God Has No Grandchildren

“God has no grandchildren” is a statement provided “for further reflection” found in The Discovery Bible[i]. Sure, we are invited to call God our Father (Matt. 6:9).

“I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord….” (2 Cor. 6:18)

But why not grandfather? Why should God not have grandchildren?

If the parent/child relationship applies to God and us, why not the grandparent/grandchild relationship?

We are born to our parents and carry our parents’ genes in our bodies. We pass on those genes to our children and to our children’s children. Our grandchildren are not born to us, but they carry our genes. This is the natural order of things. It’s biology (or science as they say).

So why no grandchildren of God?

The answer is simple: a person can’t have an indirect relationship with God. We don’t inherit a relationship with God; it doesn’t get passed on to us from anybody else.

No one has a vicarious relationship with God. Every relationship with God must be direct and personal.

We must “be born again!” To know God, we must be born again, not of the flesh; our birth in God is of the Spirit. This is a direct, personal connection to God.

“He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:11-13)

God adopts each one of us as sons and daughters, as His children. We become God’s children, and God becomes our Father.

Why do we take pride in our human lineage and ancestry? We really have nothing to boast about. Did we choose to be born of our parents? Did we choose our lineages? Of course not! It was nothing that we accomplished.

Likewise, being born again, born of the Spirit, born unto God so that we can call God our Father, is not anything of which we can boast. It is the work of God in us.

Just as we can take no credit for our human birth, we can take no credit for our spiritual birth. Just as we sometimes boast of our ancestry, we might be tempted to boast in or rely on the heritage of belief in our families, but that would be a big mistake.

God does not make grandchildren!

Either you have a direct relationship with God the Father, or you have no relationship at all.

Of course we must participate in this re-birthing, but our participation is only in being a willing vessel. It’s nothing that we have accomplished on our own. It’s simply a willingness to receive God for who He is, to place our faith, our trust and our lives in His hands, and to allow God to place His seed in us and to let it grow in us.

Take a moment…. Consider whether you have a personal relationship with God. Do you have the cry, “Abba! Father!”, in your heart? (Gal. 4:6) Have you had a direct, personal encounter with God?

If you cannot say this, or you are not sure, be honest.

This is foundational. You can’t muster up a relationship with God. It is nothing you can will to do.

Don’t be discouraged if you can’t answer with confidence. In fact, be encouraged! You can’t approach God with any degree of dishonesty or falseness in your heart. Strip out the pretensions when you approach God, and approach Him as a child, expectantly, openly and honestly. He already knows your heart!

The good news is that God is found by the one who seeks; God answers the one who asks; God opens the door to the one who knocks. (Matt. 7:7-8) If you haven’t encountered God, start seeking Him in earnest, start knocking and don’t stop until He answers! When He answers, be ready to let Him in. It will change your life forever!

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[i] The Discovery Bible is unique in the scholarly tools woven into it.

I use The Discovery Bible to gain a deeper, richer and more complete understanding of the Scripture. If you want ready understanding of the original Greek, the original word emphasis and Greek tenses that do not exist in English, to make your reading of the New Testament deeper and richer, check out The Discovery Bible. The Discovery Bible opens up knowledge of the original New Testament text in Greek to you in your everyday Bible reading. It shows the words emphasized in the Greek text, the tenses and the meanings that do not always translate well into English or English sentence structure. If you are ready to dig deeper in your Bible reading, try a free 30-day trial download of The Discovery Bible.