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SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY: SONS & DAUGHTERS – IDENTITY
Based on the message by Chad Everett
OVERVIEW
Who are you?
In Spiritual Authority: Sons & Daughters | Identity, Chad Everett teaches from Galatians 3:26 that our identity is not found in what we do, accomplish, earn, or feel. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we become sons and daughters of God.
“Your identity is found in your relationship with Jesus. That you were created to be a son or daughter of God.”
That identity gives us a new way to understand our relationship with God. We have a Father, we belong to His family, and we are loved by Him. We do not earn that relationship through performance, and we do not lose its truth when our feelings change.
But sonship is more than knowing who we are. It shapes how we live. If God is our Father, then He must also have the final say in our lives. As sons and daughters, we are called to trust Him, reflect His character, and live surrendered to His authority.
This study will help us examine what Scripture says about our identity, the Father’s love, faith in Jesus, and what it means to live as sons and daughters of God.
HOW TO USE THIS STUDY GUIDE
Read → Respond → Reflect
Read each passage carefully before answering the Respond questions. Keep your Bible open and allow Scripture to answer the questions directly.
Then use the Reflect questions to consider how these truths apply personally. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal where you may be defining yourself by something other than your relationship with Jesus, striving to earn what God gives through faith, or resisting the Father’s authority in an area of your life.
The goal is not simply to understand the biblical idea of sonship. The goal is to know who you are as a son or daughter of God, receive what Jesus has made possible through faith, and live surrendered to your Father.
This guide is designed for individual study, family discipleship, and Roads Groups.
SECTION 1 — KNOW YOUR IDENTITY AS A SON OR DAUGHTER
Focus
Paul makes a clear statement in Galatians 3:26: “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Our deepest identity is not built on our occupation, achievements, abilities, income, reputation, or status. Those things may describe parts of our lives, but they do not define who we are.
Chad also points to 1 John 3:1, which reminds us of the Father’s love and the privilege of being called children of God. Our identity begins with our relationship with Jesus. Through Him, we belong to God’s family.
Read
Galatians 3:26–29; 1 John 3:1
Respond
- According to Galatians 3:26, who are believers in Christ?
- How do we become sons of God according to this verse?
- What distinctions does Paul say no longer divide those who are in Christ?
- According to Galatians 3:29, what is true of those who belong to Christ?
- According to 1 John 3:1, what has the Father’s love allowed us to be called?
Reflect
- What things am I most tempted to use to define who I am?
- If my career, accomplishments, position, or reputation changed tomorrow, would I still know who I am?
- How would my thoughts, decisions, or relationships change if I consistently saw myself first as a son or daughter of God?
Further Scripture Reading
Galatians 3:23–25
SECTION 2 — UNDERSTAND WHAT SONSHIP MEANS
Focus
Being a son or daughter means we have a Father and belong to a family. Chad uses the picture of children inheriting traits from their earthly parents to challenge believers to consider whether their lives reflect their heavenly Father.
He then turns to Jesus’ prayer in John 17. Jesus speaks about believers sharing in the unity He has with the Father and makes a remarkable statement about the Father’s love: He has loved them as He has loved Jesus.
We are not distant relatives, outsiders, or people trying to earn a place in God’s family. Through Christ, we belong.
Read
John 17:20–23
Respond
- Who does Jesus say He is praying for in verse 20?
- What does Jesus pray His followers would become?
- What comparison does Jesus make between the believers’ unity and His relationship with the Father?
- What does Jesus say He has given His followers?
- Why does Jesus say He gave them this glory?
- According to verse 23, what does Jesus say about the Father’s love for those who believe in Him?
Reflect
- When I think about God as Father, what assumptions do I bring into that relationship?
- Do I genuinely believe that the Father loves me, or do I tend to measure His love by how well I am performing?
- If I am His son or daughter, what traits of my Father should increasingly be visible in me?
- Would the people around me recognize something of God’s character in the way I speak, respond, and live?
Further Scripture Reading
John 17:24–26
SECTION 3 — RECEIVE SONSHIP THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS
Focus
Throughout Galatians 3, Paul repeatedly connects righteousness, blessing, the promise of the Spirit, and sonship with faith.
We cannot become sons and daughters because of our own efforts. Jesus did what we could never do for ourselves. At the same time, Chad emphasizes that Scripture calls us to believe what Jesus has done and personally place our faith in Him.
Faith is not about trying to impress God with how strongly we believe. As Chad says, “It’s not about the intensity of my faith. It’s about the object of my faith.”
Read
Galatians 3:6–14, 26
Respond
- What did Abraham do that was accounted to him for righteousness?
- According to verse 7, who are identified as sons of Abraham?
- What did Scripture foresee that God would do for the Gentiles through faith?
- According to verse 9, who are blessed with believing Abraham?
- What did Christ redeem us from according to verse 13?
- According to verse 14, how do we receive the promise of the Spirit?
- According to verse 26, how do we become sons of God?
Reflect
- Am I resting in what Jesus has done, or am I still trying to prove myself worthy before God?
- When I do not feel like a son or daughter of God, which has greater authority in my life—my feelings or what God has said?
- Am I more focused on whether I have “enough faith” or on the One in whom I have placed my faith?
- Where might God be asking me simply to believe Him rather than striving to earn something He gives by grace?
Further Scripture Reading
Galatians 3:15–18
SECTION 4 — LIVE SURRENDERED TO YOUR FATHER
Focus
Knowing our identity as sons and daughters leads to a question of surrender: Who has the final say in our lives?
In Matthew 13, Jesus distinguishes between “sons of the kingdom” and “sons of the wicked one.” In John 8, He confronts religious leaders whose actions revealed whose desires they were following.
Chad summarizes the challenge with the question, “Who’s your daddy?” In other words: Who do you yield to? Who determines what is true? Who directs your choices? Who has authority when what God wants conflicts with what you want?
Living as a son or daughter means allowing our Father to shape our character, choices, priorities, and obedience.
Read
Matthew 13:36–43; John 8:37–47
Respond
- According to Matthew 13:37, who sows the good seed?
- Who does Jesus identify as the “good seeds”?
- Who are the tares?
- According to verse 39, who sowed them?
- In John 8:39, what does Jesus say Abraham’s true children would do?
- According to John 8:42, what would be true if God were their Father?
- Whom does Jesus identify as their father in verse 44?
- What does Jesus say they desired to do?
- According to verse 47, what characterizes someone who is of God?
Reflect
- Who has the final say when what I want conflicts with what God says?
- Is there an area where I know what God is asking of me but I have resisted surrendering it?
- What do my repeated choices reveal about whose desires I am following?
- Do my choices increasingly reflect the character and desires of my Father?
- What would surrender look like in one specific area of my life this week?
Further Scripture Reading
John 8:31–36
FINAL ENCOURAGEMENT
Your identity was never meant to rest on something that can change. Through faith in Jesus Christ, you can know something far more secure: you are a son or daughter of God.
You belong to the Father, you are loved by Him, and your life should increasingly reflect His character. You do not have to earn what Jesus has made possible through faith.
Put your confidence in Jesus, then let your identity shape the way you live. If God is your Father, let Him have the final say. Trust Him, obey Him, and surrender every area of your life to His authority.
“Your identity is found in your relationship with Jesus. That you were created to be a son or daughter of God.”
Know who you are. Know whose you are. Live like you belong to the Father.