children of God

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

God created people so that they would be His people. He has always wanted humans to reflect Him, to be like Him, to be His children. This is why Adam and Eve were created “in the image of God”. This is why God promised Abraham that He would make of him a great nation with a people more numerous than the sands of the seashore. This is why God called Israel to be a kingdom of priests to represent Him to the world. Yet in the case of Adam, of Abraham, and of Israel, human failure via sin tarnished this plan for people to be image bearers of God in the world. Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Abraham tried to create his own way to have a son, and even laughed when God finally revealed that barren Sarah would have a son. And Israel constantly struggled with idolatry throughout the Old Testament, eventually going into exile for their refusal to live as God’s covenant people.

But Jesus came to change all that. He is the image of the invisible God. He is the second Adam. He fulfilled the Law. And He gave His life a ransom for many so that God could truly bring together a family of people who represent Him. Through the gospel, we can be redeemed, changed, and enabled to live like we bear the image of God. We can be the children of God.

Yet as God’s children, we are no longer like the world around us. And that means that in some ways the new way we reflect God seems strange to those who do no know Him. We will be in this world, but not like it. We will reflect God’s image to draw people to God. We will live like His children. And this is the love God has given us, to be called His children and to live like it so that others might also come to Him.