Child of God

[briankarman]

I often hear the saying from people, “We are all children of God.” And it got me to thinking. Is that true? I strongly believe that we are all made in the image and likeness of God, but does it follow from that that we are all God’s adopted children?

I seem to be thinking that you need to be baptized in order to gain adoption from God. What do you think?

 

[Todd_Easton]

You are correct. It is baptism that makes us children of God by adoption for it is in baptism that we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of adoption.

Paragraph 1265 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, says:

1265. Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte “a new creature,” an adopted son of God, who has become a “partaker of the divine nature,”[68] member of Christ and co-heir with him,[69] and a temple of the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 2:38. it says:
38And Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And in Romans 8:15-17, St. Paul says:

15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

 

[Malachi4U]

We are all children of God. Thats one reason Protestants often conuse ‘brothers and sisters’ of Christ for actual siblings of christ. Funny how ‘brother’ so-n-so in fellowship is just a spiritual ‘brother’ in Christ but ‘brother’ in Scripture means sibling all of a sudden when they choose it to. One word with so many meanings.

If we call God our Father, does this not make us His spiritual children?:yup: Thank God we have such a wonderfull Father in heaven.

 

[Grace_and_Glory]

We are children of God. The Apostle John tells us so:

“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

 

[HMarieH]

Grace and Glory read 1 John 3:1 in connection with the second verse. If we are all children of God than who is “the world” that does not know us?

 

[Grace_and_Glory]

HMarieH:

Grace and Glory read 1 John 3:1 in connection with the second verse. If we are all children of God than who is “the world” that does not know us?

I’m not sure if maybe you misunderstood me. I didn’t say we are all children of God. When I said “We are children of God” I meant ‘we’ to refer to baptized people. I should have clarified that I was agreeing with what previous posters had said, not trying to argue with them.
I would say that ‘the world’ that does not know us is all those who reject God, because John says that the world does not know us because it did not know God. It’s the people who don’t understand why we follow God, who don’t see the value in our faith.

Does that help, or did I misunderstand your post?

 

[HMarieH]

Oh I just misunderstood the first post, thanks. Wow there is not too much arguing here. It’s kind of nice.