by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name<\/em>” (John 1:12).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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<\/em> 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?<\/p>\n
You can see where the 3000 were convicted and cried out,<\/p>\n
“What shall we do?<\/em>” (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<\/em>” (Galatians 3:26-27).<\/p>\n
Through faith, you are “baptized into <\/b>Christ.<\/em>” You are not in until you are baptized into Him through faith. All spiritual blessings are in <\/b>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 <\/b>the Spirit (John 3:1-6).<\/p>\n
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!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[52,99,1008],"class_list":["post-68867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-baptism","tag-becoming-a-christian","tag-faith-only"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42311,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-am-i-supposed-to-get-from-john-112\/","url_meta":{"origin":68867,"position":0},"title":"What am I supposed to get from John 1:12?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning. I really don't know. What am I supposed to get from reading and studying the Bible? For instance: \"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.\" What should this mean\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59760,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/some-unsaved-believers\/","url_meta":{"origin":68867,"position":1},"title":"Some Unsaved Believers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Erin Percell The creed book of one popular denomination says, \"that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.\" But is it true? Does the Bible say that if one believes on Jesus, it makes no difference what else he believes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45891,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-a-sin-not-to-use-the-right-name-to-address-god-or-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":68867,"position":2},"title":"Is it a sin not to use the right name to address God or Jesus?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello Sir, Will God or Jesus condemn us or punish us for not knowing the right name to call Him? I've seen some say that it's a form of idolatry or worshiping someone else if you don't know the correct name to call God or Jesus. Some say his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94982,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-not-sure-jesus-is-talking-about-actual-water-in-john-35\/","url_meta":{"origin":68867,"position":3},"title":"I’m not sure Jesus is talking about actual water in John 3:5","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 9, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I just had some questions about John 3:5. I am not sure whether Jesus is referring to literal water here. The reason I say that is that later in the book of John, Jesus attributes the Holy Spirit and calls it \"Living Water\" when talking to the woman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63246,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/at-what-moment-in-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":68867,"position":4},"title":"At What Moment in Faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 12, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Salvation is by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:6,8). Of this, there is no controversy. The question is, \"At what moment in faith does salvation or remission of sins actually become ours through faith?\" Has God designated an exact moment? The answer is very clear unless one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5310,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-must-be-born-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":68867,"position":5},"title":"You Must Be Born Again","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: John 3:1-22 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I had a fellow ask me if I had been born again. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In particular, he wanted to know how I came to believe such a thing. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When I replied with I John 2:3-6; 4:6; 5:2-3, he became quite upset \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He wanted to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}