In this message we shall begin to consider the believers’ status after they have been saved.
We have seen that before the believers were saved they were sinners, sons of disobedience, children of wrath, children of the Devil, enemies of God, and sons of Gehenna. But after being saved they become different persons, experiencing a great change. Now the believers are children of God, sons of God, partakers of the divine nature, heirs of God, priests of God, slaves of God, brothers of Christ as the firstborn Son of God, members of Christ as the Head of the Body, partakers of Christ as God’s Anointed, slaves of Christ, priests of Christ, co-kings of Christ, partakers of the Holy Spirit, and heavenly citizens.
The believers in Christ are children of God. First John 3:1 says, “See what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and we are.” “Children of God” here corresponds to “begotten of Him” in 2:29. We have been begotten of the Father, the source of life, to be the children of God. Surely it is the greatest wonder in the universe that human beings could be begotten of God and sinners could be made children of God. Through such an amazing divine birth we have received the divine life, the eternal life. This life, obtained from God through regeneration, enables us to be God’s children. This life is the authority for us to be children of God (John 1:12-13). The Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we who once were children of the Devil are now the children of God (Rom. 8:16). Even at times when we are weak or backsliding we still have the deep conviction that we are children of God, for once we have been born of God we are His children forever.
John 1:12 and 13 say, “As many as received Him, to them He gave authority 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.” Here we see that the children of God have been born of God, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. “Blood” here signifies the physical life; the will of the flesh denotes the will of fallen man after man became flesh; and the will of man refers to the will of man created by God. When we became children of God, we were not born of our physical life, our fallen life, or our created life-we were born of God, the uncreated life. For human beings to become children of God is for them to be born of God to have the divine life and nature. Because regeneration causes us to be born of God, it automatically causes us to become children of God and to have a relationship of life with God.
It surely is a mystery that we have been born of God. That we have been created by God is commonly admitted. But to say that God is our Father and that we therefore have His life and nature is to make a great claim. Nevertheless, it is an amazing fact that God is really our Father. And He is not our adopted father or our father-in-law, but the One who has given us His life that we may be His genuine children in life.
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