Freedom in Christ

Part 3 of 4

“If it’s not about Jesus, it’s not about anything.”

(Motto of the Fountain of Life)

Invocation:  Father, in Jesus’ name we pray that this subject be treated faithfully, honestly and respectfully.  We invoke the motto of the Fountain of Life to keep all that follows in this four part series in a proper focus and that the name of Jesus be glorified.   

SPS:  The purpose of this message is to show what our freedom does not look like.

The Freedom which we have in Christ has as its foundation the Incarnation of Christ and its actualization through the vicarious humanity of Jesus.  Exploring this freedom has revealed some beautiful knowledge about Jesus.  We have asked three simple questions.  

 First:  Who is Christ?   
Second:  Who are we?   
Third:  What does freedom in Christ look like? 

In this section we ask, “What does freedom in Christ look like?”  But we start with a misunderstanding of our freedom because it leads to a certain controversy.  Romans 10:9 states:  “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.”   

The controversy surrounds this guaranty of salvation and our freedom of action.  As our anchoring scripture let’s go to James 2:19:  “You believe that there is one God; you do well. The devils also believe and tremble.”   This scripture confirms that belief about Jesus and our confession of Jesus are not the same.  We begin by looking at what freedom is not.

A tragic shooting occurred on August 4^th 2009.  In Collier Township, Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, at a Fitness Club, in a Shopping Center, a gunman killed three members of the club .  Then he turned a pistol upon himself.  This following statement was reported as taken from the murder’s blog:  “Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus.  At least that is what I was told.  Eternal life does NOT depend on works.  If it did, we will all be in hell.  Christ paid for EVERY sin, so how can I or you be judged BY GOD for a sin when the penalty was ALREADY paid.”  The gunman, , believed that he was “saved” and indicated that once saved a person ALWAYS goes to heaven no matter what he does afterward.

FOUR QUESTIONS

 Dr. Joseph Tkach

Is this the ultimate meaning of Christian freedom?  The blood of Christ forgives sins, even multiple murders, even a multiple murder.  This is very true.  (1) The question raised by this gunman’s conduct is, can we manipulate God by God own words?  The answer is a resounding NO.  Allow me to paraphrase Hebrews 4:2.  It will be very apparent where the paraphrase occurs.  The verse is addressed to Christians, to us.  It begins, “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as to the gunman:  but the word preached did not profit him, not being mixed with faith in him that heard it.”   

This verse leads to this very appropriate question.  (2) Can the truth of grace be abused?  Hebrews 4:2 indicates, YES.   Dr. Joseph Tkach, President of Grace Communion  addressed this type of behavior directly and wrote, “Paul did not want the Church to become a haven for blatant, defiant sinners.  The church is a hospital for reform, not a ‘safe zone’ for social parasites to practice.”

Nonetheless, the gunnman's belief gives rise to two additional questions which I as a pastor should not ignore, therefore let’s address them here and now.  (3) Was the gunman’s free action done with or without the sanctification of the Holy Spirit?  We know that the Holy Spirit does not sanctify murder.  But the fourth question is far more difficult to answer.  (4) Is the murder in hell because of his sins or in heaven because of grace?  The answer has to do with the condition of the heart and the level of understanding.  Only God is privileged to that that information.  What do we know?  Are murders in hell?  Yes.  However I don’t have specific names identifying them.  Are murders in heaven?  Yes.  But here we do have specific names.  If you doubt this, consider King David and Uriah the Hittite, or St. Paul and St. Stephen, or Moses and the Egyptian.

Dr. Michael Feazell

Again, what do we know?  We know that Christian salvation is not a matter of keeping laws or following a code of rights and wrongs.  But does that mean that Christian conduct includes the freedom to sin?  Before answering, it may be well to consider what is sin?  Dr. Michale Feazell of Grace Communion  has written that, “First let’s clear some ground.  Sin is a condition of the heart, not merely individual acts of wrongdoing.”  Brethren, in like manner, morality or Christian conduct also is a condition of the heart, not merely a catalog of righteous acts.  

