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In different faiths not all are children of God
EDMOND — Well-meaning people, desiring to overcome rifts among different religious groups, often urge peacemaking with the statement, “After all, we’re all children of God.” What they fail to realize is that none of the major world religions actually teaches this, and for some this declaration is a deep affront.
Islam, for example, teaches that God has no offspring or family, and he himself is never referred to as “Father.” Human beings are not and never will be God’s children — the best we can aspire to be is faithful servants of an emotionally distant God.
Traditional Judaism speaks of human beings as creatures made in the image of God, but stops short of declaring that we are individually by nature or by choice God’s children. The people of God as a whole are sometimes spoken of as God’s child or son, and God is seen as the Father of the community, but individuals are not referred to as children of God.
In mainstream Eastern religious thought (including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism), the notion of a personal Creator separate from the creation drops out completely, so that the idea of being children of God carries no meaning.
Only in Christianity (and religions or philosophies which have spun off from its orthodox teachings) does the phrase “children of God” find a home. Christians agree with Jews that all human beings are created in the image of God, though that image has been marred by sin.
We agree with Muslims as well that human beings function as servants of God. But we believe even more, due to Jesus’ teaching, that human beings have the opportunity to become children of God.
Nowhere does the New Testament teach that we are all children of God by nature; indeed the apostle Paul declares unequivocally that human beings are by nature children of wrath — belonging not to God but to the fallen world.
But, he goes on to say, by entrusting our lives to Jesus Christ, who by his life, death and resurrection has negated the power and penalty of sin, we can be reconciled to God, experience his love, and find ourselves now, in and through the true Son of God, adopted as sons and daughters into God’s family.
Of all former prophets and teachers, only Jesus teaches that human beings can address God personally as Father. This is made possible because Jesus is not merely a prophet but the Lord and Savior of humanity who lifts his disciples into his life and gives them access to the unique relationship he as God the Son enjoys with God the Father.
The good news of the gospel is that access to a heavenly Father is available to all who, regardless of background or past behavior, are now willing to give their allegiance to Jesus.
Billions of people around the world reject the possibility of becoming children of God. Many others (particularly in the West) blithely assume that we are all by nature God’s children.
Only the gospel clarifies how human beings, who are by nature not part of God’s family, can become His children through the costly gift of Jesus’ sacrifice. It was a price he was willing to pay to grant human beings a privilege beyond price — a privilege that can be yours or anyone’s willing to come to Christ.
As the church father Athanasius once said, “The Son of God became a man to enable men (and women) to be sons (and daughters) of God.”
MATEEN ELASS is senior pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Edmond. He may be reached at melass@fpcedmond.org.
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