Make It Real April 2010

Question: How are believers in Jesus Christ actually sons and daughters of God?

We are going to examine the scriptural references to the “sons of God” that we find in the New Testament. In Luke 20:36 Jesus explains that when we go to heaven we will be like the angels and not be married. He then calls the people in heaven sons of God and sons of the resurrection.

In Matthew 5:9 those who are peacemakers are called the sons of God. One of the key descriptions of a son of God is found in Romans 8:14: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. God is requiring us to yield to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As we begin to mature, the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, long suffering, gentleness, self-control, patience- see Galatians 5) will manifest in our lives. We are called sons because we are to reveal Jesus to the world by our lives being full of love and holiness.

To really appreciate the truth about our sonship, it is imperative that you study Romans 8 and Galatians 3 & 4. We can know that we are God’s children because His Spirit dwells inside of our bodies. Receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior actually opens our literal physical bodies to house within our human spirit the very presence of God. What an awesome promise we have in Romans 8:11: But if the Spirit of the One having raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One having raised the Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies live through the indwelling of His Spirit in you. 

. We are born again by His Spirit. His divine nature resides inside of us. This is what constitutes a child of God. The Holy Spirit begins a work of taking out of our life those things that God never intended to exist in us. Our thoughts, attitudes, emotions and even physical bodies are transformed by the working of the Holy Spirit. This process requires our participation. We are to transform our thought life by studying the Word of God and agreeing with it. We are to yield our bodies to God as a living sacrifice for His purposes. We abandon our own ways for the ways of God.

In Galatians we learn that our faith (belief in Jesus Christ) transforms us into sons of God. Our faith opens the way for the Holy Spirit to come and live inside of our hearts. This faith must be in the finished work of the cross. We know that as sinners we were separated from a relationship with God, but when faith comes and we accept that Jesus, the very Son of God, paid for our sins to be forgiven, we are restored to a relationship with God. In Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6 we so clearly see that God wants us to be His children. Romans 8:15 declares: For you did not receive a spirit of slavery again to fear, but you received a Spirit of adoption of by which we cry, Abba! Father! And we find the confirmation that God desires for us to be His very own children in Galatians 4:4-6when we read: But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, having come into being out of a woman, having come under the Law, that He might redeem the ones under Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba! Father!

Join me in prayer: Father God, may I so understand your great love for me. Open my heart to receive your unconditional love. You are so wanting to take care of , protect and fellowship with me. Your desire is that I mature in my relationship with you so as to reveal your great love to others. Father heal every wounded place in my heart that I might be able to love and trust you. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen