Who's your daddy?

[B-A-C]

Probably the two most quoted verses I hear about God lately are...

Rom 8:15; For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"
Gal 4:6; Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

Abba
ab-bah'
Of Chaldee origin [H2]; father (as a vocative): - Abba.
Total KJV occurrences: 3

Both verses above speak of a spirit. One is a spirit of adoption within ourselves.
The other is the Holy Spirit sent from Jesus.

Jesus calls God "Father" over 200 times in the 4 gospels alone.

Jesus says the "peacemakers" will be called sons of God ( Matt 5:9; )

Now while we Christians can be called "sons of God", there is only one 'Son of God' (uppercase S)

John 1:12; But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
(all the verses preceeding this passage are about the deity of the "Son of God").

The point here is... some of us will be called "sons (daughters) of God". But not everyone. For one thing we have to "receive" Jesus.

In John 8:44; Jesus tells the Pharisees their father is the devil.

John 8:44; "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

The Pharisees believed in God... so why wasn't that enough to qualify them to be sons of God? For one thing, they didn't "receive" Jesus as the Son of God.

1Jn 3:7; Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
1Jn 3:8; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
1Jn 3:9; No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
1Jn 3:10; By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

There are certain passages in the Bible that always say something like "don't be deceived", or "make sure no one deceives you". Pay close attention to these passages, God knows people
will try to deceive us.

But this is a telling piece of scripture. Who is your daddy? How do you know who your daddy is?

"By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious". If your "practicing" sin, and don't love your brother... you're a child of the devil.
If you're "practicing" righteous and love your brothers and sisters, you're a child of God.

There is a popular song out, I actually like the song.... it says "I'm no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God". ( based on Rom 8:15; )
But simply saying we are sons of God doesn't make us a son of God.

So then if I'm practicing righteousness and loving people, I can be a son of God. But what if I don't? What if I simply choose not to obey God?
There are verses about this also.

Eph 2:2; in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Eph 5:6; Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Col 3:6; For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,

You might be a son of disobedience. I don't want obey the commandments, I don't want to obey God, I don't want to love anyone.
The Bible says if this is the case, you're a son of disobedience. It says the "wrath of God" will come upon these people. I don't know about you, but having the wrath of God come against me doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

The Bible also speaks of illegitimate children.

Back in Duet 23:2; it says no illegitimate children could enter into the presence of God. That seems kind of harsh, especially given that it's not really the child's fault who the parents are.
But in a spiritual sense, we can determine who our "parent" is.

Heb 12:4; You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;
Heb 12:5; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM;
Heb 12:6; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES."
Heb 12:7; It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
Heb 12:8; But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Heb 12:9; Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
Heb 12:10; For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
Heb 12:11; All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

This is quoting Proverbs 3 here. But it is of course talking about discipline. It says in verse 8 that if you refuse to be disciplined, then you're an illegitimate child and not a son.
If I'm honest here, I've seen certain people at various times in my life (I've even been one of these people myself)
They claim to be Christians. They're in the church... but they curse, drink, do drugs, live with people they aren't married to, maybe even lie and steal, but if you ask them...
they are "sons of God".

These same people talk about how bad things are going for them. My mom hates me, my dog died, my car broke down, I lost my job, I've been really sick lately and I never seem to get well, etc...
Now maybe God is disciplining them and working with them... that's a good thing. But why is He disciplining them? Because He enjoys it? Verse 11 above says it eventually yields the fruit of "righteousness".
He disciplines us, because He wants us to change. He wants us to quit doing those things that make us illegitimate children.

Now I have also seen some of these people never change. After years and years of living like this, they never change. They still say God is OK with what they're doing.
Some even say things are getting better, God must not be disciplining me anymore. This is a very bad place to be. If you're still living in sin, and God isn't talking to you about it anymore
and the Spirit isn't convicting you about it anymore..... well.... you may be a child of the devil.

Harsh? yes.... but sometimes we need to hear the harsh truths.

 

[Downunder]

The point here is... some of us will be called "sons (daughters) of God". But not everyone. For one thing we have to "receive" Jesus.

And you have opened the largest can of worms in Christian faith and theology - who have received Christ Jesus? Who really are sons and daughters of God the Father?
For all claim to be and yet scripture does not teach such a generic claim by the many.
Thousands of worldly denominations of Christian faiths and doctrines all claiming to be children of God through Jesus - but does God recognise all such claims?
Jesus is the obvious answer to our quandary:

Mark 16:15 And he said to them, Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation.
16 Who hath believed and is baptized shall be saved; but who hath disbelieved shall be condemned.
17 And these signs shall follow them that have believed: in my *name shall they cast out demons, speak with tongues;
18 and in their hands they shall take up serpents, and if they drink aught deadly, it shall in now wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into *heaven, and sat down at the right hand of *God.
20 And THEY went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed.

The verses that so many Christians love to hate. Why?
Because when those who claim to have Christ Jesus within examine themselves against the above scriptures then Romans 8 becomes problematic:
Romans 8:9 But YE are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that God’s Spirit dwelleth in you. But if any hath not Christ’s Spirit he is none of his.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by God’s Spirit, these are God’s sons.
8:15 For ye received not a spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

 

[Downunder]

1Corinthians 12:3
Wherefore I make known to you, that no one speaking by God’s Spirit saith, Jesus is anathema; and no one can say, Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.