How to Know for Certain You're a Child of God

The following is an excerpt from Alive: Growing in Your Relationship with Jesus.

This day of study is written by Blair Linne.

The Bible often uses the child-parent relationship to describe the relationship believers have with God. Think about the relationship (or lack thereof) you have with your earthly parents. For better or worse, the people who raised us influenced us. We mimic mannerisms and behaviors, share habits and quirks, and are heavily influenced by genetics, heritage, and customs. Through imitation, we show whose children we are.

Our relationship with our heavenly Father is one of influence and imitation, too. Today we’ll consider what it means to be a child of God and how we’re forever transformed by our relationship with Him.

Early on in his Gospel, John—the beloved disciple (follower) of Jesus (John 13:23)—describes how we can be certain that we are children of God. But before we get there, we must clear away any false ideas that we have. John is quick to point out that being a child of God is not based on heritage or ancestry; it’s not based on desire or interest (“the will of flesh”); and it’s not based on personal determination (“the will of man”). John’s point is clear: A relationship with God is not the result of anything a person does on her own apart from God.

John highlights two verbs in verse 12 that help us understand God’s work in our lives—“receive” and “believe.”

First, John says the child of God is the person who has “received him.” Based on John 1:1-14, we know the “him” here is Jesus, the Word who became flesh (John 1:14). Receive means “to take possession of,” or “welcome.”1 Rather than respond like Jesus’s own people who rejected Him (John 1:10-11), the child of God is the one who receives Him, the one who embraces who He is and what He wants to do in one’s life.

In just the first chapter of John alone, the disciple opens our eyes to who Jesus is. Before we can receive Jesus, we have to know who He is. Unveiling this is the goal of the Gospels. John emphasizes Jesus as the divine Prophet, Priest, and King who gives His own blood to save sinners and make them children of the Father.

Receiving Jesus means we need a spiritual awakening from above, which we receive through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us. God’s Spirit opens our eyes to see Jesus for who He is, just like He opened John the Baptist’s eyes to recognize Jesus from among everyone else (John 1:32-34). Once we see that Jesus is the sufficient Lamb of God (1:19), we receive Him by faith.

Second, John says we are to “believe in his name” (John 1:12).

Believe is defined as “accept[ing] something as true, genuine, or real; to have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something.”2 One’s name refers to their authority, character, or rank. Because He is the divine Word, the Son of God, Jesus’s name is filled with power and authority (see John 5:43). So, to believe in the name of Jesus means to accept He is who He says He is—God’s own Son, who lived, died, and rose again to save us from our sins.

Everything changes relationally between us and God when we personally receive Christ and believe in Him.

1. Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, s.v. “receive,” accessed October 12, 2023, https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/receive.