For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
- John 3:16

“And in Jesus Christ, his only Son …”
- from The Apostles’ Creed

Aren’t we all God’s children? Yes and no.

We’re all made in God’s image and designed for relationship with our good heavenly Father. Many of us have also been adopted into God’s family. And the way that happens is through God’s only Son.

From before the beginning of time, God the Son has had a relationship with God the Father. There was never a time when they didn’t know and love and enjoy each other. The Father delights in the Son and the Son delights in the Father.

For us and for our salvation, the Son entered human history, put on human flesh and reclaimed all of creation. On the other side of the empty tomb, all creation is twice his: first by virtue of the fact that he made it and second because he paid for it, buying it back through the cross after we had given it away to much lesser gods.

This gives the Son the right to offer to us the opportunity to share in his own relationship with the Father. You only have a relationship with the Father through his only true Son.

When you pray to the Father today, go to him with all the rights and freedom of his only Son, because in Jesus that’s the level of access that you have.