Born of God

John 1:6-13

December 7, 2003

 

            This morning, as we continue our three week mini-series on John 1:1-18 we are coming to a very vital text in our understanding. The main question these eight verses, verses 6 through 13, ask is, Who are the children of God? Who are the ones who are part of God’s family, part of God’s special people? There is no small amount of confusion about this in today’s world. Many people would answer this question by saying that we are all God’s children since God created all of us. Other people would answer that God has two distinct groups of children: a national group of children, namely, Israel, and a spiritual group of children, namely, the Church. The confusion that comes from these two wrong views, as well as all the other views that are wrong, produces results that range from unjust foreign policy in how the United States handles the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians to the concept of inter-faith dialogue to try to find the good in all people of all religions. It also can and often does result in the Church failing to rebuke the nation of Israel for her unbelief and rejection of her Messiah, and it hinders and hampers the evangelization of the Jewish state, which, I believe, is detrimental not only to the spiritual condition of the Jews, but also to the spiritual condition of the entire world, according to Romans 11. These 8 verses, therefore, have incredible, eternal ramifications. It is essential that we grasp these truths and then apply them to our world situation.

            The main doctrine that is taught in this text is this: All who receive the true Light are the children of God, and only those who receive the true Light are such children. The only way to become part of God’s family, to be part of His people, is to receive the Light, and only such people who so receive Him are the children of God. If the Light is rejected by a person, that person is not a child of God regardless of their nationality or ethnic heritage or religious practices. This doctrine is vital, and it is clearly expounded in this text by the Apostle John, himself being of Jewish descent. Let’s keep that in mind as we think through this text. John was a Jew, and yet he clearly shows us that it is not the Jews who are the children of God, nor the Gentiles, but those who receive the light, which is Jesus Christ. This can be seen in the following ways.

 

#1 – The Purpose of John’s Testimony (vv. 6-8)

 

            First, this doctrine can be shown in the purpose of John the Baptist’s testimony. Look at verses 6 through 8. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. The key phrase in this section is this: so that all might believe through him. That is the key. The purpose of John the Baptist’s testimony was to bring all to faith in the Light. He was sent from God for this purpose.

            The Apostle tells us that John was a man sent from God. He was a special delegate, called and commissioned by God for a specific task. He was not sent by men. He was not elected by men. He was not appointed by any man. No man determined to put John into ministry. It was God Himself who sent John. When the Apostle says, There came a man, he uses a very intentional phrase to show that John was created. He was not eternal like the Word described in verses 1 through 5. In fact, the Greek word used in verse 3 that shows that Jesus Christ, the Word of God, created all things, is the same word used here of John the Baptist. In verse 3 we read, All things came into being through Him, meaning through Christ. The word translated came into being is the same word translated here in verse 6 came. The verse could just as well read, There came into being a man sent from God.

God created a man named John, and then this same man was divinely commissioned by God as a witness. Of what was he a witness? He was a witness to testify about the Light. John did not come preaching himself. He did not come telling others about himself. He came to prepare the way of the Lord. He came to proclaim the testimony of Jesus Christ. He was the first evangelist. He came to declare, as he did in John 1:36, Behold, the Lamb of God! What was the purpose of his coming? Why did God send him with this message?

It was so that all might believe through him. This is the purpose of John’s witness. Notice the word all. The reason God sent John was not merely so that one nation or one people group or one ethnicity might believe through his testimony. John was not sent for a narrow purpose. He was sent so that all might believe through him. Why is this significant? It is significant because it shows that at this time God was already unfolding His plan to gather in the nations. When John was sent as a witness it was not merely so that the children of Abraham might believe, but so that all might believe! I think that is one reason why John the Baptist was so emphatic that the Jews realize that being descendents of Abraham meant nothing in God’s sight as far as salvation was concerned.  He knew his mission was to proclaim Christ so that Jews and Gentiles, all people, might believe in Christ. The Jews were so content to be children of Abraham according to the flesh, not realizing that it was believing in the light that was the important thing, not being a descendent of Abraham. John the Baptist warned the Jews of this very thing in Luke 3:8-9, when he said, “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” What was the message? The message was that God makes children for Himself out of stones if He wants to. He doesn’t care about birth certificates; he cares about good fruit. The axe was already laid at the root of the trees, and Israel was the tree that had the axe laid at the root of it. If Israel would not repent and bear good fruit, even she would be cut down and thrown into the fire. That is why John warned them so heavily! He knew that the only ones who were children of God were those of the faith of Abraham, and God could make such children from stones if He wanted to.

