Galatians 4:3 tells us that before Christ came “we were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world.” When Adam and Eve walked away from God’s rule to seek knowledge apart from relationship with God, they spiritually died and became subject to the basic spiritual principles of this world which amount to survival of the fittest. Before we came to Christ, we lived like orphans. We were locked into survival mode like children with no parents, slaves to the fear of man and subject to “empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world” (Colossians 2:8).
To restore our connection to God as our Father, God put his Spirit into a virgin named Mary who gave birth to a child. Isaiah 9:6 prophesied about Jesus: “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” That’s a really long name, so God told Mary to just name him Jesus, which means “YAHWEH saves” or “YAHWEH is salvation.” Jesus was born as a human baby, yet he is also “Mighty God” because he’s one with the Father, God himself. Jesus came as the one and only Son of God to show us how sons of God live and to make a way for us to be adopted as children of God.
As a child, Jesus demonstrated how sons of God grow to be like our heavenly Father. At one point, Jesus got separated from his parents in Jerusalem. Luke 2:46-47 tells us that his parents “found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers” (NIV). To have insight like Jesus, we need to do what he did: remain in God’s presence, sit among spiritual teachers, listen and ask questions. As a child, Jesus learned about God the same way we do. Engaging in the church as a learner and growing in community is the path taken by children of God.
After Jesus’ parents found him, Luke tells us that he “went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:50-51, NIV). Jesus sought the presence and will of God, his Father, and also submitted to his parents. By honoring God and his parents, Jesus grew in the favor of both God and man. Matthew 3:16-17 tells us, “After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.’” At this point, Jesus had done no public miracles. He’d simply been an obedient Son of God and his parents, and this brought the Father joy.
While there are many names of God in the Old Testament that reveal various aspects of God’s nature, the only name Jesus ever used to refer to God was Father – not only his Father, but ours. The radical message of Jesus is that the sovereign God who created the universe is also our loving Father, and all who are baptized into Christ become dearly loved children who bring him joy. Beloved Son is Jesus’ identity, and in Christ, it is ours.
Identity Puzzle Piece: Who are we in Christ, the Son of God? Children of God.
Ephesians 1:4-6 tells us that “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” It gave God pleasure to adopt you! You are without fault in the Father’s eyes as his beloved child because you received his Son. How can we be without fault in God’s eyes when we still stumble and make mistakes? Because the Father sees us as little children the way we view toddlers who are learning how to walk. We don’t fault toddlers for falling down because they’re learning. We consider children innocent even though they make mistakes. This is how the Father views us in Christ. When we fall down while learning how to walk with Christ, he bends down in grace to pick us up and help us get back on our feet.
In John 15:9 Jesus says, “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.” Imagine how the Father loved Jesus, his only Son who perfectly obeyed him. By the grace of God, that kind of love is poured out on us! “So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding” (Ephesians 1:6-8). God doesn’t shower us with kindness because we earned it, but because he’s so rich in kindness and grace that he wants to pour out his wisdom on his children. Our response is to praise him, love him for loving us, and seek to learn about him like Jesus did as a child.
1 John 3:1 says, “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!” How do we know we are beloved children? Romans 8:15-17 says that “you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, ‘Abba, Father.’ 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” Jesus promised he would not leave us as orphans but would send his Spirit. We are delivered from an orphan spirit of fear by receiving God’s Spirit who affirms to us that we are God’s children. Romans 8:14 tells us that “all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”
When my mother died in 2016, the Lord told me he would take over as my mother. I had no idea what that meant until I learned who the Holy Spirit is and his activity in our lives. Scripture reveals that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual birth to us because we are “born of the Spirit,” according to John 3. The Holy Spirit is our Teacher, Comforter, Helper, and giver of gifts – all the things my mother was to me. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would remind us of his words, just like your mom is always reminding you to do things – “Shut the door, take a coat!” Even though I have been “orphaned” by my mother, I don’t feel incomplete because the Holy Spirit parents me in every way I need. I even feel his presence rest on me when I worship like a hug from heaven. Just like I talked to my mom about everything, I talk to God all day and he listens to me, responding with love and guidance.
Ephesians 5:1 says, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children” (ESV). Children mimic their parents, so beloved children of God do what he does. The Spirit leads us to imitate Jesus, the Son of God. The gospels show us that Jesus went out early in the morning to pray to the Father. It was such a regular occurrence that Luke makes note of it in Luke 5:16, saying, “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (NIV). Jesus’ rich prayer life is how he could confidently say, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does” (John 5:19). Jesus spent time with the Father to discern the Father’s will and then was an “imitator of God” as his beloved child. It may seem intimidating to live from prayer like Jesus instead of just figuring stuff out on our own like orphans, and yet that’s exactly why we’re given the Holy Spirit, so we can live as children of God like Jesus.
