There is a false teaching that has spread like cancer among churches for decades now that we are all--every single one of us--innately and automatically children of God. This heresy must be fought for the sake of Christ, for the sake of His Gospel, for the sake of His atoning work on the cross and the salvation of lost sinners. We are not all children of God. Even a cursory read of Jesus' words in the Gospels would inform the novice that we are not all children of God. If we were all automatically children of God then Jesus would not have told the Jewish religious leaders of His day: "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father" (John 8:44). In conclusion, He tells them, "He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God" (John 8:47).
If we were all children of God then Paul would not have called us--every single one of us--innately and automatically, by nature nonetheless, "children of wrath" who are spiritually dead in our sins, living our lives according to the course of this wicked world, even according to the spiritual entities who are now "working in the sons [the children] of disobedience," as we all live "in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind" (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). Whatever we say about mortals we must say that we are not all children of God.
THE OFFSPRING OF GOD
There is, however, a sense in which we can boldly claim that every single human being that is born into the world is an offspring of God. Paul is given opportunity to speak to the Athenians in the Areopagus, where the council of Athens meets to discuss religion and education, about God and his relationship with humanity: "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:24, 25). They worshiped gods, who were believed to dwell in statues and other idol creations, but the true and living God (cf. 1 Thess. 1:9, 10) is not worshiped in such manner; nor is He fed like the pagan gods, by the offering of various foods, since He is Himself is the Source of all life: "since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25 NASB) ... "for in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28 ESV). Each day of our lives was recorded in God's book before one of them came to pass (Ps. 139:16). Not even one seemingly insignificant bird falls dead to the ground apart from the will of God the Father (Matt. 10:29).
God is Creator of all that exists, of all that is, seen and unseen, including each human being ever to exist (Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:7; 5:1, 2; 9:6; Deut. 4:32; Job 4:17; 10:8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 31:15; 33:4; 34:19; Ps. 8:3, 4, 5, 6; 89:47; 95:6; 100:3; 104:30; 119:73, 74; 138:8; 139:13-16; Eccl. 3:11; 12:7; Isa. 17:7; 42:5; 43:7; 44:24; 49:5; 64:8; Jer. 1:5; 27:5; Zech. 12:1; Mal. 2:10; Matt. 19:4; John 1:3; Acts 17:26, 27, 28; 1 Cor. 8:6; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; 3:10; Heb. 3:4; James 3:9; Rev. 4:11), and He creates each human being, in the words of Wayne Grudem, to be a unique representative of the triune God upon the earth. God creates all of the "inward parts" (related to that which is metaphysical within us) of our being and our existence (Ps. 139:13)--shaping us body, soul (heart or personality), mind (intellect) and spirit (cf. Heb. 4:12). We each "fall" into sin and are responsible (Rom. 3:23), we spiritually die (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3) and thereby we stand in need of redemption (Rom. 6:23; 10:9 10; 2 Cor. 5:14, 15, 19, 20, 21), while the grace of God leads to redemption through faith in Christ the King (John 1:12, 13, 16; Rom. 2:4; Eph. 2:5, 8, 9, 10).
God made "from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:26-27 ESV). If we are all naturally redeemed children of God then why did God task us with seeking Him and trying to find Him? Are we lost? Are we spiritually separated from Him? Yes, in fact, that is exactly the case! Our sin separates us from God (Isa. 59:2). He is still our Creator, and we are still His offspring, but we live in broken fellowship with Him. Yes, "'in Him we live and move and have our being,' as even some of your own poets have said," Paul informs them, "'for we are indeed His offspring'" (Acts 17:28). He adds:
THE CHILD OF GOD
Since we are born into the world already a condemned sinner, by the inheritance of a fallen nature that is bent toward sinning against our Creator (cf. Ps. 51:5 CSB; Matt. 7:11; John 3:6; 6:63; Rom. 5:12, 14, 18, 19; 1 Cor. 15:21, 22; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3), then there is already something innately and automatically wrong with us by our very nature (Eph. 2:3). This is the conversation that was had between Jesus and the Pharisee Nicodemus. "Rabbi," says Nicodemus, "we [Jewish religious leaders] know that You have come to us from God as a Rabbi--for no one can do these miraculous signs that You do unless God is with him" (John 3:2, my translation). Jesus responds, curiously, "Of an absolute truth I tell you: unless one is born again [or born from above] he or she cannot see the Kingdom of God" (John 3:3, my translation). Jesus says nothing, not one affirming word, about having come from God as Rabbi, though He was, and performing miracles (and He did--many more than could be recorded according to John 20:30, 31). Nicodemus is confused (John 3:4) and so Jesus reasserts: "Of an absolute truth I tell you: unless one is born of water and the Spirit he or she cannot enter into the Kingdom of God" (John 3:5, my translation). But if we are all innately and automatically children of God then why this notion from Jesus about some people not entering the Kingdom of God--why the condition?
