The LORD’s unconditional promise to David that he would be the father of an everlasting kingdom (2 Samuel 7:16) changed the way God dealt with the nation of Israel. God told David, “I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:12-16). “This refers initially to Solomon but was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the ‘Son of David’ (Luke 1:31-33; Acts 2:25-35) who reigns at God’s right hand (Psalm 2:7; Acts 13:33)” (note on 2 Samuel 2:13). The Father/Son relationship between God and Jesus Christ made it possible for believers to become members of the family of God (Ephesians 1:5).

Paul tells us in Romans 8:14 that being led by the Holy Spirit is an indicator that you are a child of God. Paul said:

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:14-17)

Paul said that the Holy Spirit’s activity inside of a believer bears witness to the fact that he has a parent/child relationship with God.

Jesus repeatedly referred to God as your Father in his Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, “’You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven’” (Matthew 5:43-45). The Greek word that is translated sons, uihos (hwee-osˊ) is spoken of “those whom God loves and cherishes as a father. Generally of pious worshippers of God, the righteous, the saints (Matthew 5:9, 45; Luke 6:35; 20:36),” but is also used to refer to, “One who derives his human nature directly from God, and not by ordinary generation: spoken of Jesus (Luke 1:35); implied of Adam (Luke 3:38)” (G5207). Jesus told his followers:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7-11)

Jesus compared a believer’s relationship with God to that of a natural born child and its parent and said that we should expect to receive good things from God when we ask him for them. The Greek word aiteo (ahee-tehˊ-o), which is translated ask, has to do with prayer, and “is strictly a demand of something due” (G154/4441). Just as a child is dependent upon his or her own parents to provide daily food and shelter, so is a child of God dependent upon him to provide the daily necessities of spiritual life.

Jesus made it clear to his disciples that he didn’t recognize relationships that were established through physical birth. Mark tells us, “And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:31-35). Jesus considered his followers to be his family and said the thing that distinguished them from everyone else was that they do the will of God. Jesus elaborated on this point in his Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Jesus used the Greek word ginosko (ghin-oceˊ-ko) to indicate his lack of a spiritual relationship with a person. Ginosko is used “in the sense to know, as being what one is or professes to be, to acknowledge (Matthew 7:23)” (G1097). “In the New Testament ginosko frequently indicates a relation between the person ‘knowing’ and the object known; in this respect, what is ‘known’ is of value or importance to the one who knows, and hence the establishment of the relationship, e.g., especially of God’s ‘knowledge,’ 1 Corinthians 8:3, ‘if any man love God, the same is known of Him’…”such ‘knowledge’ is obtained not by mere intellectual activity, but by operation of the Holy Spirit consequent upon acceptance of Christ.”

Paul described the spiritual birthing process that every believer has to go through in his letter to the Ephesians. Paul stated:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

Paul indicated that the process of spiritual birth begins with God choosing us and also stated that God chose us “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). That means that God’s family was established before he even thought about creating the world. After God chose the members of his family, he exercised his love toward them by determining in advance that each one of them would be adopted and become “heirs of His covenanted salvation” (G5206; Ephesians 1:5). The process of spiritual birth concludes with God blessing all who were predestined to become his children by giving them the grace to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior so that their sins can be forgiven and they can go to heaven to be with him when they die (Ephesians 1:6-10).

Jesus told the Jews who claimed that God was their Father, but did not believe his gospel message, that they belonged to a different family, the family of Satan. John 8:31-47 states:

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

Jesus differentiated between those who were descendants of Abraham who were actually members of God’s family and those who were not. The key characteristic of a member of God’s family is telling and believing the truth.

Jesus encouraged his followers to not be anxious and told them that they could depend on God to take care of them because they were members of his family. Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:25-33). Jesus said that the way God takes care of his children is by adding things to them. The Greek word prostithemi (pros-tithˊ-ay-mee) has to do with placing something near or in the pathway of the person that it is intended for and means “to place additionally” (G4369). In other words, God gives his children more than they already have or more than they can provide for themselves. Jesus used the example of the lilies that grow in the field compared to King Solomon, who was the richest man who ever lived, and said, “I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:29-30).