“What Is a Christian?” Part 22” by Romans
We are continuing in our current Series, "What Is a Christian?" I am departing from those aspects of what it is to be a Christian that I have been reviewing and examining, and I am going to do a deep and extended dive into something that 1.) Perhaps I should have began this Series, and 2.) That many may think is controversial, namely this: According to the Bible, who can rightly call himself or herself a child of God?
Is that relationship limited to those who believe in the God of the Bible, and His Son Jesus Christ? I have heard believers disagree about this idea; some say that just being a human being makes you a child of God. Is that true? Is that understanding Biblically defensible?
Tonight, I intend to settle this question once and for all from the pages of the Word of God. I intend to prove that being called a child of God is not a description of every human on earth, and that it is limited to those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, Who was crucified for their sins, and was resurrected to Life as the firstborn of many brethren.
I am going to begin in the Gospel of John where we read, "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:10-13).
Of this, Matthew Henry writes, "He came to his own (John 1:11); not only to the world, which was his own, but to the people of Israel, that were peculiarly his own above all people; of them he came, among them he lived, and to them he was first sent... {I}n remembrance of the ancient covenant, bad as they were, and poor as they were, Christ was not ashamed to look upon them as his own - his own things; - his own persons, as true believers are called in John 13:1.
The Jews were his, as a man's house, and lands, and goods are his, which he uses and possesses; but believers are his as a man's wife and children are his own, which he loves and enjoys. He came to his own, to seek and save them, because they were his own. He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, for it was he whose own the sheep were. Now observe,
(1.) That the generality rejected him: His own received him not. He had reason to expect that those who were his own should have bidden him welcome, considering how great the obligations were which they lay under to him, and how fair the opportunities were which they had of coming to the knowledge of him. They had the oracles of God, which told them beforehand when and where to expect him, and of what tribe and family he should arise.
He came among them himself, introduced with signs and wonders, and himself the greatest; and therefore it is not said of them, as it was of the world (John 1:10), that they knew him not; but his own, though they could not but know him, yet received him not; did not receive his doctrine, did not welcome him as the Messiah, but fortified themselves against him.
The chief priests, that were in a particular manner his own (for the Levites were God's tribe), were ring-leaders in this contempt put upon him. Now this was very unjust, because they were his own, and therefore he might command their respect; and it was very unkind and ungrateful, because he came to them, to seek and save them, and so to court their respect. Note, Many who in profession are Christ's own, yet do not receive him, because they will not part with their sins, nor have him to reign over them.
(2.) That yet there was a remnant who owned him, and were faithful to him. Though his own received him not, yet there were those that received him (John 1:12): But as many as received him. Though Israel were not gathered, yet Christ was glorious. Though the body of that nation persisted and perished in unbelief, yet there were many of them that were wrought upon to submit to Christ, and many more that were not of that fold.
Observe here, [1.] The true Christian's description and property; and that is, that he receives Christ, and believes on his name; the latter explains the former. Note, First, To be a Christian indeed is to believe on Christ's name; it is to assent to the gospel discovery, and consent to the gospel proposal, concerning him. His name is the Word of God; the King of kings, the Lord our righteousness; Jesus a Saviour. Now to believe on his name is to acknowledge that he is what these great names bespeak him to be, and to acquiesce in it, that he may be so to us.
Secondly, Believing in Christ's name is receiving him as a gift from God. We must receive his doctrine as true and good; receive his law as just and holy; receive his offers as kind and advantageous; and we must receive the image of his grace, and impressions of his love, as the governing principle of our affections and actions.
[2.] The true Christian's dignity and privilege are twofold: - First, The privilege of adoption, which takes them into the number of God's children: To them gave he power to become the sons of God. Hitherto, the adoption pertained to the Jews only (Israel is my son, my first-born); but now, by faith in Christ, Gentiles are the children of God, Galatians 3:26.
They have power - authority; for no man taketh this power to himself, but he who is authorized by the gospel charter. To them gave he a right; to them gave he this pre-eminence. This power have all the saints.
