All human beings have a desire to belong, to be a part of something larger than themselves.  It’s hardwired into us.  Not only do we have a desire to be loved, but we also have the need to be loved.  We were created for relationships and connection.

After God created Adam, the first man, he looked at him and said that it was not good for him to be alone.  Out of man’s need for companionship God created a woman, a perfect counterpart to the man.

We cannot go through life alone.  We were created for belonging.

In John 1:12-13, the apostle writes that those who receive Jesus are given the right (the power and authority) to become children of God, born by the will of God.

As I was studying this recently, the question arose in my mind, “What does it really mean to be a child of God?  What does being born of God look like?” 

I know how I would have answered that years ago.  I would have talked about how our behavior needed to be a certain way and that our performance should attract God’s attention.  But as I pondered this question I thought about my own children.  Is their behavior and performance really all that matters to me?  Is that the biggest thing I want from them?

My answer to that is no.  As I went deeper into thinking through this question and asking Father about what he had to say about this, I believe there are three things that being born gives us.  It’s true of naturally being born and it’s true for being spiritually born.

When you are born, you are immediately part of a family and an extended community.

A baby is born into a family.  This baby has parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  It has a network of people that it belongs to.  I do realize that this is not always true for every single person. I do realize that some babies are given up for adoption, some are neglected, etc. but I am talking about how things usually are.

Not only does this baby have a family but it has an extended community.  There are friends of the family, who many times are as close as family. 

This child has a place to belong before it has done anything at all to deserve a place, or has the ability to contribute to this family.  This baby is simply loved for just being.

When you are born, you are given an identity.

A baby is given a name.  It’s given a first name carefully chosen by the parents.  Sometimes they choose the name based upon its meaning.  Each of my children has a name that is based upon a meaning because I wanted their name to not just be a name but to have a purpose behind it.  Other times, a name is simply chosen because one of the parents really likes the name, or it has special sentiment behind it because of another family member or admired person.

They are given a last name, usually the father’s last name.  This is their family name.  It identifies them as part of a family. 

Our names are who we are.  It’s our identity.  Rather than simply being a number in a system (such as our social security number) we have a name that was personalized for us.  Our family name helps to remind us that we are included in a bigger community than just our little nuclear family.

Sometimes children are given nicknames by their family.  We named my oldest daughter Bailey, but as a child, we lovingly called her BayBay.  I might still call her that if she would allow me but she is now almost 23 and prefers to be called Bailey.  Nicknames are another identifying mark on our lives.  Sometimes with boys, a parent may simply refer to them as son.  I have a dear friend in my life who is like a father to me.  Every time I call him on the phone, his greeting to me is always, “Hey Son.”  This is very dear to me and I appreciate the fact that by calling me Son, even though I am not his biologically, he has made me a part of his family.  I have a place to belong.

A child discovers their purpose through family.

As a child grows up, they are nurtured and encouraged to find themselves.  Their strengths are discovered.  Their passions and interests are discovered through play and family interactions.  They discover if they are athletic, artistic, mechanical, studious, etc.  Good parents will help steer their children in the direction that the child’s strengths bend them. 

Sometimes a family issue or problem will help direct a child’s purpose for life.  Sometimes children go into a particular profession to help solve problems they, or their family, had as they were growing up.

Our Spiritual Application

These things are true of us that have been born again, or more rightly interpreted, born from above.  We are reborn as we put our faith and trust in the Person of Jesus.  As we believe and receive him for who he is, he then gives us the power to be God’s children.

We now have a family to belong to.  We are part of the larger family of God.  Every believer is our brother or sister.  We may even have what we would call a spiritual mom or dad, a more mature believer that helps us mature in our spiritual growth. 

God wants us to belong, to have connections.  He created us to belong.  As Christians, our bond to each other should supersede any personality differences, political differences, or cultural differences.  As in any family, there will always be squabbles and arguments, but we are commanded to do our best to live in peace with all men as much as it’s in our power to do so.

We are given a new identity as a child of God.  Our most important identity is just that . . . a child of God, a beloved son or daughter.  But, we also have the identity of more than a conqueror, a saint, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. No longer do we see ourselves as unworthy sinners. Now, we see ourselves as dearly loved children.  If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation (with a new identity).

Paul declares that God has prepared good works for us to do.  As a child of God, I now have a purpose.  I have a reason to live.  I have a reason to be joyful every day because I get to partner with God in what he is doing in the earth.  I have a purpose.  That purpose becomes clear through time spent with God and with other people.  As in a regular family, a child learns about himself, so it is within the family of God.  As we grow together with other believers our gifts and callings become clearer.

