Identifying the Children of God

Over the years, many people in society as well as within the church have repeated the sentiment that “we are all children of God” or that “everyone is a child of God.”

But is this true?

According to Scripture, everyone is not a child of God.

In fact, Jesus called some of the most religious and self-righteous people in Israel “children of the devil” (John 8:44) because their desires were to do the devil’s will, not God’s.

In Acts 17:28, the Apostle Paul quotes a Greek poet as saying, “For we are indeed his offspring.” He made that statement to pagans. However, Paul was not saying that the unsaved pagans before him were children of God.

Paul was linking “offspring of God” with being created by God. We all came from God because He created every person. But to be His child through faith is very different.

While every person is a creation of God, and every human being bears the image of God, to be a child of God is distinct from this.

When Scripture speaks of the children of God, it always refers to those who have become God’s children through saving faith in Jesus Christ.

In fact, John 1:12 says, “to all who did receive [Jesus], who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

In this passage of Scripture, it is clear that “children of God” only refers to people who receive Jesus and believe in Him unto salvation. They alone are “born of God.”

Throughout most of the twentieth century and up to this very day, theological liberalism has peddled the idea of “the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man.”

 Most of the people who repeat this statement don’t realize it’s a foundational thought within theological liberalism… but it is.

Its purpose is, no doubt, to bring everyone together with a common sense of unity and equality. But a true child of God will recognize the difference between those who are in Christ and those who are not in Christ.

The gospel is an invitation to all people that they may become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He alone can grant people this right. He alone can cause someone to be born of God. That’s why Jesus came to earth.

If anyone wants to become a child of God, they are invited to come to Jesus today.

Forsake your sins through repentance, and trust His atoning work on your behalf.  Follow Him, submit to Him, and obey Him from this day forward.

Receive His forgiveness and delight in His gift of salvation. To receive Jesus by believing His gospel is to become what Scripture calls a true child of God.

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The Night Our Lord was Kissed by Satan

In Luke 22, verse 3, we read: “Then Satan entered Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.”

And then just a few days later, Luke records in 22:47,

“While Jesus was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss Him.”

This was an astonishing act of betrayal. Jesus knew full-well that Satan had entered Judas Iscariot. Jesus knew this was a satanic kiss of treachery, and not of love.

We should observe that the only time Satan ever used the gestures of love toward the Savior was to deceive the friends of Jesus and to cause harm and injury to the Savior.

Even the false displays of love for Jesus promoted by false teachers and false religions today is a form of the original satanic kiss of betrayal. When Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, et al, give lip service to Jesus while denying the truth of His very nature, it is only the cold kiss of Satan.

Likewise, when false teachers like Joel Osteen or Benny Hinn and others in their association make flattering statements about Jesus to win a broader hearing and perchance to make more money, these too are the kisses of Satan and are intended to deceive the masses.

So let the lesson from Judas Iscariot inform your observations of the false kisses being blown toward Jesus in our society by those who walk in darkness and deceive like their father.

Love in the truth,
Pastor Kevin

 

 

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