Son, Servant, or Friend of God?
How do you mainly identify with God? As a
(a) servant of God,
(b) a friend of God, or
(c) a son of God?
When a friend posed this question on his Facebook page yesterday, I was so surprised at the results, that I decided to poll E2R readers on E2R’s FB page. (Before you read on, answer the question for yourself. How do you primarily relate to God? As a servant, a friend or a son?)
So far about 30 people have responded to the FB polls. To my astonishment, less than half picked (c) “son of God.” And so, once again, Facebook has provided a brilliant answer to one of the world’s most pressing questions:
Why is the world still a mess, even though Jesus did everything He came to do, 2000 years ago?
The problem may not be what you think. It’s not legalism, condemnation, or even sin. The root cause of the problem is that the majority of people do not identify with God as their Father. They relate to Him as something other than sons. That is, they have an orphan spirit. Those outside the church are like the prodigal son, while many of those inside the church are like the elder brother. Neither brother received their father’s love. Both trusted in their own labor and had little confidence in the grace and provision of their loving father.
There may be only two kinds of people in the world: sons and orphans. Which are you? The devil’s plan is to get you confused about your identity. He will sow doubt by asking, “if you are the Son of God…” (Mt 4:3). To the degree that you are uncertain about your sonship, to that degree you have an orphan spirit.
I will probably write more about this some other time, but the FB polls have fired me up. I couldn’t sleep for thinking about it. So many of you are evidently victims of identity theft! I can’t stay silent while the devil runs off with your birth certificates, so below are 10 reasons why (c) is the best response to the question above. Even if you serve a God who is your best friend, you are first and foremost a son of God. And this applies equally to the ladies, for we are all one in Christ (Gal 3:28).
Top 10 reasons why you are a son of God first and foremost
(1) The Holy Spirit says so. “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’” (Rms 8:15).
(2) Do you really need more reasons? Come on now! Paul thought no. 1 above was such an important truth that he said it twice. “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, ‘Papa! Father!’” (Gal 4:6, MSG). God Himself calls you son. (You wouldn’t want to call God a liar now would you?) He is the one who makes it possible for you to call Him Papa!
(3) The Bible says so – in many places (see Gal 3:26, Rms 8:14, Heb 12:7, 1 Jn 3:1 for starters).
(4) The Old Testament prophets longed for the day when God’s people would be called “sons of God” (Hos 1:10). They thought it applied to the Jews, but Paul says it includes “even us whom He also called” (Rms 9:23). Jesus came to reveal the Father (Mt 11:27). This is what makes the new covenant new. Sonship – not servanthood, not friendship – is the pinnacle of redemption. Not even Adam and Eve were identified as sons! Because of Jesus we have come closer to God than when we started out in the Garden. How awesome is that?!
(5) We are to be servant-hearted, not servant-minded. Someone with an orphan spirit readily identifies themselves as a servant of God. It sounds noble, but it insults the cross and the Spirit of grace. Servants work for wages but we live under grace and there are no wages under grace. Sons are shareholders, not employees. We don’t work because we have to, but because we are wholly invested in the success of the family-business.
(6) A servant doesn’t know his master’s will, has to be told what to do, and then relates to God on the basis of what he does. If he does good, he thinks God loves him more. How sad, how utterly tragic to be enslaved to such a lie. A mature son is nothing like that. He has the mind of Christ (1 Co 2:16), is clothed with His righteousness (Is 61:10), and relates on the basis of the Father’s love first shown to him (1 Jn 4:19). A servant waits on God. A son does what he sees His Father doing (Jn 5:19).
(7) Servants suffer from performance-anxiety. Even friends may worry thinking they have to pound on doors in the middle of the night merely to borrow something (Lk 11:5). But sons need not worry, for our “heavenly Father knows we need all these things” (Mt 6:32). Our Father – not our master nor our friend – delights to give good gifts to those who ask Him (Mt 7:11). You’re not on the outside looking in. You’re warm and secure in bed with your Papa (see Lk 11:7).