 Consider 1 John 3:4:  “For sin is the transgression of the law.”  The sense in the King James Version is not referring to a specific transgression of a specific law, but an attitude toward law in general.  This is supported by translations of 1 John 3:4 from The New King James, The New International Version, Today’s New International Version and the English Standard Version, which all read, “sin is lawlessness.”  The Grace Communion Statement of Belief’s says:  “Sin is lawlessness; that is a state or condition of rebellion against God.”

Brethren, spiritual freedom under sanctification displays a heart working with the Holy Spirit, not rejecting or ignoring the Spirit; is it a heart reflecting the fruit of the Spirit (James 5:22-25).  Freedom of action without sanctification is not spiritual, it is carnal reflecting the desires and the leading of the flesh.  A free carnal action, by definition, resists the Holy Spirit because it chooses to obey our fleshy human nature.   And here is where confusion arises.   

Some carnal acts are good, but they are not sanctified.  Some carnal acts are altruistic, but they have no spiritual benefit.  Building a super hospital or feeding the poor certainly has physical benefit.  But consider these words of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:3, “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and through I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profit me nothing.”  So much depends upon the condition of the heart.  What does this different heart look like?  Here are three examples given to get the sense of the different heart.

1.  One couple fed their children because they wanted to, not because they had to, not because they feared punishment from Child Services.  Another couple fed their children because they had to, because they feared punishment from Child Services.  The same good act, the same freedom from punishment, but different hearts.  And both couples believe themselves parents, but only one couple was.        

2.  Another couple wanted to feed their children and did not because they could not.  Child services punished them.  Another couple did not feed their children because they chose not to, they did not fear Child Services.  Child services punished them.  The same act, the same punishment but different hearts.  And both couples believe themselves parents, but only one couple was.

3.  One Christian lies because he is tempted, perhaps because of fear or shame.  He repents of that sin and does not fear punishment because he is justified under the blood of Christ.  One Christian lies pathologically in order to manipulate people and circumstances.  He does not repent or see the need to.  He does not fear punishment because of the saving blood of Christ.  The same act, the same lack of fear, but different hearts.  And both believe themselves Christians, but only one is and shows true repentance and the other shows freedom which did not profit him, not being mixed with faith, charity, or repentance.  In the final analysis freedom without sanctification displays a heart working with the devil.  

Knowing who Jesus is and who we are in Him leads us to know where our freedoms reside.  We find in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 a list of ungodly behaviors.  Does our heart look for freedom to commit these abuses?   What does sanctified freedom in Christ look like?  What does the Apostle John say?

1 John 2:5-6 – "This is how we know we are in Him".  Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.  We should walk like Jesus.  How do we walk like Jesus?  A starting point is found in Amos 3:3.  “Surely, two cannot walk together unless they be agreed"

1 John 2:3-4 – We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands.  The man who says, “I know Him but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in Him.”

Dear readers, some godly folk may stop me right now and question the benefit of keeping the commandment under the New Covenant.   They know, as did Peter in Acts 15:10, as does Dr. Joseph Tkach who wrote that, “We cannot be saved by any law, even the commandments of the New Testament.”  But Brethren, Christianity does have standards.  It does involve changes in the way we live.”  That change is a sanctified heart; it is walking in agreement with Jesus. 

Philippians 4:13:  We seek the mind of Christ.  Humanly speaking we want to agree with and please our parents and our friends.  God the Father is our parent and Jesus calls us His friends.  In like manner, spiritually, we want to agree with and please our savior and God.  We seek what pleases God.  What pleases God?

Colossians 3:20:  Children, obey you parents in all things; for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.

1 Tim. 2:1-3:  pray for kings and all in authority for this pleases the Lord.

King David states it in a passive fashion in Psalm 5:4:  For thou are not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness. 

Paul will itemize for us proper Christian conduct or standards of commandments to obey.  We read in I Thessalonians 5:12-22:  “Live in peace with each other; warn those who are idle; help the weak be patient with everyone; make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong; always try to be kind; be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstance; do not put out the spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt; test everything; hold on to the good; avoid every kind of evil.”    

Look at these commands.  Live in peace with each other, avoid evil.  Is this obedience a harsh bondage?  Not to a sanctified heart.  Please consider that an unsanctified heart is not free to do these things which please God.  But in fact is hostile to them (Romans 8:7 and Galatians 5:19-21).  The unsanctified heart may strive to live in peace or even to avoid evil, but these acts do not please God because the primary motive is carnal self-interest. 