Instead of praying to a god who is distant, unconcerned, and whose anger must be placated – which is pagan religion – Jesus teaches us in Matthew 6 to pray to God as our Father who cares about things like our daily bread and protection from evil. Jesus teaches us to pray with belief, promising, “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). He teaches us to pray with persistence, admonishing us to, “keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” He teaches us to pray with trust that God is a good Father, declaring in Matthew 7:11: “If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.”
Children of God ask their Father to meet all their needs with belief that he will give them good gifts if they ask and keep on asking. The persistence piece of the puzzle is not because we have to nag the Father, but because we’re exercising our faith when we pray for something with belief for a long time. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that “it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” Persistence to seek the Father with belief that he will reward us pleases him. In Jeremiah 29:13 the Father promised, “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.” God wants us to seek him, and when we seek him wholeheartedly like a child playing hide and seek with her daddy, the Father promises to be found.
When God promised Israel they would find him, he had just declared a 70-year exile from the land of Israel. What keeps people from seeking God is fear of rejection, but God declares in Jeremiah that even when we’ve screwed up, we will find God if we come home. Jesus describes the Father’s love in the parable of the prodigal son who demanded his inheritance, left home, and squandered it on wild living. He represents those who ask the Father for his stuff but reject his authority and don’t want a relationship with him. The father in the parable had every right to reject the son who had disgraced him, but Jesus says that when the father saw his son return, “Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).
Jesus describes the father’s response with the same words God used to describe himself to Moses after the Israelites had broken covenant with God by worshiping the golden calf. “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. 7 I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty” (Exodus 34:6-7). Jesus intentionally described the father in the parable as “filled with love and compassion” because that is the nature of our heavenly Father, even when we’ve messed up big time. There’s no bigger betrayal than when the Israelites immediately broke the covenant they’d just made with God by worshiping the golden calf. Yet it is at this exact moment that God reveals to Moses he is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. He doesn’t excuse sin, but when we confess our sin, the Father forgives us and restores all we’ve lost because he has compassion on us.
If that’s how the Father responds to his rebellious children, how much more will he be found by his obedient children who seek him! Prayer is simply coming home to the Father to talk about our day, receive his love, and listen to his wise council just like Jesus did. If God seems silent, it’s because either the noise of our soul is drowning out his voice or he’s inviting us to go a little deeper and waiting for us to seek him for more. If we believe God wants to speak to us like he spoke to his Son, we will take time to be quiet and listen. Prayer is simply conversation with our heavenly Father because we have the Spirit of God’s Son leading us to pray as children of God. “Because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, ‘Abba, Father.’ 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir” (Galatians 4:6-7). We are heirs of God’s promises in scripture which are all fulfilled through Christ, according to 2 Corinthians 1:20.
At the end of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, the Father tells the older son who had faithfully remained with him, “Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours” (Luke 15:31). In Christ, we have God as our Father, and when we have the Father, we have everything we need! This is why Jesus admonishes us in Matthew 6 not to worry about things like food and clothing, for “These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (Matthew 6:32-33). We don’t live as orphans in the world’s financial system but in relationship with God in his house where there is no lack of provision. Jesus teaches us to be generous givers, for “God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19, NIV).
Christ, the Son of God, in Me: Romans 8:29 says that “God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” When we become children of God we join a family of believers, called the church. Jesus is the firstborn and only begotten Son of God, but we are adopted as brothers and sisters. Just like any good father wants his children to get along, the Son of God gives us many practical instructions for how to get along with each other like, “Do to others as you would like them to do to you” Luke 6:31. Christ in me cares about family relationships, both the family of God and the family living in my home.
One of the ten commandments God gave Israel was to “Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the LORD your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). Our obedience to our parents is connected to our obedience to God, and Jesus’ obedience to both his earthly and heavenly Father resulted in favor with God and people. Interestingly, Jesus quotes this command in both Matthew 15:4 and Matthew 19:19. He rebukes the self-righteous Pharisees for trying to get out of taking care of their parents. Honoring parents is the one command connected to a promise of a long, full life. As I parent, I can testify to the fact that parents love to bless obedient children. When my kids honor me, lots of stuff comes their way!
Sadly, our culture glorifies rebellion against parents, often pitting children against parents in media aimed at children. We have been discipled by our culture to see parents and any authority figure as our enemy. Yet we cannot be submitted to God while dishonoring those he’s placed in authority over us. God doesn’t ask us to only honor perfect parents. Jesus didn’t have perfect parents, yet he honored them out of obedience to God. I have heard many stories of people who decided to forgive and bless absent or abusive fathers who ended up either healing the relationship or being blessed by God in some other way. When God promises to bless us for obeying him – even when it’s hard – he follows through on his word.
