The Right to Become

by Terry Wane Benton

"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).

Jesus gave certain people the right to become children of God. Unbelievers are not given this right. But even believers are not automatically in. The right to become means you are not a child of God by faith alone. The right to become means that there are certain conditions other than mental agreement to the fact of Jesus. You could believe in Jesus but not be willing to confess Him (John 12:42). That kind of faith has a right to become a confessing believer, but if your faith is not willing to turn from sin, you still are not a child of God. The right to become an American citizen does not mean you automatically are one. There is a process that must be followed for that citizenship. A child may have a right to be adopted into my family, and I may have a right to adopt said child. But that does not make that child my child nor me, that child’s father. There is a process that moves from a right to a reality. What is the process?

You can see where the 3000 were convicted and cried out,

“What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). At this point, they had the right to become children of God, but still needed to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). They would not be children of God until their sins were remitted. With this, Paul agrees, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:26-27).

Through faith, you are “baptized into Christ.” You are not in until you are baptized into Him through faith. All spiritual blessings are in Christ (Ephesians 1:3,7), and the Spirit tells us the moment He places us from outside into Christ. If you believe in Jesus, you have a right to become a child of God, but the new birth includes the birth of water and the Spirit (John 3:1-6).

The right to become a child of God is the highest honor and privilege among mankind. It would be unfortunate if you did not use your right to enter that wonderful and eternal privilege!