I listen to a lot of people discuss serious topics every day. No, I don’t live or work in a place filled with serious discussions. Rather, I listen to at least one most excellent talk radio program faithfully every day. And, I watch at least a couple of hours of Fox News on television every day. Now you understand. Right? I listen to a lot of people have serious discussions every day.
Almost once each week, I hear someone trying to close out a discussion, sometimes with resignation, make the remark, “Well, after all, we’re all God’s children.”
I always respond, “No. We’re not.”
Following the Lord Jesus Christ often forces one to face certain very inconvenient truths. One of those truths: “We are all creatures created by God. But, we are not all children of God.”
”What?” you say. “You’re nuts! Of course we are all God’s children!”
It’s easy to understand why most people would like to wish this were true. Most of our lives we’ve been conditioned to think the best of people, see the “good” in them, treat them equally and with fairness, allow them to be whoever they choose to be. I’m not certain that’s how God looks at humankind.
Oh, yes. God wants every person to come into a relationship with Him. As the Apostle Peter has written:
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
However, the status of moving from creature to child has a very serious and very important condition. As the Apostle John explains in John 1:12-13:
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
”Let me see if I get your point,” you may inquire. “To move from ‘creature’ to ‘child,’ a person has to receive ‘Him.’ Is that right?”
You’ve got it. The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s great gift to humankind. God sent His precious Son to die on Calvary’s cruel cross that the shedding of His blood would, once and for all time, pay the penalty for our sin. God raised His Son, Jesus, from the dead to give us the assurance that in death, we, too, will be resurrected to everlasting life.
And, not only that, God sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in the heart of every person who will receive God’s gift of eternal life through His Son. In that “receiving” we acknowledge what God has done for us and, with gratitude, move from a creature to a child.
Once we acknowledge God’s gift, He sets us on a pathway that will lead us to ever-greater obedience to His will and His Word. But, we’re not on that quest alone. Remember? God gave us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to lead us, to guide us, to help us along our pathway.
So, when I say, “No.” to the idea that we are all God’s children, I am not being some silly, nasty old man who doesn’t like people very much. Quite to the contrary. I believe we must determine to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. And, even more, I want to do everything I can to prayerfully, carefully, and respectfully introduce people to the one person who loved them enough to die for them, the Lord Jesus Christ.
No matter what other paths I may temporarily pursue in the course of my life, in the final analysis, nothing else really matters.
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