(8) True, Abraham was a friend of God (Is 41:8) and we are revealed to be friends when we do what Jesus says (Jn 15:14). This is a good thing and something to treasure. But sonship is better by far! Sons have “full rights” of access that friends lack (Gal 4:5). Sons have an expectation of intimacy that servants and friends do not enjoy. My kids are with me 24/7 (it’s the school holidays). In contrast, I only see and enjoy my friends occasionally. Wouldn’t you rather walk with God enjoying His presence continuously? As a son you have full rights to do so!
(9) Sons are heirs. I have an inheritance and it’s the entire planet (Rms 4:13). All the cattle on all the hills and all the blessings of Abraham are ours, paid for with Jesus’ blood. Indeed, we are co-heirs with Christ (Rm 8:17). Our share is no less than Christ’s!
(10) What will it take to fix this broken, poisoned planet? A revelation of the sons of God (Rms 8:19)! In the garden God gave us a planet to keep. We lost it, Jesus got it back, yet we still act like it belongs to the devil. It is OURS! “The earth he has given to man” (Ps 115:16). Jesus paid a high price to redeem this planet for us. Creation is not waiting for the church to rise up. Neither is creation waiting for God’s servants or His friends to rise up. Instead, creation waits for the mature sons of God to rise up and say with authority “this is my planet; hands off devil!”
If you’re still having trouble wrapping your head around this, look to Jesus. Did Jesus describe God as His (a) Master, (b) Friend, or (c) Father? That’s an easy question. Under the obsolete law covenant, God was Master. Under the Abrahamic covenant, God is our Friend. But under the new covenant in Jesus’ blood, God relates to us as our Father!
And don’t water this down by saying that God is “all of the above.” He’s no more “all of the above” than you are “all of the above” to your own children. My kids will serve many employers and have many friends, but they will only have one earthly father and that’s me. I am thrilled beyond words to be identified as my children’s father because it is my unique privilege. I hope they will be equally thrilled to be identified as my children. It makes my heart soar when they call me Papa. I’m less thrilled when they call me “your majesty.”
He is your Father and my Father! Yes I serve Him and yes He is my closest friend. But service and friendship stem from my secure position as His adopted son. There’s nothing I enjoy more than being with Him, knowing Him, walking with Him and talking with Him. Every day with Him is an adventure!
When you have a revelation of your sonship, it will change the way you pray. You will pray for the smallest things, because if it matters to you it matters to Him. But you will also ask Him for big things, because God has promised you the nations. You won’t hold back like a waiter or a friend – you’ll come running in to Papa knowing that He loves to give good gifts to His children.
Paul prayed, and so do I…
…that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. (Eph 1:18-19)
___________
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Didn’t see this before – I wasn’t home much on the weekend. Heard Todd White preach on Saturday nite, and he hammered on this. Many of my brothers and sisters in the Lord would not have answered rightly. I know, because I hear it all the time from them, about how they try to be better servants, or think they can lose their right standing with God. They don’t see that once you are in the family of God, you are in it for eternity. He doesn’t un-adopt us!
Amazing post Paul,
A must needed revelation for our Generation to see a gr8 revival among the nations!!!…
continually being blessed my your posts…
Keep the good work going..
Grace be with you..
God bless..
Wow, what a GREAT, UPLIFTING, INSPIRING, JOY and PEACE BRINGING message!
Thank you so much, yes, this message is true.
And when you apply it, you feel changed immediately, it results in love and peace.
That takes away the condemning, stressing and fearful loud ‘voice’ inside.
Keep up the good work, God bless you for all that you are doing!
Best wishes, Menno
Great post! During prayer the thought occurred to me that we can pray like servants rather than sons, so I decided to google the issue and found your post.
