Sons of God: Adoption and Birth
Sons of God: Adoption and Birth
There are two ways to acquire a son: by adoption and
by birth. A son by adoption is one who has been legally
taken into a family. A son by birth is one who has the
seed of the father of the family in him.
In the Old Testament the “sons of God” refer to those
whom God legally transacted to adopt. Those people who
believed were made God’s adopted sons.
Romans 9:4:
Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption,
and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of
the law, and the service of God, and the promises.
Exodus 4:22:
And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord,
Israel is my son, even my firstborn.
In the Old Testament Israel represented the believers’
line, the sons of God. The Israelites who believed God
were set aside as a distinctive people.
Deuteronomy 14:1, 2:
Ye are the children of the Lord your God. . . .
For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God,
and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people
unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the
earth.
The believers of Israel were adopted, and thus made
heirs to God’s inheritance. His children, Israel, He would
also protect and nurture.
Deuteronomy 32:8, 9:
When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance,
when he separated the sons of Adam, he
set the bounds of the people according to the number
of the children of Israel.
For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob* is the
lot of his inheritance.
Jeremiah 31:9:
They shall come with weeping, and with supplications
will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by
the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they
shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and
Ephraim* is my firstborn.
First God adopted Israel; then He gave them all the
benefits of a son: He considered them a special people,
He was concerned for their welfare, and He made them
heirs to His inheritance. After being given these provisions,
God’s adopted sons could still live a life of their
own choosing. According to the many accounts in The
Word, Israel still stumbled along—sometimes obedient
to their Father’s will and sometimes not. One such example
is recorded in Numbers 33. The children of Israel
were admonished to marry within their own selected
people. But sons didn’t and still don’t always behave,
thus bringing problems to themselves.
Numbers 33:50-54:
And the Lord spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab
by Jordan near Jericho, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,
When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of
Canaan;
Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land
from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and
destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down
all their high places [temples to worship other gods]:
And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land,
and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to
possess it.
And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance
among your families: and to the more ye shall give
the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give
the less inheritance: every man’s inheritance shall be
in the place where his lot falleth; according to the
tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit.
Why did God tell Israel to cast down the idols in the
land? Because these idols existed for the unbelievers; and
God’s people were a unique, peculiar people and were
not to carry on as the unbelievers, the unrighteous, did.
Verse 55:
But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land
from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those
which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your
eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in
the land wherein ye dwell.
If the believers allowed any of the unbelieving people
to remain in the land, the believing sons would marry
the daughters of the unbelievers: the “sons of God” would
marry the “daughters of men,” just as happened before
and is recorded in Genesis 6.
Genesis 6:1, 2:
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply
on the face of the earth, and daughters were born
unto them,
That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that
they were fair; and they took them wives of all which
they chose.
Theological teaching has propounded that the “sons
of God” in Genesis 6 are angels and the “daughters of
men” are the daughters of human beings living upon the
earth. Thus the teaching conjectures that the race of giants,
in Hebrew called nephilim, came from the cohabitation
between angels and humans. This idea is strictly private
interpretation; the Bible suggests no such thing. The
Word of God explicitly tells who these two specified
groups are: the sons of God and the daughters of men.
The first group stems from Seth and can be traced like a
red thread all through The Word. The latter group stems
from Cain.
I John 3:12:
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew
his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because
his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
Because Cain was born of the devil’s seed he was accursed
of God and his offering could not be accepted.
Genesis 4 tells of Cain’s treatment.
Genesis 4:14 and 16:
Behold, thou hast driven me [Cain] out this day from
the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid
[Cain was an unbeliever, one who was absolutely
unrighteous. This is why he says]; and I shall be a
fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. . . .
And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. . . .
The specific kind of unrighteousness which Cain committed
was unacceptable and unforgivable. Thus the
unrighteousness of Cain represented all the unbelievers
in the Bible during Old Testament times. On the other
hand, Cain’s brother Seth was accepted of God.
Genesis 4:26:
And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and
he called his name Enos: then began men to call
upon the name of the Lord.**
Seth and his son Enos were God-fearing men. Their
line represented the believers, the called of God, the
righteous ones.†
Although Seth and his offspring were faithful and
righteous, Cain and his offspring, also adding to the population
of the earth, had corrupted it by Noah’s time.
Genesis 6:1, 2:
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply
[in wickedness] on the face of the earth, and daughters
were born unto them,
That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that
they were fair; and they took them wives of all which
they chose.
The Sons of God, the believers, came out of the Seth
line, the righteous ones. The daughters of men, the unbelievers,
came out of the line of Cain, the unrighteous.
God as their Father advised the children of Israel, Seth’s
progeny, to marry only the righteous. When Israel disobeyed
and married Cain’s progeny, they brought disaster
to themselves.
God’s sons, just like our earthly children, do not always
live the best way. But when the children of Israel
lived according to their Father’s will, the adopted sons
lived with power and victory.
Hebrews 11:33-39:
Who [Israel] through faith [believing] subdued kingdoms,
wrought righteousness, obtained promises,
stopped the mouths of lions,
Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of
the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed
valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the
aliens.
