The very first word of the Lord's Prayer is radical beyond measure.

That Jesus said, I am now inviting you so that when you pray, you say to God our Father,

and he extends the privilege of addressing God as Father to his disciples.

By nature, we're not old children of God, that is an incredible privilege reserved for Christians.

You're listening to the Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind, on your host, Nathan W. Bingham.

With so much confusion today surrounding identity, it's so helpful to be reminded of our true identity as Christians.

We are part of the family of God. We may refer to God as Father, and we are in Christ.

So listen today as R.C. Sproul continues his foundation series and teaches on our adoption and our union with Christ.

Here's Dr. Sproul.

When John wrote his epistles, he makes a statement of what I call apostolic astonishment

in the very first epistle that he wrote in the third chapter.

He makes this observation.

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God.

Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him.

But beloved, now we are children of God.

Now we notice in the tone of John's writing here a sense of amazement that would seem to go right over our heads

in the culture in which we live today.

Because if there's anything we tend to take for granted that was never taken for granted by the apostolic church,

it is that we are the children of God.

Now there are reasons for that. We've been raised in a culture that has been heavily influenced by 19th century liberal theology.

And in the 19th century there was a rise of interest in the study of world religions as explorations had traversed the globe in those days.

People became more knowledgeable of other religions from which year to four they had been shielded by the sheer force of distance.

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