son, Jesus Christ, and made us His children. The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines adoption as “an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.” That’s amazing news! God brings us into His family and treats us as His children — all by of His grace.
If our adoption is an act of God’s free grace, we can’t earn it, and we can’t lose it. He doesn’t love us as His daughters and sons because we’re lovable, because we’re good children, or because we bring something valuable to the relationship. Adoption is one-sided—a Father welcoming a child and giving the child all the rights and privileges that come with being part of the family. This is the blessing of God’s free grace as He makes us His children because of His love.
No matter what you face this week, you are secure as an adopted child of God.
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