Women received their dead raised to life again: and
others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that
they might obtain a better resurrection:
And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings,
yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were
tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute,
afflicted, tormented;
(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered
in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves
of the earth.
And these all, having obtained a good report through
faith [believing], received not the promise.
All these men, because they believed, accomplished
and survived many things, but they received not the
promise. They could not receive the promise, for Jesus
Christ had not yet come to fulfill the law. The Old Testament
believers looked forward to the Savior’s coming,
for as Jesus said of David, “He [David] saw my day.”
Even though David lived hundreds of years before Jesus’
coming, David anticipated “the day” as he believed in
the coming of the Holy One. So as David and the other
believers trusted in what God promised, they were accounted
righteous. They were adopted as sons. God
adopted them.
II Corinthians 6:17:
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing; and I will receive you.
In the Old Testament times God said that His adopted
children, Israel, were a peculiar people unto Him.*** So
also in the New Testament, those who are God’s people
are a separated, a peculiar people.†† We who are born
again are a peculiar people to Him because He has called
us. In the Old Testament Israel was adopted as Sons; but
after Pentecost, we are sons because we have seed
born within. The most critical question at this point is:
Why did God adopt His Old Testament sons while
He put His seed in His sons of the Church administration?
God couldn’t put seed in His children in the Old
Testament because Christ had not made seed available.
Therefore, adoption was the only way to acquire sons.
God’s actions are limited by man’s believing. And Mary
the mother of Jesus was the first woman who believed
to the extent that God could create soul-life in her so
that she could bring forth God’s only-begotten Son. After
Christ had fulfilled the law, God’s seed in Christ made
possible sonship by birth**** for believers. This type of
birth is called being “born again,” literally “born from
above,”**** and having “eternal life.” “Born again” is found
solely in the New Testament.
Galatians 4:7:
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and
if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
I Peter tells a characteristic of God’s seed in Christ
which a person receives when he is born again.
I Peter 1:23:
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever.
When we were born physically, we had seed in us.
When we were born again, we received another seed. The
difference is that the seed with the second birth is incorruptible.
Eternal life, God’s seed in Christ in us, becomes ours
when we are born again of God’s Spirit. What happens
to bring this about? Ephesians 2 speaks on this subject.
Ephesians 2:5-9:
Even when we were dead in sins [dead because God’s
Spirit was not within], hath quickened us together
with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness toward us
through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are ye saved through faith [the faith
of Jesus Christ]; and that not of yourselves: it is the
gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Romans 10 tells how it is possible for a body-and-soul
man who is dead in trespasses and sins and without God
and without hope to be made alive.
Romans 10:17:
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God.
What faith? The faith of Jesus Christ. And the faith of
Jesus Christ comes when the man of body and soul hears
the Word of God and believes. The step that must be
taken is told in Romans.
Romans 10:9:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Of all the great religious leaders there is only one who
was raised from the dead and that is Jesus Christ. The
proof that He is God’s only-begotten son is that God
raised Jesus from the dead. Do you accept Jesus as your
Lord? Have you confessed it with your mouth? The Word
says that you are saved.
Romans 10:10:
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
The moment I fulfill these two requirements—believing
and confession—I am born again of God’s Spirit. This
is eternal life, this is having God’s seed born within and
thus becoming a son of God by birth.
The moment God’s seed is in a man, that person is
converted, saved, born again. A man can be a natural
man of body and soul one minute, but when he hears
the Word of God to the end of believing, he receives the
faith of Jesus Christ. When that man by his believing
comes to the point of saying, “Jesus is Lord of my life
and I believe God raised Him from the dead,” he is born
again of God’s Spirit. That person has instantly changed
lords; he is now on the way to heaven and all hell cannot
stop him from going because He is a son of God having
Christ in him. He has eternal life. He is no longer a natural
man (simply a body-and-soul being) because he has received
the spirit from God.
When a child is physically born, all his human potential
is in that little package. With nurturing and feeding,
the child develops into an adolescent, then into a youth
and finally into an adult. The new birth is like that. When
a man is born again of God’s Spirit, he has Christ in him.
Everything that God is in Christ is in the born-again believer.
He has the love of God, he has the justification
of God, the sanctification, the redemption, the righteousness,
the faith of Jesus Christ, the potential power of
Jesus Christ. This is what one receives when he accepts
the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior and
becomes a son of God.
I John 3:2:
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth
not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that,
when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we
shall see him as he is.
Now we are the sons of God by way of the spiritual
birth, which is Christ in us the hope of glory. As God’s
children, we are Christ’s brethren; for Jesus Christ was
God’s Son our Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
brother.
Romans 8:17:
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and jointheirs
with Christ. . . .
Since the Old Testament Sons by adoption performed
the feats which are recorded in Hebrews 11, how much
more we as born-again sons of God and joint-heirs with
Christ should manifest courage and power. We have God
in Christ within us. No one can separate us from the love
of God our Father because we are born again of God’s
incorruptible seed which is Eternal and which is Life.