“It is through faith that all of you are God's children in union with Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26)
It must be made perfectly clear that faith in Jesus makes us the children of God. “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat loveth Him also that is begotten of Him.” (1John 5:1 KJV) It is believing that Jesus is Who He said He is; the Son of God incarnate. “This is how you will be able to know whether it is God's Spirit: anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came as a human being has the Spirit who comes from God.” (1John 4:2) It is believing that Jesus rose from the dead glorified and ascended back to the Father. “I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures; that He was buried and that He was raised to life three days later, as written in the Scriptures; that He appeared to Peter and then to all twelve apostles. Then He appeared to more than five hundred of His followers at once, most of whom are still alive, although some have died. Then he appeared to James, and afterward to all the apostles.” (1Corintians 15:3-7) It is believing that He sits at the right hand of the Father. “You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on His throne at the right side of God.” (Colossians 3:1) It is believing that in His sacrifice of death on the cross, He conquered death. “He saved us and called us to be His own people, not because of what we have done, but because of His own purpose and grace. He gave us this grace by means of Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but now it has been revealed to us through the coming of our Savior, Christ Jesus. He has ended the power of death and through the gospel has revealed immortal life.” (2Timothy 1:9-10) It is believing that His Precious shed blood cleanses us from all our transgressions and iniquities. “But if we live in the light—just as He is in the light—then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from every sin.” (1John 1:7) It is believing that our old sinful nature has been put to death at the cross and have been reborn a new person with a new nature, a divine nature, a sinless nature, a pure nature born of God. “And we know that our old being has been put to death with Christ on His cross, in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin.” (Romans 6:6) This is what it means to be a child of God. This is what it means to inherit with Jesus. “Since we are His children, we will possess the blessings He keeps for His people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for Him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share His glory.” (Romans 8:17) This is what it means to be saved. It is only by faith in Jesus and not by any other means. “Jesus answered him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by Me.” (John 14:6)
To be a child of God means we cannot worship or be devoted to anyone or anything else. To do so is idolatry. The worse idol is ourselves, the “me,” the “I,” the ego that thinks he does well without the Lord. We have not done well on our own. And we cannot do well without the Lord. “Don't do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. And look out for one another's interests, not just for your own. The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had: He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force He should try to remain equal with God. Instead of this, of His own free will He gave up all He had and took the nature of a servant. He became like a human being and appeared in human likeness. He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death—His death on the cross.” (Philippians 2:3-8) And so, we must put to death our self-desires, aspirations and dreams to follow Jesus Who will give us much more than we ever thought. “And He said to them all, "If you want to come with Me, you must forget yourself, take up your cross every day, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) Notice that the Scripture says every day. Why do you think it says every day? It’s because every morning, we wake up and think about what we want to do instead of asking the Lord what He wants us to do.
“How extreme!” you may say. In this modern age it is very extreme. But you don’t have to join a monastery or some monk sect to live for Christ. It is a daily and constant choice to follow what God wants. For instance: Do I watch TV for an hour or pray, or read the Bible? Another instance: Do I let that offense slide and forgive or do I give back just as hard? Every moment is a choice. We may not succeed all the time, but God looks at our hearts. He knows our weaknesses. “Let us, then, hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we have a great High Priest who has gone into the very presence of God—Jesus, the Son of God. Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are but did not sin.” (Hebrews 4:14-15) As our High Priest Jesus intercedes for us.
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