Rom 8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ESV
It is always God’s way to give us a blessing and then call upon us to live in the light of that blessing. But He never demands anything of us that He has not already provided for us, and that is where we often lose the proper focus.
Our relationship with Him, and all that it involves, is not something for the future, it is something that is ours in this present moment…
1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now … ESV
This “sonship” is ours right now and is one of the motives for us to live a life of holiness; yielded to the Father. That is why Paul told the Ephesians, Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children (Eph 5:1). But in the original Greek we are to be “imitators” of God, as children who are beloved by Him. Phillips puts it this way: As children copy their fathers, you as God’s children, are to copy Him. God has given us the blessing of the life of Jesus in the form of the Holy Spirit, and because we are His children, we are to seek to imitate Him – conform to His image (His character) – live His life so the world around us will recognize that we are His because they see Him in us.
I remember as a boy hearing the expression – He’s the spitting image of his father. But it wasn’t until much later that I understood that expression was not what was originally spoken … He is the very spirit and image of the father. And that is what we should be of our Heavenly Father.