“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 1 John 3:1
December 5, 2022
Movies that seek to hide the real identity of the hero depend on imagination not reality. Spider-Man is the alias of Peter Parker, an orphan raised by an aunt and uncle in New York City. We are expected to go along with the inability of those in the movie to know Spider-Man’s real identity. Back to reality. If you are a Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ, the nature of your true identity is not known to unbelievers. The world of non-Christians does not know that God has an investment in us in the person of Jesus Christ. The new birth is a reality, no mere title. It is a fact that because of the love of God, new life in Christ has been made possible. If you want a non-believer’s eyes to glaze over, try to explain the astonishing nature of God’s love as seen in the reality of the new birth. Do not be discouraged by this, but rather delight in the fact that we are God’s children, not by some act of our own, but by a secret act of God in which He imparts new spiritual life to us. We call this regeneration. Aliens in this world. That’s what we are. The world tries to use conceptual boxes in order to explain Christians by describing them as having “gotten religion,” or “having turned over a new leaf,” or putting us in a political category like “the religious right.” Hollywood does not know what to do with the gospel and being born again. This is not to make us smug and self-righteous. It is a humbling reality God’s infinite love has made it possible to be called His child.
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“I praise you, Father, that you have loved me, received me, purchased, washed, favored, clothed, adorned me when I was vile, soiled, and polluted.” An adaptation from a prayer in The Valley of Vision.