Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. – 1 John 3:1-2.
Being called children of God is a sure sign of God’s love. With wonder in his heart, John marveled that believers should be called “God’s children,” an expression that emphatically emphasizes their relationship with God. Those who believe in Christ Jesus right this moment are God’s children now, they do not have to wait to be known by the Father as His children.
This relationship that the individual has to God results in the world not knowing them (see John 1:9–13); but it also gives believers an unshakeable confidence and assurance in their relationship to the Father. John asserted that there was no progressive process by which believers gradually become God’s children, it happens the moment an individual believes in Christ Jesus and His redemptive work.
Although the future will bring changes in believers’ bodies, as far as being glorified like Christ’s, the future will in no way make them more God’s children than what they are today. In Christ believers are as related to God as they will ever be and that relationship can never be broken.
When Christ appears to take his church to heaven, all believers “will be like him,” possessing glorified, resurrected bodies as Paul confidently writes under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration:
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.
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. – Romans 8:29-30.
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. – 1 Corinthians 15:51-53.
The present unglorified body should not block the expression of one’s true relationship to God. The coming of Christ will only be a change in the mode of the believer’s existence, not a change in his position before God. John in his epistle/letter is trying to reassure Christians, not just in his day, but beyond, because during his time his opponents, who had become many, had raised questions about a believer’s present standing with God as compared with their eternal standing. The beloved Apostle is making it perfectly clear that your relationship with God AS Father, starts and endures from the moment a person accepts Christ Jesus and His mission to restore that relationship with the Father that was lost through Adam.
When it is all said and finished, there is no doubts about our standing with God Almighty, as our Heavenly Father. We truly become “children of God” as well as co-heirs with Jesus Christ! What an awesome and amazing truth!
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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