Mutually Exclusive Goals
There are a couple of reasons that John 1:12 is my favorite passage of the bible. “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God”. The first is the use of the future tense “to become”, indicating that we don’t start out that way. The second is the very practical concept of truly becoming “children of God”. The envisioning capability of my mind, can’t see that passage referring to us as independent adults. It doesn’t say God’s children, which would be the more earthly phraseology. The very concept of becoming and remaining children of God, constitutes an eternal dependence on our heavenly Father. We depend on others until adulthood, while children of God depend on the Lord eternally. We will never grow up equal to or past our heavenly Father. The circle of life that we’ve come to understand is a reference to our earthly existence. In this life we move from dependent, to dependable and often back to dependent and our children continue this brief evolutionary cycle. Independence has taken over as the most sought after goal of our youth, leading us away from, rather than toward God. Our current goal is to become the master of our own lives. God’s goal for us has been to become master’s of the rest of this world that he created for us, earth, sea and sky, while becoming and eternally remaining his precious children. We were not created to be His equal or to eventually succeed Him, the mistaken conclusion that Lucifer arrived at. By seeking mastery over our own lives, we’ve unconsciously obsoleted God. In truth, the only human to ever accomplish that end, never intended to. Jesus, through pleasing obedience to the Father, earned that status, used it to redeem and save us and then gave all the credit to the Father.
In order for us to become children of God, it is necessary for us to understand the role that we were created to play. A role, which when played out successfully here, will be magnified exponentially in God’s kingdom. As disciples and designated high priests of the Lord Jesus, whom we’ve accepted and believe in, we must voluntarily submit to His will. It’s a choice that we must make. Master of our own lives or children of God? It’s important here to distinguish between the delusion of being our own master and the reality of everything which remains outside of our realm of control. What we desire and accomplish with this goal are mutually exclusive outcomes. Life itself is totally in God’s hands and totally out of ours.
JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE
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