You have the right to…

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

— John 1:12–13 (ESV)

This week we are looking at the Bill of Rights. I went back and read through them to remind myself what rights I actually have as an American citizen. It’s easy to forget or misunderstand our rights when we don’t think about them carefully or regularly.

A few years ago, I was invited to a dinner hosted by a couple from church. It turned awkward when the hostess unexpectedly introduced a pastor she had invited to speak. I didn’t know him and wasn’t expecting much. But he began talking about righteousness and our identity as fully redeemed children of the King. He pointed out that God has given believers the right to become His children—co-heirs with Christ. 

Then he asked a piercing question: Do you really believe you have that right? And does your life reflect it? Do you believe you are fully righteous?

I didn’t like the answer forming in my heart. I knew plenty of Bible information. I had trusted Christ. But if I was honest, I had not fully embraced my right to live as a righteous child of the King. I believed it intellectually, but I wasn’t living from it relationally. I didn’t feel very righteous. That night began a journey of learning not just to know that truth, but to receive it deeply—to live not merely as someone who “got saved,” but as a son. To see myself as fully righteous because I had the right to.

I’m still a work in progress. But the more I understand my rights as a child of God, the more I live like I believe them.

Our Constitution and Bill of Rights clarify and protect freedoms because they recognize human weakness and the danger of unchecked power over the powerless. In a similar way, the Old Testament law revealed God’s holiness and exposed our need. But in Christ, we are given something greater: a new identity. Not earned. Not inherited by blood. Given by grace.

Have you truly accepted your right to be a child of God? Do you live from that identity?

When I finally began to believe it in my heart—not just my head—it changed the way I live.