ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

CHILDREN OF GOD

The New Testament sometimes refers to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as ‘children of God’ or ‘sons of God’. In John 1:12 & 13 we read:

‘Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.’

In contrast to the majority (verses 10 & 11), these people who are called ‘children of God’ have somehow understood, believed and acknowledged that Jesus Christ is who he claimed to be.

John explains how this change of mind and change of identity happened: not by natural birth, not by a human decision, not by a husband’s will. But by God. God decided, God willed, God acted. It is out of that decision, that will and that action of God, that there are people who now have the right, the God-given authority, to be called ‘children of God’, because that is what they now are because of his sovereign grace. They ‘are born of God’. God has given them a new identity, a new life.

This is what Jesus was talking about when he told Nicodemus ‘You must be born again’, and spoke of people who are ‘born of the Spirit’ (John 3:6, 8). Unless a person has been ‘born again … born of the Spirit’ they cannot see or enter the kingdom of God. It is simply not possible for them. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that he, Nicodemus, couldn’t do anything himself to qualify for entry into God’s kingdom. Only God could accomplish that.

Later in the New Testament the apostles explain:

‘…those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God …by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children …’ – Romans 8:14-16.

‘But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because we are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir’ – Galatians 4:4 – 7.

‘For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and his will – to the praise of his glorious grace …’ – Ephesians 1:4 – 6.

‘In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil for fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time … you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God’ – 1Peter 1:3 – 5, 23.

‘Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God’ – 1John 5:1.

We can see from these verses that not only is the Spirit of God involved in our being ‘born again’, but also the word of God and the death of Jesus Christ. Without that sin-bearing death no one would be ‘born again’, no one would be a child of God. The Spirit of God uses the word of God about the Son of God to bring us to faith, and to thus become the children of God.

The apostle John gives this grand assurance to those who believe in Jesus, the Son:

‘How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that is did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is’ – 1John 3:1, 2.

In John 17:6, 9,24 when Jesus prayed to his Father, he referred to those who believed in him as those the Father had given to him out of the world. In Hebrews 2:13, Jesus is quoted saying ‘Here am I, and the children God has given me.’

May those of us who have received the Lord Jesus Christ hold firmly to this truth: that we are children of God, born of God, given life by God, immeasurably loved by God and precious to him. So precious, so well loved that he has given us to Christ, the Son whom he loves. He will never let go of us. He will never let us go. In this truth there is peace and rest. In this truth there is great assurance.