O that we could realize that the plan of salvation in Jesus Christ is a global plan. It is not an American plan. It is not a Jewish plan. It is not a Russian plan. It is a plan for all people groups and all nations. May we never say to ourselves that we have anything fleshly to commend us to God, but may we bear fruits worthy of repentance and so prove ourselves to be those who have the faith of Abraham and the true children of God!

So this is why John came. This is why God sent him. In case anyone was confused, the Apostle adds in verse 8, He was not the Light, meaning that John the Baptist was not the Messiah, the Christ, the eternal Word of God, but rather, he came to testify about the Light. He came as the forerunner. He came in the spirit and power of Elijah, according to Luke 1:17, and his purpose was to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Lk 1:17). In case you are wondering John was in any way successful, he was. A people was prepared for the Lord, including Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, who was one of John the Baptist’s disciples before he began to follow Jesus Christ. John’s work and witness and testimony about the Light was used by God to convince Andrew and eventually Peter that Jesus is the Christ. That account is found in John 1:35-42. So John’s ministry was used by God to point people to the Christ, the eternal Word made flesh.

We see, then, from this account of John’s purpose in testifying, and his life and ministry, that those who believe are the children of God. It is not those who have Abraham as their physical father, but it is those who bear good fruit. It is those who believe in the Light of whom John testified.

 

#2 – The World’s Estrangement from the Light (vv. 9-10)

 

            Secondly, we can see this doctrine in the world’s estrangement from the Light. Notice verses 9 and 10. The Apostle writes, There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. These two verses show us plainly that the world at large is estranged from its Creator and Sustainer. Those who are part of the ignorant world are not the children of God, even though God has created them. The Apostle is clear that the world did not know Him. What does he mean? He means that the world did not recognize Him. The world did not have any personal knowledge of Him. The world did not have relationship with Him. It was estranged from Him. By world, I think John means mankind in general. He is referring here to the idea of every man that he mentions in verse 9. The world is just all the people whom God has created, from all nations and all tongues and all backgrounds. The world did not know the Light, Jesus Christ. John gives us two reasons why this is so stunning.

            First, he tells us that the true Light enlightens every man. Now, there is some debate as to how this verse should be translated. Some would attach the phrase coming into the world to the words every man, and they would take it to mean that the Light enlightens every person who is born into this world. That is a true statement, but I don’t think the text should be handled that way. I think the fact that John uses the phrase every man makes it unnecessary to qualify it with the addition of coming into the world. It is an obvious fact that every man who has been born has come into this world. He does not need to say it, and it seems needlessly redundant for him to say it in this way.

            What seems best is to take the Apostle to mean this: The true Light, which enlightens every man, was coming into the world. The emphasis thus falls on the Incarnation, which we can clearly see is the Apostle’s focus in this section, especially in verse 14. The main point that John wants to make to us is that the eternal Word, whose life is light-giving to men, came into this world. That is an incredible truth for John, and that is where the emphasis should fall.

The light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. You would probably expect, then, that men would recognize this light! If this Light is the source of all knowledge and all understanding and everything that men know to be true, it would seem that men would recognize the light! How shocking is it that they did not know Him? How incredible is it that men were utterly estranged from their source of all understanding! Whatever light the world had about anything whatsoever came from this eternal Sun, yet they did not know Him. They did not have any relationship with Him. They were utterly estranged from Him.

The second fact that makes this so shocking is that this Light created the world that was alienated from Him. John tells us in verse 10 that the world was made through Him. The Light was in the world that He had made. He lived in it and walked around it as a man. He was coming, John tells us, into the world, and then at a point in time he was in the world, and He Himself created this world, yet shockingly the world did not know its Creator.

Should it be any wonder to us if the world rejects Christ today? Should it be anything incredible to us if the world does not know its Creator, since they did not know Him when He was physically present? The whole world is estranged from Christ. The world is utterly in the dark because they do not know the Light. They do not believe in Him, and more than that, they do not even know Him.

This fact of the world’s estrangement from its Maker is proof of the doctrine that John puts forward to us. How can the world be the children of God when the world does not know Him? The world cannot be related to One whom it does not know. It is not all men of all nations who are the children of God. Being created by God does not make you a child of God. It does not make you part of the people who belong to the Lord.

 

#3 – The Jews’ Rejection of the Light (v. 11)

 

            Third, to show that it is only those who receive the Light that are the children of God, and none other than them, the Apostle shows us the Jews’ rejection of the Light. Look at verse 11. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. This verse is a reference to Israel. It is a narrowing of what has gone before in verses 9 and 10. There he dealt with the world as a whole; now he deals with God’s own possession.