There is so much more to being a child of God than just knowing that will go to heaven when you die.  It’s about the here and now. It’s about life more abundantly each and every day.  It’s about belonging, identity, and purpose — the very things that are hardwired into each and every human being. 

The post Being Born of God appeared first on Michael Wilson.

The word gospel means good news. So why isn’t good news proclaimed every Sunday in pulpits across America?  While most of you would say that it is, my question would be what is the good news then?  Being a Christian now for over 35 years, I would say that most would answer, “the good news is that you don’t have to go to hell when you die, you can go to heaven.”

While not going to hell is good news, I find that too much emphasis is placed on sin and hell within our pulpits because most Christians seem to focus more on Genesis 3 than Genesis 1.  Our focal point seems to be not sinning and avoiding hell.  But, what if God’s good news, the true gospel, is better than that?

What if a large part of preaching done is really bad news disguised as good news?  Just because you call something good doesn’t mean that it is.  When I hear good news, I want to smile, celebrate and be happy.  Good news makes me feel good, makes me feel like life is worth living. Good news gives us a sense of purpose and even comradery.  Good news always brings hope.

If you start with and mainly focus on Genesis 3, you will miss the original intent of God in Genesis 1 and you will forever be focused on the wrong thing.

Genesis 3 tells us the story of Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God’s commandment by their willful eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  They clearly broke God’s commandment not to eat from that tree.  Thus, according to St. Augustine, they committed the first sin and passed that sinful nature onto their children through procreation.  From Cain and Abel forward, every human being has been born with a sinful nature and is deserving of the anger of God.

Much has been written about the doctrine of Original Sin since the 4th century but I wanted to throw in my two cents’ worth as I find this doctrine incomprehensible.

If I was born with a sinful nature, totally depraved and incapable of doing any good, then how can I be held responsible for something that I was born to do?

That would be like telling a child that is born with a handicap or a serious defect that he or she is responsible for being that way.  They will be judged because they cannot live up to the standards of “normal” society.  It doesn’t matter if they were born that way, they are responsible for what they have no control over.

Ah, but all sin so all are still guilty according to the apostle Paul (Rom. 3:23).  I don’t question that all sin but where does that sin come from? If it comes from something I was born with then how can God be mad at me for something I can’t control?  If it’s in my nature to sin, and I sin, then how can I be held responsible for something I have no control over?

And, if people have no control over their nature then how do “sinners” stop sinning?

Also, if I have a sinful nature then how do I keep from committing the most heinous of sins?  How do I, as a born sinner, keep from killing people, committing adultery, stealing every chance I get, or a whole host of other “major” sins that could put me in prison?

If I can’t help but sin then how do I keep from doing everything that might cross my mind to do?

It would appear to me that I have choices.  I can choose to lie or not to lie.  I can choose to hate or not to hate. I can choose to murder or not to murder. I can choose to steal or not to steal.

But, if I do by nature the very things that are wired within me to do by my “sin nature”, then how can I be held accountable?  Can I not plead insanity before God?  Can I not use the argument that I couldn’t help myself?

If my child was born with a condition that caused him to act a certain way that was beyond his control, why would I punish him?  Why would I hold him accountable for something that he had no control over?  Why do we think that our Father in heaven would do this?  Are we better parents than Him?

Am I saying that God winks at sin and doesn’t hold us accountable?  Not at all, I am saying just the opposite.  God holds me accountable for my sin and my actions, my choices, and what I have freely chosen to do.

So, then where does sin come from? How do we interpret Paul’s words in Romans that by one man (Adam) sin came into the earth?  In my opinion, Adam opened up the door for sin to enter the earth and now people have been “infected” by sin much like a disease.  I hold to the Eastern Orthodox teaching that sin is a disease and that people are sick with sin and we need the Great Physician.

Why would Jesus call himself the Great Physician if he wasn’t sent to heal our most deadly disease…sin?  Disease causes death in the natural and sin, as a disease, causes death in the spiritual.

Let’s not overlook what God Himself said to Cain in Genesis 4:7 when Cain was mad about God not accepting his offering.  God said, “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Read it again to make sure you don’t miss it.  Sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”  If you and I have a sinful nature on the inside, how then is it at the door desiring us?  Is it possible to master sin if we have a sinful nature? 

From this conversation that God had with Cain, it’s not our nature that messed up as much as it is our choices.

The post Why I Have Problems with Original Sin appeared first on Michael Wilson.

