I was speaking about Jesus being God’s Son to my year 5/6 Religious Education class the other day when one of my students asked genuinely whether God had any other family members. I replied that Jesus was God’s One and Only, special Son, and I also mentioned that the Holy Spirit was part of this divine, Triune “family” of God (but not in those words exactly).
Then I went on to say, that when we decide to follow Jesus, God adopts us as his children. Immediately there was an excited buzz in the room. Every child became more alert and exchanged comments of amazement with their neighbour. The children were astonished, even incredulous: “We can become children of GOD!?”
I was watching this and wondering why adults don’t get this excited about this extraordinary truth.
The Bible says:
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! 1 John 3:1a
To all who receive Jesus, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right/authority to become children of God … John 1:12
I, for one, am excited, amazed and extremely grateful that I am a child of God. Even his heir!!! Amazing!!!
See also Romans 8:14-17, Galatians 3:26-29 and 4:5-7, Ephesians 1:5, and Revelation 21:7.
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