~ 4 Aspects of God’s Children ~
God’s Child According By God’s Promise
~ “But
it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of
Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but,
‘In Isaac your seed shall be called.’
That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God; but the children of the
promise are counted as the seed. For
this is the word of promise: ‘At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a
son.’” (Romans 9:6-9). “For you are all sons of
God through faith in Christ Jesus. For
as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one
in Christ Jesus. And if you are
Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs
according to the promise” (Galatians 3:26-29).
God’s Child By Grace
~ “Therefore
know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham” (Galatians
3:7). “For you are all sons of God through faith in
Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27).
“And say, Thus says the Lord
God to Jerusalem: ‘Your birth and
your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your
mother a Hittite. As for your nativity,
on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in
water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling
cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of
these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into
the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood,
I said to you in your blood, “Live!” Yes,
I said to you in your blood, “Live!” I
made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became
very beautiful. Your breasts were
formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare’” (Ezekiel 16:3-7). “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the
promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law,
but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as
it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations’) in the presence of
Him whom he believed — God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things
which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed,
so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So
shall your descendants be’” (Romans 4:16-18).
God’s Child Through Christ Jesus
~ “But as many as received Jesus Christ, to them He
gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). “But when the
fullness of the time had come, God sent
forth His Son, born of a woman,
born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons”
(Galatians 4:4-5). “Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made
us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:5-6).
God’s Child Has Likeness
To God ~ Jesus
said, “But I say to you, love your
enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray
for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew
5:44). “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk
in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering
and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Ephesians 5:1-2). “Behold what manner of love the Father has
bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does
not know us, because it did not know
Him. Beloved, now we are children of
God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall
be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:1-2).
~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW
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