Adam, our pristine father and his wife, the female Adam are God’s children simply because they were created directly by the LORD God, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:” Genesis 1:26, bearing the witness to God’s anthropomorphism. “Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.” (Genesis 5:2). In Genesis 2:7,”And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul;” the word ‘formed’ yatsar (yaw-tsar), in Hebrew, is a porter’s term, meaning: ‘to mould or squeeze into shape.’ God, definitely, did make physical contact with red clay concerning man in creationism and that is a mind boggling wonder! HIS breath inside man established his sinless nature at creation. Genesis 2:22, “And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.” The word ‘made’ is quite different from the earlier ones and it is banah (baw-naw): ‘to build.’ Why build the woman? Of course it is for the obvious reason that she represents the Church, God’s bride. This established creative fact led Luke to script the words of chapter 3 verse 38, “Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.” This makes the creation of the first human couple the same as the angels, who were created individually (not one angel gave birth to another). Something did change mankind.

When they sinned the filiation man had with the Divinity was impaired. Could this filial relationship be removed? Certainly; “And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant;” (Genesis 17:14). Centuries earlier on, God pointed out, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him;” in Genesis 4:7. At the Eden fall man lost his spiritual propinquity with his Creator. God’s grace was first brought into operation when He killed two animals in lieu of the offending couple. So He advised Cain when He told him, “sin lieth at the door’. ’Sin’ is chaṭṭa’ah (khat-taw-aw): ‘sin offering.’ ‘Lieth’ is rabats (raw-bats): ‘to crouch (on all four legs folded, like a recumbent animal)’ indicating that an animal was required for the sacrifice of sin offering. Cain’s rejection turned him into the first antichrist (a child of perdition and not of God)! The covenant God had with Abraham enabled man’s sonship with God all over again.

The filial covenant was with Israel, established with the blood of sheep. God said, “Let’s make it a classified relationship. Cut the foreskin of every male, by which the stock of Abraham alone is involved.” God did not adopt Israel to promote classism but rather to have for Himself a remnant to take care of His earthly intentions. Exodus 4:22-23 “And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me:” “And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians” (Exodus 6:7). Deuteronomy 4:1, “Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.” Deuteronomy 29:13, “That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Isaiah 50:1, “Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.” The children of Israel needed to keep God’s covenant by keeping away from sin or make sacrifices for atonement. That which kept their filiation intact died and another must be produced. Their sonship was of the old order. Many people will always say, “We are all children of God.” Are all children of God? No! To be God’s child you must have entered into a covenant with HIM.

Galatians 4:6, “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” Romans 8:15, “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” These ones are Christians.

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” Romans 8:14. Who are these ‘many led’? You will find them in the Book of Romans, in the opening verses of the first chapter, “To all that be in Rome,” is the first clause of the 7th verse and if you should pull it out regarding it as the children of God, you will be quite incorrect. “…called to be saints: Grace to you and peace….” The ‘called saints’ are the children of the Most High God. The adjective ‘called’ is kletos (klay-tos): Thayer Definition: ‘invited (by God in the proclamation of the Gospel) to obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom through Christ.’ Strong’s Definition: ‘invited, that is, appointed, or (specifically) a saint.’ The adjective ‘saint’ is hagios (hag’-ee-os) Thayer Definition: ‘most holy thing.’ Origin: from hagos (an awful thing). Strong’s Definition: From hagos (an awful thing) ‘sacred (physically pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially consecrated).’ A saint, in this context is a born again Christian. How you become a Christian is found in Jude 1:1, “Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.” Having seen those who will accept the truth of the gospel of Jesus, in the eternity past, God sanctified (hagiazō (hag-ee-ad’-zo) ‘to make holy, that is, (ceremonially) purify or consecrate; (mentally) to venerate’) them.’ The next thing, God did was what a sane economist will do: ‘preserve’ tēreō (tay-reh’-o) Strong’s Definition: {From teros (a watch)} meaning ‘to guard (from loss or injury, properly by keeping the eye upon;’ and thus differing from phulassō (foo-las’-so), which is properly to prevent escaping; and from koustōdia (koos-to-dee’-ah) ‘custody, which implies a fortress.’ God, then, put His prized ‘holy veneration’ in a freezer pending the day the preserved will be ‘called’: klētos (klay-tos). Be wise: get born again; the Bible exegeses that, ‘as many as are led….’

None, through parturiency, is born again. Regeneration is a conscious effort on the part of an individual. You have to come to a realization of your spiritual deficiency, needing Jesus – the Author and Finisher of our faith. Confession of the Lordship of Jesus on your life is what actually saves one, and by the divine provocation of the Holy Spirit one is seen and audibly heard crying, ‘Abba Father’! Before the regenerative occurrence you are not God’s child as it is stipulated in 1Peter 2:10, “Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” The people Apostle Peter is referring to are ones to whom this general epistle is actually meant: “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.” (1Peter 1:2).

Colossians 3:9-10, “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” and verse 11, “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” As you can see, so clearly, the child of God is no longer of the old testamental order. The sacrifices and the beasts are mere shadows of prefiguration of the expected Christ. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” John1:11-12. Commentary on John 1:11-12 by Jamieson, Fausset and Brown runs thus: “his own—”His own” (property or possession), for the word is in the neuter gender. It means His own land, city, temple, Messianic rights and possessions. and his own—“His own (people)”; for now the word is masculine. It means the Jews, as the “peculiar people.” Both they and their land, with all that this included, were “HIS OWN,” not so much as part of “the world which was made by Him,” but as “THE HEIR” of the inheritance (Lu 20:14; see also on Mt 22:1). received him not—nationally, as God’s chosen witnesses. But as many—individuals, of the “disobedient and gainsaying people.” gave he power—The word signifies both authority and ability, and both are certainly meant here. to become—Mark these words: Jesus is the Son of God; He is never said to have become such. the sons—or more simply, “sons of God,” in name and in nature. believe on his name—a phrase never used in Scripture of any mere creature, to express the credit given to human testimony, even of prophets or apostles, inasmuch it carries with it the idea of trust proper only towards GOD. In this sense of supreme faith, as due to Him who “gives those that believe in Himself power to become sons of God,” it is manifestly used here.”

Why would Pastor James, in his general epistle to Israelites (James 1:17-18) remind them in chapter one verse seventeen, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights,” and in the eighteenth verse, “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures”? It is because the new birth is midwifed by the Holy Spirit to ‘whosoever believeth.’ It was first for the physical Israel and now the sole preserve of the spiritual Israel – Christians. Amen! Romans 8:17, “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.” There must of necessity be a Christ connectivity before being called God’s child. Our filial relationship with God is truly eternal because the Father in question is eternal thus a serious affair. So, I ask, are all really children of God? Selah!

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