Are The Sinful Lost God’s Children?

While the Bible clearly teaches that unbelievers are “by nature children of wrath,” “children of the evil one,” and are of their father the devil,” important Bible passages indicate in a very significant and fundamental sense that they are God’s children and do belong to Him AT THE SAME TIME.

I invite those who strongly believe in the popular, evangelical position that sinners in their lost state are categorically the children of the devil and belong to him only, that they aren’t God’s children in any way and do not belong to Him in any important sense to kindly consider the following:

1. The Bible says that Christ “gave himself as a ransom for all men” (1Tim. 2:6). He redeemed and bought all people with His blood including the wicked. 2 Peter 2:1 talks about “false prophets…denying the sovereign Lord who bought them–bringing swift destruction on themselves.” Having redeemed all humanity, every person legally and rightly belongs to Christ regardless of their response or relationship to Him. It does not mean though that every person will be finally saved.

2. The parables of the lost in Luke 15 evidently shows that the unsaved in their lost condition still belong to God and that they are His children. You cannot claim that you’ve lost something when that which was lost was not yours in the first place. The sheep, coin, and son belong to their respective owners and their owners did not lose ownership of them just because they were lost. The shepherd shouted, “I found MY sheep that was lost.” (emphasis mine). He referred to it as his sheep while it was lost. In the same vein, the woman who lost her coin cried, “Rejoice with me; I have found MY lost coin” (emphasis mine). She referred to the coin as hers even when it was lost. In the case of the prodigal son, he did not lose his sonship and cease to be his father’s son when he left in rebellion. The father shouted, “…this son of MINE was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” (emphasis mine). He referred to the lost youth as his son even when he was lost.

3. God searches for the lost because they are His, not in order for them to be His. The shepherd did not look for just any sheep. He looked for and found HIS sheep. The sheep did not become his only when he found it. It was, in fact, always his. The woman found HER lost coin, not just any coin. The father waited for HIS son, not just any lost youth.

Why would God search for us if we’re not His children in the first place? You don’t look for something lost which is not yours. You watch the news and learn about a child lost in Mexico. Would you be up and about searching for the lost child? Yes, you may be saddened with the news but do you rush to Mexico to search for that child? No! Why not? Because that child is not yours. But if it’s your child who is missing, you’d be gone searching everywhere and spending up all your resources to find your lost child.

4. God can welcome and receive penitent sinners home when they repent only because they are already and rightfully His. It would be unrighteous for God to take ownership of what doesn’t belong to Him. If you found a lost child of whom you’re not the parent or legal guardian and then keep the child instead of returning him, what would that make you? I would say, a kidnapper! If the unsaved do not belong to God and aren’t His children but takes ownership of them when He finds them, what would that make of God?

The woman who lost her coin did not shout, “I found a coin. I don’t know who owns it but because I found it, it’s now mine. Finder’s keepers!” The shepherd did not shout, “I found a sheep!” and then kept it for himself. It would be wrong to find a lost item owned by another and not return it.

5. From the perspective of the story of the prodigal son, the unsaved person is a child of God who is spiritually lost and dead in sin who crosses from spiritual death to eternal life and becomes a spiritually alive member of God’s family when he repents. The prodigal son didn’t become a son when he returned home. His father said, “for this SON of mine was DEAD and is ALIVE again; he was lost and is found. He was a “dead” son who became a “living” son. Repentance which results in the new birth is essentially a change of experience and not of status or identity. The new birth simply allows us to experience our sonship and daughtership with God.

The sheep did not turn into a hyena or a wolf and later transformed into a sheep when it was found. The identity of the sheep remained the same, only the experience was different. It was a lost sheep and now it is a sheep which is found. The silver coin did not turn into another kind of metal when it was lost which changed into silver once again when it was found. It was a lost silver coin and now it is a recovered silver coin. The prodigal son did not turn into a stranger or a slave who later then became a son again when he repented and returned home. As with the lost sheep and lost coin, the prodigal son did not lose his identity. He was the father’s son all the while.

6. That the unbelieving lost are children of the devil while at the same time God’s children is not a contradiction. When Adam sinned, God’s legal custody over the human race was turned over to Satan. We came under his authority and dominion and became subject to his power. Through unbelief and disobedience we take on his character. Since Satan did not create nor give birth to anyone it is only in that sense that sinners belong to Satan and have him as their father.