Note, 1. It is the unspeakable privilege of all good Christians, that they are become the children of God. They were by nature children of wrath, children of this world. If they be the children of God, they become so, are made so - Persons are not born Christians, but made such. Behold what manner of love is this, as we read in 1 John_3:1. God calls them his children, they call him Father, and are entitled to all the privileges of children, those of their way and those of their home.
2. The privilege of adoption is entirely owing to Jesus Christ; he gave this power to them that believe on his name. God is his Father, and so ours; and it is by virtue of our espousals to him, and union with him, that we stand related to God as a Father. It was in Christ that we were predestinated to the adoption;
from him we receive both the character and the Spirit of adoption, and he is the first-born among many brethren. The Son of God became a Son of man, that the sons and daughters of men might become the sons and daughters of God Almighty.
Secondly, The privilege of regeneration (John 1:13): Which were born. Note, All the children of God are born again; all that are adopted are regenerated. This real change evermore attends that relative one. Wherever God confers the dignity of children, he creates the nature and disposition of children. Men cannot do so when they adopt. Now here we have an account of the original of this new birth.
1. Negatively. (1.) It is not propagated by natural generation from our parents. It is not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of corruptible seed, 1 Peter 1:23. Man is called flesh and blood, because thence he has his original: but we do not become the children of God as we become the children of our natural parents.
Note, Grace does not run in the blood, as corruption does. Man polluted begat a son in his own likeness (Genesis 5:3); but man sanctified and renewed does not beget a son in that likeness. The Jews gloried much in their parentage, and the noble blood that ran in their veins:
We are Abraham's seed; and therefore to them pertained the adoption because they were born of that blood; but this New Testament adoption is not founded in any such natural relation. (2.) It is not produced by the natural power of our own will.
As it is not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, so neither is it of the will of man, which labours under a moral impotency of determining itself to that which is good; so that the principles of the divine life are not of our own planting, it is the grace of God that makes us willing to be his. Nor can human laws or writings prevail to sanctify and regenerate a soul; if they could, the new birth would be by the will of man. But,
2. Positively: it is of God. This new birth is owing to the word of God as the means (1 Peter 1:23), and to the Spirit of God as the great and sole author. True believers are born of God, 1 John 3:9; 1 John 5:1. And this is necessary to their adoption; for we cannot expect the love of God if we have not something of his likeness, nor claim the privileges of adoption if we be not under the power of regeneration."
Adoption. What is adoption? According to Merriam-Websters' Online Dictionary, to adopt is, "1. to take (someone or something) by choice into a relationship; a. to take (a child born to other parents) voluntarily as one's own child especially in compliance with formal legal procedures." Is that definition applicable to the relationship of God and every human being on the planet? Is that true ~ can it be applied to the billions who deny God's very existence? I submit that it is not.
Let's move ahead and see what the Apostle Paul's idea was regarding who could be called "children of God." We read in Romans 8:14-15: “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”
Before I defer to a Commentary, let me ask you, is the average human, or can we go so far as to say that every human being on earth is led by the Spirit of God? They are, in Paul's inspired words, "the children of God." They cry, "Abba," which in the Middle East is the term used to this day as the equivalent of our "Daddy." Can all humans call God, "Daddy."
Only those who are led by the Spirit are "the children of God," and only they can call God, Daddy. If it is true, as some claim, that all humanity, by virtue of their humanity alone, are God's children, then why is adoption even necessary? It would be a completely unnecessary and pointless excercise in futility.
Allow me to read Paul's words, again, before I go to the Commentary so that they are fresh in our minds: “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”
Of this, The Preacher's Homiletical tells us, "Marks of God’s sons.—Led, and not driven. Led as the scholar by his teacher, the traveller by his guide, the soldier by his captain. So the Son of God is led by the Spirit of God. The Son of God is not driven by brute force, not treated as a mere machine or as a beast of burden, but as a reasonable creature. As the man is led by patriotic feelings, by devotion to truth, by force of lofty and stirring thoughts, so and much more is the Son of God led.
