I John 3:1 “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”
It is absolutely astonishing that God our Heavenly “Father” would choose to bestow such “love” upon us, that He would call us His “sons”, His Children! Because He has “only” one “begotten Son” (John 1:18), Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior; He has received us as His Children by “adoption” (Ephesians 1:5). He did not make this choice based upon any good quality or outstanding merit of our own; but, this “adoption” was “by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” (Ephesians 1:5-6). That is, this choice was made according to God’s administration of “grace”, not according to our natural worthiness. We are “accepted” as Children, not according to our good qualities or merit, but we were “made” “accepted” to the “Father” by our Lord’s Sacrificial Death on our behalf, in which He “made” us “righteous” (II Corinthians 5:21), thus fit to be “the sons of God” and worthy of Eternal Heaven after this life. But, when we compare our lives to the perfection required to be “sons of God”, we cry out in loving and worshipful awe, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God”!