Keeping commandments or having moral standards or moral codes does not save us.  Yet these commandments or standards have immeasurable great value.  Keeping them pleases God.  Brethren, pleasing God; is that a small thing, an inconsiderate thing?  We have the power to please the Creator God who gave us our life and being.  That power is a blessing given to us and not to the unsanctified of heart. 

God has given us the freedom to disobey the commandments, but He has not given us the permission to disobey them.  God has given us all free will, therefore we are free to disobey even to murder.  But in like manner we are free to disobey the law of gravity.  Yes, we have that freedom, that ability too.  Do we therefore rush out to jump off things?  No, of course not.  Submission to gravity is not slavery.  Submission to gravity enables us to live.  Submission to God is not slavery, it enables us to live; it is freedom.

Reverend Todd Crouch

Reverend Todd Crouch has taught that we respond one of four ways to the Holy Spirit. 

  1.  We are ignorant of what the Spirit is saying.   

2.  We are indifferent to what the Spirit is saying. 

  

3.  We reject what the Spirit is saying.  

 4.  We accept what the Spirit is saying.   Let us add a fifth category. 

 5.  We are deceived about what the Spirit is saying.

Into which of the five categories did the gunman  fall?  At the least, he was deceived about freedom.  God will allow the gunman’s own heart to judge him.  In like manner, God will allow each sinner’s heart to judge them.  Neither you nor I nor anyone else on earth are free to judge in this case.   

What we can point out is that freedom in Christ does not authorize, permit or condone murder or any sin.  We know this because sin does not reflect the mind of Christ.

Saying “once saved I am now free to commit any sin” is an attitude which is counter to what being saved is.  It is the same as saying “Once married I am free for adultery.”  That attitude toward marriage is counter to what marriage is.  Once finding a friend I am free to lie to him and cheat him.  That attitude toward friendship is counter to what friendship is.  Once on the baseball team I am free to go to the golf course on game day.  That attitude is counter to what a team is. 

Dr. Tkach wrote that “Paul’s message is clear:  We are not under the law – but we are not lawless.  We are under the authority of Christ, under his law, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”  Our lives are based on hope not on desire, motivated by love not lust, characterized by joy and peace and growth, not sorrow, rebellion and stagnation.  

 Since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25).  Brethren we do not disobey His commands because we are free.  We obey His commands because the Holy Spirit urges us to conform ourselves to Jesus.  And we find ourselves desiring this change freely.

In closing today, we see that our freedom in Christ is not a freedom to disobey Him.  That view is so short sighted.  Christian freedom is not the freedom to sink alone, at the point of our choosing, beneath the waves of pleasure or despair, but rather; is the freedom to soar above the face of the deep in company with our great brother, Jesus.  It includes the ability to place a loving smile upon God’s own face.  In part 4 of 4, we’ll continue with the question, “What does freedom in Christ look like?”

Benediction:  Dear brothers and sisters, grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To Him be glory both now and forever.  God bless you all.

Rev. George Relic, Assistant Pastor 9724-583-9217)

Fountain of Life Church

2021 Old National Pike, Washington, Pa 15301

A congregation of Grace Communion International

Freedom in Christ

Part 2 of 4

“If it’s not about Jesus, it’s not about anything.”

(Motto of the Fountain of Life)

Invocation:  Father, in Jesus’ name we pray that this subject be treated faithfully, honestly and respectfully.  We invoke the motto of the Fountain of Life to keep all that follows in this four part series in a proper focus and that the name of Jesus be glorified.    

SPS:  God adopts us, begets us and loves us, making us His children.  The purpose of this message is to demonstrate that these are not symbolic words, but rather, they are reality in the most powerful meaningful way that scripture can convey.  

The Freedom which we have in Christ has as its foundation the Incarnation of Christ and its actualization through the vicarious humanity of Jesus.  Exploring this freedom reveals some beautiful knowledge about Jesus.  We shall see that the vicarious humanity of Christ is a thread which weaves itself continuously through the fabric of these discussions.  We began by asking three simple questions. 

•  First:  Who is Christ?  

  

• Second:  Who are we?   

• Third:  What does freedom in Christ look like?  Today we address the second question, “Who are we?”

