Devotion 4 – Our Identity as Sons and Daughters of God

1 Jn.3:1 – “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!”

God did not just pardon our sins and clothe us in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, He has also adopted us into His family. In fact, out of love, He had planned this from the beginning.

Eph.1:4-5 – “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will”

Justification secures our legal relationship with God as judge. In justification God declares that we are righteous in Christ. Adoption secures our relationship with the God as the Father. Through adoption, God makes us His children and that makes Him personally responsible for our welfare, over every aspect of our lives.

Abba! Father!

Gal.4:6 – “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

Rom.8:15 – “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

“Abba” was an Aramaic word, a term of family intimacy, used primarily by Jewish children when addressing their fathers. It implied a child-like dependency and also an expectation that Abba would meet their needs. This was the same expression when Jesus prayed to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane.

How can a sovereign Creator of all things, the ruler of the entire universe, such a powerful, infinite and awesome God be our intimate and personal Father? It is because we are in Christ, united to Him. Christ is the Son of God the Father; and because we are in the Son, we are also sons and daughters of God the Father.

No other religion in the history of the world has ever had a god who could be addressed in such intimate terms. In other words, all other religions are ‘fatherless’ religions. Even the Jews of the Old Testament, including Abraham, Moses, Noah, David, Elisha, who worshipped the one true God do not have the privilege to enter into such an intimate relationship - they cannot address God as Father.

Now, through our union with Christ, we can come to him in childlike faith like the young Jewish children crying out, “Abba, Father!” expressing our dependence on Him, and confidently expecting Him to hear us and answer our prayers according to His infinite wisdom and love.

Hinderances to Relating to God as a Loving Father

Unfortunately, many of us grow up with absent or difficult earthly fathers, and this has marred our image of our heavenly Father, making it difficult for us to relate Him as a loving and benevolent father. The fact is that even the best of human fathers fall far short of the infinite perfection of our heavenly Father.

Another great hinderance is our consciousness of our weaknesses and sins. If we are honest, we will notice that the more we grow spiritually the more sins we see in ourselves. And because by nature we tend to be more performance-oriented, we are prone to feel God’s displeasure more than seeing His loving, fatherly care. A false sense of identity has turned us into a ‘human doing’ rather than a ‘human being’. We feel that we must always prove ourselves to be acceptable, even by God who has promised to love us unconditionally. We often forgot that our relationship to God is no longer based on what we do; but rather based on who we are.

We need to stop accepting what others have said about us or labelled us. We are defined by God and God alone, and not by the opinions of others. The thing is, if we don’t know who we are or are still insecure by who we are in Christ, we become vulnerable for others to define us. A correct ‘identity’ is indispensable in living out the abundant life.

Lk.2:42, 49-50 – “And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem… And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”  But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.”

At the age of twelve, Jesus knew His identity. However, he continue to spend the next 18 years of his life in silence, with a hidden identity, working as a carpenter. His security and identity were not wrapped up in what he did. And it was His security in His identity that gave Him the strength to defeat Satan, as Satan tried to tempt him in the wilderness to prove his Sonship.

Matt.4:3 - “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread”

Matt.4:6 - “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the temple”

Therefore, in order to experience the reality of our adoption, we must be mindful of our identity in Christ. We must constantly remind ourselves that God love us not because we are loveable, but because we are in Christ; and the love which the Father love His son, flows over to us because we are in Christ.