God Bless,
R. Rao
Thanks for posting this. I’ve been reading and commenting on this same topic at http://chuckwarnockblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/sermon-a-little-faith-and-a-lot-of-obedience/ and their take on it seems to be that our attitude should be, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty,” (Luke 17:5-10). One of the replies to my comment was: “Christ died to make us servants.”
Of course it sounds very spiritual on the surface, but unless you look at the entirety of Scripture on the subject, you don’t get the complete picture.
Hi John,
One of the things that struck me since posting this, is how offensive the identity of sonship is to some people. They would much rather be known as God’s servants. One person wrote on FB, “I was created to serve.” The truth is, God doesn’t need servants and He doesn’t need our help. Jesus is coming back for a bride not a maid!
It might surprise some people, but God can actually manage quite well without us. Creation is not an expression of God’s need for service or servants, but an expression of His love. He wants more Sons!
i wonder whether many people have been poorly parented and dont have a very positive concept of a father. My answer was “daughter of God” but then I have a great relationship with my earthly father and so its easy for me to relate to God as his child. To me a father is someone warm and loving, strong and consistent, fair and just – because my Dad is those things. Maybe I wouldnt be so easy to relate to God as my father if my relationship with my earthly father was more negative.
Paul, please add me to your e-mail list. I am gobbling up your life-giving posts. Thank you!
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How wonderul.. That really amazed me.. Thanks2 Paul. In christ,we are son of God.and that is by faith alone,not work.
This article leads to some questions about what the apostles meant when they referred to themselves as servant slaves (doulos) of God and Christ after the formatoin of the Church. Peter, John, James all address themselves as such. What does it mean then for a modern believer to be known as a doulos of Christ, or does it have any signficance at all?
Hi John,
I just had heard something about this recently, is it by men or Holy Spirit? But it makes sense to me. God sees us as sons and He has sent the spririt of His Son in our hearts crying Abba Father.
Every true son though, will out of love take the role, the place of a slave of the Father of Love. What more blessed place but to be a slave of LOVE toward MAN and not go around strutting like a son “look who’s here and watch out my power… ZAP!”
This is a quote from Curry Blake “I am God’s son, the devil’s master and man’s servant” or man’s slave if you prefer.
He became our Servant. I am now a son but a SLAVE of Love in HIM for mankind!
Makes sense to me!
In His Peace, Goodness and Grace, Claude
i love this!!!!! thank you for this article! I am my ^Fathers^son
I have some of the same thoughts as John on this. I know that God is my Father and I look to Him as such first and foremost. Is it wrong to identify myself as His servant as well? My service to Him should flow out of that relationship as a son which brings me to a point of asking, “If I’m not serving then what does that say about my relationship with my heavenly Father?” If not serving, and using grace as an excuse, then doesn’t that cheapen the full purpose of grace in my life? Grace not only saves me, it sustains me, helps me in times of need (Heb.4:16) and is to be ministered to others through the gifts God gives us through grace which comes in many forms. (1 Peter 4:10) Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
I’m not disagreeing with you in the least. My post comes mainly from encounters with some in our church who are preaching grace in a way that says even encouraging believers to serve others is mixing law and grace. I ask them in light of 1 Peter 4:10, “was peter then mixing law and grace by encouraging believers to serve others with their gifts?”
I find great joy in serving my heavenly Father by serving others and encourage others to do the same. In serving others we participate in what our Father is doing. It is our Fathers nature to serve, as Jesus lived out for us, and being filled with His very nature it should come as natural as breathing is in the flesh.
The post above is about identity and how we see ourselves. Jesus came to reveal God’s name to us and his name is Abba, Father. “Father, glorify your name.” Jesus said pray like this: “Our Father…” That’s not a way to pray; it’s the way to pray. So as far as identity goes, you are a son of God. This is what the Holy Spirit teaches us (Rom 8:15). Sadly, there is a lot of confusion on this issue of identity (as my poll results reveal), but the fact is every single NT writer referred to God as Father. Creation waits for the sons of God to stand up and reveal themselves.
