“God is the One who made all things, and all things are for his glory. He wanted to have many children share his glory.”
Hebrews 2:10a (New Century Version)“See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are!”
1 John 3:1 (New Living Translation)
“God’s unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.”
Ephesians 1:5 (New Living Translation)
A good start for Day 15 of The Purpose Driven Life – using translations that emphasise the relationship we have as children of God – not just ‘sons of God’.
We enter the privilege of being in God’s family through faith in Jesus. That invitation is open to everyone. Its a universal invitation that needs a response.
Rick Warren draws our attention to the benefits of being in God’s family:
The family inheritance: being with God forever, being completely changed to be like Christ, being freed from all pain, death and suffering, being rewarded and reassigned positions of service, and sharing in Christ’s glory.
Rick then goes on to remind us that baptism publicly announces our membership of God’s family. He describes the instant baptisms of the Ethiopian eunuch, the 3000 on the day of Pentecost, and the Philippian jailer and his family. In other words, “don’t put it off”. A bit simplistic I think to say baptism must happen immediately. More of this ‘instant obedience’ thing. Though I think people can procrastinate on the baptism issue. But for generations of people rightly sceptical about the number of once-converted now back slidden or ineffective born-agains, baptism is like marriage – not to be entered into lightly.