Reference: Children (Sons) Of God
Hastings
There are a few passages in the OT in which the term 'sons of God' is applied to angelic beings (Ge 6:1-4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; cf. Da 3:25 RV). Once the judges of Israel are referred to as 'gods,' perhaps as appointed by God and vested with His authority (but the passage is very obscure; may the words be ironical?), and, in parallel phrase, as 'sons of the Most High' (Ps 82:6, cf. Joh 10:34; also, Ps 29:1; 89:6 Revised Version margin).
With these exceptions, the term, with the correlative one of 'Father,' designates the relation of men to God and of God to men, with varying fulness of meaning. It is obvious that the use of such a figure has wide possibilities. To call God 'Father' may imply little more than that He is creator and ruler of men (cf. 'Zeus, father of gods and men'); or it may connote some phase of His providence towards a favoured individual or nation; or, again, it may assert that a father's love at its highest is the truest symbol we can frame of God's essential nature and God's disposition towards all men. Similarly, men may conceivably be styled 'children of God' from mere dependence, from special privilege, from moral likeness, or finally from a full and willing response to the Divine Fatherhood in filial love, trust, and obedience. It is, therefore, not surprising that the Scripture facts present a varying and progressive conception of God as Father and of men as His children.
I. In the OT.
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Now after the population of human beings had increased throughout the earth, and daughters had been born to them, some divine beings noticed how attractive human women were, so they took wives for themselves from a selection that pleased them. read more. So the LORD said, "My Spirit won't remain with human beings forever, because they're truly mortal. Their lifespan will be 120 years." The Nephilim were on the earth at that time (and also immediately afterward), when those divine beings were having sexual relations with those human women, who gave birth to children for them. These children became the heroes and legendary figures of ancient times.
You are to say to Pharaoh, "This is what the LORD says: "Israel is my firstborn son.
In the desert you saw that the LORD carried you like a man carries his son, on every road you traveled until you reached this place.'
Be convinced in your heart that as a father disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
"You are children of the LORD your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your foreheads on account of the dead, because you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD chose to make you his precious possession from among all the nations of the earth."
But those who are not his children acted corruptly against him; they are a defective and perverted generation. This is not the way to repay the LORD, is it, you foolish and witless people? Is he not your father, who bought you, formed you, and established you?
The LORD found him in a desert land, in a barren, eerie wilderness. He surrounded, cared for, and guarded him as the pupil of his eye. Like an eagle stirs its nest, hovering near its young, spreading out his wings to take him and carry him on his pinions, read more. the LORD alone guided him. There was no foreign god with him. He mounted him on a high place above the earth, feeding him from the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and with oil from the flint rock, with curds from cattle and with milk from sheep, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, with the fat of goats, with the finest of wheat and from the juice of grapes you drank wine. Jacob dined until satisfied; Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. He grew fat, coarse, and gross, so that he abandoned the God who made him and spurned the Rock that was his salvation.
You neglected the Rock that fathered you; you abandoned God, who was awaiting your birth. The LORD saw it and became jealous, provoked by his sons and daughters. read more. So he said: "Let me hide my face from them. I will observe what their end will be, because they are a perverted generation, children within whom there is no loyalty. They provoked me to jealousy over non-gods, and to be angry over their vanity. Now I'll provoke them to jealousy over a non-people; and over a foolish nation I'll provoke them to anger.
Joshua got up early the next morning. Accompanied by all the Israelis, he set out from the Acacia groves and arrived at the Jordan River, where they encamped before crossing it. Three days later, the officers went throughout the camp,
So Joshua told the Israelis, "Come here and listen to what the LORD your God has to say." Joshua continued, "This is how you'll know that the living God really is among you: he's going to remove the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites right in front of you.
At that time the LORD told Joshua, "Make for yourselves some flint knives and circumcise the Israelis who haven't been circumcised yet."
One day, divine beings presented themselves to the LORD, and Satan accompanied them.
Some time later, divine beings again presented themselves to the LORD, and Satan accompanied them to present himself to the LORD.
while the morning stars sang together and all the divine beings shouted joyfully?
Let me announce the decree of the LORD that he told me: "You are my son, today I have become your father.
