But to all who have received him – those who believe in his name – he has given the right to become God’s children – children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband’s decision, but by God.” John 1:12-13 NET https://bible.com/bible/107/jhn.1.12-13.NET
To enter heaven, a person must be a child of God, born by God, just as they have been born by a woman. What does it mean to be born by God or, as God says later, born again? We must be born again by God to live with God forever. It is not our decision to live with God though it feels like we have thus decided. God decides to adopt us, and so He moves toward us in His global action of dying on the cross as our Savior and in His individual action by His Spirit bringing life to our souls, light to our eyes, and release from our dungeons of sin. Are we born again? Is His Spirit alive within us? How do we know? If we are born again, the family of God will resemble our character and conduct in ever increasing measures just as our earthly family’s looks, beliefs, and behaviors characterize us as children. The goal of the Father for His children is for each of us to be conformed to the image of His First Born Son, the Lord Jesus, Who is fully man and fully God. What was Jesus like? He lived on every word that came from the mouth of the Father. He came to serve the will of the Father over His own choices. He came to establish the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. He loved, served, gave, and shared His life so that others could experience God the Father and be reconciled to Him as sons and daughters. Is this the character and conduct of our life? Have we believed in Him, receiving Him, so we live like Him as children of God? Do we hunger and so eat daily from God’s word? Are we fully engaged in God’s work by giving, serving, and sharing with people for them to see, experience, and come into a relationship with God in Jesus the Savior? Is the will of God, obedience to everything Jesus said, our will, our first want, the thing we are making every effort to obtain? If so, we are truly born again and are living as children of God.
