We are children of God

[AI translation] In this passage from the Apostle Paul's letter, which we have just read, one cannot help but wonder what man can become through Jesus Christ! Yes: the man who, in spite of all his efforts for good in himself, can only say, "O wretched man!" The man who, without Christ, always feels in himself only the dreadful pull of sin, is incapable of good, even if he wants it! He in whose members a terrible law of heaviness, the law of sin, reigns, and carries him, drives him, wherever he does not want to go. But all at once everything is changed, as soon as this "oh wretched man" becomes a child of God through Christ! Almost with an overflowing, triumphant joy, the apostle proclaims, evidently from the miracle he has experienced in his own life, "We are children of God!"(Rom 8,16b) The same man who, looking at himself, can only say, "O wretched man!" now looks at Christ and exults, "We are children of God!" Yes, we, the "oh but miserable people" - yet we are children of God, we can be children of God! Let us dwell for a few moments on this sadly all too familiar phrase: child of God! The Apostle Paul was a man, a man of our nature. He was not an Übermensch, a superhuman being, he was not holy in the sense of being free from sin: he was a man, oh so very man, just like the kind you see so many of today on the six-way streetcar, in the factory, in the shop - like you or me. A weak man, a real weak man! But: a child of God! So weak, so human, so vile, so feeble: a child of God! A child of the almighty, the merciful, the loving God! So if this Paul was one, you can be one too: a child of God!Every man wants to make something of this life, but so few succeed, most remain grey, unnoticed, simple somebody. Well, if I wanted to add some really great adjective, some qualifying word to someone's name, I wouldn't say great man - because there are few really great men in the world; or scholar, great man - because that is also a rare privilege; I wouldn't say rich - which so many people want to be, but so few manage to be; nor would I say a handsome man - which is the ideal of so many; nor even a famous man - which makes one so interesting, but I would add to it such an adjective, such a qualifier, as you may be, young or old, rich or poor, famous or anonymous: Child of God, man of God! That is more than any other adjective that history or people can attach to a man's name! A child of God is one who is most closely related to the living, mighty God, who belongs to the heavenly family of God! This does not mean that he is greater, that he is more, stronger, more perfect than the rest, but that he is somehow different - qualitatively different from the rest. This very different quality is captured by the apostle in this special term he often uses: being in Christ. Here again it is written, "Therefore, they who are in Christ Jesus have no condemnation."
I have always wanted to find some way of putting into words what this actually means: to be in Christ. Perhaps something of this mystery is revealed in the phrase often used in the Book of Psalms: God is my rock (Psalm 94 and 144). It surrounds the life of the believer like a strong fortress that can withstand a siege! When I say: believe in Jesus, let us also understand this to mean to believe in Jesus himself! For it is precisely because we are not in ourselves, but in Christ, that we can be children of God, even in spite of our wretched humanity! Or perhaps we are even closer to the mystery of being in Christ if I simply say: to be under the influence of Jesus! We know, don't we, what it means to be under the influence of, for example, an exciting or moving book? Sometimes one cannot escape such an impact for days. He feels that this influence affects his whole behaviour, his thinking, sometimes even his actions. Or being under the influence of a piece of music. The other day, a believing composer played for me a ballad he had composed in memory of his 16-year-old daughter, who had been tragically lost. I was so moved by this heart-wrenching, poignant music that I was in tears almost constantly for the rest of the day. If a book, if music can have such an impact, how could Jesus not! To be in Jesus means to be under the influence of the divine spirit, the spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, in all one's thinking, feeling and actions! Unfortunately, we can very easily and very quickly withdraw ourselves from this influence, but it is precisely a matter of not withdrawing ourselves from it! That is why in John 15 Jesus says so many times, "Abide in me"! (Jn 15,4) The secret of the whole Christian life is to abide in Christ, to abide in the influence of Jesus, in the power of His Spirit.
For if I am thus in Christ, He not only surrounds me from the outside like a protective wall, but also fills me from the inside, He permeates me. Just as the air in which I am penetrates me, is in me. People seek the pure, good, high air because it is healing, it has vitality. Whoever lives, or as the apostle says, walks, in the absolutely pure, good, heavenly air of Jesus, is penetrated, healed, and enlivened from within by this Spirit of Jesus. So the children of God are different from other people because they live under the influence of Jesus, because the Spirit of Jesus lives in them!