WHO AM I?

Brethren, how many of us view the Bible primarily as a “How To” book?  How to get to heaven, how to avoid sin, how to avoid the Tribulation, how to be a good person, spouse and parent.  These are all wonderful goals to pursue, but in our pursuit do we miss the Who of Salvation?  Do we place these noble goals above Christ?  Our last section spent much time answering the question that Paul asked on the Road to Damascus, “Who are You Lord?”   

 Jesus is the legitimate faithful giver of grace; this Redeemer Savior God is man just as we; He is the one from whom all blessings flow.  And one of those blessings is freedom.  When we realize who Christ is; an important question looms.  That question is, “Who am I?”  When we consider those two questions our focus changes from how to whom.  The focus changes from our doing something to our relationship with someone.

When we ask “Who am I?” several difficulties arise because humanly speaking we seem limited to one of four responses. 

1.  I am who I am.

2.  I am who I think I am.

3.  I am who you think I am.

4.  I am who I think you I think I am.

Even if we are sincere in our assessments, we can’t really know who we are.  For example:

1.  I am honest.  I even think I am honest.  You think I am a liar and tell others.  Society identifies me as a liar and does not trust me.  Therefore, I am a liar to the world.

2.  I think I am honest, but I am a liar.  You think I am honest.  Therefore I am honest to the world and to myself.  I do or say whatever justifies the end without fear or guilt.  Lying to me is just a useful tool, not even considered as a virtue or a vice.  Therefore, who I think am and who you think I am may be vastly different from who I am.  You may be right or wrong.  I may be right or wrong.

We could use many variations of this, who am I, idea to show that the reality and the perception both contribute to our identity.  Also, we acknowledge that our own perception may be flawed.  So who are we?  And how do we know?  What is missing?

Curt Flood

Curt Flood was the center fielder of the St. Louis Cardinals during the 1960s.  He was one of my boyhood heroes.  He told a story about playing ball in the segregated South of the 1950s.  Flood knew who he was.  He had an identity.  He was a man, a husband, a father, a ballplayer.  This identity was ignored.  He was also a black man.  This alone became his identity there.  It impressed him deeply, as he said, “They called me everything except a Child of God.”

Everything except a child of God.  And therein lies the missing key to our identity.  Flood knew what it was.  It was Christ.  Jesus brings an additional dimension to the question of whoness.  Who are you in Jesus?  We are God’s very children, members of His very own family.  We are the adoptive sons and daughters.  And love is involved.  It transcends covenant love.  It is not a quid pro quo love, such as you love me then I love you.  It is not a legal contract type of love such as if I love you, you are obligated to love me.  No, it is not this type of love.  It intimate, personal and relational love.  We know this because Jesus calls the Father Abba in Mark 14:36.  Christ living in us gives to us a connection with Abba Father.  Jesus living in us is the guarantee of personal love.  It is relationship love as being children of God; as being His sons and daughters.

We hope for the freedom promised in Christ.  Knowing who we are in Jesus is the working of faith.  Jesus living in us is the guarantee of the truth of faith.  Faith is the evidence of things hoped for.  Without Christ hopes are just desires.  With Christ living in us hope is not desire; hope is reality.  With Christ living in us, His Father is our Father.  It is our life in Christ that gives us our true identity.  To paraphrase Rev. Todd Crouch, “When we realize who Christ is, and who we are in Jesus, then we have accomplished everything that a human being was created to accomplish.” 

Through faith we know that we are personal sons and daughters of God the Father, our loving parent.  Nonetheless, most Christians give little attention to our relationship with God our loving parent.  Rather most focus upon our relationship with God our awesome Creator; the eternal Ancient of Days; the all-powerful First Cause.  Yes brethren, the Father is all of these, and we lovingly and humble relate to Him as such.  Yet we are not limited to this.  The Holy infinitely powerful Father, is also our loving Parent; our dad, if you will.  In His great transcendent glory we tend to forget His intimate love.  Christ choose to call the Father Abba in order to emphasize that He is, first and foremost, a loving parent.  

