I am a son of God. I just want to say that up front. I am not his firstborn son. I am not the one who is uniquely called the Son of God. I wasn’t even born as God’s son; I was adopted. But I am, nevertheless, a son of God. I am the natural son of Wesley and Ruth Ann, the stepson of Jacqueline, the husband of Catherine, the natural brother of John, the step-brother of Sam and Michelle, and I am a son of God.
It says so right in the Bible. John 1:12 reads, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” And in 1 John 3:1-2 we read, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Further, Romans 8:16-17 says, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” So I’m not just a son of God, I’m also one of his heirs.
Okay, anyone who has been a Christian for more than ten minutes has heard that we are God’s children, his sons and his daughters. But most of the time it seems like we just mouth the words without really understanding what we’re saying. It’s become just a happy thought to get us through the day. So I’ll say it again. If you are a believer in Christ, say it with me: I am God’s son (daughter). God, himself, is my Father.
Take a moment to let that sink in. The fact that I identify as a son of God is just a bit of interesting trivia. I recently read about a city council member in Oregon who identifies as a turtle, so saying that I identify as a son of God doesn’t really mean anything important. But looking at it from the other side, the fact that God identifies me as his son is beyond important; it’s nothing less than staggering.
If this is true, and the Bible says that it is, then my identity as God’s son ought to define every aspect of my life. And of your life, if God is your Father as well as mine. When we pray, we speak with our Father. When we read the Scriptures, we read what our Father wants to tell us about himself. When we fellowship with other believers, we are speaking with sons and daughters of God, who are also our brothers and sisters. When we work to build God’s kingdom, we are building our own inheritance. In fact, everything we do in this world should, in some way, reflect our identity as sons and daughters of God. But as important as it is to work out, and live out, the consequences of being God’s son or daughter, in this essay I want to I want to back up a bit and first consider how it’s even possible for an ordinary human being to be a son or daughter of God.
Now some people will say that we are all God’s children simply as a poetic way of saying that God created us. In a similar manner, we Americans sometimes poetically call George Washington the father of our country. But that’s not what I’m talking about here. When I say that I’m God’s son, I mean that I have a particular kind of personal relationship with him that is analogous to the relationship between an ideal father and his son. I am not just another part of God’s creation, but something much more.
The New Testament affirms this as well. After all, we can’t very well interpret John 1:12, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” as saying that those who believe in Jesus are given the right to have been created by God, because that would make no sense. Everyone was created by God. It’s not something that is retroactively given only to those who believe. Equally, where Romans 8:14 says, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God,” the Scripture again can’t be talking only about having been created by God. It must mean something more. In fact, the very next verse, Romans 8:15, adds, “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”
Now, if you’re interested, you can read the story of how I became a son of God. But the really important thing to know is that the only way anyone becomes a son or a daughter of God is by trust in the one unique Son of God, Jesus Christ. As the Scripture says:
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:20-26).
Why am I writing this? And why am I suggesting that visitors, most of whom I expect will already be believers, read this particular article first? Because I’ve come increasingly in the past few years to see that my identity as a son of God impacts every part of my life. If I want to live life to the fullest, then everything that I do needs to be the working out, the outward expression as it were, of who I am. And your life, equally, should come out of who you are. So take a few moments to think about who you really are, what your identity is. Ask God to show you. And if you, too, are a child of God, then I challenge you to let your identity define you in everything that you do. Because, frankly, if you choose not to, I doubt very much that you’re going to find much that’s useful on this website.