Ascribe to the LORD, you heavenly beings; ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
A father to orphans and an advocate for widows is God in his holy dwelling place.
God is indeed good to Israel, to those pure in heart.
If I say, "I will talk like this," I would betray a generation of your children.
"Indeed I said, "You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.
For who in the skies compares to the LORD? Who is like the LORD among the divine beings?
He will announce to me "You are my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.' "Indeed, I myself made him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.
As a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him.
I'll say to the north, "Give them up'! and to the south, "Don't keep them back!' Bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the ends of the earth
But you are our Father, even Abraham does not know us and Israel has not acknowledged us; you are he, O LORD, our Father, from long ago, "Our Redeemer' is your name.
But as for you, O LORD, you are our Father; and we are clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hands. Don't be angry beyond measure, LORD, and don't remember our iniquity for a season. Please look now, we are all your people. read more. Your holy cities have become a desert; Zion has become like a desert, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy Temple and our splendor, where our ancestors praised you, have become a conflagration of fire, and all our dearest places have become ruins. LORD, after all this, can you hold yourself back? Can you keep silent and punish us so severely?
Like a child whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you will be comforted in Jerusalem.
They'll come crying, and I'll lead them as they pray for mercy. I'll make them walk by streams of water, along a straight path on which they won't stumble. For I am Israel's father, and Ephraim is my firstborn."
"I've certainly heard Ephraim shuddering with grief as they said, "You have disciplined me, and I'm disciplined like an untrained calf. Restore me, and let me return, for you are the LORD my God. Indeed, after I turned away, then I repented. And after I came to understand, I slapped my forehead. I was both ashamed and humiliated because I bear the disgrace of my youth.'" read more. "Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? Indeed, as often as I've spoken about him, I surely still remember him. Therefore I deeply yearn for him. I'll surely have great compassion on him," declares the LORD.
"Look!" he told them, "I see four men walking untied and unharmed in the middle of the fire, and the appearance of the fourth resembles a divine being."
When a message from the LORD came to Hosea, the LORD told him, "Go marry a prostitute and have children with her, because the land is prostituting itself by departing from the LORD."
So call your brothers "Ammi,' and your sisters "Ruhamah.'" So he went out and married Diblaim's daughter Gomer. She conceived with him and gave birth to a son.
so the LORD told Hosea, "Name him "Lo-ammi,' because you are not my people, and I will not be your God. Despite this, the number of the people of Israel will be like ocean sand, which can neither be measured nor counted. And the time will come when instead of it being said, "You are not my people,' it will be said, "You are children of the living God.'
"When Israel was a young child I loved him, and from Egypt I called my son.
"A son honors his father and a servant his master. So if I'm a father, where is my honor? And if I'm a master, where is my respect?" says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies to you priests who are despising my name. "But you ask, "How have we despised your name?'
Do we not have one father? Has not one God created us? Why does each of us act deceitfully, each man against his own brother, to profane the covenant of our ancestors?
"How blessed are those who make peace, because it is they who will be called God's children!
"You have heard that it was said, "You must love your neighbor' and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, read more. so that you will become children of your Father in heaven, because he makes his sun rise on both evil and good people, and he lets rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous.
so that you will become children of your Father in heaven, because he makes his sun rise on both evil and good people, and he lets rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Even the tax collectors do the same, don't they? read more. And if you greet only your relatives, that's no great thing you're doing, is it? Even the unbelievers do the same, don't they? So be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
"Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of people in order to be noticed by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
But if you do not forgive people their offenses, your Father will not forgive your offenses."
Look at the birds in the sky. They don't plant or harvest or gather food into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. You are more valuable than they are, aren't you?
At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from wise and intelligent people and have revealed them to infants.
At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from wise and intelligent people and have revealed them to infants.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father's kingdom. Let the person who has ears listen!"
Going on a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, "O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not what I want but what you want."
"Whenever you stand up to pray, forgive whatever you have against anyone, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins.
Rather, love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind even to ungrateful and evil people. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and the person to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
So he told them, "Whenever you pray you are to say, "Father, may your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come.
So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who keep asking him!"
Then Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said, "Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit." After he said this, he breathed his last.
