1. The Status of the Children of God's People
By Gerry Straker, 24 May 2022
Our Sunday mornings with Church for all the family young and old are shaped by what the Bible beautifully teaches us in three areas:
- What Church is
- Where children stand
- What preaching is
Taken together, these three doctrines mean that gathering the whole Church for worship is an obvious choice for us and by God’s grace it is bringing lots of blessings!
Over the years, we’ve taught a good deal on Church and preaching, but less so on where children stand. This article is one of five that will show us what the Bible teaches us about children: the children of God’s people are God’s people.
- The Status of the Children of God’s People
- Children of God’s People in the Promises of God
- Children of God’s People Join God’s People
- Children of God’s People Live as God’s People
- Conclusion: Children of God's People are God's People
THE STATUS OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD’S PEOPLE
This first article is about the status of children: throughout the Bible, children of God’s people are considered part of God’s people.
1. God deals with people in households
- Noah’s whole family are saved. (Genesis 6-9).
- Rahab’s household are saved. (Joshua 6:25).
- Achan’s whole family were punished when he sinned. (Joshua 7).
- The angels who come to rescue Lot, tell him to go and get ‘anyone else in the city who belongs to you’ – Lot implores his sons-in-law who don’t even live in his house! (Genesis 19:12-14).
God always deals with households.
And the promise to Abraham was to bless families: ‘You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ (Acts 3:25 ESV). The promise to Abraham was a promise to bless families. And that Old Testament promise was being fulfilled in the household conversions and the household baptisms in the New Testament:
- Cornelius (Acts 10:47-48; 11:14)
- Lydia (Acts 16:15)
- The Philippian jailer (Acts 16:31-34)
- Crispus (Acts 18:8)
- Stephanas (1 Corinthians 1:16)
Mission and Bible teaching was done household by household rather than individual by individual. Ephesians 5 and 6 show us that fathers continue to have spiritual responsibility for their wives (Ephesians 5:25-27) and their children (Ephesians 6:4).
2. The purpose of marriage is godly offspring
‘Has not made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.’ (Malachi 2:15). Malachi teaches us that marriage is a covenant that is to bear fruit: godly offspring. This is one of God’s good purposes for marriage: believing children - and it should be ours too. His expectation and purpose for the people of God is godly offspring. God’s purposes for marriage don’t change in the new covenant!
3. Jesus comes to restore families
‘And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous--to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’ (Luke 1:17). Sin breaks families, but John’s job of preparation is to bring families back together. The gospel restores families.
4. Children are gifts from God to believers
Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.
Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate. (Psalm 127:3-5)
It’s hard to think how babies are such wonderful gifts to believers if they do not share in the blessing of being part of God’s people, if they are no different from other children in God’s eyes. Then, consider this: what are the sons for? To help protect God’s people – sons are on the same side as their father!
5. Children are holy if one of their parents is a believer
‘For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.’ (1 Corinthians 7:14). The word ‘holy’ means ‘saints’. The children of saints are saints. John Murray calls this holiness the ‘connection and privilege of the covenant.’[1]
6. Children can be elect in the womb
- Jacob (Romans 9:11-13)
- David (Psalm 22:10)
- The Servant (Isaiah 49:1, 5)
- Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5)
- Paul (Galatians 1:15) even though his Damascus road happened a lot later!
The very least we can say here is that some children born in God’s people are God’s people.
7. Children can have faith
John the Baptist leaped for joy in his mother’s womb: ‘As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.’ (Luke 1:44). This is what David says: ‘Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast.’ (Psalm 22:9). David learned to trust the Lord from a very young age indeed!
This is implicitly and obviously true for the Lord Jesus: he must have had faith from infancy. ‘And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.’ (Luke 2:40).
Faith in infants is possible because:
- Faith is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8)
- The Spirit gives faith to whomever he wants to (John 3:8).
And don’t forget people can have faith without being able to declare it! Remember Zechariah – he was struck dumb! (Luke 1:22). While all who are able must profess, it is not, after all, the profession of faith which saves.
8. Children have angels looking after them
‘See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.’ (Matthew 18:10). Jesus gives the reason why we shouldn’t look down on children – because of their angels. This isn’t guardian angels standing at the end of our beds. Jesus says – their angels always see the face of my Father in heaven. The angels are in heaven. It’s not necessarily the case that each child has one angel either. As Calvin puts it: ‘The care of the whole Church is committed to angels, to assist each member as his necessities shall require.’[2] Legions of angels (see Psalm 91:11; Hebrews 1:14) protect God’s children!
We know from elsewhere in the Bible that nations have angels (Daniel 10:13, 20-21) and churches have angels (Revelation 2-3) and here we see little ones have angels who see the face of the Father. While we don’t know much about the angels, Jesus’ point is very clear: these little ones are very valuable to God, they are great in His sight and we are to consider children as really important because God does. Matthew Henry writes on this verse: ‘The infant seed of the faithful belong to the family of Christ and are not to be despised.’[3]
And so we can see that in the Old Testament and the New Testament children are part of God’s people, welcomed in by Him.
[1] Quoted by Timothy Sizemore, (Fearn, Ross-shire: Christian Focus, 2000), Of Such is the Kingdom, 145.
[2] Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. 16, II, 339.
[3] Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1991), 1705.