Each of us, at some point, have probably heard phrases that reflect a commonly felt view in the Christian world at large, that all of us on this earth are brothers and sisters of each other, that God is the Father of us all, and that we are all one big — but not very “happy” – family.
Most recently, the popular song “We Are The World,” produced in an effort to raise money for food for the hungry people of Africa, really sends this concept to its listeners. Of course it is meant to do just that because of the emotional pull the words have; a cry for a worldwide team “effort” is put forth, although I think that just knowing that part of the dollar spent in purchasing the record goes to famine relief, actually relieves the Buyer of feeling any more responsibility to help!
In any case, “We are the world . . . we are the children . . . we are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving . . . “. So the lyrics go and they continue in much the same thought. To a sensitive person, these words can easily pull on ones “heart strings,” you might say.
We don’t mean to put this song down, necessarily. The cause is a good one, a needed one, something actually to corn-mend people of the world to have done for people other than their own selves. But to someone knowledgeable about God’s Word, not even an astute Bible scholar, the words “we are the children” should be felt as empty words.
While it’s true that we are all created by God, we all live by the same breath of life He has given, being children of God part of the one who has brought us to be. denotes having been created from, being part of the one who has brought us to be. But more than that. . . . being children )f God denotes a relationship.
Who are the children of God ? Who are the people of God?
As with all answers to such questions asked, let’s go to the source of such knowledge, the Bible.
Since the fall of man in the garden of Eden, there have been the opposing forces of good and evil. Those things that are of God and for God being good, and those that be against God are evil.
There are those who will follow after God, His laws and statutes, and those who go the way the flesh desires to go. In this is the difference between the “children of God” and the “children of men.”
The children of Israel, the people of Israel have been, are, and always will be God’s people. His “children”, we can say. In fact we’re quite familiar with this title given them in the Old Testament, “The Children of Israel.” And though they were found abhorrent in His eyes because of all the evil they had done, the depth to which they had gone to, in making their offerings to stink and their idolatrous worship of other gods, God will not cast off His chosen people, the Jews, forever. And though 2/3 of the people will be cut off in the “great day of God Almighty,” when the fury of God will come up in His face—in the end, a remnant shall be saved.
But though descriptive of a kind of people, a pleasing people to God, “children of God” is a term used exclusively in the New Testament, to describe those who have been called out of the world whether Jew or Greek, bond or free, male or female …”
“Children of God” is one of different descriptive titles given to men and women who please God. Those pleasing to God are also called heirs of God, Sons of God, Sons of Light.
The Apostle Paul makes a connection between children and heirs of God in Romans, the 8th chapter at verses 16 and 17: when he speaks of those called out of the world, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And, if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
Paul says that the children of God are heirs of God—what are they “heirs” to?
In Galatians 3, beginning at verse 26, again Paul uses the same terminology in saying, “. . . ye are all the children of God by faith which is in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Here then are the qualifications for being children of God—
- “For” those who have been baptized into Christ have therefore “put on” Christ, and then become “one” in Christ.
- and because they are Christ’s, are Abraham’s seed and “heirs” according to the promise.
Before answering the question, “Who are the children of God, we must clearly understand what the Apostle Paul told the ecclesia at Ephesus, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, . . . “
And so there is only one way of understanding the Scriptures. And because there is no contradiction in the Word of God, and God is truth, we should find no trouble in assembling together all the clues given to understand who the children of God are.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One