However, to all who received him, those believing in his name, he gave authority to become God's children, who were born, not merely in a genetic sense, nor from lust, nor from man's desire, but from the will of God. read more. The Word became flesh and lived among us. We gazed on his glory, the kind of glory that belongs to the Father's unique Son, who is full of grace and truth.
No one has ever seen God. The unique God, who is close to the Father's side, has revealed him.
Jesus replied to him, "Truly, I tell you emphatically, unless a person is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus asked him, "How can a person be born when he is old? He can't go back into his mother's womb a second time and be born, can he?" read more. Jesus answered, "Truly, I tell you emphatically, unless a person is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Don't be astonished that I told you, "All of you must be born from above.' read more. The wind blows where it wants to. You hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it is going. That's the way it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him to life on the last day.
So he said, "That's why I told you that no one can come to me unless it be granted him by the Father."
They replied to him, "Our father is Abraham!" Jesus told them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing what Abraham did. But now you're trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham would'nt have done that. read more. You are doing your father's actions." They told him, "We're not illegitimate children. We have one Father, God himself." Jesus told them, "If God were your Father, you would've loved me, because I came from God and am here. I haven't come on my own accord, but he sent me.
and not only for the nation, but that he would also gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad.
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
At that time, you'll know that I am in my Father, that you are in me, and that I am in you.
Jesus told her, "Don't hold on to me, because I haven't yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, "I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
But these have been recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and so that through believing you may have life in his name.
For we live, move, and exist because of him, as some of your own poets have said: ""Since we are his children, too.'
and was declared by the resurrection from the dead to be the powerful Son of God according to the spirit of holiness Jesus the Messiah, our Lord.
For all who are led by God's Spirit are God's children. For you have not received a spirit of slavery that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba! Father!" read more. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, we are heirs heirs of God and co-heirs with the Messiah if, in fact, we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. For the creation is eagerly awaiting the revelation of God's children, because the creation has become subject to futility, though not by anything it did. The one who subjected it did so in the certainty that the creation itself would also be set free from corrupting bondage in order to share the glorious freedom of God's children. For we know that all the rest of creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time. However, not only the creation, but we who have the first fruits of the Spirit also groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
However, not only the creation, but we who have the first fruits of the Spirit also groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For we were saved with this hope in mind. Now a hope that can be observed is not really hope, for who hopes for what can be seen? read more. But if we hope for what we do not yet observe, we eagerly wait for it with patience.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that the Son might be the firstborn among many brothers.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that the Son might be the firstborn among many brothers.
who are Israelis. To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship, and the promises.
That is, it is not merely the children born through natural descent who were regarded as God's children, but it is the children born through the promise who were regarded as descendants.
As the Scripture says in Hosea, "Those who are not my people I will call my people, and the one who was not loved I will call my loved one. In the very place where it was told them, "You are not my people,' they will be called children of the living God."
In the very place where it was told them, "You are not my people,' they will be called children of the living God."
There is no difference between Jew and Greek, because they all have the same Lord, who gives richly to all who call on him. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Again I ask, "Did Israel not understand?" Moses was the first to say, "I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that doesn't understand."
Now before faith came about, we were held in custody and confined under the Law in preparation for the faith that was to be revealed.
For all of you are God's children through faith in the Messiah Jesus.
Now what I am saying is this: As long as an heir is a child, he is no better off than a slave, even though he owns everything. Instead, he is placed under the care of guardians and servant managers until the time set by the father. read more. It was the same way with us. While we were children, we were slaves to the basic principles of the world. But when the appropriate time had come, God sent his Son, born by a woman, born under the Law, in order to redeem those who were under the Law, and thus to adopt them as his children. Now because you are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to cry out, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if you are a child, then you are also an heir because of what God did.
So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if you are a child, then you are also an heir because of what God did.
