Is everyone a child of God – even if they have not submitted their lives to Him? Are “creation of God” and “children of God” the same thing? This devotion looks at what the Bible has to say.
Nuggets
- In order to become children of God, we have to believe in Jesus.
- No, it isn’t enough to believe that Jesus lived or to believe He was a prophet.
- By opening our hearts and minds to accept Jesus as our Savior, we become children of God.
- Children of God need to be imitators of Him.
- God, as Sovereign, can set expectations on our obedience to His laws and commandments.
In a speech, then President Obama once said, “We have to keep coming together across faiths to combat the ignorance and intolerance, including anti-Semitism that can lead to hatred and to violence, because we’re all children of God. We’re all made in his image, all worthy of his love and dignity. And we see what happens around the world when this kind of religious-based or tinged violence can rear its ugly head. It’s got no place in our society.”
Well, part of that is true — part of it isn’t. Ignorance and intolerance can lead to violence.
We are all made in the image of God, but that does not make us all children of God. Let’s look at what the Bible has to say about that.
This is ending up being a two-parter. This devotion will feature what John had to say on the topic. The next devotion will focus on Paul’s writings.
I should warn you. This one started swirling on me, so strap in and let’s see where God is taking us.
Let's Put It into Context
“Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God” (Mt. 5: 9 CSB)
We have talked about this before. This is in one of the Beatitudes.
Peacemakers work to foster peace and reconciliation with God. Their calm spirits comes from God.
We said that we are all creatures of God, but we are not all children of God. Only those who are blessed are children of God. Blessedness means we have been perfected. Perfection means we have become holy, sanctified, and righteous. Christian perfection is achieving the two greatest commandments.
To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.
Gotta Receive Him
“But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name” (Jn. 1: 12 CSB)
First off, let’s deal with the dangling pronoun. The him referred to is Him — Jesus. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3: 16 NIV).
In order to become children of God, we have to believe in Jesus. What do we have to believe?
- God, the Creator of the universe, is our Father Who wants to have a relationship with His people. God Sent His Son Jesus to be the Redeemer of mankind.
- Jesus was born of a virgin, making Him 100% God and 100% man.
- Jesus gave His life on the cross for us so that His blood could pay the price for our sins.
- Because of God’s great might and power, Jesus rose from the grave, conquering death and paying the price for our sins.
- At some point, Jesus will come back to earth and take believers home with Him.
No, it isn’t enough to believe that Jesus lived. It isn’t enough to believe He was a prophet. We have to admit our sins, believe on Jesus as Redeemer, confess God as Sovereign Lord.
Let’s roost on Redeemer for a second. Redemption is where something is used in exchange for something else to gain or regain something. Redemption allows us to receive forgiveness for our sins. Sin is when we disobey God and break one of His laws and commandments.
Jesus justifies us when we put give lives to Him. He became the substitute for us so He could do the hard stuff, the stuff we would never be able to do. Jesus knew God’s wrath had to be appeased so He shed His blood to pay the price for our sins.
We have to realize that it is more than just lip service that God is expecting. We can say we believe in Jesus, but not allow Him to change our thoughts, actions, and opinions.
Flavel wrote that we have to understand the truths of the gospel. I know, sometimes we read something, and it is confusing. We are trying to understand it based on our knowledge.
We have to take the gospel on faith, and then God will give us the understanding. Faith is the belief that the doctrines stated in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them.
I know. It has to be a chicken-and-egg kind of thing. We have to understand enough so the faith can bloom, but we are not going to understand all. “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.’ This is the Lord’s declaration. ‘For as having is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts then your thoughts’” (Isa. 55: 8-9 CSB).
We open our hearts and minds to accept Jesus as our Savior. By doing that, we become children of God.
Because We Are — When We Know Him
“See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children — and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him. Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is” (I Jn. 3: 1-2 CSB)
No, these verses don’t contradict John 1: 12 in that we have to born of God before we are called His children. We have to look at I John 2: 29 also. “If you know that he is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of him” (CSB emphasis added).
Smyth called these two verses the gospel in a nutshell — and he is right.
- God loves us.
- God loves us just as we are (i.e., we don’t have to clean up our acts for salvation).
- The world doesn’t know Jesus (and doesn’t want to know Him), so they don’t know us.
- Stay tuned, because He is coming back.
- When He comes back, we will be changed to be like Him.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
There is whole continuum between salvation and us being like Him. It is called sanctification. Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul beginning with regeneration and ending with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness. Regeneration is the change in us that God brings about when we go from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
Children of God need to be imitators of Him. “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children” (Eph. 5: 1 NLT). That means obeying His laws and commandments, because that is how we learn His character.
Is obeying God’s laws and commandments important? Just look back to the Old Testament. How many times did the Israelites find themselves in hot water because they didn’t obey God? We just had a small list.
Smyth also said it was described in two words: righteousness and sonship. We just had a series on righteousness. Righteousness is the result of a solid relationship with God built by a sincere life of conscientious obedience to God’s laws and commandments. It is more the right principles under which we live.
To read a devotion in the What Is Piety? series, click on the appropriate button below.
Does it say it is just a religion? No, it is more a way of life. However, it isn’t just I’m-going-to-be-a-good-person way of life. It is a relationship-with-God way of life. That relationship is Him as Father and us as children.
Look at it this way. Worldview people say we don’t love people because we don’t tolerate their desire to sin. So sometimes, they try to tell us we really aren’t disciples of God.
Don’t listen to them! They don’t know God. They are trying to get us to love as they do, not as God does.
We have to remember what God’s love is. Mudge told us.
“1. Sovereign in its exercise.
“2. Gracious in its communication.
“3. Merciful in its regards.
“4. Everlasting in its continuance.”
God is Sovereign. He can set expectations on our obedience to His laws and commandments.
You know, God could have written us off when mankind sinned against Him — but He didn’t. He set up the plan to restore our relationship. And yes, He can expect a relationship. He is God.
God could have made us minions. He is Lord. He didn’t. “So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters” (Heb. 2: 11 NLT).
Hear this loud and clear. Manton wrote, “The foundation of this relation is not our being which we have from Him as a Creator, but our new being which we have from Him as a Father in Christ.”
I know we are tackling Paul in the next devotion, but what he said will help inform this one. “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (II Cor. 5: 17 NLT).
New as in different. Opposite of the same. Opposite of unchanged.
So, God loves us all, but only those who have been changed to a new person are called children of God.
Being children of God brings responsibilities. Pearson wrote, “And, after all, we are sons [and daughters]. That is our confidence, our comfort, our triumph. And here I must remind you of the duties which flow from this relation to God — the duties of obedience and trust.” Trust is confidence that the promises of God are true.
Well, those two go together, don’t they? Because we have the confidence God is Who He says He is and does what He promises, we can obey Him because we know it is all about His love for us.
Making the Connections
God calls us children because He loves us. Always has. Always will.
His love will not change based on what we do. Or what we don’t do.
That being said, God does require us to ABCD. He wants us to imitate Him. He wants us to live for Him.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
First John 3: 1 shows us that there is a distinction. “… God’s children … the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him” (I Jn. 3: 1 CSB). Godview people on the right. Worldview people on the left.
How can you be a child if you don’t know your Father? If we were discussing a human father, we would say he wasn’t in the picture.
God wants to know us as our Father. Yes, there is restrictions — we have to truly submit our lives to Him. If we do, He has an infinite, unfailing love for us.
Father. We want to be Your children. We want to love You and obey You. We submit our lives to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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