Divine filiation

The doctrine of the Incarnation teaches that around 2000 years ago, God the Son assumed a human nature, "became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14) as Jesus of Nazareth.

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires" (2 Peter 1:4).

[6] The Gospel of John begins by pointing to what Jesus brought: "to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God."

"[7] The very first point of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states that God's "plan of sheer goodness" is oriented towards man's divine filiation: "In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life."

"[8] According to John Paul II in Redemptor hominis, his first encyclical, at the deepest root of the redemption of the world is the fullness of justice in the heart of Jesus Christ "in order that it may become justice in the hearts of many human beings, predestined from eternity in the Firstborn Son to be children of God and called to grace, called to love."

According to John Paul II, Christians are supposed to "be always aware of the dignity of the divine adoption," so as to give meaning to what they do.

(CCC 654) An important consequence of divine filiation, Benedict XVI says, is the prayer of Christians as children of God.

(CCC 2712 ) According to John Paul II, since Christians are other "Christs", they are in a sense co-redeemers with him, and have, so to speak, the same role as Jesus Christ—to save other men, and make them children of God.

"As members, they share a common dignity from their rebirth in Christ, they have the same filial grace and the same vocation to perfection... Because of the one dignity flowing from Baptism, each member of the lay faithful, together with ordained ministers and men and women religious, shares responsibility for the Church's mission.

It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and maybe to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer.

(CCC 898-99) Thus, John Paul II said that divine filiation is "the culminating point of the mystery of our Christian life.

[3] And so St. John the Evangelist said with a tone of amazement, "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are!"

(1 John 3:1) Writing in the early 20th century (circa 1917–1923), Blessed Columba Marmion gave great emphasis to this doctrine.

[15] Among contemporary authors, Scott Hahn, an American theologian and convert from Calvinism, has written much about filiation in the context of the theology of the covenant.

He has also written about filiation in the context of his journey as a member of Opus Dei, whose founder, St. Josemaría Escrivá, is a leading writer on this topic.

Fundamentally, Judaism believes that God, as the creator of time, space, energy and matter, is beyond them, and cannot be born or die.