Is it true that once you are a child of God, you also continue to be it into eternity? If you have become a child of God by way of a new birth, there will never be a moment when you can lose being born from above, as the Scriptures call it.

But the question is: I often hear in sermons that we are all children of God and that we can still be lost. How can that be?

Covenant Child⤒🔗

On the basis of the covenant of grace, of which we receive a sign and seal in baptism, it can be said in no uncertain terms that everyone in the congregation is addressed as a child of the covenant. The Lord himself already says in the Old Testament: you have offered my children to idols. They belong to the Lord because of the covenant. They are not allowed to go any other way than to serve him.

In the Form for Holy Baptism, it is pointed out that there are two parts to the covenant. That is why the children of the covenant are obliged to love the God of their baptism, to renounce the world, to put off their old nature and to lead a God-fearing life.

Thus, the church is justly addressed: you are the child of God by virtue of the covenant! We should not diminish that, to let the Scripture speak out in full.

Antagonistic Child←⤒🔗

Not all children of the covenant want to know about the God of the covenant. Unfortunately. When someone in the world does not love God, this is bad, but when a child of the covenant deliberately turns away from God, this is terrible.

In the Old Testament the Lord had to complain already that his own people turned away from him. Woe, the sinful people, we hear the prophet say. Unfortunately, it is not all Israel that is called Israel.

In the New Testament Paul warns the Christian congregation in 1 Corinthians 11 that one should not end up in such a sinful situation. To belong to the people of God and yet to be condemned is terrible.

In the parable of the prodigal son Jesus shows that the youngest son has had his fill of staying with his father. He leaves the house, chooses the so-called freedom, and enters the wide world far from his father. Until he comes to repentance and returns.

If this conversion has not been followed, the judgment is unrelentingly valid: this my son is dead!

When Jews boast that they are children of Abraham and so children of God, the Lord Jesus lets them discover that they have another father, namely, the devil. Appalling.

It is terrible when members of the congregation of Christ turn away from the Lord and his service forever. Then you must fear the worst. Hence, such members should be warned of the catastrophe that awaits them if they do not repent.

Lost Son←⤒🔗

You can be a child of God in the sense of the covenant and yet be completely lost and also be lost forever, if God does not bring about a radical reversal.

When the Lord Jesus is in Capernaum and encounters the disobedience and unbelief of Israel around him, he speaks very grave words. This city, he says, has been raised to heaven. For he reveals himself here and does extraordinary miracles and signs. If he had made himself known in pagan cities like Tyre and Sidon, he accuses the inhabitants of Capernaum, then they would have repented. That is why it will be heavier in the judgment of God for Israel than for those who do not belong to his people and with whom he had not made a covenant.

When a covenant child turns away from the God of the covenant, it must count on his covenantal wrath, while it could have shared in the covenant blessing in a life in accordance with this covenant. For the Lord does not want anyone to be lost, but that all are saved. That is why even more he says to his own people: open your mouth, boldly demand of me in my covenant of faithfulness! I promised it. I want to give it.

Father Is on the Lookout←⤒🔗

In the parable of the prodigal son we see that father has been on the lookout for some time to see if his lost son will return. When this son comes and has nothing left, his father does not turn away from him. He sees him before his son discovers him, rushes to him, embraces him and says: child!

So the God of the covenant wants to make lost sons alive, to save them and to give them a place in his house forever.

Covenant children have received many promises from God. But they still can be lost despite all this. Hence the earnestness in education, in home visits, in catechism, and in preaching, with the powerful appeal to seek the Lord while he may be found. Covenant children are urged to repent. Because a covenant child can otherwise be lost forever.

But if you are born again and become a child of God by a true faith, then you can and will never be lost. Then what John has written in sheer amazement is: see, what great love the Father has given us: we are and remain children of his. In this respect: once child of God, always child of God. For of these children of God is witnessed: I have loved you with an everlasting love. That is why I have drawn you. We must therefore look at both of these aspects when it comes to being the child of God.

This article was translated by John Vanderstoep.