So what about Paul when he calls himself a “servant of Christ”? I don’t think the apostle of grace was confused about his identity anymore than Jesus was when he referred to himself as the “Son of Man.” Jesus said he came to serve (Mt 20:28) and those who follow him have the same heart. We are the sons who serve, as I think you are saying. But what service does God need? What could we possibly do for him? Frankly, God does not need our service at all. And he is not interested in recruiting servants but raising sons. As you say, we serve others. We serve people. To say I am a servant of Christ means I serve in the same manner in which Christ served.
Paul also said, “God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son…” (Rom 1:9). Paul considered preaching the gospel as service to God. That’s kind of a neat way to look at it because God doesn’t actually need to hear the good news as much as we do. But when we preach the gospel, God is blessed through the increase of his family – he gets more sons and daughters. So one of the best ways we serve is by revealing the good news of his Son.
Wow…this is some good truths…the kind that set free indeed! Thanks for being a blessing to the kingdom!
thanks Paul
When I think of my own children they can fill, or not fill, all three roles. They can deny that they are my children (orphans as you call them). They can refuse to serve in the daily chores of the family. They can be dutiful children, but still not be friendly and miss creating a deeper bond. Likewise in my relationship with God I find that I am closest to him when I open my heart in all ways. Christ has many titles, Son, Father, Servant, Word, Judge, Redeemer, Bread, Light … all appropriate to who he is. None of them diminish from the other. I cannot help but feel it is the same with us.
John 15:15 says we are God’s friends, too. No need to diminish one metaphor to enhance another. It’s not an “either,or” but a “both,and.”
I know God (as my Father), but I also knew Jesus said, I no longer call you servants, but friends. As I pondered this, I wondered if I searched this question if I would just find all the Scriptures, which I did, but then I found your page! How awesome is that? You explained it with such clarity and grace~thank you!!
OK, I’ve read about 10 articles now and I’m hearing the grace message loud and clear. But, I have about 20 years of many other church messages in my head, including an incessant need to try to be good enough for God. (a particular early memory of church for me is being scolded for wearing shorts to Mass, which impressed on me that God is a pretty crabby guy who needs everyone to be in uniform before they approach him). What would you say to someone like me, who wants to embrace the grace of God, but still struggles in seeing Him more as an unreachable, indifferent Judge than a tender-hearted Father?
It sounds like you’re on a journey many of us have been on, Matt. My advice is to keep going! God’s word is like a seed. It can take a little time to grow and bring forth it’s righteous harvest. Don’t panic if the change isn’t as dramatic as it was for the apostle Paul. Just trust the Lord to finish what he started and be quick to believe the good news of his grace.
Hi Matt I understand where you are coming from. I used to go to a Anglican church about 30 years ago. I wanted to get baptised which was basically a sprinkling on your head with water. Having spoken to the vicar and the trainee vicar(who led the youth group) the date was set. I remember about a week or so before my baptism when in youth group I said something silly. The trainee vicar said to me “That is why we are wondering whether you should baptised” That comment was like a stab in the heart. I got the sprinkling but with no joy. I felt a fake and rather than identifying my faith in Christ dying to my old self, my focus was not on redemption or sonship but failure.
I never knew my real father, I only have two memories and they are not pleasant, my mum threw me out when I was 14. I had no feeling of being a child who was loved.
Like you I find it difficult to trust that I am a child, a child of our Heavenly Father. Truth is he is. Paul says trust the Lord to start what he finished. In an emotional sense I find that difficult to walk in but believe it to be true. So what I have done is to concentrate on various bible verses that negate my emotions and focus on the reality. Verses that tell he will remember my sins no more, they have been removed as far as the East is from the West, he remembers we are made from dust, he does not deal with us harshly (read Psalm 103) In John 17:23 Jesus prays that we would know that our Father loves you and me as much as he loves Jesus. That’s the truth whether we get it or not. So I focus on that. Father do you really love me as much as Jesus, if so I don’t get it. Yet I have no qualms telling others that God loves them as much as he loves Jesus.
