Today's Verse: John 1:12-13

We live in a time and culture obsessed with individual rights. "It's my right to ___." Just fill in the blank. But none of us has the right to be God's child on our own merit, status, or position. God's grace gives us that right. This right came to us at great cost to God. Jesus came to earth, lived, died, and was raised from the dead. We receive this grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-10). God gives us new birth as we trust in Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9-10). And we get to be baptized into Christ Jesus and share in his death, burial, and resurrection (Romans 6:3-14). We are born a new child of God through the power of the Holy Spirit (John 3:3-7; Galatians 3:26-29; Titus 3:3-7). To be born of God, to be born from above, to be born "again" (John 3:3-7) means we are adopted as children into God's family with all the rights of heirs and as co-heirs with Christ Jesus (Romans 8:14-17; Galatians 4:1-7).