“It’s a relationship, which involved two people, there are going to be different perspectives on the same thing.” — Brook Potter
There are many passages in the bible that are contradictory, if not understood in the proper context. In my previous article, about “who are the Children of God,” I talked about Jesus undoing the fall of Adam and reconciling humanity back to God. I mentioned in the article that the Apostle Paul, said to unbelieving heathens, that we are all his offspring (Acts 17:2 -29).
The topic is part of a larger issue concerning Scriptures that contradict, so I attached a video to the end of my original article explaining what i meant in greater detail. The same video is at the end of this article. Now I got a response from a brother that still re-iterated that you must have faith to be called the sons of God, and he gave me Scriptures that supported his position.
Galatians 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Now, I have no problem with these verses at all, and my friend was surprised to know that. So which is it? Are we his offspring by the Finished Work or do we become his Offspring when we believe? The answer is both, depends on your perspective, this is a dynamic that is all throughout scripture.
Through the Finished work of Jesus, all of humanity has been included, accepted and adopted from God’s perspective. From His view, everything is past tense based on what Jesus has done (2 Corinthians 5:18). So as far as God is concerned, believer or unbeliever, you are His. Even if you deny him and do all manner of evil, God sees you as His own (2 Peter 2:1).
But there is another side to this equation, the human side. Even though from God’s perspective we have been adopted, if we don’t know it or don’t want it, we will never experience the adoption for ourselves. We will go on walking in darkness, we will continue to walk under the influence of Satan and be Children of the Devil (Acts 13:10).
This is how we minister the Gospel, we tell people God has already reconciled them to himself, now trust Him, rest in that truth and consider yourself reconciled (2 Corinthians 5:20). The Gospel message is all about seeing people and speaking from God’s perspective based on the finished work in every situation. The individual’s choice to do with what we say will either agree and trust our words or reject our words with the corresponding consequences. That is what Paul is doing with the pagan in the book of Acts, and we should do that also, keep telling people they are Children of God by the Blood of Jesus, in hopes that one day they will believe it with the rest of the benefits unto salvation.
John Crowder of the Sons of Thunder explains the Objective and Subjective views of Salvation.