Children of God – Wallace Articles

6/7/10

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Many people think that if someone desires to follow Jesus, then that person should present to God their wish to be a part of His family, and then claim the promises of Jesus as the basis for being allowed “in”. I assert, to the contrary however, that this is a mistaken concept, and that this idea puts us on an incorrect path from the start.

I maintain that we are members of God’s family by virtue of being the intended purpose of His creative act. In other words: He made us, therefore, we are His! After creating us, though, He then gave us the right of free will. Thus we possess the opportunity to choose to leave His family. Just as in the parable of the Prodigal Son of Luke 15; He doesn’t force us to stay with Him. We can choose to disinherit ourselves from His family and go attach ourselves to another family, if we so desire. We can, if we wish, claim to be the children of Satan and rebel against everything of God. But it is not correct to think that this is where we begin.

If we consider that our default state begins with us in Satan’s camp, this gives us two wrong ideas. First, it gives Satan too much claim over us. We think from the start that we’re his possession, and we have to somehow break free. Second, it gears us to be works oriented. We think, “If only I can do enough to prove my faithfulness to God, maybe He will adopt me into His family”. This then makes us try to earn our way into Heaven.

By contrast, if we consider that our default state begins with us as members of God’s family, then our task becomes much easier. First, we recognize that we are already children of God, and all we have to do is choose to retain His family name. We need only tell our Father that it is our wish to remain with Him; He will then see to it that our desire, and His, is fully confirmed. Second, it lets us recognize that our enemy has no right to claim us as his. We may have been born in a world that is a spiritual battleground, and we may have been born with spiritual handicaps that weaken us; but we can still realize that it was the Enemy who has brought these curses upon us, and fight against him. Third, it helps us see that the Enemy’s every effort is to trick us into thinking that we have none of the rights and power of sons and daughters of God; rather that we are outcasts suffering under God’s displeasure. This lie is to shift our focus from fighting with Satan to get him out of our house, to fighting with God to let us into His house. Fourth, it brings us to recognize that we are already loved by our Father, despite our earlier misconceptions, and we don’t have to earn anything. This understanding helps us to accept and use the right and power and dominion that are inherent in every child of God.

Are you shocked yet? Then let me go even further. By giving due consideration to what it means to be a son or daughter of God, we can see some confusing Bible texts in a new light. We recognize that within the earthly world a son or daughter of a king is of royal blood and thus is a prince or princess. Applying this same principle, a son or daughter of God would be of the godly blood line; and thus would be a … what? In Psalm 82:6 God says to us, “You are gods and are children of the Most High.” Can you accept that? Can you see that a child of the one and only God, with a capital “G”, could also be called a god, with a small “g”? God himself said it; do you believe it?

Consider also the text of Psalm 8:5, “God made man just a little lower than the ‘heavenly beings’.” Because the translators were afraid of asserting too much, they interpreted that word as “angels”; that is, we’re a little below the angels. But it should properly have been translated as “God”; and thus read, we’re just a little below our Father. Which is the correct standing for His children.

This thought also gives new dimension to Satan’s temptation of Adam & Eve. He told them that if they disobeyed their Father their eyes would be opened and they would be like gods. The truth was that they already were like gods. But by sinning, rather than gaining a clearer sight of this fact, their eyes were shut and they lost sight of it altogether. They then succumbed to Satan’s further lie that they were now “no gods”. He even convinced the human race to consider such a thought blasphemy. “How dare you think that you’re children of God? Who could ever believe such a thing of sinners? Shame on you! Don’t you know you must be humble?”

Consider also the miracles that Jesus did: turning water into wine, withering a tree, calming a storm, walking on water, healing the sick, and even raising the dead. Are not all these acts things that we even now think of as “godlike”? Aren’t these the actions of a god? This is why we, at least subconsciously, think of Jesus as working in His capacity as God. Yet He tells us that these things were done in His power as a man; albeit, a man who knows who he is in the family of God. And He tells us that we can do the same thing.

This brings us to the question, “If we really are already sons and daughters of God, why does the Bible refer to us as ‘servants’?” The truth is, we are both! The confusion lays in our misunderstanding of what is meant by being a servant.

Think for a moment of a rich man who has a large house. We consider him the “boss of his home”, the “king of his castle”. Further, since he is rich, we feel he has earned respect by being successful in business. So we have no problem recognizing his standing. Now imagine that he decides to have a party in his home, and he invites you to attend. When you arrive he greets you at the door, he ushers you to a seat, he gets you a drink and some food, he does all he can to see that you are comfortable and attended; then when it’s all over, he cleans up, washes the dishes, and takes out the trash. All the actions he performed to ensure that you enjoyed yourself are things typically associated with servants. So which was he — a king or a servant? By his nature and being he is the ruler of his domain, but by his duty he is also a servant. By choosing to become a host of a party, he accepted to tend to his guests and their needs.

We equate the word “servant” with the word “slave; that is, someone of no consequence. It would be better to equate it with “helper”, or “assistant”, or “teacher”; or any number of other words, but which refer to someone of standing. Jesus said in John 13:13-16, “If I your Master can serve you, then you likewise can serve others.” We don’t think of Jesus or even the Apostles as unimportant. So then why do we consider that if we are to be spiritual servants then we must be nothing more than slaves?

When Jesus came to Earth, He took on the role of being a servant to mankind; yet He did not cease to be God. Although He made many assertions that He was a “Son of Man”, on one or two occasions He acknowledged that He was also the “Son of God”. He was both: So are we. We are children of God called to serve others so that they too can find their standing with their Father. Recognize who you are; then follow your Model.