Dare To Live As A Chosen Child Of God Series

We continue in our series Dare to be Different and this month our focus is different family.

Its been a while but I want to start with a couple of questions:

Do you know who you are?

Do others know who you are?

Maybe the questions seems a little odd... I mean each of us knows who we are don’t we?

We know our own name, we know where we live, we know what we like, what we dislike, what motivates us, what switches us off. We know what makes us happy and what makes us sad.

Looking around the room each of us knows other people and maybe something about them.

Do you know who you are?

Do others know who you are?

If you are in Christ, if you have repented and accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour then the Bible is clear about who you are. You are a Chosen Child of God.

1 JOHN 3:1-2, ‘How great the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.’

We are children of God!

We are made children of God through a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ as our Saviour.

In Christ and Christ alone we ransomed, healed, restored and forgiven.

Jesus has paid the price to restore our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:14-18, For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:14-18)

Before we are saved by Jesus, all of us are sinners.

We are born into an imperfect world.

A world damaged by rebellion against God. A fallen world.

All of us were born with sin inherited from Adam and Eve.

Sin is described in the Bible as transgression of the law of God (1 John 3:4) and rebellion against God (Deuteronomy 9:7; Joshua 1:18).

Genesis 3 describes Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God and His command. Because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, sin has been an “inheritance” for all of their descendants, all of humanity.

Romans 5:12 tells us, When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

This passed-on sin is known as inherited sin. Just as we inherit physical characteristics from our parents, we inherit our sinful nature from Adam.

The book of Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve were made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27; 9:6). Genesis 5:3 tells us, When Adam was 130 years old, he became the father of a son who was just like him—in his very image. He named his son Seth.

Each of us has the image, the likeness of Adam. When Adam fell into sin, the result was every one of his descendants also being “infected” with sin. King David lamented this fact in one of his Psalms, in Psalm 51:5 he wrote, For I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

David’s mother had inherited a sinful nature from her parents, and they from their parents, and so on.

David inherited sin from his parents, just as we all do.

Even if we live the best life possible, we in our natural state are still sinners as a result of our inherited sin.

Being born sinners results in the fact that we all sin.

Notice the progression in Romans 5:12: sin entered the world through Adam, death follows sin, death comes to all people, all people sin because they inherit sin from Adam. Because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), we need a perfect, sinless sacrifice to wash away our sin, something we are powerless to do on our own.

Thankfully, Jesus Christ is the Saviour from sin! Our sin has been crucified on the cross of Jesus, and now “in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

God, in His infinite wisdom, has provided the remedy for the sin we inherit, and that remedy is available to everyone who comes to Jesus. Through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is possible for all who believe and trust in Him.