Week 6: The New Testament and Children
Day 5: Whose Children Are We?
God often uses the term “children” in Scripture as an identifier of sorts. The implication is that if you are the children of _______ then you bare the characteristics of your father and brothers. Often the term represents a very simple, physical relationship, other times it represents a spiritual analogy or relationship. This might be considered one of the more technical blogs in this series on the Fatherless (orphans) and the New Testament. I didn’t feel that these passages/principles should be left out, however, I also felt that going too far into them could lead us well off track. So here is a quick run down:
Children of Israel:
Luke 1:16 – “And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.”
Here the passage is speaking of John the Baptist. His ministry would be primarily to the Jews, the children of Israel. God would use him to turn their hearts back to Himself.
Acts 7:23 – “And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.”
This is speaking of Moses, who, after living in Pharaoh’s palace went out to see the state of his fellow Jews. The end result, of course, was the murder of the Egyptian who was beating the Israelite slave.
Children of the Prophets and the Covenant:
Acts 3:24-26 – “Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”
What a privilege for the Jews in Christ’s day! They were living what the prophets had foretold and what the covenant promised. How sad that many did not receive it, however, that day when Peter was preaching 5,000 believed!
Children of the Devil:
Acts 13:10 – “And said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?”
Paul is speaking to Elymas the sorcerer who was trying to prevent the deputy of the country from turning to faith in Christ. The result was that God sent blindness upon that sorcerer for a time. We live in a day when witchcraft is increasingly more accepted, this passage is a good reminder that God does not see it in a favorable light. It is in direct opposition to the Gospel, and those who practice it are identified as the children of the devil.
Children of the Promise:
Romans 9: 7,8,11,26,27 – Really, if time and space allowed, it would be good to consider this entire chapter, for it deals with many aspects of God’s promises to Abraham and Isaac, as well as His promises to “call them my people, which were not my people.” I would encourage you to take the time to study it out!
Galatians 4:28 – “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of the promise… So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.”
Children of God:
Galatians 3:26 – “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”
So simple, yet so profound! Amazing love!
1 John 3:10 “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil; whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”
Children of Disobedience and Wrath vs Children of Light:
Ephesians 2:1-3 – “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
Ephesians 5:6-8 – “Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.”
Whose child we are has an enormous effect on our lives and how we live them.
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Also Check out Rachel Miller’s Book: The King’s Daughter: A Story of Redemption
