Devotion for 13 February 2024 Anno Domini
the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (Gospel of St. John 8:44; all scripture quoted is from the King James Version)
Are you able, without hesitation, to declare who is your Father? We are all naturally born with an earthly father, but we are also born with a spiritual father. Due to the Fall of Adam at Eden, our natural father is the devil for it is his will that we do as sinners in the bloodline of Adam. All have sinned “ . . . for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Without our Heavenly Father, we shall all be left as orphans at the last Trump.
In our introductory text, Jesus is addressing the Jewish rulers, Scribes, and Pharisees. These are those who take umbrage of God sending His only Begotten Son to redeem the chosen of God. It is not necessary to stand up daily and deny Christ to share in the rejection – we do so by our thoughts, words, and deeds daily. One thing Satan abhors, and that is any who read, digest, and rely upon Bible study daily in ordering their lives.
The most wonderful verse of the Bible is John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have ever lasting life.” Faith comes by the grace and sovereign will of God to those whom He has called and chosen by the agency of the Holy Ghost. It is not attained by good works or by any goodwill intention. We are born with a corrupt will that is in bondage to Satan. That Will can, in no wise, be considered ‘free,’ but is subject to the evil imaginations of man’s heart. Rather than being free, it is self-will. The only ‘free will’ that a person can enjoy is found in the Will of God which he assumes at the moment of salvation. Our minds and wills are changed into that of the Mind of Christ if we have taken His Mind upon us. If we are in Christ, our sins are washed clean, and we are made new creatures in Him since no sin can exist in Christ.
There is only One who can be called the Begotten Son of God – the Lord Jesus Christ. He is of the same substance, nature, and will of the Father. He is One with His Father and, therefore, equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost in the Triunity of the Godhead. It is not possible to be One with God and less in nature. How, then, can we aspire to sonship of God being sinners? It is by means of the adoption made available by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are other sons of God mentioned in Scripture. Adam is called “a son of God” by way of creation. All who are redeemed in Christ are also called sons and daughters of God. “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth His Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:6), and “And ‘I’ will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:18)
The adopted child is received as an act of love. The child may not have known the adopted parent at the time of adoption, but is finally bound in love and obedience to the adopted Father. Believers are not children of God by nature, or accident of birth, but by the love and grace of God. Adoption occurs only at the behest of the adopting authority – in our case, God the Father. “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,” (Ephesians 1:5)
So, your new bibles that label Christ as the “one and only son of the Father” is casting a false identity, for Christ is not like unto the sons and daughters of God through adoption, but by natural essence and character. To make the claim that Christ is the only son of the Father is to make God a liar – either here in John 3:16, or in other texts in which God declares the believer to be sons and daughters of God. There was no grammatical reason to change that wording of John 3:16 except to bring Christ down to the common level of those for whom He bled and died. Seemingly minor changes in meaning can make a tremendous difference in understanding down the passing years. If the lay of an artillery gun is moved, almost imperceptibly, two or three mils, the discharged round will not impact the intended target. As the evil imaginations of men continue to make ever so slight changes in our biblical text, downrange, we can see great misinterpretations of the character of our Lord revealed.
The Scribes and Pharisees sought means by which to discredit the Word of God in their opposition to Christ, and we can witness the same happening with the new, copyrighted versions of Scripture that belong to man and not to God.
