09 August, 2017

Are We All God's Children?

I hear it said at least 2 or 3 times every week, "We are all God's children." But is that true? It is true that we are all God's CREATION (see Colossians 1:6), and it is absolutely the truth that God loves us all (John 3:16) but let's be clear, it is not true that we are all His children. To be one of His children is reserved for those who have been born again. Yes, that's what I said... only those who are born again are children of God. John 1:12 says, "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."
Then we read where Paul writes in Romans 8:15-16 and says, "The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. (We had to be adopted in, meaning we were not his children before salvation) And by him, we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children."
If there is still any doubt in your mind concerning what I am talking about, read carefully what John has to say to us in 1 John 3:1-10: "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, NOW (not before) we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. 4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister."
Pretty clear... don't you think?

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