Much Loved Children — A LifeWords Devotion

Romans 8:15-17

So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. (NLT)

There are different ways of describing what it means to be right with God. We can see it in law court terms. God the judge delivers a not guilty verdict on us because Jesus has taken on himself the penalty our sins deserved.

Then again, that may sound rather formal and legalistic despite its essential truth. So we may describe our relationship in terms of acceptance into God’s family. Jesus has made such acceptance possible. We are accepted because of Jesus’ acceptability. We are not merely grateful recipients of the judge’s mercy. We actually are invited into a deep personal relationship with that judge so that the judge becomes our father.

It is sad when our faith in God is reduced to mere formality, no matter how true and valuable that formality may be. I have not embraced this faith simply to be spared just punishment. I have embraced it so as to embrace as Father and friend the one who created everything.

The writer Jim Packer puts it well: “To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.”