Jn.1:12,13 – But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, 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 a man, but of God.
Sometimes we let incredible mysteries that are right in front of us in God’s word just pass us by. For example in today’s passage John talks about our right or authority to become a child of God. After we receive Christ there are amazing rights and privileges that become ours. One of those is the amazing ability to perceive or see spiritual things. Too often people will pray the prayer to receive Christ and not lay hold of the privileges and rights that are now ours. They continue to stumble through life unaware of the spiritual realities all around them. They may say they have received Christ by faith and proceed to say that they don’t go by feelings or experiences. That is a huge mistake. We are intended to perceive or to sense the spiritual realties all around us, that is simply part of the new birth. Here is how Augustine describes this.
“Now turn your attention to the doctor of our salvation who has come to us, our Lord Jesus Christ. He found us blind of heart, he promised us a light that “eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it come up into the heart of [a] man.” This is what the angels see, what they enjoy. I mean, just as healthy people see what the blind do not see, so angels see what people do not see. Why doesn’t [a] man see it? Because he still wants to be “man.” So let man [humankind] himself start getting cured, so that from being “man” he may be numbered among the sons of God, because “he gave them the right to become children of God,” that is, he gave them the right to be cured, to have the mistiness of heart wiped away, because “blessed are the pure in heart, because it is they who shall see God.”
So part of our right to become children of God is access to the eternal world that God inhabits. You can’t see it unless you are born again; but if you are born again it is literally breaking in on you everyday.