I remember a time when the Lord asked me to intentionally honor my father. I wasn’t close to my father when I was growing up, but when my mother had a stroke that left her like a child in his care, I chose to honor him and show him greater respect than I had as a surly, sarcastic teenager. Exactly ten years after that shift in my attitude, my father paid for my sister and me to take a tour of Israel. What did God promise for honoring parents? “A long, full life in the land the LORD your God is giving you,” the land of Israel (Exodus 20:12). God literally fulfilled this command as my father paid for me to go to Isarel!
The very last words of the prophets in the Old Testament before God sent John the Baptist to preach repentance are found in Malachi 4:4-6: “Remember to obey the Law of Moses, my servant—all the decrees and regulations that I gave him on Mount Sinaifor all Israel. 5 Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. 6 His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.” What specific command is highlighted as God’s priority before the “great and dreadful day” of judgment? Reconciliation between children and parents. Jesus came to not only reconcile us to God as our Father, but to God’s original plan for our earthly families. Whether our parents or children respond to our efforts at reconciliation or not, Jesus declares in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (NIV).
In John 14:9 Jesus said that he showed us the Father. He did this by obeying the Father and doing his will out of love. He calls his disciples to imitate him, saying, “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love” (John 15:9-10). A good son obeys his father, and Jesus is the perfect Son of God. We obey the Father out of love because his commands are rooted in love for people. Jesus showed us the Father’s mercy and grace so we can love our children and others in the family of God with mercy and grace. In Matthew 12:49, Jesus pointed to his followers and declared that they are now his family. When we join the household of faith, we see everyone as our brother and sister and share what we have with them. Jesus teaches us how to get along with each other so that there will not only be harmony in God’s house, but our healthy families will cause the world to say, “I want that!”
Reflection: How can I love my family as the Father has loved me in Christ?
The Word Remaining in Me:
- Let the promised of Zephaniah 3:17 sink into your soul: “He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” Picture the Father holding you on his lap as an innocent child and ask the Holy Spirit what song Abba is singing over you today. Receive the revelation that you are a beloved child who is enjoyed by God.
- Read Hebrews 12:1-11. How did Jesus submit to the Father’s discipline? How does viewing trials as discipline that is training you to be a son like Jesus change your perspective? How does “keeping our eyes on Jesus” help us endure challenges and not give in to the lie that “God wouldn’t want me to be unhappy” which leads to selfishness? How does submission to God’s discipline produce joy?
- How does obeying Jesus’ instructions in Luke 6:27-36 make us “children of the Most High”? How do these relational commands train and discipline us to be like our Father in heaven?
- Read about God’s Kingdom financial system in 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. How does God’s economic plan ensure that his kids all have what they need? What causes his economic plan to break down? Ask the Father to meet your needs and give you a generous spirit so he can bless others through you.
Remaining in Love: Meditate on 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 in light of the revelation that God is love. This is how the Father loves you in Christ! We can only give what we’ve received, so receive the Father’s love in every broken place where you have felt unloved. Thank the Father for how he loves you with patience, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness, always hoping and never giving up on you. If your parents failed to love you in this way, I encourage you to release forgiveness and receive healing as you acknowledge the Father’s will for you to be loved. From a revelation of fullness of love that has been poured into you by the Holy Spirit, ask the Holy Spirit to show you how to love your family as the Father has loved you.
Bonus Online Content
Click here for a PDF of the Small Group Discussion Guide and Fun, Interactive Family Lesson
Worshiping From Your Identity as a child of God:
- Click here to be wrapped in the blanket of Jesus’ righteousness as a child of Abba, Father (“Abba” by Christy Nockels)
- Click here to worship as a child whose is home with the Father (“Home” by Christy Nockels)
- Click here to worship the Father who holds you securely in his hand (“Everything to You” [Spontaneous] by Bethel Music and Jenn Johnson)
- Click here to worship as a child who lives from the abundance of the Father (“You Alone” by David Crowder Band)
Child of God Identity Scriptures to Memorize and Pray:
I praise you, Father, for the glorious grace you have poured out on me by adopting me as your child and giving me eternal life with you through your Son. Thank you, Jesus, for bringing me into your Father’s household so I can live in fellowship with you and grow to understand the true God. Thank you for your Spirit who leads me in righteousness and affirms to my spirit that I belong to you. I am not a slave to fear but your beloved child. You are my inheritance, and in you I have all I need. I bring my needs before you today, trusting that you will provide both wisdom and resources. I am securely loved and held by you.
“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son” (Ephesians 1:4-6).
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory” (Romans 8:14-17).
“We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. 19 We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life” (1 John 5:18-20).
“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19, NIV).
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