So you, brothers, are children of the promise, like Isaac.
he predestined us for adoption to himself through Jesus the Messiah, according to the pleasure of his will, so that we would praise his glorious grace that he gave us in the Beloved One. read more. In union with him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our offenses, according to the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us, along with all wisdom and understanding, when he made known to us the secret of his will. This was according to his plan that he set forth in the Messiah to usher in the fullness of the times and to bring together in the Messiah all things in heaven and on earth. In the Messiah we were also chosen when we were predestined according to the purpose of the one who does everything that he wills to do, so that we who had already fixed our hope on the Messiah might live for his praise and glory. You, too, have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed in the Messiah, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until God redeems his own possession for his praise and glory.
who is the guarantee of our inheritance until God redeems his own possession for his praise and glory. Therefore, because I have heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, read more. I never stop giving thanks for you as I mention you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the most glorious Father, would give you a wise spirit, along with revelation that comes through knowing the Messiah fully. Then, with the eyes of your hearts enlightened, you will know the confidence that is produced by God having called you, the rich glory that is his inheritance among the saints,
so that you may be blameless and innocent, God's children without any faults among a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world
For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son. Today I have become your Father"? Or again, "I will be his Father, and he will be my Son"?
Now when God put everything under him, he left nothing outside his control. However, at the present time we do not yet see everything put under him. But we do see someone who was made a little lower than the angels. He is Jesus, who is crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might experience death for everyone. It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering as part of his plan to glorify many children, read more. because both the one who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified all have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers when he says, "I will announce your name to my brothers. I will praise you within the congregation." And again, "I will trust him." And again, "I am here with the children God has given me." Therefore, since the children have flesh and blood, he himself also shared the same things, so that by his death he might destroy the one who has the power of death (that is, the Devil) and might free those who were slaves all their lives because they were terrified by death. For it is clear that he did not come to help angels. No, he came to help Abraham's descendants, thereby becoming like his brothers in every way, so that he could be a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and could atone for the people's sins. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. You have forgotten the encouragement that is addressed to you as sons: "My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline or give up when you are corrected by him. read more. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he punishes every son he accepts." What you endure disciplines you: God is treating you as sons. Is there a son whom his father does not discipline? Now if you are without any discipline, in which all sons share, then you are illegitimate and not God's sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. We should submit even more to the Father of our spirits and live, shouldn't we? For a short time they disciplined us as they thought best, but God does it for our good, so that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, for those who have been trained by it, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace. Therefore, strengthen your tired arms and your weak knees, and straighten the paths of your life, so that your lameness may not become worse, but instead may be healed.
Every generous act of giving and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father who made the heavenly lights, in whom there is no inconsistency or shifting shadow. In accordance with his will he made us his children by the word of truth, so that we might become the most important of his creatures.
A religion that is pure and stainless according to God the Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows who are suffering, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in God's likeness.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah! Because of his great mercy he has granted us a new birth, resulting in an immortal hope through the resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, from the dead
If you call "Father" the one who judges everyone impartially according to what they have done, you must live in reverent fear as long as you are strangers in a strange land.
For you have been born again, not by a seed that perishes but by one that cannot perish by the living and everlasting word of God.
Therefore, rid yourselves of every kind of evil and deception, hypocrisy, jealousy, and every kind of slander. Like newborn babies, thirst for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in your salvation. read more. Surely you have tasted that the Lord is good! As you come to him, the living stone who was rejected by people but was chosen and precious in God's sight, you, too, as living stones, are building yourselves up into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, so that you may offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus, the Messiah. This is why it says in Scripture: "Look! I am laying a chosen, precious cornerstone in Zion. The one who believes in him will never be ashamed." Therefore he is precious to you who believe, but to those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, a stone they stumble over and a rock they trip on." They keep on stumbling because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people to be his very own and to proclaim the wonderful deeds of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
For everything that is in the world the desire for fleshly gratification, the desire for possessions, and worldly arrogance is not from the Father but is from the world.
No one who denies the Son has the Father. The person who acknowledges the Son also has the Father.
Since you know that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered by God.
Dear friends, we are now God's children, but what we will be like has not been revealed yet. We know that when the Messiah is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.
No one who has been born from God practices sin, because God's seed abides in him. Indeed, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born from God.
Dear friends, let us continuously love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born from God, and everyone who loves the parent also loves the child.
because everyone who is born from God has overcome the world. Our faith is the victory that overcomes the world.
The person who conquers will inherit these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son. But people who are cowardly, unfaithful, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars will find themselves in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death."