Becoming One of God's Children

How God's Family Was Separated

Regarding Jehovah God, the Creator, the psalmist said:  "With you is the source of life." (Psalm 36:9) Jehovah is the Father of a large  universal family of faithful intelligent creatures. That family consists of a heavenly part made up of angels, who are his spirit sons, and an earthly part made up of humans, who are to be his earthly children.

When God's first human son, Adam, rebelled, as described in the preceding article, the human race was painfully separated from its loving Father and Creator. (Luke 3:38) This is because through his rebellion, Adam forfeited for himself and his yet unborn children of God. Through his servant Moses, God described the consequences of what had happened:  "They have acted ruinously on their own part; they are not [God's] children, the defect is their own."  "The defect," or sinful nature alienated humans from God, who is holy and perfect in every way.  (Deuteronomy 32:4, 5; Isaiah 6:3) In a sense, then, mankind became lost, fatherless. -Ephesians 2:12. 

To emphasize the extent of mankind's isolation, the Bible refers to those outside God's family as "enemies." (Romans 5:8, 10)  Separated from God, humankind has suffered under the harsh rule of Satan and the deadly effects of inherited sin and imperfection.  (Romans 5:12; 1 John 5:19) Can sinful humans become part of God's family? Can imperfect creatures become children of God in the fullest sense, the way Adam and Ever were before they sinned?

Next time: Become One of God's Children - Gathering Separated Children

from the Watchtower magazine