So when I don’t get it I claim the promise that God will complete the good work he started in me. At some point the scales on my eyes will be removed and I will realise I am his son and he is my Father.
I hope the above makes sense.
I read your response when you first posted it Bill, just took a little time to reply. Thank you for giving your perspective. It’s encouraging and helpful to me.
What I hear from you is that some of your life experience has made it more difficult to emotionally accept that God loves you and has made you his child. However, you have responded by continuing to make the decision to believe and to strengthen your mind with God’s word that reveals his love for you.
I think what I find hard is what you’re describing – the discrepancy between what your mind believes is true and what your heart feels. There are many times in my spiritual walk that I feel utterly alone in it. To learn to abide – to shove away the distractions, deceptions, and diversions of life and rest in Him – that is what I am trying to learn lately.
Do you believe the scales will fall away in this lifetime?
I have definitely had times when I knew that God loved me and cared deeply for me. These experiences have come through quiet personal times of prayer, study, and worship, but also through public times with friends and fellow believers who displayed the love of God to me. I would say that I see clearly the love of God and his Kingdom purposes during these times, but then I can fall back into old darkened understandings of Him and the way He wants to interact with humans.
I think continuing to strengthen our mind through Scripture, engaging in fellowship with believers, continual confession of our sins, studying, and an active prayer life all lead to a further falling of the scales. This is what I am pushing forward to, sometimes unsteadily, but ultimately, I believe that it doesn’t rest on me and my disciplines to achieve this. God has promised to finish the good work in me. I’m learning to trust that.
Thanks again Bill for the thoughts and I hope to continue our conversation and hear more of your thoughts.
are we all children of God? is the question the same as: are we all forgiven?
God didn’t need my permission to forgive me. is this the same as God didn’t need my permission to call me His son?
I understand that whoever believes in Jesus and what He has done, will not perish. salvation is not the question here.
Are the unbelievers called children of God too after the cross? He died for all. Im not even sure if my question make any sense.
my faith states that after the cross, all are children of God. but not everyone knows it. thats why we need to share the gospel so they can be empowered. I believe that God is patient to those who rejects Him. and if all things go down and a person completely rejects Him(as in totally), that will make the person perish. all to conclude that not all children of God can make it to heaven.
(now im more confused) lol. My rope is tied on Romans 5:8
I believe that Jesus died for everyone [1 John 2:2], but some people reject it.
As for the son thing, this is more like adoption. When we accept Jesus as L/S, God “adopts” us, therefore making us “sons or daughters”. In other words, unbelievers are not sons or daughters because they rejected the offer of adoption.
1 Cor 3:22 – all things “are yours” – including the cosmos (world/universe) – “All authority in heaven and on earth are given to me”(Matt 28:18) – and we are Christ’s body. It is important to note that the earth is being redeemed, because most people think that we are to just escape to Heaven, which means that there would no longer be an image of God on earth. What about heaven on earth?
I have really being blessed by this writeup…keep it up…more Grace….I am definitely a SON
This will bless me and others
I am highly blessed with this message. I was actually searching to know whether a son of God can also be addressed as a servant of God when I stumbled to this message. Thank you very much. Pls continue with the good work.
I had dreams in my younger years that I was in heaven and in a state of fear that it was only a mater of time till I messed up and would mess up real bad and get thrown out with the rest of the none belivers into outer darkness and gashing of teeth knowing full well I had been discarded by God almighty this dream scared the hell out of me and made me rethink my game plan that dream hapend many years ago today I am not asleep praise God I am alert to things that very few people know on this planet and I am not at liberty to discuss them at this time but I will say this Obama is Satan in the flesh he has forced the un to give the pope the land of Israel to be made oficial on the 15th day of January 2017 just 5 days before trump takes office and can’t be overturned by trump look up we are going up I will see you all in heaven in his service shalom.
