Sermon Text: 1 John 3:1–3
Date: November 1, 2026
Event: All Saints’ Day, Year A

1 John 3:1–3 (EHV)

See the kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are! The world does not know us, because it did not know him. 2Dear friends, we are children of God now, but what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he is revealed we will be like him, and we will see him as he really is. 3Everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as Jesus is pure.

We Are the Children of God NOW!

On a day like All Saints’ Day, we focus a lot on eternal life, which is appropriate. We look ahead to the joyful reunion we will have with those who have gone before us and those who will come after us as we take our place among that great multitude that no one could count (Revelation 7:9), washing our robes in the blood of Jesus, the Lamb. What a day that will be! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

But we also do well to remember that being a part of God’s family, being saints who have been made holy and set apart, being the children of God is not just some future event that we will experience later. Both Jesus in our Gospel and John in our Second Reading (where we will focus this morning) remind us of that truth. Being the children of God is not something we will be, but something we are right now!

But despite having that status now, we recognize that things are not fully complete. John himself says, “Dear friends, we are children of God now, but what we will be has not yet been revealed.” Thankfully, this is not our final form. We are not destined to forever exist as decaying, failing sinners. And yet, that is what we are right now, even as we are also the children of God.

Martin Luther had a term for this miserable dual state. In Latin it reads, “simul justus et peccator.” In English, “at the same time, both saint and sinner.” It’s a horrible state for the child of God, for the one who truly, from the bottom of their heart, only wants to serve God and follow his will. And yet, there is a part of each one of us, a part with far more influence than any of us like to admit, that only wants to rebel against God. Our sinful natures, those horrific parts of ourselves that we were born with—conceived with!—are always there, always pushing us to rebel, always driving us to sin.

For each of us it takes a different form, or at least a different emphasis. For this person it’s gossip; for that one it’s greed. For this person it’s cowardice at standing up for the truth; for that one it’s resentment and refusing forgiveness. For this person it’s lust; for that one it’s pride. Whether your struggles or mine are in that list is immaterial; we know where our sinful natures lead us astray. Regardless of our specifics, sin is part of each of us.

And at this, Satan scoffs in our ear, “The child of God? You? Really? You think you should be called the child of God? After what you did? After what you said? After those thoughts that are as familiar to you as breathing? Ha! What a joke! You are as far from being God’s child as I am. You are nothing but a worthless sinner that will spend eternity in hell.”

And for as angry as those words might make us, the sharpest bit is that they’re not entirely wrong. We know that Satan, the master of the half-truth as well as the outright lie, is not completely fabricating things. Our actions, our words, our very thoughts do condemn us. God demands perfection, and you, dear sinner, are so very far from that, as am I. To be God’s child is to be perfect. After all, that is what “saint” means: “holy one.” In what insane bout of arrogance would we ever claim such a title?

Well, the truth is we’d never claim such a title. It was not claimed; it was given. See the kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are! John began the previous chapter of this brief letter this way: My children, I write these things to you so that you will not sin. If anyone does sin, we have an Advocate before the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the whole world (1 John 2:1-2). The love that the Father has given us is his Son; the love of the Father is Jesus.

Jesus, eternally begotten of the Father, made it his mission to save us when we could not save ourselves, to make us his sisters and brothers, fellow children of the Father, when that is not what we were at all by nature. We are not children of God because of us, but because of him. By offering his life as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, he took the sting out of Satan’s half-truth accusations. Because, yes, we have failed God; yes, we do not deserve to be called God’s children on our own; but Jesus makes us worthy of that title. He makes us saints while we are still sinners. We are the children of God, the forgiven children of God.

So we are God’s children now, forgiven and beloved. We are heirs of God, set to receive his eternal inheritance when he deems the time is right. But we don’t have it all right now; we don’t experience it in full, which is what John means when he says what we will be has not yet been revealed.

What will that be like, to be in God’s presence, face-to-face? More to the point, what will it be like to be fully and finally released from any sinful tendencies, temptations, and failures? What will it be like to just bask in God’s and our own perfection?

John compares that state for us to Jesus’ state: We know that when he is revealed we will be like him, and we will see him as he really is. Everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as Jesus is pure. Paul said something similar when he wrote to the Ephesians: But our citizenship is in heaven. We are eagerly waiting for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. By the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, he will transform our humble bodies to be like his glorious body (Ephesians 2:20-21). We will see Jesus as he is, and we will be like him. Our humble, frail bodies, subject to sin, decay, and death, will be transformed into glorious bodies without any of those weaknesses, as God originally created us to be.

As John says, the full reality of that is a bit hazy, but we can say a few things now: a body without pain, without sickness, and not subject to decay; a body without sinful impulses or weaknesses, without anything that would ever lead us astray. That is to say, this will be the polar opposite of our experience here in this life. No longer simul justus et peccator, no longer saint and sinner at the same time, but just a saint, just clearly God’s holy child, with robes washed clean in Jesus’ blood.

That means we won’t be hurt anymore. It means that we won’t hurt anyone else anymore. And even more to the point, we won’t do anything to hurt or offend God anymore. We will be pure, as Jesus is pure. We will be pure, because Jesus has purified us.

But all of that has to wait until he is revealed coming with the clouds at the Last Day, or at least until the day when he calls us home to eternal life. In our closing hymn, we will sing of that reality that we eagerly wait for, “And there we’ll find our home, our life before the throne; we’ll honor him in perfect song where we belong. He’ll wipe each tear-stained eye as thirst and hunger die; the Lamb becomes our Shepherd King; we’ll reign with him” (“There is a Higher Throne,” CW885, s. 2).

But as you patiently (or not-so-patiently) wait for that day, don’t let God’s love and forgiveness be something you think of as some future event. Don’t think of your status as God’s child as something you will be placed on later. It is your possession now. You are part of his perfect, eternal family at this very moment, for Jesus’ sake. Cling to that, prioritize that, love that, no matter what else comes to you in this life.

Thanks be to God, our Father; thanks be to Jesus, our Brother; and thanks be to the Holy Spirit, who adopted us into this family! Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria