by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
If it is true that “once you are a child of God, you can never be lost or cease to be a child of God,” then what happened to Adam and the rest of the sons of God? Adam is called the son of God (Luke 3:38), and the rest of humanity came from the same “Father.” Hebrews 12 calls God “the Father of spirits.<\/em>” All spirits were Fathered by God. So, all of us were originally sons of God. Did we remain His children? We did not! We became the children of the devil by our choice to sin and listen to the voice of selfish lust.\u00a0We then became “sons of disobedience,<\/em>” and like Adam, we became separated from God, becoming “children of wrath<\/em>” (Ephesians 2:1-3).\u00a0It became our nature by virtue of practice to fulfill the desires of the flesh and push away from our plans the thought of serving God and righteousness.<\/p>\n So, it is not only possible, but it is the pattern of mankind to start out innocent as sons of God, move away from God into sin, become sons of disobedience (sons of the devil), and become by nature children destined for wrath. The Bible does not teach that once you are a child of God, you are always a child of God. Neither does it teach that once you are a child of the devil, you cannot cease being a child of the devil. Jesus called the Pharisees a “brood of vipers” and even said that Satan was their father (Matthew 23; John 8 ). Saul of Tarsus was a “Pharisee of the Pharisees<\/em>” (Philippians 3). Thus, he had been a child of Satan. Could this child of the devil stop being a child of the devil? He could and did. He turned from sin to God and God adopted him into His family (Ephesians 1, Romans 8:13-15). Once a child of the devil, you are not automatically always a child of the devil. You can quit serving the devil.<\/p>\n It comes down to who you serve. Can you cease serving one master and start serving another? The answer is seen in Romans 6. A servant of sin can “die to sin<\/em>” and can be buried with Christ in baptism (Romans 6:3-6) and rise up together with Christ to “walk in newness of life”. In Christ, we are adopted, and with adoption we have a new Father and become heirs together with Christ. Now, Adam was the son of God, and God told His son that “the day you eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, you will surely die.<\/em>” That means that God’s son could be separated from His Father, and that separation would not be easily repaired. You remember that the devil said, “You will not <\/b>surely die<\/em>” (Genesis 3). The devil was teaching that once you are a child of God, you cannot be separated in death from your Father. Do you realize that the devil is still teaching that false doctrine?<\/p>\n Now it is possible to always be a child of God or always be a child of the devil, but the truth is that we can all choose to change who or what we will serve. By the grace of God, a child of the devil can learn about Christ, repent of sins, and be adopted into God’s family. But it is also true that a child of God can “fall from grace<\/em>” (Galatians 5:1-4), can “develop an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God<\/em>” (Hebrews 3:12). A man who enters the Christian race with desire for the prize of heaven with God can “become disqualified<\/em>” (I Corinthians 9:27). Paul was guided by the Spirit, and yet he did not believe that the prize was so fixed for him that he couldn’t lose it. He actually believed that if he did not discipline his body and bring it into subjection, though he had surely started out toward winning the prize, he could lose the discipline and focus of the race and become “disqualified” from the prize. If a believer becomes an unbeliever and falls from grace, he does not get the prize. The prize is the crown of life rewarded in heaven. We have to be disciplined and stay within the rules of the race, or we will be disqualified.<\/p>\n Paul said that the Jews have become “cut off<\/em>” due to unbelief (Romans 11:20) and he told the Gentile believers that it was possible for them to get haughty and stop standing by faith, and “He may not spare you either<\/em>” (Romans 11:21). In Romans 11:22 he said that severity comes to those “who fell” and if they do not continue in unbelief “He is able to graft them in again<\/em>” (Romans 11:23). So, the goodness of God and the severity of God is toward those who can go either direction. You can “continue” in His goodness, or you can continue toward His wrath, or you can cease to continue in either venue. Any denial of this is from the devil. He would like you to believe that once you are a child of God, you are automatically always qualified for the prize. Don’t be haughty! You can fall from grace! Beware!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton If it is true that “once you are a child of God, you can never be lost or cease to be a child of God,” then what happened to Adam and the rest of the sons of God? Adam is called the son of God (Luke 3:38), and the rest of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-93791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-once-saved-always-saved"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3649,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-child-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":93791,"position":0},"title":"What does it mean to be a child of God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What does it mean to be a child of God? Answer: \"The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13361,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-we-be-children-of-god-and-slaves-of-god-at-the-same-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":93791,"position":1},"title":"How can we be children of God and slaves of God at the same time?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been struggling with the concept of \"children of God.\" I understand we are made children of God when we becoming Christians, yet we are bondservants to God and Christ -- we are servants. I was wondering when it refers to us being children of God, is it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85191,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/evil-continually-genesis-6\/","url_meta":{"origin":93791,"position":2},"title":"Evil Continually (Genesis 6)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Chuck Richardson via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 1, January 2015 Genesis chapter 6 opens with the revelation that man was desperately evil, and God responded with a complete destruction of all living persons and things, save Noah and his household. The reason: Noah found grace in the eyes of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3732,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-we-all-descendants-of-adam-and-eve-and-all-related\/","url_meta":{"origin":93791,"position":3},"title":"Are we all descendants of Adam and Eve and all related?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Did God only create Adam and Eve? Does that mean we are all descendants of Adam and Eve, and if so are we all related? Answer: \"So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":962,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-racism-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":93791,"position":4},"title":"Is racism a sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 23, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How do you embrace people of all races and remain different? Is racism a sin? Is Jesus white or is Adam black? Answer: Webster's dictionary defines racism as \"the belief in the superiority or dominance of one race over another.\" The Bible teaches that there are many nationalities, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86186,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/once-a-child-of-god-always-a-child-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":93791,"position":5},"title":"Once a Child of God Always a Child of God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 31, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton If it is true that once you are a child of God, you are automatically always a child of God, then no one could ever become a child of the devil. Yet, the Pharisees had become children of the devil (John 8:44-47). All people start out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}