I was
listening to a sermon the other day and the preacher asked, “Who do you think
God is at his core being?” Coming from a
legalistic church, my first thought was, “Righteous.” I asked my sister what she thought and she
said, “Love, because the Bible says God is love.” I said, “Well you are closer to what he said
than me. He said, “God is family.”
God is
family. That threw me at first. But then he went on to prove it from the Bible
and I could see it and I felt really happy about that. God is about
relationships through family. How nice. How truly lovely. I’ve always wanted
deep, close relationships with each member of my family.
The preacher
said that when God came here to create a new world, he created the man
differently than anything else. The animals and inanimate objects, he spoke and
they came into being. But with the man, he shaped him out of clay and then
leaned down and breathed into his mouth the breath of life. It is a moving
picture of love.
Then God
made Eve; he did not speak her into existence, he took a part of Adam and
shaped that part into Eve. Adam said, “This is flesh of my flesh and bone of my
bones.” The Bible says they were now one. God then told them to have children,
make a bigger family. Those children would come out of their flesh also, and
you can’t get much closer than that!
All through
the Old Testament, God called his people his children or sons.
“…for I
am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.” Jeremiah 3:19
“You are the sons of the LORD your God. You
shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead. Deuteronomy 14:1
“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for
the LORD has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have
rebelled against me.” Isaiah 1:2
As always, the New
Testament agrees with the Old. The first miracle Jesus performed was at a
wedding. All his family and friends were there. His presence shows us the
importance of a new family being made.
Here are some verses
from the New Testament on us being the chidren of God:
“See
what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children
of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did
not know him.” 1 John 3:1
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God,and 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. Romans 8:17,18
“But
to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to
become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:13
The Angels are also the sons of God.
“For they cannot die anymore, because they
are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.” Luke 20:36
"Son of Man."
Jesus called himself the,
“Son of Man,” more than any other title or name. That name shows how he
considers himself one of us, and not just when he was here, but for eternity. He
calls us his brothers and sisters. He is part of our family and we are part of
his. The Father and the Holy Spirit are one with us and Jesus is one with them.
John 17
I love the last words Jesus said to us, in the book of Revelation:
“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And
let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the
one who desires take the water of life without price.
Let us all be drawn to Jesus
and go to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
And the angel said to
me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of
the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” Revelation
19:9
