Question: Being a former Catholic, I was taught that we are all
children of God. Is that so? Or do we become children of God once we
receive Christ as our personal Savior?
Answer: Many wrongly assume that God is the father of everyone. They
speak of the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood
of man. While God is the creator of every human being, He is only the Father of His own people.
The Jews who rejected Christ claimed that God was their father (John
8:41). Were they right to make such a claim? No, not according to the
Lord Jesus. He responded: "If God were your Father, you would love
me...you are of your father the devil" (John 8:42,44). They
assumed, like most people today, that God was their Father. The truth
was that God was not their father at all, but the devil!
Unconverted people are never called children of God in the Holy
Bible. On the contrary they are described as lost, enemies, sinners,
without God and children of wrath. Such is their pitiful spiritual
condition!
Christians, on the other hand, are called children of God (Roman
8:14-17). There was a time when they were not his children, like the
rest of mankind. But a point came in their life when God by His mercy
adopted them as His children. The apostle John tells us:
[Jesus] came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as
many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become
children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God (John 1:11-13).
Note that Christ grants believers the power to become the sons
of God. That implies that they were not sons before they received Him by
faith.
Only Christians have the right to call God "Our heavenly
Father!" Are you a child of God? Are you born again? Have you
received Christ by faith?