Become Children of God
Minister: | Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: | 2/10/2013 AM |
Text: | John 1:12 |
Psalters: | 238, 233, 179, 72 |
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper |
- What God has done and what He declares about us is that He gives us the right to be nothing less than His children!
- This word emphasizes the spiritual, ethical side of our sonship, implying our being born of God.
- We definitely have the wonder of being children of God – a most excellent position and a glorious calling.
- We are uniquely adopted (Rom. 8:15), are made partakers of the divine nature (II Peter 1:4), and are being conformed to the image of the Son (Rom. 8:29).
- This great honor is ours over against whatever man (including ourselves) think of us.
- For this blessing we have the power, the right.
- This right is possible only on the basis of the perfect righteousness.
- That this is our right (“power”) is found in God’s gracious works.
- Sovereign, unchangeable election is the fountain and cause (Eph. 1:4,5; Rom 8:29)
- Our adoption is realized in time, legally, through Christ’s cross.
- The Spirit of the Son bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God (Rom.8:14-17).
- Our Father even begets us (I Peter 1:3).
- The gift of this right to become the children of God is only in Christ, God’s Son in our flesh.
- To receive Christ, therefore, is to receive the right to sonship. To receive Him is to believe in Him.
- The experience.
- We constantly need to receive this right because we sin. We need to be assured of forgiveness.
- Our text speaks of the right of becoming children of God.
- From the Old Dispensation perspective, their right to be children of God had not yet been established.
- We too are becoming children of God.