We learn from the author of this Gospel that Jesus came to His own Jewish people and they, largely, did not welcome / receive Him (John 1:11). This is paramount! For John then writes: "But as many as [did] receive Him, to them He gave the right [or power] to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12 NASB). The fact that we, each one of us, must become a child of God informs us that we are not all children of God. Why? Because that "which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6 NASB). Jesus elsewhere says: "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life" (John 6:63). Here is the problem: our flesh (both physical and the disposition of the mind) can only produce death within us for we are spiritually dead--disconnected from the Father because of our sins. We are spiritually "dead," we need spiritual "life" (regeneration), because we are naturally "children of wrath" (Eph. 2:3) and "children of wrath" are not "children of God." Jesus then tells Nicodemus that he should have already known this truth about being born again, born anew, born from above (John 3:7). How? From the Old Testament. We read of this very subject when God speaks to His Jewish people through His prophet--people He would gather again unto Himself (Ezek. 36:24):
THE ADOPTION OF GOD'S CHILDREN
Assuring a group of people gathered at a funeral, or a wedding, or a church service that we are all children of God without any caveat or attached condition of the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ not only grants a terrible sense of false security among those who are not yet regenerated, not yet saved children of God, should horrify the speaker. I would assume that someone who makes such a comment is either unregenerate as well or a theological Universalist. But there is yet another offense rendered by the spread of this lie: the notion arrogantly presumes upon the grace of God. You cannot force God's hand to receive someone who rejects the redemption of Jesus Christ:
CONCLUSION
Can you see, then, how telling people that we are all naturally children of God is so horrifyingly dangerous? You might as well tell them that we are all innately good, we are in no need of saving, and that we will all get to Heaven when we die. That is the Gospel of Hell but it is no less damning than telling everyone that we are all children of God. Jesus told His disciples: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father [and thus no one is getting into Heaven] but through Me" (John 14:6). You can disbelieve that Jesus said this if you want to and you can then rip out the entire book of John from your Bible. But you must then also rip out the book of Acts, for the same is insisted upon there, that "there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under Heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Of course, while you are ripping out books of the Bible that do not agree with your theology, you must then go over and rip out the book of Romans, for Paul, too, insists that there is no condemnation "for those" and only those "who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). He insists that the only one who will be saved, the only one who will go to Heaven, is you who will "confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and [you who] believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead," it is "you [who] will be saved" (Rom. 10:9).
Clearly, we are not all children of God, or there would be no conditions to salvation. The following is true from ages past to now: that
If we were all children of God then Paul would not have called us--every single one of us--innately and automatically, by nature nonetheless, "children of wrath" who are spiritually dead in our sins, living our lives according to the course of this wicked world, even according to the spiritual entities who are now "working in the sons [the children] of disobedience," as we all live "in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind" (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). Whatever we say about mortals we must say that we are not all children of God.
THE OFFSPRING OF GOD
There is, however, a sense in which we can boldly claim that every single human being that is born into the world is an offspring of God. Paul is given opportunity to speak to the Athenians in the Areopagus, where the council of Athens meets to discuss religion and education, about God and his relationship with humanity: "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:24, 25). They worshiped gods, who were believed to dwell in statues and other idol creations, but the true and living God (cf. 1 Thess. 1:9, 10) is not worshiped in such manner; nor is He fed like the pagan gods, by the offering of various foods, since He is Himself is the Source of all life: "since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25 NASB) ... "for in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28 ESV). Each day of our lives was recorded in God's book before one of them came to pass (Ps. 139:16). Not even one seemingly insignificant bird falls dead to the ground apart from the will of God the Father (Matt. 10:29).
