... Fairfax, Virginia, on March 20th, 1977. The speaker is the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church. His talk is entitled, Who Are the Children of God?

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen. Amen.

Some weeks ago I made the statement that we don't believe that all men are the children of God. And that raised a lot of questions in a lot of people's minds. I said, don't we?

I thought we'd been taught to believe that everybody is the child of God. Isn't that absolutely basic Christian teaching? The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

The answer is no, it's not. Although I understand perfectly well what people mean when they say that. And I'm in a good deal of sympathy with what they're attempting to say.

What they're attempting to say is that God loves everybody equally. Jesus didn't die just for the sins of the church. He died for the sins of the whole world.

And God's desire, his intention, his will would be that all men, all women, all children would come to share in his salvation. Scripture says God does not will that any should perish, but that all should have eternal life. So what's intended is a statement of God's concern for all men equally and without distinction.

But to express that by saying all men are God's children is not a biblical way of speaking. There's a massive difference between saying God wants you to be his child and saying you are his child. And it's a critical difference.

It's absolutely basic to our understanding of the gospel. And so I want to take a few minutes this morning and attempt to clarify what the scriptural way of speaking really is. What scripture says is that all men are created in God's image.

And the proper thing to say, therefore, is that all men are God's creatures. God's the creator we are the creatures to be created in his image means to some extent to reflect some of his characteristics so that we have intelligence feeling, personality, emotions will and most especially we have a moral sensitivity this is what distinguishes us from the other creatures it's not that we're necessarily brighter than they are it may turn out that the porpoise is more intelligent than we are or at least than you are and it may be that certain other animals have various skills that we very much lack The thing that makes us created in God's image is that we have the ability to distinguish right from wrong. Not perfectly.

But we do make those kinds of distinctions. And so even though it's a broken and a tarnished image, we reflect God's image. You can see something of the Creator reflected in mankind.

that does not make us the children of God. That makes us the creatures of God. In spite of all those things which we do have, we lack something absolutely basic.

We lost it when Adam and Eve fell. God said to them, In the day you eat of it, you will die. They looked at that fruit and they considered it.

They saw that it was very delightful to the eyes and good for food, and they ate it. Now, if by the words life and death, the scripture meant simply what happens to us biologically, then God was a liar. Because he said, in the day you eat of it, you will die.

And they ate it, and they lived for years and years and years. They produced children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And we're tipped off with just a little hint that the Scripture doesn't mean primarily what happens to us biologically when it talks about life and death.

but what it's referring to is spiritual in the day they ate of it they died spiritually and what you're left with is a man and a woman walking around with intelligence feeling emotions will biological life psychological life physical life spiritually dead they lost life itself, spiritually. The way the scripture uses the word life is a relationship with the Father, more intimate than any human relationship we might ever have. Jesus himself, in his high priestly prayer, said this, this is life eternal.

to know thee, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Knowing God personally, intimately, is life. And Adam and Eve fell, they broke that relationship, they turned their back on that God, spiritually they died.

And this is reflected throughout the whole scripture, Old and New Testaments. The prophets do not come and say, If you sin, you will die. But rather they say, You are dead in sins and trespasses.

Isaiah says, We are dead men. David says, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit or life within me. We're dealing with creatures who still look like they're alive, but who've lost the very essence of life.

It would be a joke if it weren't so sad. People walking around thinking that they know what it means to really live, who from God's point of view are walking corpses. Jesus picks up on this theme at the very outset of his ministry and he says to Nicodemus you need to be born all over again Nicodemus hasn't any idea what he's talking about what do you mean I've got to enter into my mother's womb again no says Jesus that was physical I'm not speaking physically physically you're doing just fine but just as that physical birth gave you human nature you inherited your parents nature by being born of them so you need to be reborn to inherit your father in heaven's divine nature to become what you never were to enter into his family and become his child Jesus says I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly he didn't come to give what we already have he came to give what we lack what apart from him we could never have look at a couple of scriptures with me chapter 1 of John's gospel I just want to show you the consistency with which the Scripture deals with language here.

First chapter of John, written in very philosophical terms of Jesus as the Word of God, the expression of God, who was light and life to all men. And verse 9 says, This true light, Jesus, that enlightens every man, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was actually made through him.

And yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, to Israel, to the Jews, and his own people received him not. That's a generalization.

Some did, but most didn't. And verse 12, But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. Who are the children of God? the people who receive Jesus the people who believe in his name what name?

Christ Messiah Savior Lord the people who believe that Jesus is Lord the people who believe in the name Jesus Yeshua which means salvation the people who put their whole trust in Jesus being who he claims to be. The people who receive him, who welcome him, who say, come into my life. To them gave he the power to become what they never were and could never be.

Otherwise, the children of God. Chapter 3, we've already alluded to this. Speaking to Nicodemus.

Nicodemus, you've got to be born all over again. We come down to verse 16, the most famous and most well-loved verse in the whole Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him, see that again, should not perish, but have life, life given to those who believe.

