December 23
December 23
How do you describe your life as a child of God?
I have been driving cars with internal combustion engines for about five decades. I know how to start a car to get the engine running. I know how to put my car in gear and how to make it move forward. I know that, somewhere inside the engine, gas explosions somehow drive the pistons, and somehow that power gets transferred to the wheels of my vehicle. I have just written my way to the end of my knowledge of the internal combustion engine. I’m embarrassed to admit that I know very little about the engines that have been under the hood of all the cars I have owned. If you asked me to provide a detailed description of the structure and functioning of the engine of my car, I could not do it. And when something under the hood breaks, I have no ability to diagnose or fix what is broken. My car knowledge is limited.
I’m afraid that many believers have limited knowledge about the faith they profess. They know that they are the children of God. They know that their sins have been forgiven. They know that they should obey God’s commands. They know that they have been given a place in eternity with their Savior. But for many believers that seems to be the extent of their knowledge. They don’t know that the gospel they believe should radically reshape everything in their lives. It should be the foundational source of their identity, the lens by which they interpret everything, and the message that shapes how they live. How would you describe your life as a child of God? Consider John’s description:
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John. 1:5–10)
Being a Christian means that you now live in fellowship with God. It means that you are committed to walking in the light, acknowledging and confessing your sin, and embracing God’s faithful forgiveness and ongoing cleansing. It means that you share fellowship with others who have been blessed with these graces. Light, confession, forgiveness, cleansing, fellowship, and truth are words that must mark the life to which we have been called.