Despite our sinful rebellion as fallen male and female image-bearers, the Heavenly Father still longs to restore us as His lost sons and daughters. That’s why He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross to redeem us from bondage to our masculine sin (abdication and avoidance) and our feminine sin (manipulation and control). He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of  God, that we might become the sons and daughters of God.
The Heavenly Father wants us back! So, what’s the way home to the Father’s embrace? He desires to make a covenant – a weighty agreement – with us through the shed blood of Jesus. By repenting of our masculine and feminine sin, and choosing faith in His perfect Son, we embrace the covenant that He freely offers us. We are redeemed. We are no longer lost; we are found. We are no longer dead in sin; we are alive in Christ. We are no longer children of wrath; we are children of God. We are no longer “sinners”; we are saints. We are no longer enemies; we are heirs. We are no longer slaves; we are the Heavenly Father’s sons and daughters.
We are no longer slaves to masculine and feminine rebellion, independence, and foolishness; instead, we are reconciled to  God the Father, as beloved sons and daughters with a whole new identity. Our lost “birthright” is restored, along with a renewed dignity of position and nobility of calling, as male or female image-bearers.
Our Heavenly Father speaks uniquely to us as His beloved sons. He says, “In Christ, you are my beloved son. I remember you. I am mindful of you. I have faith in you. I believe in you. You are strong in My embrace. No more abdication and avoidance. You have what it takes to sow a seed of life, to impart life to others. You are a son of My relational strength, capable of profound impact.”
Our Heavenly Father also speaks uniquely to us as His beloved daughters. He says, “In Christ, you are My beloved daughter. I see you. I delight in you. You are secure in My embrace. No more manipulation and control. You have all you need to vulnerably nourish the seed of life in others, to nurture life. You are a daughter of My relational beauty, both unconditionally loved and capable of profound intimacy/love.”

 

The Father Tells Us

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…
John 1:12

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father…
Galatians 1:3-4

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You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To God’s holy people in Ephesus,[a] the faithful in Christ Jesus:

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[b] predestined us for adoption to sonship[c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.