His soul is open to and receptive of divine influence. There is the inner world of his spiritual nature acted upon and moving in harmony with the outer force of the Spirit of God. Oh what a word led us in this connection!—led out of sin’s darkness and chaos into truth’s light and order, just as the new-made world was led;
out of the hunger and wretchedness of guilty wanderings into the fulness and happiness of the Father’s house, just as the prodigal was led; out of the world’s trouble and tossing fevers into the rest of the Saviour’s, as Zacchæus was led; out of the darkness and blindness of self-love into the light and clear vision of Christ-love, as Saul was led,—
led onwards and upwards along the pathway of ever-increasing knowledge of the love of God in Jesus,—led from the shifting scenes of earth, through the dark valley of death, to the paradise of God, as the redeemed through all ages have been and shall continue to be led to the very close of this dispensation. Oh to yield ourselves up to divine leading!
I. God’s sons have a family likeness.—In natural families there are likenesses. There are certain resemblances by which we know that they constitute part of the same family. The form of the features, the general build, tell us of a certain similarity. So in God’s great spiritual family there is a general likeness.
The botanist, by a certain similarity, declares that the plant belongs to such an order. The geologist says that such a fossil belongs to a certain stratum. The physiologist declares in the same manner that such an animal belongs to such a species. And so by certain tokens we declare that the man belongs to God’s family. The one general feature by which we know the sons of God is this, that they “are led by the Spirit of God.”
So that it is not an outward but an inward resemblance. Thus it sometimes happens in natural families. It is not always by the mere outward features, but by the inward tastes and feelings. God’s sons may be and often are outwardly different. They vary in outward form, in social circumstances, in gifts, faculties, and endowments. They may appear like Joseph, the second ruler in Egypt, swaying and managing the destinies of a mighty empire, or like the poor Jew Mordecai, sitting despised at the king’s gate.
They may appear like Solomon arrayed in all his glory, surrounded with luxury and girded by power; or like Lazarus, clothed in rags, dying of starvation. They may appear like St. Paul, mighty in intellect, and capable of using the pen of eloquence; or like Moses, who was slow in speech. Still, through all differences there runs the common bond of likeness.
They are influenced by the Holy Spirit of God. And this common likeness is only to be seen by the man of spiritual vision and spiritual enlightenment. Only the botanist can tell to what order the plant belongs. Only the man well acquainted with the family can tell when he meets a member. Only the spiritually enlightened can mark out one of God’s sons. He sees that the Son of God is led, not from beneath, but from above.
He marks an unseen and yet most effective force shaping the whole of the man’s nature and destiny. As a strong under current may propel the vessel along the waters, so the strong current of the Holy Spirit guides the Son of God through the troubled waters of this world.
II. God’s sons have family greatness.—Man is highest in the scale of being. He possesses more powers and faculties than any other animal, and is capable of being acted upon in a way in which no other animal can be. Man, simply considered as a creature of this world, stands at a height far removed from all other beings.
His nature stretches out and touches realms unknown to any other living force. The spiritual man—the Son of God, i.e.—stands still higher in the scale of being. He is acted upon by a force unknown to any other. The mere physical creature lives only in a material realm. It never rises above matter. The intellectual being lives in the realm of mind. He dwells in the region of thoughts and ideas.
He is touched and moved by the thoughts of others. But the Son of God is touched and moved by the thoughts of God, He is pervaded and influenced by the Spirit of God, His soul is acted upon by the Unseen in a way which others are not, and is great in the highest sense. The greatness of God’s family is here brought out in another aspect. The members of God’s family are not mere children, but sons noble and stalwart.
There was a time in which they were mere children, and requiring to be fed with milk, loving only childish things, and following childish sports and practices. In one sense God’s family on earth will always be children; requiring to be taught, corrected, guided, and disciplined like children. In the light of the eternal ideal of manhood we speak only and understand only as children.
Still, in the view of the rest of humanity the members of God’s family are sons, noblest and grandest of the sons of men. Jesus Christ is by pre-eminence the Son of God, begotten before all time, “being the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person.”
Christians are the sons of God next in order, and yet allied unto Jesus Christ the elder brother. Their greatness is plain from this connection. Sons of God, brothers of the one great Son of God. Sons of God, in whom dwells and works the Holy Spirit of God. Are we the sons of God? Do we feel and appreciate our greatness? Do we conduct ourselves as God’s sons?