Yes, it is true that Jesus is our Lord and Master and Sovereign King.  And yes, we formally, freely and joyfully are His servants, slaves and subjects.  We find our greatest joy surrendering to and serving Jesus because only in this surrender do we find ourselves truly free.  Yet the vicarious humanity of Christ shows that there are decidedly personal aspects to our miraculous relationship to the Trinity through mankind’s inclusion into Jesus.  We have knowledge of it through God’s own words.  He explains it to us through Jesus, Paul and Peter, and He uses concepts which we can understand; that is adoption, begettal, and love.

ADOPTION

Ephesians 1:5 reads:  “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.”   

We understand that through adoption we are formally sons of God and thereby heirs of all the promises.  Today we miss the import of Roman adoption practices as Paul applied them to us through Christ.  Paul uses the formality of Roman law to powerful effect.    (1) Legally the adopted person lost all rights to his old family (the carnal world if you will), and gained all the rights of a legitimate son in his new family (the Body of Christ if you will).  Literally and legally he got a new father. (2) The adoptee became heir to the new father’s estate.  And this is important.  If other sons were afterwards born, who were real blood relations, it did not affect the adoptee’s inheritance rights.  The importance of adoption and inheritance rights is illustrated by the fact that the most powerful in society used and legitimatized them.  History records that Augustus Caesar was adopted by Julius Caesar; Claudius adopted Nero.  (3) In Roman law, the old life of the adoptee was completely wiped out.  For instance, legally all debts (sin if you will) were cancelled; they were wiped out as though they had never been.  The adopted person was regarded as a new person entering into a new life with which the past had nothing to do.  (4) In the eyes of the law the adoptee was without question or debate the son of the new father.  (5) This fifth point must have made a deep impression upon Paul’s audience.  In Roman society it was not uncommon for a natural born infant to be cast out onto the roadside to die, as the Roman Father washed his hands of obligations to the child.  Paul’s audience knew that this abandonment, this cruel fate would never ever happen to the adoptee.   

BEGETTAL

(The Spirit of Relationship)

Broadly speaking some Western Theologies focus upon the sovereignty of the Father.  And some focus upon the ministry of the Spirit.  Trinitarian Theology is Christocentric.  It believes the literal reality of John 14:9, when Jesus says to Philip “He that sees me has seen the Father.”  We look to Jesus as the revelation of God.  This focus is incarnational and it portrays a Trinity which is relational and inclusional.  Because we are included into Jesus that indicates that inclusion into God is through an ontology which is not through His Unoriginate Divine Spirit Essence, which would exclude all created beings.  It reveals that relationship itself is a unique living aspect of God’s ontological essence.

A very human question at this point is, how does Divine Begettal work?  The answer is that we as humans cannot know.  However, God does allow us to speculate within reason, with moderation.  At this point let’s view some hopefully reasonable speculation upon the mechanics of this begettal relationship.  We consider many things to be attributes of God, when in fact they are not attributes, but they are His essence, His nature.  Consider love, truth and wisdom. 

 Love is not an attribute of God.  GOD IS LOVE (1 John 4:8).  Love is His ontological essence, the essence of the Trinity. The Three Divine Persons relate through this same love.  Truth is not an attribute of Jesus.  Jesus is truth.  (John 14:5:  I am the way, the truth, and the life.)    

Truth is His ontological essence, the essence of the Trinity.  The Trinity is related through this same truth.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13) who guides us into all truth.  In like manner, just as He is the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding who makes us quick of understanding (Isaiah 11:2-3) He is also the Spirit of Relationship/Inclusion who brings us into begettal through His essence of Relationship.  Perhaps this look at relational ontology explains the working of the ontology of spirit spoken of in John 3:5 in which a man must be born of the spirit.

Dear Reader, we cannot know how divine begettal works, however we can see the results of it.  Genesis 1 shows that the living creatures were to bring forth each after its own kind.  This is the definition of begettal; to bring forth each after its own essence; after its own ontology.  This understanding goes far into explaining why Paul could write such scriptures as 2 Thessalonians 2:14, “Whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our lord Jesus Christ.”  And Romans 8:17, “And if children, then heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”   

The concept of the glory of Christ in these scriptures is easily passed over, because at first glance it is too wonderful to be considered as literal.  Newer translations, however; such as the New International Version, Today’s New International Version and the New Living Translation are bolder and more direct as they link our adoption and our inheritance to the phrase “sharing in Jesus’ glory.” 

