I’M REJOICING BECAUSE I’M GOD’S BOY

This past week, I had the honor and privilege to conduct the wedding ceremony for our Youth Pastor and his beautiful bride (both of which have had a huge impact on our church family).  Part of the ceremony was the Unity Cross, where they literally “tied the knot.”  The verse I used for this portion of the ceremony was Ecclesiastes 4:12, “And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” I have been chewing on that verse ever since.

There are basically three ways that you can get into a family.  First, you can be born into a family, which means your birth secured you a position.  Second, you can be adopted into a family, which means you legally secured a position.  The third way is to marry into the family, which means you have secured a position by love.

I am sitting in my study, rejoicing over the fact that I have become a “Son of God” by all three means.  The Holy Spirit has secured us a place in the family by birth, the Father has secured us a place by adopting us, and Jesus Christ brought us into the family by marriage – we are the Bride of Christ!  Now I understand why the writer of Ecclesiastes said, “A threefold cord is not quickly broken.” So, if you will indulge me for just a few minutes, let’s just “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God” (I John 3:1).

John begins by saying “Behold.”  He is not trying to explain this verse to us, he is simply trying to get you and I to see it, to look at at it, to behold it, to wonder at at.  “What manner of love.”   God’s love for you and I is great in both quantity and quality.  To think that he knew and loved you even before you were born, and that he had (and has) a plan and a purpose for your life, knowing that our lives would not always be what He intended – now that is love.  And God has enough of that love for every one of us.  It is the greatest love that we will ever know.  “The Father hath bestowed upon us.”  Can I tell you something?  No matter how good we think we are, or how much better than other people we think we are – not a single one of us deserves God’s love.  We don’t deserve it, we can’t earn it, we can’t buy it, we had no claim to it, yet, He bestowed us upon us.  “That we should be called the sons of God.”  Aren’t you glad that God didn’t say “The sons of Joe Moore,” but “the sons of God.”  Through our faith in Jesus Christ and His free pardon of sin, we have become “the sons of God.”  `

Do you know what Abel (who offered a more excellent sacrifice), and Enoch (who walked with God), and Abraham (the friend of God), and Issac (obedient unto death), and Jacob (the trickster who wrestled with God), Moses (the kinsman redeemer), Daniel (the greatly beloved, John the Baptist (the greatest man born of woman) and the Apostle Paul (who fought a good fight) all had in common?  They were the “sons of God.”  And John tells us that if they could become the “sons of God,” then you and I can become the “sons of God.”

Can you imagine when we get to Heaven, and see all those great saints of God that have gone on before, and then you and I are paraded by the reviewing stand of the Master of Ceremonies, the Prince of Peace, the King of King and Lord of Lords?  Heaven will erupt in applause as the redeemed of the Lord come marching in and the heralding angels will proclaim “These are the sons of God!  These are the joint-heirs to the throne who will sit with Him in the heavenlies – throughout the ages – world without end.  Amen!”  Why?  Because of the love God has bestowed upon us!

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.”  As the old song says, “I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God.”