MacArthur - Welcome to the family: what to expect now that youre a Christian

Suddenly everything is different.

The old you is gone forever, and a new you has taken its place. You're a Christian now, and I thank God for saving you and making you His own. Whatever process or experience brought you to this point, it is the most wonderful and important transformation of your life. It is a watershed event, not only because of the deep sense of joy and satisfaction that comes with knowing you belong to the family of God, but because as a Christian you are absolutely assured of eternal life in heaven. The blessings of God through Jesus Christ are yours forever.

Your faith journey may have been relatively easy or very hard. However you traveled, however you suffered along the way, you now have a Companion and Guide who will never leave you. This is an exhilarating time; it can also be scary and confusing. You may have already discovered that being a Christian will cost you friends and old pastimes.

It may cost you more than that. Jesus made the conditions clear in Luke 9:23, when He said, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." As a Christian you have to be willing to give up anything Jesus asks you to, even if it's everything. Even if it's your life. True love for God means total disdain and denial of you. To deny yourself, to come to the understanding that you're a worthless sinner in need of God's gift of salvation, is the biggest hurdle you'll ever face. You left behind a lot in that other worldat least that is what the world would have you believe. But what you have gained far outweighs anything and everything you once possessed.

You'll also learn that what would have seemed like a great sacrifice before is little or no sacrifice when done to follow Christ. Giving up something because He wants it is such an honor that you might not miss it at all. I played football in college, and when I graduated, three NFL teams asked me if I'd like to play in the pros. I thought about it, but decided to go into the ministry instead. It wasn't a sacrifice; it was answering God's call. And I've never regretted it.

Becoming a Christian is like being adopted into a new family. The Apostle Paul used this comparison in his letter to the Romans: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (8:14-16). As Christians, we have been adopted by God into His family and receive His intimate, fatherly love, grace, and compassion.

Just as a husband and wife show love and compassion to a parentless child by making him a member of their family, God grants us grace by bringing us into His family and giving us all the same rights and privileges His other children have. In the Roman culture of Paul's day, an adopted child, especially a son, usually received greater prestige and privilege than the natural children of a family, particularly if the father was disappointed in his own children. That's what happens as a result of your spiritual adoption by God. He graciously and lovingly sought you out and made you His child, solely on the basis of your trust in His eternal Son, Jesus Christ. Because of your adoption, you will share in the full inheritance of Christ Himself.

You became His child the instant you were saved: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12). You can now address God in an intimate way, as "Abba," the Aramaic term for "Daddy."

Simply put, your adoption means that the life of God dwells intimately in you. He is your "Daddy" in a way no human parent can be. Human parents can adopt children and love them as much as they do their natural children, but they can't impart their nature to an adopted child. Yet that is exactly what God has done for you. You have become a partaker "of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4) in that the Spirit of God dwells in you.

You and I became God's children, not through our own ability or effort, but because He sovereignly chose us "before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself" (Ephesians 1:4-5). He has made you His child in the image of His Son, giving you not just Christ's riches and blessings, but also His very nature.

As beautiful and rich in meaning as the adoption metaphor is, it falls short in explaining all that happened to you when God saved you. Like adoptive human parents, God strikes a balance between unconditional love and chastening correction. But He is your Creator as well as your Father. He knows you in a way no earthly father ever could. And He loves you with superhuman love; in fact, He sent His perfect Son to die for your sins. He saved you from spiritual death, and as a result you were spiritually reborn, justified, and now are being sanctified. One day you will be glorified.

Why did God save you? Paul says it was "according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of His grace" (Ephesians 1:5-6). Above all else, God chose to save you for His own glory. As your spiritual journey continues, you'll see yourself reflecting more and more of that glory in your life. Second Corinthians 3:18 says, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." It is my prayer that this book will help you along that ever-transforming path.