Notice what it says immediately following. For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned.

He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. Say that somebody is not a child of God is not to condemn him. He's already condemned himself.

If receiving life from God is receiving Jesus Christ and putting your trust in him, then to refuse to do that is to cut yourself off from it. Jesus doesn't come in judgment. He comes bringing salvation.

But it's a gift. And if you don't receive it, you don't have it. Look over at chapter 8.

Disputing with the Pharisees Jesus has been telling them I've come to set you free and if the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed and they objected we don't need anybody to set us free verse 39 Abraham is our father we're the descendants of Abraham Jesus said to them if you were Abraham's children you would do what Abraham did which is to believe but now you seek to kill me a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God this is not what Abraham did you do what your father did they said to him we were not born of fornication we have one father even God Jesus said to them if God were your Father, you would love me. There's the test. Somebody claims to be a child of God?

Question? What's your attitude toward Jesus? Jesus comes to us claiming to be all that the Father was and is.

If you say you're in love with the Father, how do you reject the Son? they're one and the same if you loved God if you believed in him if you were his child you'd love me and then he says some of the harshest words ever to be found in the Bible I proceeded and came forth from God I came not of my own accord but he sent me why do you not understand what I say it is because you cannot bear to hear my word you are of your father the devil Who are the children of God? Those who receive Jesus, who believe in His name.

They become what they never were. Now that raises some very hard questions that we don't have time to deal with this morning. Questions like, what about those who have never heard of Jesus?

What about children too young to make a decision or others who for some reason are otherwise unable to do so? What about those who have had so much done to them in the name of Christ that they can't hear the gospel? All I have time to say this morning is that there are good answers to those questions in the Scripture.

The heart of the matter is that God is a just God. He doesn't hold people responsible for what they don't know. He holds them responsible for what they do know.

Beyond that, we'll have to leave it for another time. But I want to notice one thing with you, that more often than not, raising that sort of a question is really looking for an excuse. Because the real issue isn't what about those who haven't heard.

The real issue is what about those who have heard. And the issue isn't what about those too young to make a decision. It's what about those who are able to make a decision.

And it's not what about those who have had so much done to them that they can't hear the gospel. So what about those who do hear the gospel? What about you?

What about me? Now there are two other points that I want to just touch on very quickly. The first is baptism.

A lot of folks raised in the Episcopal Church are under the impression that this doesn't apply to us because after all we were baptized as infants. And didn't we become children of God when we were baptized? Didn't we become Christians when we were baptized?

And so, who cares? The answer is no. Baptism is a sign and a proclamation of being regenerate. But a sign or a symbol is not the same thing as the reality itself.

A symbol is distinct from the thing it symbolizes. I'll give you an example. A couple comes to be married, and they exchange rings and vows.

And the ring is a symbol of their commitment to each other, unending, undying fidelity. And they exchange these symbols and I pronounce them man and wife. And yet that marriage needs to be consummated.

And you know if the marriage never is consummated, a judge will pronounce it null and void. he will annul it he will say in spite of the symbols and in spite of the pronouncement there never was a marriage there and we need to consummate our baptism and if we deny it we make it null and void secondly some folks would say, isn't this just so much wrangling about words? Isn't it just as well to say that everybody is the child of God, but some people don't realize it?

And what we've got to do is tell them who they really are so that they can begin to enjoy being the children of God. That comes very close to the truth, but it still misses it. Because what we're talking about is not merely a change in name, but a change in nature.

That God invites people through Jesus Christ to become something that they never were before. This brings us to the epistle reading for the morning. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, if he's received this Lord Jesus Christ, if he's entrusted himself to Christ, he is a new creation.

He's completely made over. Old things are passed away. Behold, all is become new.

Who are the children of God? Those who receive this Lord Jesus Christ, who put their trust in Him, And who through the Holy Spirit God makes to be new people for His name's sake. Let's pray together.

Father, we recognize that we come to Jesus in a variety of ways. some of us have been like flowers unfolding. And as we look back, we can hardly remember a time when we didn't trust Christ.

We recognize that you call us to trust Him more and more every day. And others of us can remember some particular point at which we made a life and death decision and became committed to Christ. Father, we praise You that You deal with us differently.

But we also remember that there may be some here this morning who have just a nagging feeling that though they're very good church members, though they've tried to be good people and though they've always considered themselves Christians, maybe they've never really come to that point of receiving Christ as Lord. We'd pray for them just now. That if there be any doubt about it, they would make that commitment and that decision this day.

To receive Him as Lord and Savior to settle all doubt. We recognize finally, Lord, that to call ourselves the children of God is in no way to make a holier-than-thou kind of statement. In fact, it's an expression of utter failure.

That I couldn't do it. but by the saving power of Jesus Christ. We thank you for your great love for us.

We pray that in relating to others we might love them with that same love and be the more anxious to see these, your creatures, men and women for whom you've died, come join the family. For Christ's sake. Amen.

Amen.