Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. 1 John 5:1
"God has no grandchildren, only children." Think about that quote for a moment.
Moses was willing to make the Children of Israel God's "grandchildren" by taking the punishment for their sins on himself. But God said no -- "Whoever has sinned against Me I will blot out of My book" (Exodus 32:33).
The religious leaders of Jesus' time thought they had a special "in" to heaven because they were Abraham's "grandchildren." Jesus let them know that their ancestry made no difference to Him.
No matter if we come from a long line of churchgoers, no matter if our grandparents were charter members and a stained-glass window in the church bears our family name, no matter if our relatives are missionaries and preachers -- we have to believe in Jesus as our Savior ourselves to have peace with God. Nor can we believe for our children, and that lesson may be harder to learn. God has no grandchildren!
That puts the relationship between God me where it belongs: between the two of us -- person to person. Jesus takes away my sins. It is through God's grace and the faith given to me in my Baptism that I am saved -- no one else gets in between. I am God's child -- intimately, directly.
PRAYER: God, You are my Father. You have made me Your child. Your steadfast love keeps me forever. Keep me strong in You; for Jesus' sake. Amen.
(Devotions from "The Abundant Life" copyright 1998, CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time e-mailing of this link to a friend. For information on other devotional material, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit CPH at www.cph.org.)
Today's Bible Readings: 1 Chronicles 28-29 1 Corinthians 15:29-58
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