Not that long ago Pastor Jack reminded us of a truth that sometimes gets confused. Not everyone is a child of God. To be clear, God is everyone’s creator and all of humanity is created in God’s image and therefore has value. But the Bible is very clear about who we were and who we are in Christ.
Ephesians 2:3 reminds us that at one time all of us were children of wrath, living according to the desires of the flesh, and deserving of God’s wrath against our sin. John 8:44 shows us that for anyone who is not in Christ, as religious as he or she may be, they are a child of the devil. 1 Thessalonians 5:4-10 makes it clear that we are either children of light or children of darkness.
Even while I was growing up in the church, until I turned to Jesus in faith, I was a child of the devil, a child of darkness, and a child of wrath. Had God not intervened, I never would have become his child.
One of my newest memory verses is John 1:12, “But to all who did receive him (Jesus), who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”. 1 John 3:1 says “See what kind of love the Father has lavished upon us, that we might be called children of God”. Ephesians 1:5 and Romans 8:15-17 remind me that I have been adopted and am now a child of God.
I’m so thankful that at the core of who I am, I am a child of God saved by grace through faith in Jesus! My core identity isn’t as a husband, or a father, or a pastor, but as a child of God. I want to live out of that identity everyday, and I want to share with others that they too, can be God’s child.
Pastor Kyle