Your Eternal Family

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you…

John 17:21

On the heels of His prayer for the consecration of His disciples, He elongated the definition of His people, on down through the centuries until today. Consider the meaning of this, that every disciple, regardless of how common place he may appear to you and me, was prayed for by our Lord. He foresaw each struggle, each life, each challenge, each heart, and He lifted each up before the Father. We can be assured that we never face any trial or difficulty or obstacle to our witness alone, but we have been prayed for and represented before the throne that is above all thrones in the universe.

There are two aspects of our unity that are mentioned here — the unity of our calling and the unity of our mission. In our calling we are privileged to join the family of Christ, the kingdom that He is building, the nation that He is assembling. The experience of salvation has remained the same through the centuries, we hear the message, we feel the conviction of the Spirit in our hearts, we then repent from our sins, trust in Him, and follow Him for the rest of eternity.

We are not identical to the Son and the Father in all ways, we do not become “sons of God” in the same sense that Christ is the Son — which is why the Scripture was so clear to say he was the “only begotten of the Father,” the unique Son. But we do become members of the same family. It is a beautiful image and one that is intended to comfort and encourage us.

Throughout the centuries, the family has been an image of identity, oneness, safety, love, fellowship, celebration, sustenance, and protection. We have been visiting this week with our growth children and their families during our time in the USA, and the unity of a family has been brought home to me afresh. When one member is sick, all are sick. Last night we listened to our grandchild suffer with a bad cold, and everyone is united in this concern for him (and he should be fine). Each morning we awake and eat together, each evening we say good night and go to sleep. The doors are locked and secured, and people go to bed. In a family you should feel safe, and loved, and protected.

We are born very helpless creatures, unable to walk for most of the first year of life, if not longer. We are helpless to care for ourselves, and we need to help of others just to exist. In a similar way, when we are born again, we enter into an eternal family where love, support, compassion, protection, sustenance, and encouragement is provided in grace. We are each called by the same God through the same gospel and enter into the same eternal family of grace. Not everyone on earth has a supportive, loving earthly family — sometimes they are even heartless and cruel — but each child of God at salvation enters into such a family for all eternity.

Thank God for those believers He has placed around you, who nourished your faith, and whom you now are privileged to help and nurture as well. This is a wonderful gift of God, that we enter into His family when we are saved. As we read, “We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Rom. 12:5).