The Family of God – March 7, 2019

“A voice came from the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.’”
Luke 9:35

The Family of God

What would it be like to be the child of someone powerful, rich, or famous? Could there be some advantages if you had been born into, say, the Kennedy or Bush families? What if one of your parents was Bill Gates, Lebron James, or Christian Yelich? Being born into a situation like that would bring certain advantages.

What would it be like to be the Son of God? That’s one we can’t even imagine! Jesus is so, so different from us. He is almighty, we are weak. He is eternal, we are mortal. He rules the universe, we have a hard time ruling our own thoughts or emotions. Perhaps the worst difference is that he is perfect, while we are sinful. Those sins mean we deserve to have God say to us, “I never knew you. Depart from me.”

But why did Jesus, God’s Son, come to this earth? He didn’t come to rub the difference in our faces. Rather, he came so that he could repair our relationship with God. Jesus came to this earth to live a perfect life and to die a perfect death for us—to win forgiveness and eternal life for us.

And, he accomplished his goals! He lived, died, and rose from the dead! Salvation has been won!

And God loves to give his salvation away, to sinners like you and me. One way he does this is through Holy Baptism. When a person is baptized, they are baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To put it differently, God puts his name on that person. They are now “Tom, God’s-Son,” “Beth, God’s-daughter,” because they are now part of God’s family.

Every believer in Christ is part of the most important family ever—the family of God—and can know that, “I am God’s beloved child, too!”

Prayer:
O Father, assure me that I am your child today, tomorrow, and that I will be for all eternity. Amen.