The Lord bless you for bringing it out so clearly. I have just returned from church and the preacher kept saying we are God’s and one another’s slaves and that Jesus was a slave to God because he was obedient to death and slaves must be obedient. My spirit revolted those words. Just found your site. Satan is still using even Christians to change what the Lord has said. satan has created all sorts of Bible versions that have substituted ‘Servants’ for ‘Slaves. YES, WE ARE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD. JESUS CALLS US NO MORE SERVANTS BUT FRIENDS. IT IS A LIE FROM DEVIL THAT WE ARE SLAVES. SATAN DOES NOT WANT US TO KNOW THE LOVE OF GOD.
I CALL ON EVERY CHRISTIAN TO REJECT THE TEACHING THAT WE ARE SLAVES. WE ARE GOD’S CHILDREN BY HIS GRACE.
Paul, I want to thank you for what you are doing through E2R. I had a radical encounter with Jesus twenty years ago, which changed my life so much.
Sadly, I never got the sonship concept.
Having being raised in strict Calvinism, Jesus + law, to finding Jesus in a Pentecostal / Charismatic church, Jesus + self-effort as well as a dysfunctional relationship with my own dad prevented me from seeing God the Father as he really is.
Something or someone however kept on pushing me as I always thought “this cannot be all there is” and “why does my understanding of the Bible not agree with what I hear in church?”.
I discovered E2R almost a year ago, and have been here ever since. Reading your new posts, referring what I read back to the Bible, studying related passages, referring to the E2R archives, referring to other Grace writers, back to the Bible.
I got Grace, Hyper Grace, but sonship evaded me, until last night that was. I was reading Greatest Hits Volume 1 and specifically; Is God’s Love Unconditional? and this post Son, Servant or Friend of God.
Reading your A Word After, I suddenly saw it, God my Father and me His son. Indescribable!!
I love your work, clear, concise to the point. I love your sense of humour. I love your calling, Truth in Love setting the captives free. I love your patience with the slow guys, like me, Lol!!
God bless you and your family.
As an afterthought. After my Eureka moment, I reread Who’s Your Daddy. Pure joy and peace. It was as if I was reading a new book!
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing, Adriaan. Be blessed.
I have been blessed by this article. God bless you Paul
This is very well put! I’ve been sitting hear at this coffee shop pondering sonship vs servanthood and also friendship vs being enemies of God. Reading through the Bible I found much more content on being adopted as sons than anything else. Yes we are also ‘servants of God’ but I love how you approached it. “We are to be servant minded not servant hearted.”
Amen!
We are sons and co-heirs with Christ! Wow! The freedom that brings is untouchable.
May we walk as sons hand in hand with our Father to a world desperate to belong to the family. Let us serve as a servant, humble and with integrity but let us stand as sons, loved unconditionally!
But Paul calls himself a bondservant of God, right?
In several of his letters Paul introduces himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ (Rom 1:1, Gal 1:10, Tit 1:1). Peter (2 Pet 1:1), James (Jas 1:1), and Jude (Jud 1:1) do the same and Epaphras was also known as a bondservant of Christ (Col 4:12).
These godly men identified themselves as servants in the mold of Christ who “made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Php 2:7). Jesus was not confused about his identity – he knew who his Father was – but he was servant-hearted. Although he was the Son of God he did not lord it over us. Indeed he said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Jesus did not give his life to ransom God but humanity; he was the Son who served us.
So when the apostles identify themselves as servants of Christ, they are saying “We are the children of God who serve in the same manner that Christ served,” meaning they served others. “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor 4:5). It’s the same with us; we are the sons who serve.
