Why Not Everyone Is A Child Of God

What does it mean to be a child of God?

Many times, we use this phrase flippantly: we are all children of God.  We use it as our reason to love others, to treat each other with respect.

Did you know that not everyone on this earth is a child of God?

There are so many things that are as plain as day in scripture, but we have developed many ideas by using phrases over and over, generationally passing down these human ideas and acting like they are scripture.  Like they are truth.

Do I believe that every human on this earth should be loved by the church?  Absolutely yes.  Without exception, no matter what someone has done, yes.  There is not one person on this earth that is beyond redemption.

However, this post is about the children of God.  Are you a child of God?  How can we know if we are considered part of God’s family?  Why aren’t all of His created people part of His family?

Adam and Eve allowed sin into the world.  When they fell, they were cast out of God’s presence, out of community with Him.  They lost their blessing, their commission – to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)

For so many years, God was the keeper of the people, the mighty warrior who kept the wayward Israel from going too far down the wrong path.  He was to be feared, and His presence was inaccessible and deadly to all but the high priest, one day a year.  There was a great separation caused by sin, and there was no way to bridge that gap.

This is not what He intended for us.  And it’s not what our hearts long for.

Jesus came to fix things.  He said, “no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  He’s the door back into the garden.  He brought us back into relationship with God, and because of His sacrifice, we can be in the presence of God without dying.  Because we are washed clean, sanctified, set apart…now we are part of His family again, and no longer full of sin or part of the world.

Jesus is the first-born of many brothers and sisters (Romans 8:29).  Before Jesus, we couldn’t be part of God’s family.  God as a Father was a totally foreign concept to His people before Jesus.  But Jesus continually spoke of God as a Father, not just His but all of ours.  All of those who believe Jesus died for their sins and rose again.

This was the plan all along.  To fix what happened in the beginning.  To mend the relationship.  God created us to be in relationship with Him.  Jesus breaks the power of sin, and so now instead of being a slave to sin, to darkness, to our own flesh and broken minds and hearts and spirits, we become whole.  Healed.  Righteous.  Through the Holy Spirit, the spirit of adoption, a heart-cry is awakened in us to cry out to God, “Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:15) This is only possible because of Jesus, and it is an incredible thing that we shouldn’t take for granted.

We have a perfect Father who loves us so completely and with perfect goodness and love.  That cares about us so much that His thoughts for us outnumber all of the grains of sand in the world!  Who knows exactly how many hairs are on your head, and who knows your pains and hurts and wounds and wants nothing more than to bind them up and see you walking in power, joy, love, self-control….in the authority of a child of God.

As a child of God, you are an heir to the kingdom (Romans 8:17).  You have been given the kingdom of God (Luke 12:32).  Instead of being trapped by past failures, you can be launched into outrageously good blessings and leap forward into greatness because of Jesus’ past.  His past becomes yours.  His death becomes your past’s death.  All those failures and sins of the past are not chains.  They are not on you.  They are ashes, buried deep in the group.  Unrecognizable, and not part of you anymore.

You are a new creation, a child of the King.  You are His spokesman, His ambassador on the earth.  Why?  Because Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, and we are His body, here to be hands and feet to the lost (Ephesians 1:20-23).  To preach the good news and make disciples.  Our highest calling is to love and deliver those that aren’t in the family yet.

Not everyone is a child of God.  There are so many lost, deceived people out there.  They might seem hostile, but God knows their hearts, He knows who is longing for a change.  It’s our job as His children to show them how good of a father He really is.

It’s important to know that there are so many that aren’t children of God because God is longing for them to come home.  He’s the father of the prodigal children.  There’s no condemnation or shame in His kingdom, and He is longing to run out and meet them as them turn away from the slop of life and back toward their daddy.

This is our Father.  We are His children.  And we have a mission to love and be loved.

Prayer

Abba, you love me more completely and perfectly than I can understand.  Your goodness towards me is hard to believe.  And yet I know that the Spirit of adoption, the Holy Spirit that lives in me, reveals your Father-heart to my heart.  Keep revealing it, Father, I want to stand more firmly on Your promises.  I want to love the lost, to be Your hands and feet and to proclaim Your Truth without fear.  Give me boldness and courage as I choose to believe and strengthen in faith, rather than succumbing to fear again.  I declare that I am justified, set apart from the world, holy and righteous through Jesus’s blood.  And I believe that you are always good to me.  I love you, Father.  Thank you for your grace!  AMEN.