I have one of those online accounts to document and explore my family tree. It seems like a lot of people do. As of 2023, Ancestry.com boasted to have 25 million users.[1] That is an enormous amount of people looking to connect who they are today, to who has gone before them, and combine all of their “branches” into one story.
It is a fun, though not always easy pastime. And it can come with some pricey expenses, whether it’s a monthly website subscription or trips to far away places in an effort to track down information and documentation.
As a Christian, I am also part of a spiritual family tree. Thankfully the greatest “price” was paid by Someone else, and the “documentation” is rather handy. But just like researching a physical family tree, as we dig through and consider the information available, we may find out we have some branches missing or connected in the wrong places.
When I open my family tree account, it automatically opens to me and my immediate branches. My parents, my spouse and my children are all plain to see. From there I can extend the view by clicking on another person to see their parents, children, siblings with their children. I can do that as far as I have entries on the tree.
What about our spiritual family tree?
I am a Trinitarian, meaning I believe in a Godhead composed of three Persons, unified, distinct, made of “God-stuff”, eternal, and holy. There is a lot more to it than that, but you get the idea.
(Note, I do not believe in a trinity that says: (1) Yahweh/Jehovah was God in the Old Testament; (2) God was born as Jesus to live, die, rise from the dead, and ascend back into Heaven; to (3) come back to Earth and operate as the Holy Spirit.)
I look at the three Persons of the Trinity as God the Father, Jesus the only begotten Son (the only Child who comes from the Father), and the Holy Spirit. How does this affect my location on a “family tree”?
Whose Child am I?
My first instinct is to put the Godhead at the top of the tree. The Father, Son and Spirit, distinct but united, are all God. They are all higher than me, so they are the top of the Tree. Yet I wonder if this placement fits the story of Scripture.
First of all, Scripture alludes to a hierarchy within the Godhead. Consist this list, not of all of the Godhead’s roles in salvation or the universe, but a glimpse into how they point to one another.
- The Father “gave” the Son (John 3:16; John 6:44) to save the world.
- The Son follows and does the will of the Father (John 5:19; Luke 22:42) and is the only way to the Father (John 14:6).
- The Spirit is sent by the Father (John 14:26; Acts 2:33; 1 Cor 2:12; 2 Cor 5:5) to testify and remind us about Jesus and His words (John 14:16; 15:26).
Second, Jesus taught us to consider God, not just His Father, but “our Father” (Matthew 6:9). The Father is my Father. I am a child of God the Father.
I am not a child of the Holy Spirit. Though the Spirit cries within me, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6), the Spirit doesn’t cry out to Himself but to the Father.
Neither am I a child of Jesus. Jesus is not my Father but my “big brother”. He is the only “natural” child of God. His existence did not begin at conception or the day of His birth, but He exists in eternity past just as the Father, for of the same God-stuff.
Through adoption, I am brought into the family of God, a sibling of Jesus. Jesus is preeminent (Colossians 1:18 NKJV) or has the first, highest position of the children of God. Though He currently sits at the Father’s right hand (Acts 2:33; Hebrews 8:1), He will sit on the great white throne (Revelation 21:3-6; Revelation 22:3).
Though He is first and highest, we will each be a joint heir (or “co-heir”) with Christ.
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 together. (Romans 8:16-17 NKJV)
You may think this is an audacious claim, to be an “on paper” equal with Jesus Christ. Yet this is how Roman adoption worked. Scripture confirms it for us by noting how it applies to believing non-Jews, aka Gentiles (Ephesians 3:6) and to both men and women (1 Peter 3:7); both of these were scandalous notions in the First Century.
A Problematic Metaphor
You may be catching on, as I did, that the metaphor of a family tree is not going to work. And yet I feel like I have lived in the wrong interpretation of that tree for so long.
If I put God at the top of a family tree, I place all of the Trinity in one ultimate, highest location. The only logical place to fill my personal entry is beneath them, all at once, and all of the time.
I recognize the concepts of grace and adoption as getting me onto the tree. I am grateful to be there. The tree, however, pushes me down, to a position less than what God offers me. It creates tiers of relationship; tiers built by ages of time, perceived spiritual “greatness”, and personal ideas of worth.
If we use a family tree to picture the family of God, it will not look anything like we think it should.
The Father is, indeed, the start of the tree. Paul reminds us there is “one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:6).
Jesus is the Son, the Holy Child, a direct line from the Father (John 3:16; Luke 9:35).
We as believers are also children of God, at the same level as Jesus. Full rights of “natural” children, joint heirs. A very long line of siblings, as it is said, “God doesn’t have grandchildren.”
The Holy Spirit isn’t left out, either. If you look at a family tree, there are connecting lines holding the family together. He was the agent of conception for Jesus (Luke 1:35). It is through the Spirit we are born again (John 3:5-6), and He reminds us we are children of God (Romans 8:16).
Taking the time to align my understanding of where I fit in the family of God is a bit of a game-changer for me. There are implications about some basics of Christian Living which require additional review and realignment.
It is a revelation full of hope, though. I am encouraged by the reminder that I am a full-fledged child of the Father and not a second-tier (or lower) member of the family. My “membership card” does not have fewer benefits. All that God has is also mine.
I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit, of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength. (Ephesians 1:16-19)
Unless noted otherwise, Scriptures in this post are from the Christian Standard Bible (CSB).
Chris MacKinnon 