WHAT DO YOU MEAN - "CHILD OF GOD?"

By Richard Burkard

In a 48-hour period, I received more phone calls from my older brother than I usually get in six months. It started as I returned from an all-night job early on a Thursday morning. The message on my answering machine alerted me that my Dad 900 miles away had a heart attack, and was in the hospital. The following hours revealed it was a major attack, requiring three "stints" and apparently including internal bleeding. Then came three calls within three hours on Friday. Doctors wanted to talk to my brother, because conditions were worsening. The final call was indeed filled with finality:

"Your Dad passed away at 11:45 this morning."

He was 79, and his health had gone up and down in recent years. :I was unable to get to Dad in time for the "talk" he wanted to have when we last chatted by phone about two weeks before. And I couldn't get there to have a heart-to-heart discussion about matters of faith, which were practically verboten while he was alive.

Dad would have called himself a "member" of the neighborhood United Methodist Church. He received a pocket New Testament from there in 1943, before heading off to war. The family grew up attending that church, but he hardly went there save for big events such as weddings. Dad was the textbook "C&E" Christian - as in Christmas and Easter. (The last couple of Christmas Eve services, he actually went so far as to take communion.)

Given this record, and a life in which I heard Dad mention God almost exclusively with "the D-word" attached, the Methodist Pastor who led the funeral service faced a bit of a challenge. She openly admitted Dad's good and bad points, noted he reminded some people of the movie "Grumpy Old Men" - yet she declared my Father was "a child of God." In closing remarks, she "transferred his membership" from the U.M.C. to the "family of the children of God."

A "child of God" - him?!?! Many thoughts ran through my mind at the use of this phrase. In one sense, I supposed, Dad was made in God's image and likeness. Yet was this the only requirement to rate as one of God's children? From my years attending various Churches of God, the usage rang very shallow and hollow. Shouldn't Dad have done something, other than go to church once a year and taking bread and wine?

This article is my attempt to reconcile those conflicting thoughts and feelings, through the use of the Bible. What I found is a definition that seems to change over the course of the Scriptures - and while some consider the Old Testament the more "legalistic" of the two, you may be surprised to see where the strictest rules for determining a "child of God" are found.

The Old Testament Perspective

In retracing the lineage of Jesus, Luke connects Him to "Adam, the son of God." (Lk. 3:38; NIV unless noted) Taking that at face value, we might conclude all you have to do is be made in God's image (Gen. 1:26-27). Descendants of Adam are first called "sons of God" in the Bible in Genesis 6, marrying beautiful women and having children by them. (6:2, 4)⁽¹⁾

But God narrows the definition a bit in Exodus, as Moses is instructed to tell Pharaoh: "This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son...." (Ex. 4:22) We must note at no point in the Old Testament is any other earthly nation or tribe given that title, or anything similar to it! Only Israel is told: "You are the children of the Lord your God." (Deut. 14:1; see also 32:5, 19; Isa. 43:6, 45:11)

The title is apparently passed down through the kings of Israel. The prophet Nathan speaks for God, saying of Solomon: "I will be his father, and he will be my son." (II Sam 7:14; I Chr. 17:13, 28:6) The people of Israel also keep the title "children of God" - even though some of the children were sacrificed to idols (Ezek. 16:20-21), and some became rebellious backsliders (Isa. 1:2; Jer. 3:14, 22).

Yet Psalm 2:7 offers a hint of a change to come. "He said to me, 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father.'" The KJV phrases the last clause quite differently: "This day have I begotten thee." The Contemporary English Version calls this not a "decree," but a promise. Paul clarifies that promise later, in Romans 9:8: ".... It is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring." In other words, God will add to His family by going outside the "royal line" or the bounds of nationalism.

The New Testament Perspective

The "New Testament" definition of a child of God becomes clear in John 1:12, as Jesus enters our sinful world: "....To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." Jesus also refers to this group as "children of the resurrection," since they'll be resurrected from the dead. (Lk. 20:35-36)

It should be noted that Jesus referred to His disciples as "His children" even before the crucifixion (John 13:33).⁽²⁾ That's only fitting, since Paul writes the adoption as sons occurred because "he chose us in him before the creation of the world...." (Eph. 1:4-5) Through God's great love and mercy, "we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!.... Now are we children of God...." (I Jhn. 3:1-2) We are already, CEV emphasizes.