The familiar claim that we are all God’s children therefore needs to be stated with greater care. We are all God’s creatures, made in His image and dependent upon His goodness. But the New Testament reserves the name children of God for those who receive Christ, are born of God and are led by His Spirit. John did not write that Christ came to confirm a sonship already shared by everyone. He wrote that those who received Him were given the power to become the sons of God.
Few expressions have gained wider acceptance in modern Christianity than the claim that we are all God’s children. It is heard in sermons, eulogies, political speeches and ordinary conversation, usually as an affirmation of our common humanity and the equal worth of every person. The sentiment is generous, but its familiarity has largely spared it from examination. The New Testament does not, in fact, speak of the whole human race as the children of God.
This does not diminish the dignity of any human being. Scripture teaches that God created humanity in His image, that every life proceeds from Him and that all people remain under His providential care. No distinction of race, class, nationality or achievement can remove the worth that belongs to those whom God has made. Yet the Bible distinguishes between being created by God and becoming His child. Creation tells us where we came from; sonship describes a relationship into which we must be received.