III. God’s sons have a family heritage.—Great families have their possessions. There is for each one of them a heritage. They have their lands, their houses, their money, and their position. God’s family is a great family, and has its possessions. There is for each one a heritage. That blessed heritage is the precious one of the Holy Spirit to lead. The Holy Spirit leads aright.
Human possession leads astray to misery and to destruction. Human reason is too often a blind guide. Boasted philosophy cannot lead the soul in the right path. The Holy Spirit of God alone can lead in a pathway of safety. How are we to know that we are being led by the Holy Spirit? We know this much, that the Spirit never leads contrary to the Bible.
The Spirit never influences to go against truth, honesty, candour, uprightness, and goodness. The Holy Spirit leads to peace, to plenty, to joy, to spiritual prosperity. The Holy Spirit leads to bright realms of spiritual beauty and fulness on earth, and to the brightest land of all, even to the paradise of God. The Holy Spirit’s leading and indwelling is the type and pledge of our dwelling for ever in God’s blessed presence in heaven.
IV. God’s sons have a family bias.—They all incline in the same direction. Their tendency is upward and onward. The vessels at sea have the needle which points to the pole. Wherever the vessels sail, in whatever part of the world they may be, the needles all point to the pole, and centre there as it were. So the sons of God, wherever they may dwell on earth their hearts point to the city of God.
The Holy Spirit within them the foretaste of heaven. Thus heaven is in them before they are in heaven. When slaves were escaping from slavery, their eyes were fixed on the north star as the guide to the land of freedom. The Holy Spirit within is better than the north star guiding to Jerusalem above, which is free, and which is the mother of us all.
The hearts of God’s sons turn to the spiritual Jerusalem, to the city of the living God. They seek a city out of sight, and thus declare that they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. By this we may know that we are being led—by this we may know that we are the sons of God, that we are earnestly and prayerfully seeking heaven through Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.
Led by the Spirit.—Every gift with the possibility of which man was endowed, and every noble quality which made him beautiful and good for the eyes of God to see, all came from that one and the selfsame Spirit, moving in man’s soul as He had moved from all ages in the laws of nature, and was still moving their divine uniformities. For God is the essence and source of all goodness and excellence whatsoever.
I. Degraded humanity.—We know, alas! only too well that through misuse of the gift of freewill we have encouraged that within us which loveth darkness better than light. Whole races have become so degraded that, even in the best members of them, the patient lamp of the omnipresent Spirit could shine with but a feeble flame. Clearly do our own hearts remind us what it is to have sinned, to feel that God has hidden His face from us, and to be almost ashamed to lift up our souls in prayer.
II. The Spirit in pagan philosophy.—But though the poor human creature had thus miserably come short of the glory of God, and the freshness and purity of the early light which had come with him from the divine Being who was “his home” had now faded into the “light of common day,” yet all the time God was not far from any of His children.
Socrates said that there was a spirit in him, not himself, which guided him all the way of his life. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Thus did the Spirit work in the hearts and minds of men. “No man was ever great,” said Cicero, “without a divine {inspiration}.” “This I say,” wrote Seneca to his friend Lucilius, “that a Holy Spirit dwelleth within us, of our good and evil works the observer and the guardian...
As we treat Him, so He treateth us; and no man is good except God be with him.” Do you not see Him in every page of history, making the virtues triumph? Do you not read Him in the general expectancy of the world at the time of the coming of the Saviour, that attitude of suspense and hope which Tacitus and Suetonius have described, of which one of Virgil’s most beautiful poems is an example, and which taught the Eastern sages to watch for the dawn of that great light which led them to the cradle of Bethlehem?
III. Jesus the Light.—For mankind was not to be left for ever to grope their way in the darkness for the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him. The star which led the patient Magi through the desert was the herald of a more glorious birth than when the sons of God shouted for joy on the first morning of the world.
He came and returned that the Spirit of God might come in a way in which it had never been possible for Him to come before. Christ lifted up the veil, and from that time all who came unto Him were open to all the divine influences of the Holiest of holies.
