E-note 12/18: Becoming A Little Child

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

In Matthew 18:3 we hear these words from the Lord Jesus: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” What a glorious mystery that God himself has done the very thing he says we must do. God has become like a little child to show us the way into his forever kingdom.

What does Jesus mean that we must become like little children? The answer is in the manger. When the Son of God took on our flesh, literally becoming a little child, He put himself in the care of his heavenly Father. He lived his life humbly and lovingly dependent upon the Father. Come what may he did the Father’s will. Come loneliness or friendship, come comfort or cross, a little child does his father’s will. Jesus tells it to us straight: unless you change and become like a little child you will be shut out of the kingdom of the little Son, the Son who gladly did the will of his Father.

"Unless you change." Those words remind us that it will do us no good to say, "I believe," while continuing to do our own will. "Unless you change and become like little children" is a call to receive God as your ever-present Father. Those who do not change, those who refuse the rule of the Father, they are lost. They are not sons. To remain enthroned over our own lives will cost us two kingdoms, our own and Christ's. But to change will cost us only one kingdom, one all men will lose anyway. And this is the good news: the change Jesus requires is the change Jesus gives. He gives it by taking us by the hand and showing us all the goodness of his Father. None can claim this Father to be wicked or unjust or unkind. The Father of the Lord Jesus is the Father of loyal love. He is the Father of every good and perfect gift. He is the Father who never forgets. He is the Father of faithfulness and all compassion. He is the Father of our eternal brother, who through his resurrection is the firstborn from the dead.

No man was ever more at rest in the presence of his Father than Jesus. By showing us this eternal relationship in the flesh, Jesus dares us to change. By revealing in the flesh the love and subordination of the Triune God, Jesus dares all flesh to become his brothers, submissive sons of the same Father. Praise be to God, the perfect submission of the Son is gifted to all who will be changed by it, changed into little children, submissive sons of the Father in heaven. Grace and peace, John