Sons of God

BASK IN THE LOVE OF God! Our Key Verse draws attention to the great love that the Heavenly Father has bestowed on us. It is a marvelous privilege, unique to those who are Christ’s, to be called “children of God.” It has oft been claimed that we are all reckoned God’s children from birth. In a sense that may be so. However, the Bible reveals, in the present time only, Christ’s disciples are legitimately called “children of God.” Consider life prior to coming to Jesus. “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”—Eph. 2:1,2, NASB

In the darkness of disobedience, a brilliant light shone forth in Jesus—the light of the world. Our eyes were opened to the truth that is in him. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 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, NASB) Note that it is only those who receive Jesus that obtain the right to become children of God. Jesus affirmed this insight later in John’s Gospel, “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.”—John 12:36, NASB

Thus it has been throughout the Christian era that Jews and Gentiles have become God’s children by faith in Christ. “Through Him we both [Jews and Gentiles] have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household.” “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba! Father!” (Eph. 2:18,19, NASB; Rom. 8:14,15, NASB) Tender love is expressed in the phrase “Abba! Father!” A slave could not call their master Abba, nor would it be appropriate for anyone else to use the expression unless they were bona fide children. What great love the Father has bestowed on us, that we may intimately address him, “Abba.”

Our Key Verse incites us to recognize and acknowledge the great love that God has bestowed on us. We discern more clearly, with the passage of time, the extent of his love for us. We also see more distinctly that becoming a child of God is a very special privilege. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:31,32, NASB) God invested the life of his Son for our deliverance and he will, therefore, freely give us all things pertaining to life eternal. See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God—and such we are!