How do we know that this is Israel? Moses makes it clear in Exodus 19:5-6. There we read, Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. The Lord told Israel that even though all the earth was His, He had chosen them to be His own possession out of all the peoples. They were to God a peculiar people, a special people of His own possession. We read this also in Deuteronomy 7:6. Moses writes, For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Out of all the nations, the whole world, God had chosen Israel to be His own possession. In the Greek of John 1:11, the word for His own has the idea of His own possession or His own things, and the note in the NASB shows this idea. Jesus came to His own possession. Who or what was His own possession according to Exodus 19:5 and Deuteronomy 7:6? Israel. This is a clear reference to Israel.

Notice, then, that the Jews, Israel, rejected the Light. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. He was in Israel. He came to that which belonged to Him, that which He had made His own, and the people who were a part of that possession, those who were His own, did not receive Him. The word receive is very significant. If you remember, the world did not know Him, but the Jews did not receive Him. The Apostle here implies that the Jews knew Him. They knew who He was. They were not estranged from Him in the sense that they did not recognize Him. John the Baptist came testifying about Him, and the Jews understood the significance of it and they knew Him. Yet even though they knew Him, they refused to receive Him.

Jesus told a parable in Luke 20 to show this truth. Luke 20:9 reads, And He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey for a long time. At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him some of the produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send another slave; and they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send a third; and this one also they wounded and cast out. The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others. This parable is rich in meaning, but let me just extract two truths from it for now. One is that the vine-growers knew the son. They recognized him, and they understood full well his position. They even worked out a plan to kill him. It was not an accident because they were unaware of who he was. It was the same with Jesus Christ. The Jews knew who He was. They understood that He was the Messiah. They knew Him to be the Son of God by John’s testimony and by Jesus’ own words, teaching, and signs. Yet they plotted and reasoned together to kill Him. They did not receive Him, as the Apostle John put it in John 1:11. Although they recognized Him as the Son of God, they did not receive Him.

Secondly, this parable shows us that these vine-growers, who represent the Jews, are destroyed and the vineyard is given to others. What does this mean? And how does it relate to our text this morning? What it means is that, as John the Baptist said in Luke 3, the nation of Israel would be cut down for their rejection of Christ and burned. They were God’s own possession; they were the vine-growers. But because of their failure to receive the Son, they were rejected by God in favor of those who would receive the Son. The children of God are those who receive the Light, and no one else is a child of God. That is how this parable relates to John 1:11. These vine-growers were rejected, and the vineyard was given to others. At the end of this parable in Matthew 21:43, Jesus puts it like this, Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. The kingdom was taken from Israel, and it was given to a different people who would produce the fruit of it, fruits worthy of repentance, the good fruit John the Baptist talks about in Luke 3. The Jews rejection of the Light brought about their rejection by God and the taking away of the kingdom from them. It was not by being a Jew that a person became part of God’s kingdom. Rejection of God’s Son meant condemnation and destruction even for Jews. Those who did not receive the Son of God were not children of God, but they were children of the devil, even those who claimed to be Abraham’s children. The Jews’ rejection of the Light and consequent rejection by God demonstrates to us that the children of God are not children because of their nationality or heritage. What, then, is it that makes a person a child of God? Who are the people who receive the kingdom? Who are the ones who will produce the fruit of it?

 

#4 – The Adoption of Believers, Who Are Born of God (vv. 12-13)

 

            This leads to the fourth and final point. It is believers who are adopted as children of God. The adoption of believers, who are born of God, shows that all who receive the true Light are the children of God, and only those who receive the true Light are such children. The Jews thought they were children by their birth, yet the kingdom was taken from them. They are not children of God by their heritage. But the incredible news in Christ is that the kingdom belongs to any and all who will receive the Light, whether Jew or Gentile. Notice what John says in verses 12 and 13. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. This is the Gospel message! As many as received Him! There is no limitation on that phrase. It does not exclude Jews. It does not exclude Gentiles. It opens the gates of the kingdom of God wide to any race, any nationality, any people group! No one can say they do not have opportunity to enter the kingdom of God because of their race or ethnic background. As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God. John demolishes any ethnic claims to the kingdom in these verses. He removes any cultural or blood-line barriers to the family of God.