The reality of foster parenting, legal guardianship and custody of social services illustrates truthful situations of children having two parents or guardians at the same time. Barbara is a very loving single mother of five who suffered a seriously incapacitating illness. This left her incapable of supporting and caring for her children. The social services took custody over her children. Jenny, one of her kids, had Mrs. Jones to be her foster parent. Jenny gets raised by Mrs. Jones and learns about life from her. In this case, who is Jenny’s parent? I would say both but in different aspects.

By the way, what if Barbara recovered from her illness and regained legal custody of Jenny, her child? What if she satisfied all the legal requirements for her to be the legal guardian once again of her very own child? If she really did, what will be the good news to Jenny? What would you tell her if you were sent to give the good news? Would you tell her, “Jenny, come home to Barbara and believe in her love for you. If you do, she will have legal custody over you and you will be hers once again?”

Christ satisfied the legal requirements of the law and regained legal custody of the human race once again when He “gave Himself a ransom for all men.” I would say that is truly good news, that because of Christ’s finished work at the cross, the unsaved and everybody else rightfully belongs to God once again and any one can come home and experience God’s salvation.

7. Believers receive the “spirit of adoption” which is necessarily the experience of adoption. Practically, It’s one thing to be legally adopted and it’s another thing to experience the benefits of adoption. In order to be legally adopted a child doesn’t have to do anything but in order to experience and enjoy his adoption he will need to learn to trust the people who adopted him and stay with them. Faith or trust in the adopting parents is an important and a necessary condition to experience the “spirit of adoption” but not in order for a child’s adoption papers to be signed for and legally valid.

Our family adopted two precious girls. The adoption was finalized and they were given our family name but one of them decided to run and stay away. We still can’t find her. She’s been adopted and fully a child in the family as her other siblings, but chose to leave and not experience or enjoy her adoption . A person can be fully adopted without necessarily experiencing its benefits.

8. The unbelieving lost who have an estranged “father-child” relationship with God do not have eternal life. Universal justification, adoption, or pardon does not mean every person will be finally saved but it does mean that a loving God accomplished something infinitely real and actual in His heart for every human being apart from faith.

Some who strongly disagree that the unbelieving lost aren’t God’s children in any important or fundamental sense teach that you’re either a child of God or you’re a child of the devil, but you can’t have it both ways. I personally believe it’s a heroic effort to steer clearly away from universalism (all people will be saved) but a sad case of throwing the baby away with the bath water. The strictly and exclusively emphasized single-faceted evangelical view on sonship and adoption will by necessity rather prove and take the position that unbelievers are children of the devil and the devil only at the costly expense of leaving out a very valid picture of an unconditionally loving Father God even to the lost which is at least hinted if not clearly indicated by the story of the prodigal son.

I invite you to seriously reckon with the following:

How do you deal with biblical statements which says clearly that evil doers were bought or redeemed by Jesus Christ? (see 2 Peter 2:1). If you own what you’ve paid for and if every soul is the purchase of Christ’s blood, how do you reconcile the popular idea that the unbelieving lost are not His?

How do you deal with the reality of sinful human beings adopting children irregardless of their attitude toward them? If earthly parents can unconditionally sign for the adoption of a rebellious kid and count him as their own but God cannot and will not unless the sinner is repentant and is no longer rebellious, how do you reconcile that with the truth of the unconditionality of God’s love? How can human beings be more merciful than an infinitely loving God?

If you have a wayward son who deliberately left you and have not returned, and will never return, is he still your son? If the law required you to list all your children, will you still include his name? If an earthly father still believes his son is still his son even if he never comes home again, how can an unconditionally loving Father cease to recognize the unsaved as His children just because they are unrepentant and will not come home?

I don’t know about you but I could just imagine how liberating it will be for many of us to relate with other people when we believe they are God’s children and fellow members of God’s family whoever they are and whatever they believe or do not believe. How would you relate with one whom God counts as His own? How would deal with a fellow child of God?

But what about the unbelieving, the avowed atheist, the rejecters of God’s grace? Are they not dead in sin and spiritually lost? Yes, they are but they are God’s children just the same. And if they are, imagine how much that will make us want to reach out all the more because they are precious brothers and sisters whom God our Father wants to come home. Instead of looking through the lens or categories of religion or any other label we will want to see through the eyes of the prodigal son’s father: Every person is God’s child, some of whom have returned home while some haven’t, but all are God’s children just the same. While we’re glad some have returned home, and many more will, we’re sad others haven’t, and sadder still because others will never do and will be eternally lost.

I believe we can never exaggerate the infinite and unconditional love of God. How we understand Him today is but an infinitesimal glimpse of how loving He really is. May we know Him more and live only to know Him and make Him known is my prayer for us all.

by : Richard David Tamayo