God is Creator of all that exists, of all that is, seen and unseen, including each human being ever to exist (Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:7; 5:1, 2; 9:6; Deut. 4:32; Job 4:17; 10:8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 31:15; 33:4; 34:19; Ps. 8:3, 4, 5, 6; 89:47; 95:6; 100:3; 104:30; 119:73, 74; 138:8; 139:13-16; Eccl. 3:11; 12:7; Isa. 17:7; 42:5; 43:7; 44:24; 49:5; 64:8; Jer. 1:5; 27:5; Zech. 12:1; Mal. 2:10; Matt. 19:4; John 1:3; Acts 17:26, 27, 28; 1 Cor. 8:6; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; 3:10; Heb. 3:4; James 3:9; Rev. 4:11), and He creates each human being, in the words of Wayne Grudem, to be a unique representative of the triune God upon the earth. God creates all of the "inward parts" (related to that which is metaphysical within us) of our being and our existence (Ps. 139:13)--shaping us body, soul (heart or personality), mind (intellect) and spirit (cf. Heb. 4:12). We each "fall" into sin and are responsible (Rom. 3:23), we spiritually die (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3) and thereby we stand in need of redemption (Rom. 6:23; 10:9 10; 2 Cor. 5:14, 15, 19, 20, 21), while the grace of God leads to redemption through faith in Christ the King (John 1:12, 13, 16; Rom. 2:4; Eph. 2:5, 8, 9, 10).
God made "from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:26-27 ESV). If we are all naturally redeemed children of God then why did God task us with seeking Him and trying to find Him? Are we lost? Are we spiritually separated from Him? Yes, in fact, that is exactly the case! Our sin separates us from God (Isa. 59:2). He is still our Creator, and we are still His offspring, but we live in broken fellowship with Him. Yes, "'in Him we live and move and have our being,' as even some of your own poets have said," Paul informs them, "'for we are indeed His offspring'" (Acts 17:28). He adds:
Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent ["repent and believe the Gospel," Mark 1:15], because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed ["For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father," John 5:22 NASB]; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:29-30 ESV).Being the offspring of God, however, is not the same as being an adopted and redeemed and regenerated child of God. Just as you were physically born into the world and became someone's child; so too must you be spiritually born into the Kingdom of God, and become a child of God, adopted by His love and grace and mercy through Christ Jesus our Lord. No one born into the world is an automatic child of God.
THE CHILD OF GOD
Since we are born into the world already a condemned sinner, by the inheritance of a fallen nature that is bent toward sinning against our Creator (cf. Ps. 51:5 CSB; Matt. 7:11; John 3:6; 6:63; Rom. 5:12, 14, 18, 19; 1 Cor. 15:21, 22; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3), then there is already something innately and automatically wrong with us by our very nature (Eph. 2:3). This is the conversation that was had between Jesus and the Pharisee Nicodemus. "Rabbi," says Nicodemus, "we [Jewish religious leaders] know that You have come to us from God as a Rabbi--for no one can do these miraculous signs that You do unless God is with him" (John 3:2, my translation). Jesus responds, curiously, "Of an absolute truth I tell you: unless one is born again [or born from above] he or she cannot see the Kingdom of God" (John 3:3, my translation). Jesus says nothing, not one affirming word, about having come from God as Rabbi, though He was, and performing miracles (and He did--many more than could be recorded according to John 20:30, 31). Nicodemus is confused (John 3:4) and so Jesus reasserts: "Of an absolute truth I tell you: unless one is born of water and the Spirit he or she cannot enter into the Kingdom of God" (John 3:5, my translation). But if we are all innately and automatically children of God then why this notion from Jesus about some people not entering the Kingdom of God--why the condition?
