What is the difference between believers and unbelievers in God’s eyes? The Father created us in His image, and Jesus carried the sins of every one of us, both believers and unbelievers, fully satisfying God’s wrath against all of us through His suffering, death, and resurrection. The difference lies in the work of the Holy Spirit, creating and sustaining saving faith in Jesus Christ for believers.
Who Are God’s Children?
Put simply, God’s children are those who believe in Jesus. God’s children are those who, by the work of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, recognize their hopeless spiritual state and look to Christ for forgiveness. Through faith created by the Holy Spirit, they receive forgiveness and everlasting life. Paul describes this distinction of faith as he writes to the Christians in Galatia: “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Galatians 3:26). For the sake of Jesus Christ, God’s children are freed from sin, death, and the power of the devil. They receive the benefits of Christ’s victory over these three on the cross.
God created all people in His own image. He so loved the world of fallen sinners that He sent His only-begotten Son, Jesus, to save us. (See John 3:16.) Through His innocent life and bitter suffering and death, Jesus paid the penalty for the sins of all human beings. However, only those who have faith in Jesus by the Holy Spirit are saved. Those who do not believe have not received forgiveness and everlasting life. John expresses this sober truth in his Gospel.
Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3:18)
How Do We Become God’s Children?
Through His Holy Spirit, God makes sinners into His children purely through His will, action, and power. While some Christians claim to have chosen Christ or given their hearts to Jesus, God’s Word teaches differently. Jesus says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). Without the work of the Holy Spirit, we are spiritually blind, dead, enemies of God. Even if we had the power to make ourselves Christians, we would still choose against it. Paul elaborates as he writes to the Christians in Corinth, “Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3).
God chooses us. His Holy Spirit uses the means of grace to create and nourish the faith through which Christians receive forgiveness and everlasting life. The means of grace are God’s Word, Holy Baptism, and Holy Communion. When someone reads or hears the news of what Jesus did for us on the cross, the Holy Spirit can use that to do His regenerating, life-giving work. God’s work through Holy Baptism washes away sins, creates faith, brings the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and places God’s everlasting seal on the recipient. Christ’s true body and blood in the sacrament of Holy Communion forgives sins and fortifies faith. Luther explains this in the meaning of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed: “The Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified me and kept me in the true faith.”
How Does This Distinction Affect Our Prayers?
The distinction between God’s children and unbelievers is foundational when it comes to prayer. There are people all over the world today, many of whom are devout and pray in earnest. Yet, without faith in Jesus Christ, they pray in vain, or worse, they pray to Satan, who, in the guise of a false god, desires their destruction. Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Such a person may call or cry out to a “higher power.” Nevertheless, he or she stands condemned before God. The unbeliever is unacceptable to God, along with his or her prayers. This is not to suggest that God does not desire to save the sinner or is unaware of his or her needs. God loves all that He has created, and He provides for both Christians and unbelievers. However, without faith in Christ, God does not attend to one’s prayers.
In the introduction of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven,” Luther writes,
With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father, and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.
Jesus Christ put away sin through His death and resurrection. Through faith in Jesus, we are heirs of God’s kingdom. This inheritance includes the gift of prayer. We have God’s ear, so to speak. He not only hears our prayers but attends to them. The Christian is accepted by God through Christ, and so are our prayers, especially our prayers for those who do not yet believe. Our heavenly Father promises in His Word that He will answer our prayers in His perfect way and in His perfect time.
Scripture: ESV®.
Catechism quotations are taken from Luther’s Small Catechism © 1986 Concordia Publishing House. All rights reserved.
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