“…through faith you are all sons (and daughters) of God in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26)
Have you ever spent time thinking about time before you were even born?
It’s weird, isn’t it?
It’s weird to think that life existed before you were born, and that your parents had a life without you.
As weird as that is, it’s even stranger to think that God knew you before you were born. Before you were even a child in your family, let alone alive and breathing in human form, God knew you and had created you.
Just as we were once non-existent in our own families, there was once a time when we were not considered part of God’s family.
We’ve been reflecting in this series about our identity. And it is our identity, who we are, that changes when we begin to follow Jesus and accept his lead in our lives. But another aspect to this new identity is that we become a ‘child of God’.
In accepting Jesus by faith we find that we are adopted into God’s family and become one of his children. Of course, we continue to keep our own earthly characteristics, such as our name and personality traits given to us from our biological parents. However, we are now part of God’s family and he considers us one of his children. He becomes our heavenly father perfectly leading and loving us as his children.
And being included into God’s family changes everything.
No longer are we on our own.
No longer is our identity resting on self, or upon anyone else’s view of us.
No matter the circumstances we find ourselves in we can know that we are God’s and he is ours. Our identity is no longer based on our family name, our achievements, our job, our test results, our final score, our sporting successes, our failures, our sexuality, our gender, our looks, our fashion, our social media following. No. No longer are we defined by any of those sorts of things. They fall off the cliff into the river of irrelevance.
We are identified, you are identified, I am identified, as a child of God.
Galatians 3:26 says, “So in Christ you are all considered children of God”.
This is a powerful statement of our identity.
We are all children of someone, whether we have a good relationship with those who brought us into the world or not. Through Jesus and his work on the cross, through our accepting of that by faith, we find ourselves now part of God’s family. And in God’s family we find we are loved, cared for, forgiven, accepted as we are, and given royal status.
I say royal status because becoming part of God’s family leads us to be considered divine royalty.
The only experience of royalty I’ve ever had is through watching them on a screen and reading about them in the news. A few years ago, when young prince George was born to William and Kate, there were plenty of pictures and articles focussing on the new heir to the family. It was celebratory news. It was a highlight for the world, as the royal family not only had a new child but one of significance who would now be in line for the throne in years to come.
In another part of the bible, Romans 8:16-17, we find we are considered royalty, or heirs, because we are God’s children. It reads:
“The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ…”
What an amazing truth! We, who are sinful and in need of being saved and redeemed, are actually considered a coheir with Jesus because of what he has done! We are part of God’s divine royal family! Wow.
FOR REFLECTION
- What impact does being known as a child of God have upon your life?
- How does being a child of God redefine your identity?
- In what ways can you be encouraged today, realising that you are child of God and part of God’s royal family?
This is part of a devotional series called You’re More Than A Number. To understand the purpose of these posts then please read the series introduction. If you’d like these delivered to your inbox, please sign up to follow this blog or my FB page.
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