Children of the Father

Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. … You do the deeds of your father.”
John 8:39b, 41

The phrase “chip of the same block” dates back at least to a 1621 sermon: “Am not I a child of the same Adam . . . a chip of the same block, with him?” (English bishop Robert Sanderson’s Sermons) Later, it became “chip off the old block,” referring to a parent (the block) and a child (the chip). We all know what it means: Children are often much like their parents.
Jesus affirmed this point when talking with religious leaders who were proud of their Abrahamic lineage but were also seeking to kill Him. Because of that disconnect, Jesus said they were not children of Abraham but were children of the devil (John 8:34-47). Jesus said He did what He learned from His Father and they did what they had learned from theirs (verse 38). That is a strong indictment, but full of theology. The whole purpose of the new birth (John 3:3) is to be transferred from one family to another (from Satan’s family to God’s—Colossians 1:13).

Ask the Father to reveal the family likeness in you by the fruit of the Spirit in your life (Galatians 5:22-23).

Behold, what wondrous grace the Father hath bestowed on sinners of a mortal race, to call them sons of God.
Isaac Watts