“See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God; and so we are… we are God’s children now.” (I John 3:1-2)
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us” Consider who we were and what we feel ourselves to be even now when corruption is at work within us, and you will wonder at our adoption. Yet we are called God’s children. What a high relationship is that of a son, and what privileges it brings! What care and tenderness the son expects from his father, and what love the father feels toward the son! But all that, and more than that, we now have through Christ.
As for the temporary drawback of suffering with the elder brother, this we accept as an honour: “The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” We are content to be unknown with Him in His humiliation, for we are to be exalted with Him.
“Beloved, we are God’s children now.” That is easy to read, but it is not so easy to feel. How is it with your heart this morning? Are you in the lowest depths of sorrow? Does corruption rise within your spirit, and grace seem like a poor spark trampled underfoot? Does your faith almost fail you? Fear not, it is neither your graces nor feelings on which you are to live: you must live simply by faith in Christ.
With all these things against us, now—in the very depths of our sorrow, wherever we may be—now, as much in the valley as on the mountain, “Beloved, we are God’s children now.” “Ah, but,” you say, “look at my condition! My graces are not bright; my righteousness does not shine with apparent glory.” But read the next: “What we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him.” The Holy Spirit shall purify our minds, and divine power shall refine our bodies, and then we shall see Him as He is.
— adapted from ‘Morning and Evening’ by C. H. Spurgeon