This incredible sharing explains 1 John 3:2, “When he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”   Yes, we shall be like him.  It is as though God the Father chooses to adopt His own begotten children.  To the 1^st Century mind, linking begettal with adoption must have been an incredibly powerful indicator of the strength and reality of our position of being children of God.  Since we share in this relationship it has tremendous import not only on how we understand God’s self-revelation in Christ and His vicarious Humanity, but how we view ourselves and how we understand freedom. 

LOVE

“God the Father is our Daddy”

Does that sound disrespectful?  I’m sure it does.  The first time I heard it, I shook my head.  But that is because we see Father in Genesis and understand Father theologically, not ontologically.  To us it means sovereignty, power, creation, and it is linked to the concept of First Cause.  This accurate perception is far removed from…daddy.  Some godly theologians take issue with anybody being “buddy-buddy” with the Great Almighty Father.  Many insist upon a respectful formality.  Formal respect given to God is proper and godly behavior.  And it is a blessing that we may honor God this way.  Nonetheless, the Incredible News is that we are not limited to this already wonderful relationship.  (1 Corinthians 2:9:  “Eye hath not seen, not ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.”)

Formality alone leads to a viable but incomplete and far too often to a stilted relationship.  A formal stilted relationship distorts our view, even our view of ourselves.  It is as though we say “Sure, I am God’s son, but He is totally sovereign, frightfully awesome and unapproachable in His holiness.  I’d just better stay out of His way and act reverently like one of the servants.”   

But there is another dimension to this adoption/begettal process that completes the relationship.  Have you ever given any thought to the intimacy the Father offers to us by our inclusion into Jesus through the Holy Spirit?  Paul shows a marvelous thing with the formality of adoption.  He links it to human love and affection with the title “Abba.”  Romans 8:15:  “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father”; and Galatians 4:6:  “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father.” 

Sometime we are so focused upon and understandably intimated by the sovereignty and majesty of God the Father that we forget that we are no longer servants but included as sons, daughters and joint heirs with Christ.  Sometime we regard it as irreverent to claim the same closeness and intimacy with the Almighty Father God that we possess with our human dads.  We feel proud to call ourselves bond slaves of Jesus as did St. Paul in Romans 1:1.  We feel it irreverent to recognize our inclusion in Christ’s inheritance (Romans 8:17; Titus 3:7; Galatian 4:5) and irreverent to respond as loving children of the Great Almighty Father.  But think on it again. 

                                                               

ABBA:  It is an Aramaic/Chaldean word.  According to W.E. Vine’s “An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words” “Slaves (servants if you will) were forbidden to address the head of the family with this title Abba.  It approximates a personal name.”  Abba is the word spoken by infants when they are learning to form words.  It implies the unreasoning trust of a child who is unaware of the sovereign power of the father of the house.  The child only knows the love, the care, the attention, and the tender and often playful touch of the daddy and responds accordingly.  This intimate love relationship is also ours.  Could this knowledge bring untold joy to our spirits?     

ADOPTION – BEGETTAL - LOVE

Let’s close today with 1 John 3:2, “When he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”  We see him because our relational essence is the same.  It is a begettal through the relational ontology with the God of creation.  It is written in 1 Peter 1:23, “For you have been begotten not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is through the living and abiding word of God.”  Begettal adds an additional level to our relationship.  It carries a different connotation than adoption.  It strengthens the adoption concept and compliments the Abba concept.

We see then, that God uses in His Word the most powerful language available at the time.  God’s Word uses concepts and terms which we can understand, that show we are His children in every conceivable way.  We are His without question or debate.  We are His children by legal adoption; by ontological begettal and by the emotional love shared between an infant and parent.    

This answers the question “Who are we?”  We are God’s very own children, members of his very own family in every conceivable way.  We are the legitimate receivers of His outrageous faithfulness.  With our identity in Jesus firmly secure, in our next section let’s look more closely at our freedom in Christ.

Benediction:  Dear brothers and sisters, grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To Him be glory both now and forever.  God bless you all.

                                                                                                                             

Rev. George Relic, Assistant Pastor (724-583-9217)

Fountain of Life Church, A congregation of Grace Communion International

2021 Old National Pike, Washington, Pa 15301