You Are God’s Beloved Child … and why this changes everything (Ephesians 5:1)

In Ephesians 5:1, the Apostle Paul makes a stunning declaration about our identity in Christ—we are God’s beloved children, adopted as true heirs with full access to the Father’s love and affection.

In this Bible study, Nathan Johnson unpacks what it means to be God’s cherished child and how this transformative truth should shape the way we live, worship, and walk with Jesus.

If you’ve ever questioned your worth, struggled to believe God truly delights in you, or wondered what it means to be loved by the Father, this expositional teaching will ground you in the unchanging reality of your adoption in Christ. Whether you’re studying Ephesians verse-by-verse or seeking to deepen your understanding of your identity as a Christian, this message will help you grasp the profound privilege and practical implications of being called God’s beloved child.

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Key Passage: Ephesians 5:1

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children,
– Ephesians 5:1

Therefore …

• Ephesians 5:1– Therefore …
  • Put Off / Put On – The Clothing of the Kingdom
  • put off sin and the culture of the world’s kingdom and put on Christ (the clothing of the Kingdom)

Be Imitators

• Ephesians 5:1 – Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children …
  • Be (ginomai): to become, to enter or assume a certain state or condition … a cultivation and progression of the attribute … to come into being (like a child being born)
    • Command (imperative) – we must become this!
    • Middle or Passive
    • We are to BE imitators – not “DO imitation”
  • Imitators: forger, imitator; a person who copies the words and behavior of another
• How can we be possibly imitate God?
  • Not WWJD!
  • We can’t!
  • Ian Thomas – You can’t, but God never said you could. He will, and God always said He would.
  • Oswald Chambers– The secret to imitation is impartation.
• This is Paul’s entire message of Ephesians: IN CHRIST

Put Off / Put On

• Put off imitating God in your own resource/sourcing/strength
  • This is not “fake it till you make it”   
• Put on imitating God through His sourcing (impartation)
  • The only way to live the Christian life is to have Christ living and producing His life in and through us
  • 1 John 4:9 – By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

As Beloved Children

• Beloved (agapētos): beloved, dear, prized, special; dearly loved and cherished; one who is in a very special relationship with another; preferred above all others and treated with favoritism 
  • root word: agapē
  • Matthew 3:17– … and behold, there was a voice out of the heavens saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
  • Matthew 3:17 [NRJ AMP] – “This is My beloved, prized, dearly loved and cherished Son in whom I’m in a very special relationship with and in whom I show my favoritism … in Him I am well-pleased!”
• Children (teknon): a child or descendant (of any age); sometimes used in the plural to refer collectively as children.
  • We are called to be like a child … not childish
  • Mark 10:14–15 – … [Jesus] said to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”
  • Dependent, Trusting 
  • A parent gives protection, provision, direction to the child … a little child must depend, trust, and place their hope, security, future, and life in the parent’s hands.
  • John 1:12– But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name …
    • Received: to take, lay hold of, receive
  • Romans 8:16–17 – The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, also heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

How do we become children of God?

• Not a biological but spiritual adoption
• Ephesians 1:3–6– Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved.
• Romans 8:15 – For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
• 1 John 3:1–2 – See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we would be called children of God; and we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not been manifested as yet what we will be. We know that when He is manifested, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
• 1 John 2:12–14 – I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. … I have written to you, children, because you have known the Father. …
• 1 John 5:2 – By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do His commandments.
• Ephesians 5:8–10– … for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of that light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth) …
• Philippians 2:14–16 – Do all things without grumbling or disputing, so that you will be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to boast because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.
• 1 John 3:10– By this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifested: everyone who does not do [poieō] righteousness is not of God, as well as the one who does not love his brother.
  • How are we going to “poieō” (do, practice) righteousness?
  • I need a DNA infusion
  • Imitation demands an impartation

DNA Infusion

• Ephesians 5:1– Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children …
  • this is not playing dress up (“fake the Christian life”)
• If I am a child of God, it requires that I have a nature change … I CAN imitate God (become Christlike) when I have His nature dwelling within (impartation)
  • Ephesians 2:1–6 – And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus … 
  • Ephesians 4:22–24– … lay aside [put off], in reference to your former conduct, the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
  • 1 John 4:4– You are from God, little children, and have overcome them …[WHY?]… because greater isHe who is in you than he who is in the world.
  • Romans 8:37 – But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

His Nature

• Perfect love, perfect holiness, perfect righteousness, perfect truth
• Romans 8:29– Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers …

1. Ask for His Nature (Spirit)

• Luke 11:9–13– “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. But what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? Or, if his son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

2. Live as a Beloved Child

• Matthew 3:17 [NRJ AMP] – “This is My beloved, prized, dearly loved and cherished Son in whom I’m in a very special relationship with and in whom I show my favoritism … in Him I am well-pleased!”
• Ephesians 5:1– Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children …
• Ephesians 1:4 – … just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love …

FOOTNOTES

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In Our Next Study Together …

I invite you to join me on this journey from the book of Ephesians to discover God’s eternal purpose, His plan for your life, and learn how to practically live out an abundant and fruitful Christian life. 

• The focus of our next study: Ephesians 5:2
  • We are going to dive into the concept of living in and out of God’s love.
  • I encourage you to read through Ephesians a couple of times this week and focus specifically on Ephesians 5.