As soon as He came, even before the outpouring of the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was given with abundant and startling effect. The kingdom of the Spirit was already begun when the Lord of life and glory was preaching and teaching.
IV. The purpose of the Spirit.—As Luther wrote: “He imposeth a limit and measure to the preaching of the Holy Ghost Himself: He is to preach nothing new, nothing other than Christ and His word, to the end that we might have a sure sign, a certain test, whereby to judge false spirits.” Thus the Spirit is conditioned by the Son, as the Son is by the Father. The office of the Spirit was to bring to remembrance, to interpret.
V. Transformation to Christ’s image.—The world may say it is content to be as Socrates was, that it desires not to rise above the aspirations of Plato, that it cares not to be juster than Aristides. Philosophic sceptics may pronounce that Christianity is only one of the many forms of this world’s religions, and that Buddhism is older, as interesting, and accepted by a far larger number of the human race.
Others may say that they are content to follow the faith of Christ because it has achieved great things, because it is wrapped up in the history of England, because it has founded a higher morality, a nobler chivalry, a more complete virtue, than any other creed. But by such inadequate conceptions of the relation between God and the human soul they show that they see not the Spirit, neither know Him.
They recognise, perhaps, that God made man in His own image and capable of partaking in His divine nature. They recognise that man, by seeking after God, brings himself nearer to Him. They do not recognise that by gazing at the glory of the only begotten Son we become transformed after His image;
they have no idea that to know of the divine personality of the Holy Spirit of Christ and of the Father is to be able to address Him, to approach Him, to talk with Him as friend talks with friend.—Ven. W. Sinclair, D.D.
Sons of God.
I. The condition on which we are “sons of God.”—Not mere creatureship. The stars, the birds, the flowers, are God’s creatures. Not mere resemblance. Even fallen men are made in the image of God, and have a potential likeness to Him. But filial disposition. Men are the special creation of God; may have a special resemblance to Him; may have affection, not fear; may cry, “Abba, Father.”
II. The evidence that we are “sons of God.”—1. There is the witness of God’s Spirit; 2. There is the testimony of the spirit of man.
III. The results of our being “sons of God.”—1. We are “heirs of God”; 2. We are “joint-heirs with Christ.”—Dr. Thomas.
Sonship a connection of relation and nature.—First, it is a connection of relation. God’s Spirit dwells not in any and leads none who are not His children by faith in Jesus Christ. Their guidance by the Spirit of God therefore manifests them to be His children.
By an act of divine grace, which in all its aspects and gifts is marvellous and infinite, the sinner who believes is adopted by God and numbered among His children. He is separated from the family of Satan, and joined to the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty.
This relation to God and His family begins with his faith, continues during life, and is perpetuated during eternity. It is also a connection of nature. I do not mean that they are partakers of God’s essence, but of the character or image of God, such as is competent to a creature.
“Whereby,” says the apostle Peter, “are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” The connection between this new, regenerated, or divine nature, and heaven, is obvious.
Without it none could enjoy heaven, though admitted to it; for it is a holy place, a holy society, and a holy inheritance. Finally, it is a connection of love. I speak not of your love of God, which is so weak and faint, derived from grace and dependent on grace, and accompanied with so many imperfections, further than to say that its sincerity is inseparably connected with grace and glory.
But the love of God to you is the grand security of your eternal life—that love which is from everlasting, and has drawn you to Himself—that love which is to everlasting on them that fear Him—that love which is commended in giving and not in sparing His own Son for you when enemies, that you might be the children of God. Live more and more by faith on the Son of God. Follow more closely the guidance of the Spirit of God, and seek more earnestly His supplies. Thus live worthy of your name and prospects as the children of a King, as the children of God.—Parlane.
There is much, much more that the Bible tells us about Christianity being much more than a religion: It is a Father / Child relationship; it is an intimate Daddy / Child relationship. I plan, God Willing, to continue this deep dive into this subject in the weeks to come. I invite all of you hearing or reading my words, tonight, to join me at this same time and place.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “What Is A Christian? Part 22.”
This Discussion was presented “live” on June 26th, 2024.
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