I am a girl & Escape to Reality (Re: sonship/daughtership of God) was beautifully enlightening for me.. gave me a new & more meaningful perspective about how i can relate in a much more intimate way to our heavenly father thru Christ Jesus. I loved the whole article & read & re-read it over & over again. Somehow it gave me a sense of comfort & re-newed confidence that is hard to put into words. Thank you so much for so thoughtfully writing this artìcle. It seemed written just for me & just what I needed. I believe God placed it right into my hands for His good & loving reasons. I believe it was no accident that i found it 🙂
How wonderful to view God like a little child trusting in her daddy’s protection, who loves his daughter so deeply. I know I love my own children & grandchildren with a depth that will never change & it’s so wonderful to think God loves me that much.. & so much more really.
Thanks Marion.
I think as children of God we are to be servants! Servants to man and the world. That is the way God wants us to serve Him. True religion serving others, but we are co-workers with our Father because God is the greatest servant to mankind and the world. Think about it. He Created the universe for this planet. He created this Planet to be the perfect home of His children. And He even “served up: His own son to save man. John 3:16
I totally agree. We are sons (identity) who serve (function). This is how Paul introduced himself in many of his letters: a servant of God. The problem is many Christians don’t know they’re sons, so they’re serving to earn approval and favor.
Thank you Paul for the above comment. I happened to stumble on to your blog a few weeks ago. It’s like unwrapping a present and inside it you find grace. Thanks for helping me understand who I am in Christ and what I do, is and outpouring of His love for me and my gratitude not my identity or to earn His approval. Been so freeing reading your posts.
Kind regards.
Friend of God. We all are family of same universe.
I have a question regarding sonship. It’s about the verses in John 1:12, Romans 8 and Galatians 4. I have heard certain persons who say that it’s possible to be a child of God and not a Son. They ascribe this to the verse that says they that are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God. Naturally this seemed silly and the difference more apparent than real. But however I studied the Greek word in John and that in Galatians and discovered that they’re different. Teknon and Huios. Does this mean that they were right? That some people are more keyed into God than others? What do you think it means?
From memory, one word refers to young children; the other refers to mature sons. It’s about maturity.
I don’t know if I’m getting it right but I think you mean we’re all sons but not all mature sons. Alright then. What is spiritual maturity? What did Paul mean Phil 3:13 – 14?
Paul talks about pressing on for the prize twice in his letters. Once in Phil. 3:14 and the other time in 1 Cor. 9:24.
What an AWESOME AND RELEVANT WORD!! Soo true!!! I have beEN getting Revelation about this in bits and peices but your article ties it all together SO WELL!!! THANK YOU GOD LORD!! I AM A DAUGHTER OF THE KING!
Great article and discussions over the past 7-8 years!! What is the main distinction between when the Bible says we are both slaves/servants of God/Jesus and also Children/Sons of God. Churches who are legalistic seem to emphasize that we are slaves, and grace filled churches stress our family relationship to God as His sons. I certainly have no problem at all being a “slave” of God as He is also my Father and loves me unconditionally. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Paul, who wrote more about adoption and sonship than anyone, often referred to himself as a servant of Christ. Was Paul confused? No, but we are if we think of ourselves as simultaneously God’s sons and slaves. Paul’s identity was as a dearly-loved son, but his occupation was Christ’s servant. He was the son who served others in the name of the Lord.
This calls to mind the British royal family. The children and grandchildren of the Queen are her family, her heirs, and have the position and benefits that come with that relationship, but they also serve the crown in various ways by serving the people of the British Commonwealth, just as the Queen herself serves her people. That’s pretty much how it is with us as children of the Father.
That’s right, children of the King are always the children of the King, whether they are confused, entitled, spoilt narcissists. . . or wise, thankful and altruistic they are always the children of the King. The King will always know his children despite their actions, however, if men are to know you as a child of the King then the works of the King better be obvious for men to see.
What if it’s actually worse than this? What if you see yourself as a stranger, and even an enemy at times? One who is cutoff, without communication and therefore without relationship?
I would encourage you to change your mind and believe the good news that God loves you and thinks the world of you. Ask him to reveal his love to you. He will!