All this, of course, has far-reaching practical implications. One of them is what the apostle says: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and death" (Rom 7:2). So although he is not for one moment immune from continuing to sin again and again, he now has the freedom to refuse to sin any more. While it is still true that there is a law in our members that holds us captive to the law of sin (Rom 7:23), this compulsory legalism is now overridden by an even more powerful law, the law of the Spirit of Jesus living in us. It is just like the law of gravity in physics: if I drop my Bible, the law of gravity says it will fall to the ground. But if I put my hand out, it doesn't! Why? The law of gravity still applies, but my Bible doesn't fall down because another force prevents it. Another, a higher law, the law of life. So one law triumphs over another.
So it is in us. The law of sin and death, which keeps pulling us down, is still there in the children of God, but God has put another law into place, the law of the Spirit of Jesus, and that other law is strong enough to deliver us from the law of sin. It is the law of life in Jesus - the Jesus who conquered all forms of death by His resurrection. In him who lives in this Jesus, as we have just said, the Spirit of this Jesus is more powerful than the law of the pulling down of sin. So it may happen, for example, that someone who was addicted to drink, his members addicted to the law of sin, suddenly realizes with amazement that he no longer needs to drink. Or someone who has been a slave to blood, or money, or hatred, or envy, or some fear: suddenly he feels as if he has been freed from some pressure, freed from some prison, no longer a prisoner - a free man! Oh, what a great experience to be able to say of oneself, with Paul, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death." (Rom 8,2)
Then this wonderful Spirit who works in the children of God does something else. Thus the apostle says: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rom 8,14). It is worth noting that the Greek word "ago" used here has several meanings in Hungarian, such as: leads, arrests, drives, impels, stimulates, guides. What a dynamic charge Jesus gives to those who live, walk, feel, think and act under the influence of His Spirit! The Spirit of Jesus leads, somewhat like the man behind the wheel of a car drives. And that Spirit is a really good driver, a reliable driver. As long as He is driving, the car does not get into trouble, it does not crash in the most delicate situations, it does not lose its way, it drives safely towards its destination. He "guides", as a police car is guided by a short-wave radio transmitter from the headquarters, such is the guidance of the Spirit of Jesus in the children of God, who is the constant link between the man who is in the traffic of life and the heavenly Centre. He "drives, impels, impels", like the motive power in a vehicle. Just as a car without petrol must be pushed, by force, or it will break down, so many Christian men try to advance in the way of following Christ by their own efforts, by force, and that is why they find the Christian life so strenuous, bitter, even impossible an undertaking. He wants to force something out of himself that he does not have: patience, or love, or kindness, or goodness, or gentleness - but it is like trying to force water up a mountain. It doesn't. The car keeps stopping again! But how different it is when one does not have to squeeze it all out of oneself, sweating, against one's nature - but an inner, heavenly driving force propels one's life forward, drives one's thoughts and emotions, spurs one's actions.
Do you see why I said that a child of God is qualitatively different from other people? Not because his life has changed. The Christian life is not a changed life, but a changed life. The "I" has been replaced by Jesus! The mistake many believers make is that they want to improve their own self, and where they feel their own strength is not enough, they want to make up for it with God's strength. This is not possible. It cannot be done. It always leads to failure. We do not want to improve or change ourselves, but to be in Christ, so that His Spirit may be in us! We are not asking Jesus to replace our strength, but to love us with our hearts, to help us with our hands, to speak with our mouths, to guide us with His Spirit! This is the greatest privilege of God's children!
I said at the beginning that Paul proclaims the miracle of our being children of God with an almost overflowing, triumphant joy! Would that the Spirit of Jesus Himself would now bear witness with our own souls that we too are children of God! And would that it were such an overflowing, triumphant joy for us too, that not our words, but our whole life, would shout out so that out in the street, in everyday life, people would almost shout out the majestic miracle that we are indeed children of God!
Amen
Date: 9 November 1969.