We learn from the author of this Gospel that Jesus came to His own Jewish people and they, largely, did not welcome / receive Him (John 1:11). This is paramount! For John then writes: "But as many as [did] receive Him, to them He gave the right [or power] to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12 NASB). The fact that we, each one of us, must become a child of God informs us that we are not all children of God. Why? Because that "which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6 NASB). Jesus elsewhere says: "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life" (John 6:63). Here is the problem: our flesh (both physical and the disposition of the mind) can only produce death within us for we are spiritually dead--disconnected from the Father because of our sins. We are spiritually "dead," we need spiritual "life" (regeneration), because we are naturally "children of wrath" (Eph. 2:3) and "children of wrath" are not "children of God." Jesus then tells Nicodemus that he should have already known this truth about being born again, born anew, born from above (John 3:7). How? From the Old Testament. We read of this very subject when God speaks to His Jewish people through His prophet--people He would gather again unto Himself (Ezek. 36:24):
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh [your old unregenerate way of thinking and behaving] and give you a heart of flesh [a renewed, regenerate, spiritual way of thinking and behaving]. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land [Israel] that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people and I will be your God (Ezek. 36:25-28 NASB).There is only one way to become a child of God and that is by the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:12). Paul attests to this truth by writing to Titus of God's determination--even His predetermination (Eph. 1:4, 5)--to make a people for Himself:
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men [who will believe, 1 Cor. 1:21], instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds (Titus 2:11-14 NASB). ... For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:3-7 NKJV).But Paul also infers that all will not be saved: "To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed" (Titus 1:15-16 NASB). These people are not children of God and they will not see Heaven.
THE ADOPTION OF GOD'S CHILDREN
Assuring a group of people gathered at a funeral, or a wedding, or a church service that we are all children of God without any caveat or attached condition of the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ not only grants a terrible sense of false security among those who are not yet regenerated, not yet saved children of God, should horrify the speaker. I would assume that someone who makes such a comment is either unregenerate as well or a theological Universalist. But there is yet another offense rendered by the spread of this lie: the notion arrogantly presumes upon the grace of God. You cannot force God's hand to receive someone who rejects the redemption of Jesus Christ:
- Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey [or "believe in," NKJV] the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him (John 3:36 ESV)--so the wrath of God is not yet spent on unbelievers [Matt. 10:28; Rom. 5:9; Gal. 5:19-21; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2 Pet. 2:9];
- All that the Father gives Me [Jesus] will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out (John 6:37);
- He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, "From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38);
- Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins [unredeemed, unregenerated, not a child of God]; for unless you believe that I Am [a confession by Jesus that He is divinely equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit], you will die in your sins (John 8:28);
- If God were your Father [says Jesus to the Jewish religious leaders of His day], you would love Me (John 8:42);
- For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these [and only these people] are sons [children] of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons [children] by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit Himself [who lives within each born again believer in Jesus Christ] testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him (Rom. 8:14-17);
- And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons [children], the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23);
- For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh [the Jewish people--the elect of God--saved by grace through faith in Christ], who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons (Rom. 9:3-4);
- But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons [by faith in Christ, John 1:11, 12]. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God (Gal. 4:4-6);
- Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us [who by the grace of God believe in Jesus Christ] with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself [this is how one becomes a child of God], according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved (Eph. 1:3-6);
- How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? (Heb. 10:29 NASB).
CONCLUSION
Can you see, then, how telling people that we are all naturally children of God is so horrifyingly dangerous? You might as well tell them that we are all innately good, we are in no need of saving, and that we will all get to Heaven when we die. That is the Gospel of Hell but it is no less damning than telling everyone that we are all children of God. Jesus told His disciples: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father [and thus no one is getting into Heaven] but through Me" (John 14:6). You can disbelieve that Jesus said this if you want to and you can then rip out the entire book of John from your Bible. But you must then also rip out the book of Acts, for the same is insisted upon there, that "there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under Heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Of course, while you are ripping out books of the Bible that do not agree with your theology, you must then go over and rip out the book of Romans, for Paul, too, insists that there is no condemnation "for those" and only those "who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). He insists that the only one who will be saved, the only one who will go to Heaven, is you who will "confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and [you who] believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead," it is "you [who] will be saved" (Rom. 10:9).
Clearly, we are not all children of God, or there would be no conditions to salvation. The following is true from ages past to now: that
the wrath of God [1 Thess. 5:9] is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse ["The heavens declare the glory of God; the sky displays His handiwork. Day after day it speaks out; night after night it reveals His greatness. There is no actual speech, or word, nor is its voice literally heard. Yet its voice echoes throughout the earth; its words carry to the distant horizon," Ps. 19:1-4 NET]. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened (Rom. 1:18-21 NASB).Such darkened hearts need the Light of the World, Jesus Christ (John 8:12), as well as our light (Matt. 5:16) as we share the Light of the Gospel (2 Cor. 4:3, 4). Instead of falsely telling people that we all are already children of God, tell them the Gospel, tell them how they might become a child of God through faith in Christ Jesus (John 1:11, 12, 13). But don't let that lie slip from your lips even one more time.
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