Just Like Your Father!

1 John 3:1–2

1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

When a child does something that imitates the father’s less sterling traits, the exasperated mom tells her child, “You’re just like your father!”  In fact, children are very much like their fathers and mothers, not only in their actions but also in their physical and emotional traits, attitudes, dreams, and abilities.  Today I watched the inauguration of President Bush, and I was struck by how much he looks sounds and even walks like his father. 

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”  Dennis Wise so admired Elvis Presley that, not long after Elvis died, Dennis had his face surgically changed and his hair contoured to resemble his hero.  When interviewed, Dennis said, “Presley is my model.  He has been my idol…ever since I was 5 years old.  I have every record he ever made, twice over.  I have pictures in the thousands.  I have books, magazines, pillows, and even a couple books in Japanese and Chinese about him.  I have leaves from the tree in front of his house…When Elvis was wearing white boots, I went out and bought white boots…I never met Elvis Presley.  I saw him on the stage four times”.

1)   We are children of God, our Father.

a)   We are children of God, not by our natural birth but by our rebirth in Holy Baptism (Jn 1:13; 3:5).  By our natural birth we are only enemies of God, orphaned and estranged from him.  But by his grace, we have become his children by spiritual adoption, which he initiated and completed.

In Roman culture, children were adopted by a process called patria potestas.  Prior to their adoption, orphans had no family rights.  But the adoptee was granted the full rights (potestas) of children of the father (patria): inheritance, responsibility, and complete sonship.

b)   What was God’s motive in choosing us?  Did he look into the future and foresee our obedience, our faithfulness to him?  No.  John tells us clearly that God’s only motive is his “lavish love.”  Not our response to that love, but solely his grace and mercy caused him to adopt us.

c)   By his grace, we are “just like our Father.”  We reflect our relationship with him.

Illustration As most of you know I was adopted when I was a young boy.  My adoptive dad and I were at a retirement party several years ago with some of dad’s colleagues for work when one of the ladies retiring commented about how much I look like my dad.  Without giving it much thought I responded that’s funny because I’m adopted.  To which she got rather angry at me and said, “”It isn’t very funny to make fun of a older person.”  Because of my great admiration for my father, I unconsciously had began to imitate and reflect his mannerisms and behavior. 

We who are God’s children also unconsciously imitate our Father in our actions, our words, our thoughts.  Our Lord was crucified.  We too must die to sin, bear our crosses, and suffer patiently, waiting for his return.  This we do joyfully, knowing that when he appears, we shall be like him (v 2).

2)   Because we are God’s children, he makes us just like him.  A doting adult may say to a child, “You have your father’s eyes,” or “You have your father’s sense of humor.”  We take on parental traits, and those who know our parents well often notice their traits in us.

a)   Our Father makes us perfect, just as he is perfect.  Some fathers think they are perfect.  “I am a model father!” a man shouted during a family argument.  “Yes, dear,” his wife replied, “and the dictionary defines a model as a small imitation of the real thing.”  Human fathers, sad to say, often fall tragically short of the kind of love that God intends.  But God’s perfect love is the real thing.  God’s command to “Be perfect” is accomplished for us—as a gift—in Jesus Christ, and God works in us so that we will stand before him as perfect on the Last Day.

b)   He makes us “pure,” even as he is pure.  We who are children of God by grace are purified by the blood of Christ (1 Jn 1:7).  “Like Father, like son or daughter.”  As God’s children, we want to be like him.  The human model for purity is our Brother, Jesus Christ.  We see in him what it means to be pure—in motive, in action, in speech, in thought.  Not only is Jesus the model for our purity, but he is also the means of our purity.

Illustration: A driver was arrested for speeding while driving through a small southern community.  The judge told him that he had the option of paying for his ticket with cash or because the local red cross had a shortage, giving a pint of blood.  The driver chose the latter.  When he brought the receipt for the blood to the judge, the judge stamped his ticket “Paid with blood,” and the motorist was released.  We who are children of God are purified by the blood of Christ, which “purifies us from all sin.”

3)   We live as his children now.

a)   Since we are the children of God, he wants us to live “just like him” now.  We live just like God when we do “what is right,” when we imitate God’s righteousness.  The children of God resist sin just as God opposes sin.  We children of God have the perfect model in Christ Jesus himself.

b)   God’s children live like God and also love like God.  We love the little children as Jesus did in the Gospel.  His love did not start when the child was born, but begins at conception.  It is seen in the way he invites the little children to come to him when the disciples tried to prevent them form coming. 

Illustration: A man had been beaten and left for dead in an alley.  A man walking by heard his cries and rushed into the alley to help the victim.  Later, in the hospital, the victim said to the rescuer, “When I saw you coming to help me, I thought you were Jesus.”  The rescuer replied, “And when I saw you lying there in need, I thought you were Jesus.”  That’s the way children of God respond to those in need—as Jesus would, not only with “words and tongue,” but “with actions and in truth.”

Conclusion: This weekend we commemorate Lutherans for Life.  The tragedy is that we have to have such an organization.  For us, responding to those in need means being who we are: Children adopted by our Heavenly Father and given all the rights as heirs of Christ.   It also give us the privilege and joy of imitating our brother Jesus and welcoming the little children both born and pre-born.  And in doing so we welcome Him and the one who sent Him.  Amen