In the Epistle to the Romans, chapter 9, the Apostle in writing of the sovereignty of God in having mercy on whom He will have mercy, and in hardening whom He will, he comes in his argumentation to the statement: “And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God” (vr. 26).
Now, the thinking and the teaching of a vast number of professed Christian leaders today on the question as to who are the true, spiritual children of God, contributes to much of the erroneous doctrine which satisfies carnal men and deceives multitudes into entertaining false views and hopes regarding their relationship to God and an interest in His love and salvation. One may well conclude from the unscriptural doctrines that are so popular, that all the children of men on the face of the earth are in some way the spiritual children of God, with a sort of emphasis upon those who are more particularly and prominently associated with the Christian religion and the activities of professed Christian Churches. The universal Fatherhood of God is the false and unscriptural basis for their gospel, which is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, nor consistent with His infallible Word and teaching. To unbelieving Jews He said: “I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father” (John viii, v. 38). And later He explains who their father was, viz., “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John viii, v. 44).
It appears thus from the clear teaching of Scripture that there are two distinct classes in the world. Thus the children of the living God are, of course, the children, or the sons and daughters of the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then there are others, even like the Jews with all the privileges of their religion, who are the children of the devil and revealing this by their wicked works.
As to those who are now and presently the children of God on the earth and in heaven, let us clearly understand that they were exactly the same as all the human race in their relationship to the first Adam. They sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression, and were corrupted in their whole nature, exposed to all the miseries of this life, to death itself and to the pains of hell for ever. “All have sinned,” and “There is none righteous, no not one,” the Bible declares. Some who are “wiser” than the Scriptures hold that the children of God were never the children of the devil. They conclude thus by an entirely false and unwarranted view of election unto the adoption of children, in the case of those who become the children of God. We may observe in this connection that the Redeemer in His prayer to the Father in the 17th chapter of John, in which election is clearly made known, refers to those who have been chosen and elected, in the following terms: “… the men which thou gavest me out of the world,” verse 6. Surely in their relationship to Adam and as born in sin and shapen in iniquity, they were of the ruined race of Adam, who by nature served sin and were the children and servants of the devil, even as others. But, of course, they were in the Covenant of grace, and before the foundation of the world, predestinated unto the adoption of children, from among the mass of fallen humanity. For example, the saints which were at Ephesus, were “by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians, ch. 2, v. 3), in their own persons and conduct, and were brought, in the grace of God, in their spiritual experience and at a time determined by heaven, to be the children of God and saints at Ephesus.
The children of God became such, by a great work wrought in them and upon them by the Spirit of God. The Saviour tells, while addressing Nicodemus, of this marvellous work of a man, a sinner, being “born again” of the Spirit. And unless a man is “born again” he cannot enter the Kingdom of God or become a child of God. In this vital work which is accomplished through “the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever,” sinners are brought as such to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ unto salvation, and to repent of their sins toward God, and to fear and love God, the God of their salvation in Christ Jesus, “the first-born among many brethren” (Romans viii, v. 29). And so, those who are now the true children of God, are those among a sinful world who have been powerfully and savingly wrought upon in their souls by God, the Holy Spirit. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans, ch. 8, v. 14).
They are “dear children” in the estimation of God, in the sense that they are precious to Him, and as the Truth declares: “The Lord taketh pleasure in his people” (Ps. 149, v. 4). He
loved them with a sovereign and everlasting love; He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up to the Cross and the shedding of His precious blood to redeem them from their sins. He sent His blessed Spirit of truth and grace into their hearts; and he exercises a constant and tender care for them during their sojourn in an evil world, His eyes being upon them and His ears open to their cry. And whoso toucheth them, toucheth the apple of His eye. In them His name is exalted and is yet to be glorified more fully as the God of their salvation. They are His sons and daughters and are dear in His sight; He will sustain, protect and deliver them in face of all their enemies, and in regard to all their afflictions and trials, of which they have their own share in the world. “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him” (Ps. 103, 13).
They are to be concerned to live “as obedient children,” not fashioning themselves according to their former lusts in their ignorance, but as He which hath called them is holy, so they are to be holy in all manner of conversation (See 1st Peter, ch. 1, verses 14 and 15). Obedience is required by the moral law of children toward their parents. Obedience is required of all the children of God by the principles and claims of God’s Word throughout. Obedience is an outstanding fruit of grace abounding in the hearts of those who fear and love God. This obedience is to evidence itself and be operative in two ways. First of all negatively, in God’s children dying unto sin and their former lusts, in crucifying the flesh and denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and in laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, etc. Surely the children of God must be unlike the world that lieth in wickedness. And secondly, they are to seek conformity to the holy image of God’s Son Jesus Christ, they are to have a conversation that becometh the gospel of Christ, they are to have their eye on Christ’s example which they are enjoined to follow, and they are to be regulated by God’s Word and their Saviour’s commandments in their attitude to one another and the world. “Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1st Epistle of John, ch. 2, v. 3). There are those who make a great profession and noise about grace and what it brings into the experience of the soul, who yet are ready to charge others with being legal in their doctrine and teaching if they but mention that the Lord’s people should do this or that in response to law or gospel. We know that it is in the strength of the Spirit that they can do anything to the praise of the Most High. And it is well to remember what John says further: “He that saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
These children are heirs of God; as the Apostle states it: “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with
Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans, chap. 8, v. 17). They are heirs of a great and glorious inheritance laid up for them in the world to come, and promised to them. This inheritance is laid up for them by God, and God Himself is declared to be this inheritance. “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup” (Ps. xvi, v. 5). The full enjoyment of God to all eternity in heaven, where they shall be glorified together with Christ, will constitute their inheritance. And this inheritance is said to be attained unto by being “joint-heirs with Christ” by virtue of union to Him, and also by experiencing sufferings in relation to Christ in that measure which God sees fit to allow. But those sufferings shall be light and but for a moment when viewed from the standpoint of the inexpressible glory of the inheritance which is incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, and which is reserved in heaven for all the children of the living God.