In his contemporary Christian classic “Knowing God”, J.I. Packer writes, “What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God for his Father.” Packer goes on to say, “Sonship to God is not, therefore, a universal status upon which everyone enters by natural birth, but a supernatural gift which one receives through receiving Jesus”. This of course is contrary to the popular notion of the universal fatherhood of God, and the universal brotherhood of man. As well intentioned as this sentiment may be, there simply isn’t a shred of biblical evidence to support it. On the contrary what we find in Scripture is that Sonship to God is a divine gift that accompanies saving faith (John 14:12-13, Galatians 4:4-7). The point is this, being a child of God is not something to be taken lightly. And I might add it is not something that should be taken in the bratty sense; where it is associated with the boastful evangelical claim of being “the Kings’ kids”. Paul makes it clear in Ephesians 5:1-13 that the children of God are endowed with certain moral obligations and duties. And the writer of Hebrews is quick to point out that our heavenly Father is not hesitant to discipline His children (Hebrew 12:5-11). Nonetheless, the fact that we are the children of God should be the cause of great rejoicing. The Apostle John captures the sense of what I mean in 1 John 3:1-3, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God? Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed we should see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” Let us observe a few things here.

First, the wonder expressed by John that God would have us as His children. “Beloved what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us”. It is a well known fact in adoption agencies that older children and those with emotional and physical baggage are the least likely to be adopted. But Paul says in Romans 5:6-8, “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man someone would dare to die. But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” In other words God chose to make us His children in spite of our baggage. John marvels at the idea that God would love us and adopt us as His children despite the fact we were previously children of wrath.

The second thing to observe is that being the children of God is a present reality. “Beloved, we are now children of God…” He goes on to say that it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, which points to our future glorification. In the meantime with our frailties, failures and shortcomings we are right now the children of God. Our sonship is not reserved for when we stand before Him blameless and without sin. Right now we have the privilege of calling Him Abba, Father. We may be disobedient and even wayward children, but we are His children nonetheless. In Ephesians 5:1 Paul says, “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children”. We are not like Him now as we will be in glorification, and we will not imitate as we ought but we are still His and when we pray we have the privilege of calling out to our heavenly Father. Jesus has reminded us that just as earthly fathers know how to give good gifts to their children, so our heavenly Father knows how to supply our need.

Thirdly, observe that although we are the children of God, the world does not treat us as such, even as they did not know Christ was the Son of God and God in the flesh and did not treat Him with the respect He deserved. This means we can expect ill treatment and to be misunderstood in addition to our own inconsistencies. But our hope and our incentive to pursue righteousness is the fact that when Christ is revealed in all His glory, we also will be revealed in His likeness. In Romans 8:18-24a, Paul expresses it this way, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God… because creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God… for we were saved in this hope.”

God has abundantly poured out His love on us and has claimed us as His own dear children. We may not always act like the children of God, and we may not always be treated with the dignity and respect that our status deserves. But our hope and confidence is that God who has called us His children and made us heirs of His grace and promises will reveal us as such when He reveals Christ in His glory.