For the majority of my life, I was taught, and believed, that Adam and Eve were perfect at creation and that the Garden of Eden was perfect.  There was no death of anything until Adam partook of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  It was in their disobedience that they became imperfect.

And it would seem that we have been striving for perfection ever since through our actions and performance.

But what if they were not created perfectly?  What if God never intended for them to be perfect?

Before you pull out your heresy card on me, let’s unpack this a little and see what the Bible actually has to say.  Remember, it isn’t our job to make the Bible say something that it doesn’t say, nor to get it to line up with our belief system.  It is up to us to see what is actually there in context.

Look at the Context

All throughout Genesis chapter 1, we see that God looks at his creation on a daily basis and declares it to be good.  At the end of creation week, after God formed man in His own image and likeness, He looked at his creation and declared it to be very good (Gen. 1:31). 

Notice, the wording is very good . . . not perfect.  This is important to note.

When an inventor looks at his invention, or a painter his painting, often they will step back and say, “Perfect”.  Why do you think God didn’t say “Perfect” over what he had just created?

I know that many people will say that God cannot create anything less than perfect because he is a perfect Being.  But if that is true, then isn’t that limiting God to something that he can’t do?  Does he have to create perfect things?

Listening to teachers and preachers growing up, and even teaching the creation passage myself, I always heard it said that all was perfect in the beginning until Adam and Eve messed it up.  But again, I ask you to look closely through Genesis 1 and see if that is what the author writes.  I’ll wait while you read the whole chapter.

Perfect vs. Good

Did you see it?  It’s not there.  In every place, it says that God declared it to be good.  The word good here means pleasant or agreeable.  It means that God called his creation pleasant and agreeable.  That’s a far cry from the word perfect.

We find the word perfect used in Leviticus 22:21 where it talks about the animals that could be sacrificed.  The animals had to be perfect.  Perfect here means complete, whole, entirely sound, without blemish. 

These are two different Hebrew words.  If God had created mankind and all of creation perfect then why not use the word perfect?  He used the word good, not perfect.

Why is this important?  Why does it matter?  For me, it matters because it’s important that we do not make the Bible say what it does not say. Unfortunately, this is done too often and it can really mess people up.

It’s important because if God had created Adam and Eve perfect, then they would have no need of God.  A perfect being doesn’t need anything or anyone else. That would make them imperfect because they need something.  Perfection needs nothing.

Adam wasn’t created perfect because God wanted a relationship with Adam.  God wanted to be his father and teach him how to be human.  I believe that eventually, God may have shown Adam the difference between good and evil but it would have been in God’s timing and from God’s perspective.  In taking matters into his own hands, Adam prematurely discovered something I don’t think he was ready to handle.

If Adam had been perfect, then he would have been able to see through the serpent’s lies. And yet, he didn’t.  Adam was created good, but not perfect.

No death in the Garden?

What about the Garden? I was taught there was no death in the Garden.  Again, the Bible doesn’t say that.  It only says that Adam would die in the day that he ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  God didn’t say that all of creation would begin to experience death. 

There had to be death in the Garden.  I guess it’s possible that the animals never stepped on an insect while they walked (which if they did the insect would likely die).  We don’t even know that some of the animals were not meat eaters from the beginning.  Young-earth proponents will say that they were but then they would have to admit to some form of evolution for the lions and tigers to become carnivores after being herbivores (if the Garden had no death). 

To eat a plant is to cause death to the plant.  The plant is living and has life but the moment you take it to eat it, it dies.  So, for Adam and Eve to survive, plants had to die.  One could say that this doesn’t count, but why doesn’t it.  Death is death. 

I believe that God created man and woman imperfectly good so that they would know that they need him in life.  He wants to be a part of our lives and wants us as a part of his.  If we are perfect then we don’t need him, nor do we need each other.  Yet, Adam needed Eve so therein proves he wasn’t perfect as he needed a helpmate suitable to him.

Even Jesus wouldn’t do anything without seeing the Father do it.  He was dependent upon the leading of the Holy Spirit, as Adam should have been.  Jesus didn’t even presume to know what to do without praying and talking to the Father.  In this way, Jesus became perfect as with any other man, he wasn’t born perfect.  He was sinless, yes, but he become perfect (without blemish, complete, whole).  Why, because if he were perfect as a man initially he wouldn’t need the Father.  But in his leaning on the Father through the good and the bad, through the things that he suffered, he became perfect.  The Father brought him to perfection because of Jesus’ sinless life and total dependence on the Father. 

Adam could have had the same thing but he chose perfection over goodness. 

Related Link: Do you see God in people?

The post Created Good, not Perfect appeared first on Michael Wilson.