Contrary to popular belief, you don’t become a child of God when you are born. You become a child of God when you are born again.

Many of the world’s religions teach, and most people believe, that every person is a child of God. The assumption is that since God created every person, then we must all be His children. The truth is we’re all born as children of Adam.

If you create a new software program, that doesn’t make you the father of the program. Neither do you become a child of God just because God created you. It’s true that we are made in His image and it’s equally true that He wants every person to be His child: “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1Timothy 2:4)

The Bible clearly tells us that we are not all children of God. Ponder these words of the Lord when He was speaking to the Pharisees: “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

In Ephesians 2:3, Paul confirms that all are not children of God: “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

Paul makes an obvious distinction between two groups when using “formerly lived” and “even as the rest.” He is reminding the believers, in Ephesus, that they were once “children of wrath,” a term never used to describe the believers in the Lord Jesus.

In writing to the church at Colossae, Paul continues this theme: “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.” (Colossians 3:5-6) This is an exhortation for believers to refrain from their past sinful lives and identifies non-believers as the “sons of disobedience.”

The Apostle John also wrote about this distinction (1John 3:10): “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.” Only those that receive the Lord Jesus as savior are capable of “practicing righteousness.” This is not self-righteousness, but the righteousness given to us in Christ.

John reinforces this theme in 1John 3:1-2: “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”

According to John, those that do not know the Father are not children of God. So, how does someone become a child of God? “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12) To know God is to be a child of God, which occurs when a person becomes born again of the Holy Spirit through trust in the name of Jesus. The process for salvation never changes. It is always centered in a sincere belief in Jesus as Savior. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26)

The Apostle Peter captures the transition from child of Satan to child of God in these words (1Peter 2:9): “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”  Peter quotes from Exodus 19:5-6, likening those that are saved with the glorious privilege of ancient Israel.

In Romans 8:16, Paul teaches us that: “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” Does the Spirit of God testify with your spirit that you are one of God’s children? Unless you are saved, there can be no such agreement between your spirit and the Holy Spirit.

You may consider yourself to be a child of God, but the more important consideration is whether or not God considers you as His child. Don’t wait too long to find out!

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” (Romans 8:14)

 

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