            What does it mean to receive Jesus? John expands on it and says, even to those who believe in His name. To receive Jesus is to believe in His name. It is to put all of your faith and trust in who He is as Savior and Lord and Christ. If you believe in the name of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the Light of the world, He gives you the right to be the child of God. You receive the right and the honor of being a citizen of God’s kingdom, and a member of God’s people, and a child in the household of God. You are included in God’s family if you believe in the name of Jesus Christ, His only Son. This is the most glorious news in the world. Receiving the Son of God is our entrance into the family of God with all the privileges of being a child of God. And this opportunity is open to all who will receive it, whether Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, man or woman, adult or child. There is no requirement to be in God’s family other than receiving the Son. Open your heart wide to Jesus, receive Him in, and you are included regardless of your heritage, your social status, or your ethnicity.

            Those who are included, notice, were not born of blood. That means that it has nothing to do with bloodlines. Blood is plural in the Greek, and that probably is for emphasis. The point is that no bloodline makes anyone a child of God. It doesn’t matter what tribe you are from, who your parents are, or what nation you were born in. Being a child of God is completely unrelated to being born of a certain bloodline. That is why Paul could say in Philippians 3 that he counted it loss that he was born of the tribe of Benjamin. He couldn’t hold on to his bloodline and have Christ. If you claim a right to God because of your nationality, Jew or Gentile, you are not a child of God. Those who are children of God are not so because they were born of a certain bloodline. You must count loss your standing by virtue of your nationality to have Christ, and to be in Christ becomes everything to you. There are no distinctions in Christ, as we are all one as part of His body. The children of God are not children of God because they were born of a certain bloodline.

            They are not included because they were born of the will of the flesh. That means physical birth decided upon by human beings. You do not become a child of God because two people procreated and gave birth to you. Jesus explained this in John 3:6, when He said, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. If you are born of the will of flesh, you are flesh, but you are not spiritual. It profits nothing to be born of the will of the flesh. All that means is that you are physically alive because two people decided to have a baby. You do not become a child of God this way.

            Thirdly, people do not become children of God by being born of the will of man. The Apostle John removes all human means of becoming a child of God. No human will is involved. It is not the will of man that makes a person a child of God. No one makes that decision. No man makes a decision to become a child of God, just like no baby makes a decision to be conceived and born. You do not become a child of God by the will of man.

            How then does it happen? By being born of God. It is by the new birth produced by the Holy Spirit. Those who receive the Lord Jesus, the true Light, were born of God. They were given new life by God. That is how it happens. God intervenes, and He shines light in your darkened heart so that you can see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and seeing this glory, you receive Him as you believe in His name and take Him as your Lord and Savior and King and God.

            The children of God are such children because they were born of God. God brings them forth of His own will, as James 1:18 tells us, and He does it by the word of truth. All who receive the true Light are the children of God, and only those who receive the true Light are such children. It does not depend on your parents. It does not depend on your bloodline. It does not depend on the will of men. It is a miracle wrought in the heart of a person by the Spirit of God.

            The good news of the Gospel, which is what John is proclaiming in the book of John, is that as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God. The question is not one of whether you are from the right family, or from the right nation, or of the right bloodline, or of the right social standing; the question is, Will you receive Him? Will you take Him as your own and believe in His name? Will you have Jesus as your Lord and Master and Savior and King? That is the real issue.

            There is so much confusion in our world today about who the children of God are, and who God’s people are. This passage is so clear that the people of God are those who receive the Son, and the Church does a great disservice to the Gospel, to Christ, and to Jewish people when we stand up for them simply because they are Jews rather than rebuking them for rejecting their Messiah. The message the Church in America should be sending to unbelieving Israel is not that we are behind you no matter what, but that you need to repent of your sin of rejecting Christ and you are cut off from the people of God because of your unbelief. For Christians to unequivocally support Israel because Israel is Israel is only to confirm the Jews in their lost condition. We must be clear to Israel that unless she repents, she will be destroyed. We need to sound the trumpet of the Gospel that says to all nations that entrance to the family of God is only gained through faith in Christ, and we need to take this message to the Jew and to the Gentile. The Jews today are not the people of God unless they are Jews who, like the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3, have counted their Jewishness loss for the sake of Christ, and have believed in Him for salvation. Praise God there is and always will be a remnant who believe in the Christ. O how we need to emphasize to our world today that it is those who receive the Son who are the children of God and are born of God, and no one else. There is no other way to obtain the right to become a child of God except receiving the Son of God. There never will be another way. He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son does not have the life. That is the message of salvation. That is message of the Gospel. That is reason that Jesus Christ came into this world. And if we receive that message we know that we have been born of God. Let’s pray.

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