ARE WE ALL CHILDREN OF GOD?
We live in a society in which we have all heard that “we are all God’s children.” However, is that really a true statement. The answer is really easy if we view it from a Biblical standpoint. The answer is Yes, and No. From a “creative” standpoint the answer is yes because God is the author of creation. From a “spiritual” standpoint, however, we are most certainly “NOT” all of God’s children. First, let us look at the creative standpoint. The first male and female were Adam and Eve. We all know how the Bible tells of their creation. We see it in Genesis 1:26-27, And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created He them.” (Please notice that God is speaking to someone, the “us” and “our”. The Ones to who is being addressed are the Son and the Spirit @ 1 John 5:7). In Genesis 2:21-25, we see several things. First, we see the first operation, as the woman is created out of the man whom God has put to sleep. Then we see the woman named. Next, we see something I was taught by one of my spiritual hero’s, Dr. M. Randall Jones, the age for a man and woman to marry (v. 24), as the man is to “leave father and his mother”. We also see that this is the ordained marriage of God, between a man and a woman, being no exceptions. And then the innocence between these two, while even though unclothed, they had no shame because both physically, morally, and spiritually speaking, sin had not entered, so there were no thoughts of sexual perversion of any kind. Having said all of this, we can see that a human being is, in reality, the creation of God. Keep in mind, especially in our day, the conception which makes a child is of God. However, the making of the child may have had absolutely nothing to do with God. A good example of this is rape, which is seemingly almost commonplace in our society, being driven by pension for sexual violence and perversion by the prince and power of the air himself, Satan (Ephesians 2:2). Having said this, the child that results in that heinous act is still a creation of God, for, without the egg and sperm, there is not going to be a child. This child is innocent, so it seems absolutely senseless to “kill” that innocent child through an act of abortion. So speaking in a “creative” sense, we all most certainly are, “children of God”, even those in their mother’s womb. Now let us look at the question, are we all “children of God” in a spiritual sense. The simple answer to that question is NO! Jesus Himself made sure all would know that spiritually we have either one of two Father’s. We all know one to be God the Father (John 6:27). In John 8:44, Jesus, speaking to the religious leaders of his earthly days, these words, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” Therefore, Jesus makes it plain that those to whom He was speaking to were of their father, “the devil”.
Many are believing his vicious lies today and are following him straight into a path that leads first in hell, then into the lake of fire and brimstone (Luke 12:20; 16:23; Revelation 20:10; 21:8). Notice something else that Jesus says in John 8:47, “He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.” Now, something needs to be said to fully understand something about what Jesus says in this verse. In studying the Word of God, it is important to understand what is meant by the text. Notice that Jesus states that these children of the devil, these religious leaders of Israel, they “hear them not”, speaking of the Words of God. Did these men hear what Jesus said? Of course, they did. So what is Jesus really saying to these religious leaders? To understand clearly, Let us learn a simple lesson in Hermeneutics (how to interpret and understand what the text really means to put it in simple terms). We need to look at the context of what Jesus has just said. Jesus says they “hear them not, because ye are not of God.” Now, let us turn our Bibles to John 10: 25-27, and let us read what it tells us to better understand: “Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (KJV). Jesus is telling the people that to “hear” what He is saying is to be one of His sheep. His sheep, here in this text, they “hear” and “follow” what Jesus says. Also however notice that Jesus says, “I know them”. This means that through the Person of The Holy Spirit, Who indwells the believer the moment they are saved (which some disagree with, but we will take that up at another time), are able to hear with an understanding of what Jesus is saying, and that we then obey what He is saying, because they are known as His own. The religious leaders, spoken of in John 8: 47, could not “hear” because of two things. First, they had no intention of obeying Jesus, as we all know that later these same “so-called” followers of God would be directly responsible for the death of Jesus, the very “Son of God”, His Father being the One they said they were following themselves. Secondly, the Bible tells us in 1Co 2:14, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” What does the Bible mean that they are “spiritually discerned”? Imagine that I tell my son something like, I would love to play basketball, you want to let’s go out and shoot some hoops? Though it sounds like I am offering my son the opportunity to play basketball with his dad, he knows that his dad has had four knee operations, has broken both feet in the last year, along with a broken collarbone, and has had many other operations. Therefore, he knows I must just be joking (of course unless we are playing “internet basketball”). The key to what I just said is “he knows” me. The reason he knows is that he is my son. Hence, only a child of God will truly be able to “understand”, or “hear”, what God is really saying. That is only possible by one being adopted into the family of God by their inviting Jesus into their heart, thus becoming saved. The only way to enter heaven’s gates of pearls is through the door. Jesus said that He is the door (John 10:1-9). He also said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me”. Only by being adopted into the family of God do we become “the children of God” (Romans 8:15), and that is only done whenever one calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus, acknowledging Him as Saviour and Lord, believing in their heart that Jesus paid for their sins (all of them), and was raised the third day by God the Father. (Romans 10:9-10, 13). Therefore the question for you now is, “Am I really a child of God”, because if you are not, then you are a child of the devil, and you will spend all of eternity separated from a holy God, with never a chance for anything to ever change. You will be forevermore in constant pain, outer darkness, in flames, smelling the foulest odors to the point of being in a constant state of nausea, due to the smell of decaying flesh that will never be consumed, never being able to rest, because of your own living hell and the screams that never stop. Hoping for death so that it will all end, but it will never come.The choice is yours, but keep one last thing in mind. I first spoke of us all being children of God in a creative sense. Please remember that the Bible tells us that the creation of man happened this way, that “And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7). That living soul will never die. Yes, this body of flesh will, but not the soul. If you don’t believe that your soul will leave your body at death, then please read these words from Genesis 35:18, “And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.” I sincerely pray that you now realize that your soul will depart at death and that you will spend eternity somewhere. You will make your own choice, and by doing so telling God where you desire to spend eternity, and I promise you, GOD WILL HONOR YOUR CHOICE, be it HEAVEN or HELL. My sincere prayer is that you do not wait another minute, but right now where you are, simply confess to God the fact that you are a sinner (Romans 3:23, which tells us that we all are), and that you believe in your heart that Jesus died for you, that He was raised the third day, and that you want to open the door of your heart and allow Him to come in to be your Savior and Lord. As you ask God, remind Him as you humbly come before Him that He has promised in Romans 10:13 that “all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”, and that you now believe God will now honor that promise, as you have obediently come humbly before Him desiring to be in the family of God. If you have followed through, and given your heart to Jesus, please go to the prayer request section of my page, and leave your name, so that I can pray for you.