the good news

 

The shock Kay and DeeAnn must have felt can hardly be imagined. The two 56-year-old women did not know each other, even though their mothers were neighbors and they were born on the same day in the same hospital. Recently, the two met for the first time to resolve a mystery and put away rumors once and for all.

When the two women were newborns in 1953, nurses accidentally switched them and returned them to the wrong mothers. They grew up, got married, had kids and grandkids, each thinking they belonged to the family they were in. Until the DNA tests came back.

According to one report, Kay cried. "My life wasn’t my life," she said. DeeAnn said the DNA report only confirmed what she knew the minute she laid eyes on Kay. "She looked just like my sister’s twin."

Can’t imagine growing up thinking you belong to one family only to find out you belong to another? Get ready for a shock. A great many people who comfort themselves thinking they are God’s children just because they were born on this planet are in for a big surprise!

Some men came to Jesus once to challenge his claim to be the Son of God. They asserted their heritage as the children of Abraham. They exalted their ethnic heritage as being superior to anyone else’s, even the one claimed by Jesus Himself. They went so far as to question the legitimacy of Jesus’ parentage, thinking that their relationship with God was better certified by their unbroken lineage.

Jesus responded by revealing their spiritual DNA report. "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me." And then he said, "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires" (John 8:42, 44).

Ouch! God’s children love God’s Son, Jesus. God’s children love God and desire to honor him and fulfill his desires. The devil’s children hate God’s Son and choose to fulfill, not God’s will and desires, but the desire of the devil who hates and opposes God.

Hmm. Kind of gives the question, "Who’s your daddy?" a whole new twist, doesn’t it.

We are all the children of the devil until by faith in Christ we are adopted into God’s family. The Bible says, "You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air (the devil), the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience (the devil’s children)- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Ephesians 2:1- 3). It’s a bleak picture of our entire family.

But there’s good news: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us . . . made us alive together with Christ."

It says in another place, "In love, he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ."

When we put our faith in Jesus and trust him for the forgiveness of our sins, God severs the bond between us and our old family and adopts us as his children, forever. Faith in Christ writes us a pedigree in grace.

That’s the good news.

Pastor Dale McIntire has served as pastor of the Cornerstone Community Church in Grand Marais since April of 1995.