Jesus: Receive and Believe Him to be a Child of God.
John 1:12-13 KJV
[12] But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
[13] Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
This passage of the Scriptures provided hope for the condemned, light for those in darkness, and a way for the loss. Because verse eleven declared the rejection of the Creator and Savior Jesus Christ, the verse started with the word "but", which change the direction of all things.
"But as many as received him"
Although He came unto His own, and His own received Him not (v.11), there are still people who "received" the Lord Jesus. Remember, that the progress of verses will give us an idea that the word "receive" here is not as simple as receiving any other thing, but it was based on the Person of the One received, and what He has done.
The One received (the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ) was previously introduced as God who was in the beginning, who was with God, and who was God (v. 1), and the Creator of all things (v.3). Then it is worth to mention His nature as the Life and Light and the One who cannot be overcome by darkness, and despite rejections, He still chose to come in the world, and came for His own, although the world knew Him not, and His own received Him not.
Receiving Him is the same as believing who He is and what He has done, then trusting all the testimonies of John the Baptist, and the introduction of John the Apostle about the Lord Jesus Christ.
"to them gave he power to become the sons of God,"
Others may claim that they are God's children, but only those who received the Lord Jesus Christ, the grace of God which we can never attain nor deserved, through His finished work on the cross of calvary, salvation became the gift of God (Rom. 6:23) which we can receive by grace through faith, and they are the one who was given the power, the right, and the authority to become the children of God. The last phrase gave more confirmation, "even to them that believe on his name:", and the "Word's" name is Jesus.
"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
The power to become the children of God was described here, which can be best described as "born of God", and the is the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit when our dead spirit was born again by the Holy Spirit, and believing and receiving the Lord is our response to that work. And to avoid the false belief here, the passage clarified already that to become God's child is "not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man", so that we will just trust a full, sufficient and complete work of God, "but of God", and that was through that Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The beauty of the previous verses that introduced the Lord Jesus, gave more light to our text, to lead us to the only way for us all to be a child of God, and that is by receiving and believing the Lord Jesus, as our Lord and personal Savior, which is according to the Scriptures. Amen!
Words Digest 8
